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!