V-Day Love

We started feeling the Valentine's Day love about a week ago. My parents sent the kids an early Valentine package last Monday, and if your kids are anything like mine, they love getting mail, especially packages.

Chloe distributed everyone's wrapped gifts to them.

Inside, there was a Valentine book for each kids, some "Tangled" fruit snacks and some Valentine themed window cling decorations.

The kids all took turns putting up the window cling things.

The books were a total hit. I LOVE kid books and unlike most kid things, I don't think you can have too many kid books. We have been reading these books non stop since we received them. My kids never seem to tire of the same book over and over, and these ones were especially cute. Leah and Lexi have slept with their books almost every nap and bed time for the past week. Unfortunately, Lexi, in true fashion, has ripped off all the lift up flaps on the Dora book already. She rips at least a few books a month and it never ceases to annoy me. We just can't have nice things! :)

Nana and Papa Andros stopped by for 2 nights last week before they flew off to sunny Hawaii and brought the kids some delicious Valentine sugar cookies. They were gone in about 3 minutes.

Last week, our favorite local Grandma Cynde offered to watch the kids so Ben and I could go out for Valentine's Day. This was an offer we couldn't refuse. We decided to go out last night, the day before Valentine's Day to beat the crowds of couples out on actual Valentine's Day.

Call us crazy, but we spent our date night out food storage shopping. With Ben unable to lift much or sit for very long, a movie or any fun activity that required much physical strength was out. So we took a different route. Every February we get our American Express rebate check in the mail and for the past 5 or 6 years, we have been using our rebate money to stock up on our food storage. It's like free money to spend on something we are really passionate about. We went to two different Costco's (regular Costco and our favorite- Costco Business) and filled up the back seat of the car- AND

the entire trunk, too. Unfortunately, Ben is still under strict lifting restrictions due to his recent back surgery (nothing over 20 lbs), so I was the one loading and unloading 4 different times all the food, which included roughly: 125 pounds of dried beans, 125 pounds of sugar, 100 pounds of flour, and about 50 or so other odds and ends. Our food storage shopping is a big undertaking, so it was so nice to be able to do it kidless. Really nice, actually (especially with a handicapped spouse). :) And as unromantic as food storage shopping for Valentine's Day sounds, seeing our garage shelves stocked up top to bottom with food for the next year or more is such a great peace of mind, and peace is love, right?

We enjoyed a nice dinner after our (my) hard work at shopping (just kidding, honey). The kids had quite a fun evening with Grandma Cynde and much prefer a babysitter to us anyway, these days. It was a win win for all of us (except Cynde, maybe. My kids are obsessed with her and they all started cheering when she walked in the door. Watching our zoo is not for the faint of heart and she handles them so well. She is probably always exhausted after watching them, but we always appreciate it. We love her!)

This morning, I surprised the kids by decorating their bedroom doors with hearts. A heart attack, really.

They loved it and were very surprised to see it. Mitch asked at breakfast, "Mom, why did you put hearts all over our doors?" He was probably surprised because I am constantly after them to NOT put stuff on their doors.

I had every intention of making the kids a fun Valentine themed breakfast, but Chloe, bless her heart, had already fed everyone cereal by the time I got downstairs this morning. She is my Valentine, that sweet girl.

Mitch and Chloe both had school today- what a fun day for school! They both came home from school with lots of candy and Valentine's, and within minutes, our house looked like a Valentine tornado had hit it.

A cute mess, but a mess still the same (did you know I despise messes?)

While Mitch was gone at school, a sweet little girl from our ward and in his Primary class (whom Mitch adores), dropped by a Valentine and a cookie for him. I teased him that his girlfriend stopped by while he was gone and he was not happy about me calling her his girlfriend. He was excited that she dropped a treat by and ate the cookie faster than you can say "she's not my girlfriend."

After the kids were in bed last night, Cynde set out some Valentine treats for the kids that I let them have after school today. You would have thought it was Christmas with how excited they were. And then we got another card from my parents with stickers and cards for the kids. We really felt the love today.

For dinner, amongst the tornado, we had a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's. Cheap and yummy. And cute, come on.

After dinner, (as if any of the kids needed anything else with sugar in it), I gave everyone their own heart shaped sugar cookie.

Mitch started the "crazy eyes" pose.

And of course, we all had to do it.

Chloe then brought down a Valentine for the whole family. The book my parents sent her last week was about a kid who wrote mean Valentine poems to a few kids in his class. Chloe copied one of those poems for all of us for a joke. It reads:

"Roses are red

You wet your bed

I think that you have rocks in your head."

Nothing says love quite like that. And we've had a LOT of love lately. Happy Valentines Day!