Valentine's Day

Mike took all of his sweethearts out to dinner for Valentine's day this year.  Michela was the only one not with us because she was at church with some of the other young women babysitting little kids for Moms and Dads who needed a night out.  We went to Terra Mia for dinner where they made the pizzas heart shaped.  I thought it was pretty cute.

Laina loved eating bread dipped in the yummy tomato basil soup.  

 After dinner we went home and had chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting that I had made earlier.  The kids all had fun at school getting treats from classmates and Laina and I went to Aria's school and helped out at her class party.  Pretty low key day, but spending time with the ones we love makes it special.

Cutesie Girl

I finished the skirt for Laina! I was having a bad day a week or so ago and I decided I needed to make something. I had wanted to get this skirt done by Valentine's day, but it was not to be. I did get it finished for Church on Sunday and she looked so darn cute in it!

I used some leftover fabric from the Valentine skirt I made Aria last year.

I don't know what it is, but once I start cutting out fabric and sewing my whole body starts to relax. I could feel the tension releasing as I started rolling my rotary cutter. I get in this kind of zen zone when I am sewing. I mentioned this to my sister in law and she looked at me like I was a bit crazy. I know sewing stresses out a lot of people, but for me the whole process of creating is so soothing to my soul. The only time it is stressful is when I am trying to unpick stitches with a baby on my lap! :) Hopefully for my sanity there is lots of more sewing time in the near future!

All We Need is Love

Happy Valentine's Day!

I decided to be a little creative today and make a cute little shirt for Laina. I appliqued the Love wording on her onesie and it turned out so cute! I was trying to make a skirt to go with it, but I only got it cut out. Hopefully I'll have it done by Sunday for church. Isn't she the cutest little thing! I just love her to pieces. She is sitting up so well now and loves to be able to see what is going on around her. She rolls everywhere and has even attempted the army crawl. She is saying Da, Da, enjoys shouting and loves to babble. She continues to impress us with her raspberries and usually ends up spraying us at dinner time.

Hunter and Michela made a funny Valentine box for Hunter to collect his cards and candy in. It says, "Feed me Loves Bub!" Hunter named him Fred. These two have such a silly sense of humor. I am always surprised at what they come up with.

I was a bit on the grouchy side about Valentine's day this year. It might be the fact that I have been dealing with sick kids for the last 2 1/2 weeks and I haven't had one decent night of sleep during that time. It also might have to do with me feeling like a beached whale because I can't seem to find the time to exercise. I have no energy and since Laina is so sporadic in the nap department I never know when I'll be able to have a stretch of time long enough to throw on my workout gear and get moving. It always seems like by the time I get dressed and get down to the basement she has woken up and her screams are blasting through the intercom. I can't wait for Spring so I can throw her and Aria into the stroller and go for a walk outside.

We ended up having a nice dinner together, Mike brought home Costa Vida, and we had a fun Family Night. It's funny how Valentine's day has changed over the years with the addition of kids. Personally I kind of like it. Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Wreath

Everyone has probably already seen a wreath like this. I saw the idea on the blog Idea Room last year and fell in love with it. The only problem was when I went to buy a heart shaped foam wreath they were all out. I finally found one after Valentine's day, so I shelved the idea for the next year. Well, it is now January and I just got around to taking down Christmas. I saw the wreath sitting on my shelf downstairs and decided to give it a try. I can't tell you how many felt circles I cut out, let's just say my hand was a bit tired by the time I was done. It was well worth it, because I got this as my end result.

Isn't it beautiful?! I love how it looks all ruffly and soft. And according to Michela, "it is AWESOME!" Now I have a new cute decoration to add to my little mantel grouping.

I also still love this plaque I made a few years back.

I hung it by my front door this year. Now that I've got one craft done, I'm itching to make more. We'll see how much time I get in the next few weeks. Somebody might not want to cooperate. In fact, she made it quite a bit difficult for me to even take these pictures.

Ha, Ha, ... she is too funny.

A Sweet Valentine's Day

For me Valentine's Day started with a frantic sewing session trying to finish Aria's valentine's day skirt. I decided to make her a Nie Nie Skirt from Pink Fig Patterns and I didn't give myself enough time to finish it in a timely manner. So me! Luckily I finished it right before it was time to go to church. There was no way I was not finishing it! It turned out so cute! She looked like a little Valentine's Day Flamenco dancer. I got so many compliments. I used all pink and white fabrics and only included one with hearts on it. I wanted her to be able to wear it any day, not just Valentine's Day.

Michela's skirt went together in a flash. I just kind of came up with my own pattern for hers. I loved the pink and brown fabrics and I knew I had to make something that wasn't too ruffly or frilly. Her skirt turned out perfect!

For dinner we went over to Matt and Sara's house. We had a delicious dinner and way too many desserts. What was Peggy thinking when she brought three pans of cinnamon rolls and a red velvet cake! That cake was so good!!! Here is a picture of Aria enjoying the cake.

The sweetest thing about Valentine's day was that Bronson was home and loving it! He was toddling around, he is still a bit wobbly, but what do you expect after being in a bed for like 12 days in a row! He was all smiles and so darn stinkin' cute.

Daynen had to join in on the picture taking, he didn't want to be left out. I didn't get many pictures of the other kids, they were too busy downstairs tearing up the basement. I'm so sorry Matt and Sara!

And the best gift was a beautiful red scarf, handmade by my sister in law Megan. Peggy delivered them to us with a little note from Megan saying she wanted us to have the scarf to wrap around our neck because she wasn't there to wrap her arms around us. Isn't she so sweet?! Here are the ladies in their scarves.

What a lovely day it turned out to be. I actually loved having Valentine's Day on Sunday this year. It let us just have a relaxing day where we could enjoy the company of the ones we love best. That was the sweetest gift I could ask for.

Valentine's Day

I forgot to post my pictures from Valentine's Day. Hunter and Michela got creative and made some awesome valentine card boxes. Michela's class was having a contest and Hunter decided he wanted to make one as well. Michela's was a crazy guy with two different shaped bug eyes and Hunter's was a fire breathing dragon. They did them all on their own and I was very impressed.

Grandma Peggy made some yummy heart cookies for us. What a sweet Grandma they have! Of course they looked too good to wait for so I let them eat them after breakfast. (Notice they are still in their PJs!)

We had a pretty low key holiday. We were going to go to St. George but that got cancelled at the last minute. We spent most of the morning and afternoon watching the snow fall, and fall, and fall! We played lots of games, the Wii and ate tons of treats. Mike and I gave each other very romantic gifts. I gave him a picture of all the kids for his office and he gave me some new free weights for the exercise room. Just call us Mr. and Mrs. Practicality! We ate pizza for dinner and then watched a movie all together. I love nights like these when we can all do something fun together as a family and when everyone has a good time. Isn't Life Sweet?!