Wait, what’s that you say?  Valentine’s was yesterday?  Well, let’s just pretend it’s yesterday again and I was on the ball enough to write a quick love post.

Because I love having a day to share the love.

Love is what makes the world go around after all.
And in my best intentions I was hoping to send a little love out to blog land.
But I’ll go ahead and share that love today instead.  
So grateful for this blog community and those who come here to share our story.  So grateful for all that I’ve learned over the years from people who are dear that I don’t even “know.”  People who stand up for me and also put me in my place at times, people who send the kindest notes and people who I learn so much from and those who inspire me with ideas and thoughts.  Love it and being able to share my own ideas and thoughts in this corner of the internet while I document things I want to hold on to.  Hope everyone had a great day.
Valentine’s was a little different this year since my main Valentine had to be out of town for work.
So us girls celebrated without him, but sure missed that guy.
Let’s back up to the prep…
Lucy was on top of things this year I tell you.  Since she’s my last in elementary school we looked up some Valentine ideas online and I tried to talk her into something creative maybe with a picture or something, but she decided on plain old Skittles and to use her box from last year.  
And she was pleased as punch about that.

She got the idea for that owl online and was in deep concentration for a long time to make that thing for her teacher.

She also used her hard-earned money to buy valentine-grams for friends at school and was pretty dang excited about that.

We made valentine’s for Max, Elle, Max’s companion and our cousin on a mission and sent them off with treats as well.

Elle was pretty excited when she got hers and sent us this on our group family text.
…too excited to obey the instructions not to open it until Valentine’s Day…
Little stinker.
On the big morning it was a mess of hearts in our kitchen where we had our traditional pink pancakes and cups with little treats.

(My mom always did that for us and now we do that too.)

Grace took off before we could snap a pic of her here…

I found this on the counter when I got home from delivering some things to my young women:

 How sweet is that?

Oh, and this is how I was greeted:

Have I mentioned how much we love our puppy?

Grace left for dinner with friends but other friends came over to help us with our heart-shaped pizza since I had called their mom for tips on how to grill it out on the grill.

How sweet is that that they just jumped in to help?

Sweetest kids ever.

We had our own little dinner complete with one of our helpers minus Grace…

…who came back a little later to find these beauties from her “secret” admirer 🙂
We taught our newest Valentine Bo some new tricks:

Meanwhile Elle was busy spending her V-Day here:

And was pretty excited to get back to her dorm to find this waiting for her, compliments of Grace’s very nice idea:

We missed her the first time Bo tried to FaceTime her:

But then we got her.

Not sure how my valentine Max spent the day, but I’m sure he was working hard somewhere, and hope he felt the love too since his little package won’t get there ’til next week.

And all the while Dave was in China, working hard, his Valentine’s Day already passed since he was 16 hours ahead.

He found that little present from me hidden in his suitcase.
And these came from him to me:
Even more pretty today.

I love that Valentine’s Day is a day to show love.  LOVE MORE.  Love it all.  And loved sharing that day with my girls and friends and puppy.

BUT, my real number one valentine forever and always will be this guy I get to be married to.
(That pic. was from back on my birthday, but it fits for Valentine’s Day too…)
And no matter how crazy life gets, I’m so grateful for a day now and again to reflect on the fact that one day all those years ago I met him.  And he weaved his way into my heart (all about that story over HERE).  And somehow I caught his heart too.  And together we get to brave the often stormy waters of life, which all work out somehow because he’s on my side.

6 Comments

  1. I love your posts. I'm very impressed that your college daughter sent you some pictures of her package and the contents inside for you to include with your blog post too. So cute.

  2. i have taken a break from spending time on the internet so I could focus on other things. I am so glad I came to check your page. I didn't realize what an impact it made on my mood and how much it motivates me to get things done. Thanks for sharing portions of your life with us. On another note. My house is currently gutted and we are in the process of choosing flooring. We want long wood ceramic tiles similar to yours laid together as closely as possible. However, we were told by our contractor that they bow after awhile. Do you feel like that is true with the product. I can always hire another flooring company. Thanks!

  3. Thanks for the nice note Rachel!

    Are you talking about our kitchen floor? That is actually real wood, Provenza Old World Fossil Stone. I really like it. We do have ceramic tile that looks like wood in our girls' bathroom and I love it in there. We laid them together pretty close and haven't had any problems, but it's a pretty small area.

    1. Thanks Shawni. Yes, I meant the kitchen floor. I will look into real wood. My kids are 3,4 & 5 so I am unsure about real wood. (They have made swimming pools with the garden hose in our living room before.) Thank you for the Comment about the ceramic flooring in the bedrooms. Off to choose the perfect white paint!

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