I don't know that we have many date nights left before baby comes, so we gotta  get a picture when we get all gussied up for a fancy date night.  This date night was compliments of McGladrey (many of them are), the World Affairs Council, the Chinese New Year and the Ritz Carlton, and of course, my parents, who watched the kids for us.

Maternity cocktail dresses are hard to come by.  Glad I found this one at Target.

When I scan through my camera and find these kinds of pictures, I know that Blake has snuck off with the camera once again.

There were actually about 20 of these pictures of Papa reading the paper.

Priceless.

In early February we got to watch Blake's first ever public concert (we are regularly treated to private concerts in the car, living room, and basement).  It was a Kindergarten only performance, and it was terribly cute.  I will apologize right now for the video quality.  I had a tired, whiny little girl (it was Alexandria, not just some random girl) clinging to my arm for much of the concert, making it a little difficult to keep a steady hand.

Some pre-concert photos.

I think he was a little nervous.  He had a speaking part where he even got to speak into the microphone!  Video of that is down a little further.

Just before his speaking part, we could tell he was getting more nervous.  But he nailed it!

After the concert Blake took us down to see his classroom and the 100 Day projects that his class made.  I see his classroom two or three times a month when I help out, but he wanted Dad, Papa and Ma to see how his room had changed since Grandparents Day.

For as much as we have loved this mild winter, Alexandria has missed the snowman building aspect.  She has been asking and asking when we would build a snowman, and I told her in early February that we might not get enough snow for the rest of the winter to do that.  But she was thrilled when she woke up one February morning to a tiny snowfall.  So we seized the opportunity before the sun melted the inch or two of snow we did have, and we built a little snow family.

Snow kids.

Snow baby is wrapped in the purple scarf, so he doesn't get cold.

In early February Blake had a day off of school due to a teacher institute, so we took that opportunity to head over to the St. Louis Science Center.  Matt took a long lunch and met us there for the Tornado Alley Omnimax show.

The price for Matt and I was considerably higher.  Looks like none of the Harveys will be heading into space anytime soon.

Blake got brave and stood on the glass section of the floor that goes right over the highway.  Alexandria was a bit more cautious.

This flight simulator was a new feature.  Our pilots were less than successful.

Harv did manage to fly his plane through the Arch on his next attempt.

Sometime in the middle of January (I think) we got some exciting news from Dane.  He asked Samantha to marry him, and she said yes (the news would've been much less exciting if she'd said no, I guess).  Telling the kids and seeing their reactions was pretty cute.

If Blake hadn't made the cut for ring bearer, we might not have put this video out for public consumption.  But he is going to be the ring bearer, so all is well on that front.

We told Alexandria at a separate time since she was at Papa and Ma's house when we told Blake the news.  Apparently that video is too long for Xanga to upload.

And then a couple of weeks after the engagement news came out, we received this fun package in the mail from Samantha, asking the kids to be ring bearer and flower girl and me to be a bridesmaid.  The real bonus was that the package included Ring Pops!  I took video of the kids opening their packages and reading their messages from Sam, but the videos are too long for Xanga, I guess.  I will post them to FB.

With the mild weather we've been having I knew we were definitely going to have to head outdoors for our annual Valentine's photo shoot.  Have I mentioned how much easier it is to photograph a 4 and 6 year-old than younger kiddos?  Of course, I realize that we will be starting all over in a couple of months, but I am really enjoying their ability to follow photo direction these days!

After just 15 minutes in the back yard and about that same amount of time at the computer, I had my finished product (thank you, Shutterfly).

You know those women who go 40 weeks and don't realize that they are pregnant until they are in labor?  I'm not one of those.  Nor I am the woman who wears her regular clothes for the duration of her pregnancy.  I have been embracing maternity clothes since about week 10!  I, however, have been blessed with an incredibly easy pregnancy with my biggest problems being along the lines of not fitting into a shirt that I wore just last week.   And for that I am very grateful because I have a whole lot of things to keep up with and with Matt's busy season upon us,pretty much up until the baby comes I am mostly running this show myself (except for the income part, of course).

30 weeks pregnant.  I should dig up my 30 weeks shots of my hugeness with the other kids.  Making a mental note.

This beautiful weather has certainly helped it seem less like winter.  There have been so many play outside days in January and February that we even started digging through the Spring/Summer clothes bins in the basement.

The girls really love me taking their pictures together--YAY!

Oh what fun they've had jumping off the retaining wall!

Once I realized that we were not going to make it back to Iowa before the baby comes, I boxed up all the Iowa presents and mailed them off.  And Aunt Jami did the same thing with ours, much to the delight of the kiddos.  They went crazy opening their unexpected presents!

I found a recipe for Raspberry Lemonade on Pinterest (of course) that inspired a craving, so Alexandria and I got to work on that right away.

And I guess it must have been pretty good because I quit taking pictures after this.