February 20

Quietly looking at books in Leila's bed. What a sweet pea.

February 19

My Mother's Day gift from last year was exactly what I had hoped for. This necklace is the prettiest example of mother's jewelry that I have ever seen and I am so happy to have it. If you notice, I wear it nearly every single day...to me, this necklace is almost as important as my wedding ring, that symbolizes my marriage, as it symbolizes my role as Momma bird to my two little babes.

February 18

That baby has her window down. Funny how warm 45 degrees feels in February, compared to how it feels in November!

February 17

February 16

The molting season has begun. As it is starting to warm up, Zoey is starting to lose her undercoat.

February 15

My pretty baby doing what she loves most.

February 14

We have never been big celebrators of Valentines Day, but now that our girls are getting bigger, the Holiday is a lot more fun for everyone. What a lucky lady I am to have my little lady to convince Daddy to bring home flowers for me!

February 13

February 12

Leila and I spent the afternoon at a beautiful old church,turned bridal shop watching my new sister in law Rebekah try on wedding dresses. It was tons of fun, and Leila even got to try out some flower girl dresses to prep for her official duties.

February 11

Cindy is my BFF. When I moved to Eastern Iowa in Junior High, Cindy was one of my new classmates. Though we went to school together from seventh grade until I graduated from College in 2003 (She has a graduate level degree and spent a bit more time at Iowa). It is kind of funny, because weren't very close at first, or through most of high school. But at the most important points in my life...8th grade, when life is at its more awkward, and then college, when everything changes, she was there with me. We have always had lots of fun together, and she is one of few people that I feel totally comfortable. She may as well be my sister.
Cindy is beautiful inside and out, an incredibly smart woman, and a great mom. Love her.

February 10

February 9

On a given day, I spend an hour in the morning getting myself and my family ready and to school. Eight and a half hours in and out of this cubicle. Three hours getting the family home, fed, bathed and to bed.
Looking at my 365 blog, you notice that the way I spend the majority of time is not represented here. Two reasons for that: 1. I try to photograph the best parts of my life. 2. I want this project to show, when all said and done, what was most important to me. Who influences my life, and how my family gets through the weeks that make up a year.
I don't hate my job, but it is hard for me to see the real value in what I do day to day. It is something that I have struggled with for a long time, maybe even before I was a mother. I think that I am fairly good at what I do, but it isn't all that important to me, except for the paycheck that makes my family work. When I was in school and the professor would surprise us with an early out, I would always celebrate. When my boss says, "go ahead and go home, enjoy your afternoon!" I am thrilled. My real work is at home, with my family.

So my picture of the day for February 9th is my cubicle at work. There isn't much going on here...after a bed bug "issue" we were told to leave personal items at home, so aside from my past and future Diet Dr. Pepper supplies and my frequently reused McDonald's cup, things are pretty bare. I do have the Howard Family Calendar up on the wall where I can see it, but my camera couldn't.

On my computer screen is weather.com. Not work related, but I have already reached the point in my winter survival strategy that forces me to check in to weather.com everyday, clicking on the ten day forecast and praying that ten days from now, Spring will look a little more realistic.

February 8

For the first time during my 31st year, I didn't take a picture today. I thought of it several times and I decide to just let it go. I had no ideas for what to photograph and I was tired. So there.

Just to give you an idea of what was on my mind on February 8....Is it summer yet?

February 7

This is probably activity number one around the Coobs house these days. Another day, another evening bookfest.

February 6

Arguably the best part of taking in a basketball game at Carver is the ice cream. The Coobs and Smith Families met up for a game of women's basketball and the ice cream was impressive, but not as impressive as the Iowa team! They did not pull out the win but it was a very fun game to watch. I was glad to take our girls so they could see young women in the spotlight. An all around fun afternoon!

February 5

At our house we have a system for keeping track of the days. It used to be Grandma Day, School Day, Mommy Day, School Day, Mommy Day, Family Day, Family Day. Things have changed a lot for us over the last 4 months and now we are are down to School Days and Family Days. Fortunately for us, Family days almost always include Grandma and Papa.

February 4

Poor Leila BIT her own finger while eating chicken nuggets. She definitely milked the injury for as much as she could, but I felt bad for her.

February 3

I really didn't want to post a picture of the snow. I am so tired of the snow, and the pictures of the snow, but I did think that the drifting looked pretty neat in our backyard.

February 2

The snow came as predicted, and while Daddy and Leila worked hard to clean the driveway, Thea and I had the perfect view from the warm house.

February 1

School let out early because of the blizzard so when we arrived to pick up the girls this was what greeted us right inside the door to Thea's classroom. I had to take a picture because she looked so sweet and peaceful sleeping there.

January 31

I decided to try something a little different and create some fun pancakes for dinner. Hearts for my little valentines and some snowflakes in honor of our forecasted blizzard. My experiment didn't go very well. So we had some malformed pancakes and bad attitudes all around.

January 30

A souvenir from our road trip. The ride included lots of laughter, and some tears. My mom and sisters are some of the best friends I could ever ask for. I brought this pony home and Leila begged me for it but for the sake of avoiding a fight among my little ladies, I took it to work where it now sits on my desk as a reminder of the phenomenal women in my family.