Valentine's Day

 We had a fun Valentine's Day at our house this year - nothing spectacular, just fun.  The night before Valentine's I went into Sarah's room to quietly put away some laundry while she was asleep and this is what I found.  She has been so excited for Valentine's.  She asked permission to wear a church outfit so she could dress up, and even remembered to ask in advance if I would curl her hair so she would be cute for her school party!  I just love Sarah!  She's so girly and fun!  I love how she even laid out her necklace and tucked the ends into her shirt so she would know just how it would look.  I had found a little heart bracelet on clearance, so I left that on her shirt sleeve for her to find in the morning.  She was so excited!

 We needed more sweets around here like we needed a bullet to the head, but I just had to make my little darlings SOMETHING!  Kiss cookies were a hit . . . a hit to my diet too.  Oh well!  Tomorrow I'll be better.  You need a good cheat day every once-in-awhile!

 I get my kids books and their own little box of chocolates for their Valentine's.  It's become a fun tradition they look forward to and have been talking about it for weeks!

 Jacob got the 1st Great Brain book and a Mad Libs (I loved those as a kid).  I made a Shutterfly book for Sarah so she could see herself growing up.  Of all my kids Sarah probably gets the least amount of attention, and while she is independent and takes care of herself a lot, I can see that she needs a little extra love sometimes.  I knew that this book would mean a lot to Sarah and would make her feel special.  She loves the book and looks through it all the time.  I'm so glad!  For Jonah I decided to make a Shutterfly book of some behaviors and social skills we're working on using pictures of him, our family, and his friends.  He loves it, and really likes to see himself in the pictures making good and bad choices.  Nathan got a tactile book on trucks.  For someone who use to pour over books he's going through an anti-book stage.  He won't even let us read to him at night anymore!  That's one of my favorite things to do with little kids, so it's killing me.  I thought maybe he'd sit in my lap long enough to make it through this short book where his hands will be busy touching stuff.  We'll see . . .

And lucky for me I have one romantic husband!  Unfortunately he had a meeting on Valentine's night (bummer, huh?  What Scrooge plans meetings on Valentine's?), so he wouldn't be home for dinner.  But he surprised me by coming home for lunch with roses, a SMALL box of chocolates (he's so good to support my diet because he knows I have little to no self control when it comes to chocolate), and this necklace!  I'm SO practically minded and not at all sentimental, but there's just something about jewelery that's so romantic to me.  It's not diamonds or pearls, but he thought of me and I know he spent time at the jewelery counter agonizing over what to choose.  I love what he chose.  It's simple, didn't cost to much (that causes me stress), and is so sweet!  Thanks, Honey!  I love you!