Valentines Day 2013

I'm finally getting to my Valentines day post! February is by far the craziest month of the year around here and it's all I can do to keep my head above water! Of course everyone knows that I seriously HEART Valentines Day! It's one of my favorite holidays to celebrate and decorate for. I didn't do any new projects this year so my decor stayed the same (though there are a couple things I'm sad I didn't have time to get to). We did make homemade Valentine cards for the kids. I showed them a bunch of ideas on pinterest and let them pick something out. Here's what we came up with:

I  made everything you see in Power Point and just printed them out on my normal printer. Easy peasy. I made a great discovery this year too - if you're ever looking for mini candies, Party City has tons and tons of options. It's a great place to find stuff if you want to do a cutesy, fun card. Makenna's teacher gave them an extra credit assignment to write a personal note to each other on their Valentines. I was so touched by the kind things Makenna took the time to write about her friends and that they wrote about her. It was a brilliant idea from her teacher (I seriously loooooove him - best teacher ever!)

We had our normal Valentine morning breakfast - heart pancakes with strawberry syrup and whipped cream with a red smoothie. Super yummy. We always give the kids a little gift and everyone was happy with what they got. I bought Allen some new headphones after doing about 10 hours of research. He has been looking for new ones for awhile and was so surprised that I did all the research and bought them for him. I love when I can surprise him.

He spoiled me with a new e-reader. I've been on the fence about getting one for a long time but after doing tons of research I found one that I thought I would like. Needless to say, it's getting LOTS of use already and Allen loves that I can stay up late and read without a light on (a nightly occurrence for me).

My cutie-pie Valentines before heading out for the day!

 As room mom for Makenna's class I was in charge of the Valentine party. I decided to have a Minute-to-Win-It party and we played a bunch of quick Valentine themed games. The kids had an absolute blast and I loved it because it was pretty easy to put together. We also had a cookie decorating bar that they loved plus a little bit of snack food for the kids. Her teacher asked that I minimize the junk food due to the kids getting lots of candy for the holiday. Kenna with a couple of her friends:

 Cookie decorating:

I also quickly stopped by Carter's classroom to see his party. What a huge surprise to see the difference between 2nd and 4th grade parties. His was SO low key. There were no parent helpers (the 2nd grade party had about 10 parents helping) and the kids were just enjoying a few snacks, passing out their cards and doing a small craft project. It was kind of refreshing. 

For dinner we made homemade mini heart pizzas and had our traditional chocolate fondue for dessert.

During dinner there was a knock on our door and when we answered it we found one of Makenna's classmates on our doorstep with his mom bringing Makenna ice-cream from Baskin Robbins. This cute boy had also brought her a teddy bear for Valentines day so I suspect there is a bit of a crush happening there. I was quite shocked (still am) that the mom was willing to do this for her and while it was really cute I also realize that we don't really want to encourage this kind of behavior at such a young age. Ugh. I'm so not ready to deal with crushes/boys/relationships. 

One new thing we tried this year was heart-attacking our kids doors every night. We had so much fun with this that I think it will  be a new tradition. Allen or I wrote a quick note to the kids each night with a reason we love them and taped it to their doors. The kids LOVED it. We also did heart -attacks in an envelope and mailed it to the grandparents and they were very well loved! 

 It was a great and busy day! We just have one more birthday this month and then Makenna's baptism this weekend. I'm so excited and have a very busy week ahead of me to get everything ready!

Valentines Day

2 weeks later, I am finally getting around to posting about our Valentines Day. To say it has been a busy month would be an understatement. I have one more birthday party to host this weekend and then I am home free for awhile. Whew!

Anyway... first up our Valentines this year. I've mentioned before that C&M go to a "no treat" school. I kind of hate it, especially on holidays. So, we had to come up with a fun idea that did not involve any kind of candy or sweet. I bought these sticky heart throwers on Oriental trading (100 for $5) and made up this Valentine in photoshop. Super fast and easy and the kids said they were a big hit with their friends.
We whipped up a few of these for their teachers. Again, super fast as I just printed off the tags and attached them to a box of brownies (I'm definitely not above sucking up to my kids' teachers!)Valentine morning we had a fun pink breakfast of heart pancakes with whipped cream and Valentine sprinkles and a red smoothie. Everyone got a small gift from us - the girls got some heart jewelry, Carter got an Angry Birds puzzle and Ems got a new book. I got Allen some fancy BYU polo he has been wanting (did you know there was such a thing? Me either). Allen got me a gorgeous new Coach bag since I was more than ready to stop carrying a diaper bag!
Before school (yay for Valentine outfits fitting 2 years in a row!)
Kids lunches - heart PB&J, strawberries, pretzel hugs, RED pringles and a can of CRUSH soda. My kids got in trouble for bringing pop to school (I have never sent it before) but I loved the idea of a crush on Valentines day!
That night for dinner I ordered 2 Papa Murphy's heart shaped pizzas. When I called that afternoon the girl told me that each pizza fed 2-3 people so I ordered two just in case. Those things are HUGE and one would have fed my family just fine. It ended up working out perfectly though. My friend Chelsey stopped by to drop off some Valentines from her kids to mine. Her husband was out of town and she was taking her 4 kids to dinner by herself. I convinced her to stay and have dinner with us since I had a ton of extra pizza. Allen was on his way out the door to go to YM's so we didn't have any fancy, romantic plans anyway. Luckily I had plenty of stuff on hand to double my chocolate fondue recipe, which is our traditional Valentines day dessert. Our kids loved it as is evidenced by the full mouths and dirty faces:
Allen and I go on a date every weekend anyway so we just called one of our dates our official Valentines date. We had a great day and had lots of fun with friends and family!

Valentine's Decor

I'm CRAZY about Valentines Day and always have been. Other than Christmas, it's my favorite holiday to celebrate. Growing up my mom made even little holidays a big deal around our house and I loved it as a kid. So of course I want to do the same for my kids. I've had lots of fun decorating this year and worked with things I mostly had on hand. Here's a peek around my house this month.

Vtine quote on adorable sign stand my friend made for me (LOVE it):
I added this felt heart banner to a red plate I already had:
My mantle. I had the LOVE letters but they were covered in patterned paper so I redid them by wrapping them in yarn (do you love my new frame? - Allen hit it out of the park with my Christmas gifts this year - I love love love it!)
Beloved apothecary jars:
Dining room table:
Living room:
Kitchen window. I loved the ornaments in the window at Christmastime so much that I decided to do it again. At one point I thought I would decorate a tree for every holiday and bought a bunch of Valentine ornaments to use for that (what was I thinking?!?) (Excuse the flash, it is gloomy here today!)
Front Porch sign:
Add my new valentine pillows into the mix and we were completely DECKED out this month. It has been super fun and I will be sad to take it all down in a couple weeks! Be back soon with an update on our V-Day celebrations!

January POTM: Valentine Pillows

At the beginning of the year when I was making some resolutions I decided I would try to accomplish one big project every month. I'm not putting any restrictions on what kind of project it has to be but I want to do something big every month this year. Thus the Project of the Month (POTM) was born. For January I wanted to sew some Valentine pillows. I bought all the stuff for this project last year and thought I might be able to get them sewn after I had Emery but before Valentines day. I was clearly smoking crack or something thinking I would get anything done with a brand new baby in the house. So the fabric has been sitting here for a year. There's nothing I hate more than a half finished project or a project that I have all the materials for but haven't done yet.

I got busy and started sewing last week and got 6 pillows made. Love them! I have always loved Valentines day so these are perfect for my house.


I have changed things up quite a bit with Valentines Decor this year and will be posting about it next week after I get through two little girly birthdays this weekend. (Why do my babies have to grow up?!)

My POTM for February is to finish my 2011 Project Life book. I have a good headstart on it so hopefully it will come together quickly. My March project isn't nearly as exciting as I will spend the month getting ready for the mom-to-mom consignment sale that I am participating in this spring. It's going to be a lot of work but I am excited to clear out more kids stuff/clothes!

My Valentines

Our Valentines day was VERY low key this year. We had a fun breakfast - heart shaped pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. Each person opened a small gift and we sent the big kids out the door to school. Their school has a no treats and no class parties policy (which I think is obnoxious for an elementary school, but whatever) but they did allow the kids to bring in cards for their friends and had a few activities. We made Valentine cookies and by the time we were done with the cookies no one felt like having our traditional fondue. We decided to wait until later in the week when Grandma and Grandpa are here to enjoy it with us. Al and I kept it simple this year and hope to sneak out on a date sometime while my parents are here with us.I would like to point out in the top picture that I bought the newborn Valentine outfit for Miss Emery. When I went to put it on her it was WAY, WAY too small. You will notice how the bottom is not buttoned because it did not fit. It cracked us up. In fact, I returned several newborn outfits and a huge box of NB diapers this morning because everything is way too small on her! I'm so grateful for my sweetheart and for our 4 precious Valentines!

A different week + a few completed projects

My, this week has NOT turned out at all like I planned. I planned on this being the week to wrap up any last minute details before baby E comes next week. But....On Monday morning I got up and got everyone going on the school morning routine. While making lunches I knocked a HUGE jar of minced garlic out of my fridge and it smashed all over the floor. Glass and garlic everywhere. It was a smelly disaster. And that has pretty much set the tone for my week - LOL. I rushed to get it cleaned up as much as possible before I had to run the morning carpool to school. Got everyone loaded in the car only to find that my car battery was DEAD. Crap. Then I realized Allen had both pairs of our jumper cables in his car (WHY?!?!). My friend who I carpool with and my friend across the street could not locate their jumper cables either. Finally, my friend down the street came to the rescue with hers (lesson learned). The kids were 20 minutes late for school and I decided to leave the car running while I ran them in, in case it died again. I ran up to Allen's office so he could check the connectivity of the battery, which was fine. I had an hour to kill before Costco opened so I decided to make a quick run to Target. He thought I'd run the car enough to charge up the battery. Wrong. I ended up having to have my car jumped in the Target parking lot and again in the Costco parking lot (Costco sells batteries but does not replace them). I finally went across the street and had Sears replace my battery but it was literally an all day ordeal.

Tuesday and Wednesday school was cancelled due to the weather. And by weather, I mean extremely cold temps, not snow or ice. I must admit, I'm not the easiest person to live with right now and having the kids home and cooped up for the past couple of days has not been particularly fun for anyone. We've baked, done crafts, watched movies, played games, read, worked on projects, etc. but it has been a looooong week. The kids are back in school today after a 2 hour delay and I feel myself returning to a more stable place emotionally. It's all about being 9 months pregnant because I typically LOVE having all my kiddos home with me.

Since the first of the year I have been Turbo charged getting things done around here. I think it has been a combination of nesting and fear that I won't have time to get anything done EVER again (probably slightly irrational but it's definitely kept me motivated). I have deep cleaned and dejunked nearly every drawer, cupboard and closet in our home. Goodwill is definitely loving me this year!

I've gotten a few crafty projects done as well!

Hair accessories for all the girlies:

(Hair accessories for 3 girls = overwhelming!)

A bit of Valentine Decor (though I have a few more projects that I was dying to do but will have to wait until next year):

I made the ruffle balls the same way I made my ruffle wreath last year. Time consuming but oh so cute!



Recipe Reorganization.

The first year I was married my mom put together a recipe box FILLED with the recipes she made while I was growing up. She included recipes that have been in the family for several generations. It is one of my prized possessions and I have added to the collection over the years. But the recipe box was STUFFED full and was getting unmanageable. I cannot part with my mom's handwritten recipe cards so I decided to reorganize the way I store my recipes. I also find that I'm always printing new recipes to try off the internet and always had a stack of papers I didn't know what to do with. So I put together a binder that now stores all of my favorite recipes with 3x5 page protectors and then I can 3 hole punch anything I print off the internet.

Project 365 Book:

Waiting VERY impatiently for it to arrive any day now. This remains my proudest accomplishment from last year and I'm more determined than ever to keep my blog and book up to date this year so I'm not scrambling putting it together at the end of this year. I've already downloaded all my pictures and journaling into my 2011 book. Hooray!

Valentines 2010

Here's a quick recap of our Valentine festivities this year.

I borrowed this idea off many a craft blog for the kids' Valentines this year. I wish I could give proper credit to the originator of the idea but I saw it all over the internet so I have no idea who came up with the idea.

Carter's:

Kenna's:

Teacher gifts (towels I got for 75% off last year at Target):

The Valentines were a HUGE hit and so easy to make. Not very original if you're a crafter but very unique to everyone else.

I made these chocolate glazed heart brownies for Carter's class party:

Makenna with Valentines after her party:

On Saturday Allen and I scored a babysitter and went to lunch and errands for our Valentines date. It was relaxing, uncrowded and fun. I love being with my husband now even more than I did when we were young and just dating. He is my best friend!

Sunday morning we had a quick breakfast and opening of gifts before church. Since we meet at 9:00 a.m. I kept it simple and got some really cute heart shaped donuts for the kids. Before bfast and gifts:

We always get the kids a little something for Valentines day. Carter got a spy gear toy, Kenna got the Fancy Nancy Vtine book, a headband and ring and Addie got a giant ball and a book. The kids gave us some really sweet and cute handmade cards and gifts (the best kind!) Al and I spoiled each other this year:

I made him a little carrying case with all his favorite treats/snacks in it to take to work. I shocked him by getting him an iPod Nano that he has been wanting so he can use it while running since his other iPod is big and bulky.

He got me potted tulips that have been blooming beautifully the last few days and a heart monitor/calorie counter/watch that I've been dying for. It might not seem so romantic but it is exactly what I wanted!


(eek pjs, no makeup and crazy bedhead!)

For dinner we had our traditional cheese and chocolate fondue party. We tried a couple new recipes from a fondue cookbook I got Allen for Christmas and did not love either one but it is always fun to branch out and try something new. The kids had no problem gobbling it down:

We finished the evening with some board games and Olympic coverage and had a wonderful, relaxing time together.
I am so blessed to have the 4 sweetest Valentines ever!