Our Anniversary and Valentine's Day 2012

Before our favorite lover boy, baby Grant, was born, we had two days of love celebration to tide us over before his birth.  The first was the eleventh anniversary of our first date.  We love celebrating our first date.  Because we have been a couple everyday since!  So, in honor of that beloved day at Disneyland eleven years ago, Chris brought home a gorgeous bouquet of flowers and I wrapped up some little presents.

I am loving the evidence of children in our relationship . . . those are some serious kid smudges on our table that I didn't bother wiping up for a picture! :)

Three llittle gifts for my Chris.

The girls got to toast Martinelli's sparkling apple cider with us.  It was a peaceful and grateful afternoon and evening.

Five days later, we were celebrating Valentine's Day!

The night before I had a wicked eight hours of labor.  I was super conservative about calling it labor.  But after eight hours of a minute and a half long contractions, less than one minute apart, that were getting much more painful and difficult to breathe through, the girls spent a Monday night at Grandma Judy's and we headed to the hospital.  OF COURSE, the second we arrived at the hospital they stopped.  I felt like the biggest idiot.  The admin nurse got to explain to me what real contractions should feel like - as if I hadn't given birth twice already.  So, even though we had brief moments when we thought this little boy would be a Valentine's baby, we came home early in the morn of that love day still pregnant (and Grant didn't appear until the end of the month).  When Grandma dropped the girls off in the morning, the first thing they asked was where their Valentine's mail boxes with candy were.  I guess the tradition is a big deal to them.  I was barely awake - so we put it off until the evening.

That night, we had our traditional "red dinner."  Before the kids got older, Chris and I used to do something we really loved for the meal - like swiss cheese fondue or steak and salad.  But, our little girls really adore the tradition of red food.  So, last year we had lasagna and this year we had Hallie and Claire's favorite meal ever: spaghetti and meatballs.  Grandma Judy joined us for our love day feast.

Grandma Judy sent Valentine's to the girls in the mail.  They each had cute cards filled with new stickers.

Grandma Laine bought them cute new Valentine's denim dresses.

Mommy and Daddy had little love presents for the girls too!  I had found a Disney fairy doll for Hallie and a Minnie Mouse purse and glasses for Claire.  They were both after-Christmas clearance, of course - a total deal!

I love to stock up on seasonal paper goods at Dollar Tree.  They are too cute to resist.

For the first Monday of February, we dedicated a family night to the topic of love.  At the end of the lesson, we made our traditional Valentine's hearts to hang on the walls.  My favorite responses came from Claire.  When asked what she loved about Daddy, she responded "he gives me cheese."  When asked for other things she loves, Claire said "I love beans!"  We kept our festive hearts up until after Grant was born.

She is getting way too old!  Don't get me wrong - I love it but lament it at the same time!

Daddy helped me with the mailboxes this year.  Each year they are filled with candy from the two of us and love notes from me.  Daddy did a great job with the candy, but the notes were hilarious.  I normally have a full one-pager filled with the inherent qualitites I love about the girls.  Chris wrote things like "Dear Hallie, I love your face!!! Love, Dad."  He totally did it on purpose.  I couldn't help but crack up. 

Our girls went to bed on Valentine's night totally spoiled and without a baby brother yet.  

But it was still a LOVEly day indeed.