Valentine's Day

I love Valentine's Day, and I especially like to make creative valentine cards with the boys. This year may be my favorite ones we've ever done. We got the idea from Family Fun, and they turned out so stinkin' cute!

We started out by taking a bunch of pictures of the boys holding an old mop handle. We did it in the dining room so we'd get the pretty red curtains in the background. I fit 2 images per 4x6 picture by doubling the canvas size on Photoshop and adding an identicle image to the blank side. Then I typed the words in white so they'd show up nicely against the dark red. I had them printed at Costco, and it only cost $8 for 60 prints to make 120 valentines. Not bad!

Then Tyler and Dallin finished the rest all by themselves (I mostly made Brennan's) this past weekend. They taped a lollipop to the back of the picture, taped the picture to some scrapbook paper I had, and wrote the names on the front. They were all very excited about their Valentine's Day parties today, except Spencer, who won't have any since he's in middle school now. Bummer.

Last night for our Family Home Evening treat I made the coconut cake that Marrisse posted on our family food blog. I tinted the frosting pink for V-day. It was very delicious. Then I broke the glass bowl I used to make the icing because it was so slippery, and in the process I sliced off the posterior DIP of my left index finger, i.e. the back of my last finger joint. I cannot begin to tell you how painful it is. A big chunk of my skin is gone, probably down the drain, exposing a very sensitive huge hole that bled forever last night. Dave spent 20 minutes cleaning out all the shards of glass from the garbage disposal. I was so worried he was going to cut himself. I woke up several times during the night with a horrible throbbing pain in my finger. Then I literally cried allegator tears when I peeled off the stuck bandaid this morning. Dave ran to the store before work to get me some lidocaine gel, telfa pads and a finger splint, and it is feeling much better now. So no fun heart-shaped pancakes for us this morning.

These are my favorite valentines of all. I love these people so much!

I especially LOVE Levi's face in this one!

They love it when dad reads books at night because he always makes them so silly and fun. I married Dave because he made me laugh. He married me because I laughed at his jokes. Now he makes our kids laugh too, and that makes me so happy.

Happy Valentine's Day to the best guy ever -- who cleans up my broken glass and takes care of my wounds and encourages my hobbies and lets me have as many children as I want and is such an awesome dad to them. I am so blessed to have you as my valentine!

Valentine's Day

We had a low-key Valentine's Day this year, since I was recovering from a stomach bug. But luckily we did most of our celebrating the week before. The boys had school parties on Friday, I made a couple batches of truffles (raspberry and almond), and we tried out a fancy new restaurant on date night (it's called Robert's, and I highly recommend it).

My boys LOVE this holiday. They started making their valentines on Monday, and they insisted on making their own (I guess they get that from me). Dallin found heart-shaped slinkies at the store, which was just perfect for him. He taped them onto paper hearts and doilies.

Tyler found a goofy heart-shaped face online to print, cut out and tape onto lollipops.

Spencer made paper airplanes with "You're just plane awesome!" printed on the wing. They were a huge hit.

For lunch I cut out heart-shaped sandwiches for the boys, who were off school for teacher in service. For dinner I made BBQ chicken and roasted potatoes. It's one of my family's favorite foods in the world. We exchanged cards and gave the boys little boxes of chocolates.

I framed this picture (which Brennan took) to give Dave. After dinner we drove around delivering truffles to home teaching families. I'm all back to normal now and enjoying Lindt chocolate from Dave.

Sweet Valentine's Day

We've had a lovely Valentine's Day weekend. The boys insisted on making their valentines for school, so we started making them a week early, knowing it could take awhile. Sometimes I'm really on top of it, which is good because when I wait until the last minute (which is more common) I get totally stressed out. It's a good thing we did them early because I was extremely sick on Thursday. Anyway, we made these fun little dog valentines with Airhead tongues and the words "I'm mutts about you" on the back. We got the idea from Family Fun a few years ago.

Spencer's class had a Valentine's mailbox contest, and he came up with this robot idea and made it all by himself. His teacher especially wanted them to used recycled objects from around the house. He won first place!

I decided I wanted to get together with the cousins Friday for our own little Valentine's party, since all the big boys had theirs that day. It was simple but fun. First they decorated their bags with heart stickers and crayons. Here is Luke eating the crayons.

Then they exchanged Valentines. Brennan got a cut above his eye from running into the piano a couple days ago. If this kid can get through childhood with his eyes intact, we'll be in good shape. He still has that huge purple blood blister on his eyelid from an encounter with a pencil 2 years ago.

Then they decorated heart-shaped sugar cookies.

And ate them, of course. Friday night Dave and I went out to dinner at our favorite French restaurant. It's pricey, so we don't go there often; but we love it. We decided to get 4 appetizers and a dessert instead of meals, which was a great way to sample lots of different things.

Saturday morning I made heart-shaped pancakes. First I made regular pancakes; then I used my heart-shaped cookie cutter. Aren't they just adorable? The kids loved them.

Holidays are all about the food, so here is the scrumptious Valentine's dinner we had tonight: grilled steak and asparagus with onions and mushrooms, roasted potatoes and fried apples. Not the healthiest meal, but oh-so-good!

After dinner we exchanged cards, chocolates and gifts.

Then for dessert I made Chocolate Lava Cakes. I have always wanted to make these, and this particular recipe looked nice and simple.

Yum!!! Oh my goodness, these were amazing. I suggest you don't wait until next Valentine's Day to try them out.