Valentine's Day

Yes, I'm a few days behind on this...

The kids had a great Valentine's Day this Thursday and were so excited about their first party at school. They picked out each valentine that their friends received along with the temporary tattoo. They barely slept the night before. 

When they got home they had adorable gifts from their Tay Tay waiting for them! They love helping me in the kitchen so Tay Tay sent them each an apron and something to bake. 

The other picture is my valentine from Scott, a 13.1 charm for the half marathon next weekend. 

I hope all of you had an amazing and exciting Valentine's Day as well! 

All You Need is Love

I've always loved Valentine's Day, I guess it's the hopeless romantic in me. Even if I wasn't in a relationship at the time, I still loved the holiday. I love reading about what other people do on Valentine's Day, how their significant other surprises them, and most especially, how they met. Something about Valentine's Day makes us all a little nostalgic and, it seems, we cannot wait to share with others how we met. That's what I have going on over at Multiples and More today, you can read about how Scott and I met, as well as some of the other couples in the community.

Since I already covered how Scott and I met on Multiples and More, I figured I would just write about love in general over here. I always had a great example of love growing up; my parents. They will be married 50 years this May, and they still do the most adorably romantic things for each other. For example, my MOM is in the hospital right now recovering from knee replacement surgery, but she packed the Valentine's Day card for my Dad in her bag so she could still give it to him on Valentine's Day. Inside the card my Dad gives to my MOM on their anniversary there is always a set of numbers that, to the average person may not mean anything at all, but to them mean a great deal. The inside of their anniversary card this year will read: 50-6-12. 50 years, 6 kids, 12 grandkids. (have you said "awe" yet?)

Pinterest is full of quotes on love, I'm pretty sure half of my "quotes" pinboard is full of them. I have two that always stick out to me, mainly because they were from the readings at our wedding. The first is from the book of Ruth:


The second one is from Corinthians and is pretty much a staple at weddings.

I actually have a cuff with this that I wear almost daily (thank you Dawn for suggesting it!). It's a great reminder to look at every day.

Love isn't easy, it's not supposed to be. My MOM always says the first 100 years of a marriage are the hardest. There is definitely some truth to this. Your first year together, while it is the "honeymoon" stage is full of adjustments. Mainly, finding yourself again as a spouse. Then you welcome kids and that's a whole new kind of adjustment. I think that was one of the hardest transitions Scott and I have had to make, but we persevered.

It's also important to remember that just because you may encounter difficult moments, it doesn't mean that you have lost the love. I remember a conversation I had with Jenna McCarthy (you need to read her book, for real, and it's JennA not JennY) and I told her, "It's not that I don't love him, it's just sometimes I don't like him". And there's nothing wrong with that, we are all allowed not to like each other at times, it doesn't change that deep down we still love each other. Yes, even when Scott leaves bottles with a sip of a drink left in the fridge, I still love him.

So today, even if you think it's just a Hallmark holiday, give the ones you love an extra hug, kiss, or both. Remember what it was that made you fall in love with them, whether it was love at first sight or love that grew and continues to grow over time. Take today to remember that all you need is love.

In Honor of Valentine's Day

I love any occasion that inspires you to look back on how you met your spouse. Valentine's Day is definitely one of those occasions, so much so that I made it the QOTW at Multiples and More. I love reading how other people met because 9 times out of 10 you meet under the most random circumstances.

Scott and I met in January 2003 at my first day of orientation at the Magic Kingdom. Scott was the coordinator of training at the time and my group was his last pick up because he was becoming a manager the next week. We both still remember what the other was wearing that day.

Like I said he became my manager a week later and therefore we were friends. One night he asked if I wanted to walk the last family out with him, naturally I jumped at the chance. You could not ask for a more romantic setting, it was just us inside Cinderella's Castle talking with nobody else in sight. It was perfect until his radio went off about some construction worker chopping off his finger with his toolbox and he had to leave me with an old security guy. Not romantic.

We both dated other people until September of 2004 but we always had a thing for each other. The rest is history and here we are 7 years later with two beautiful children. I could not think of a better end to this story. I loved him the moment I met him and I love him even more today, he truly is the perfect Valentine.

Valentine's Day Crafts (yeah it's late...)

Now that everyone has received their Valentine's Day presents (ok I'm a little slow mailing packages) I can now share the photos/video of them making them!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Cute, huh? I forgot to take photos of the finished product, but the kids loved painting them. Jill actually refused to stop to take a bath, and actually walks around with her paint brushes (still). I think I have a budding artist on my hands!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope all of you have been having a great Valentine's Day! It truly has been a great one over here!

I spent my morning working the bake sale at church. We had soooooo many baked goods, it was amazing to see! We sold I would say 75% of everything that was brought in (2 banquet tables full). After 9 o'clock mass we had already made $200, so I am excited to see how much we made after 11 o'clock mass.

Before I left for the bake sale the kids gave me Valentine's Day cards, well they gave themselves my Valentine's Day cards and let me look over their shoulders to see what they said. So cute! Scott gave me a beautiful coffee cup that is painted with the tea party scene from Alice in Wonderland and surprised me with gorgeous flowers when I got home from the bake sale. How pretty are these?


Later on in the day my charming daughter decided she would hide inside the easel...yup you read that right....

But she sure looks cute, doesn't she? She got stuck after I took the photo and couldn't figure out how to get out. Hopefully this does not become a regular occurrence.

Hope you had a great Valentine's Day!

Thanksgiving Thursday

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I would say this week has flown by, but no not really. I wonder why that is? Anyway, I am thankful for....

• The Swifer wetjet I got. I swore up and down I would never ever buy one and I would stick with my mop and bucket, but then I had two kids that started crawling and yeah, I'm not pulling out the mop and bucket everyday.

• Gerber Graduate snacks. My kids love them, and I'm thankful that gives me 15 minutes of silence. :)

• All the cards and gifts for the kids on Valentine's day! They loved all of it!

• My Valentine's date with my honey. It was a really good night, and super yummy! I think I may be able to live off of Melting Pot's cheese and chocolate for literally the rest of my life. OH and they gave us a gift bag that had a bar of their white chocolate for fondue in it, it may just tempt me to invest in a fondue pot for the house. May, not probably, just may.

• Good weather yesterday at the park and April's mom being there as an extra set of hands.

• Tax season. I know, right? We filed our return on Saturday and all I have to say is woo hoo!

And on a side note happy birthday to our friend Tracy! Hope it's a great day! And I hope you have a totally fabulous day too!