The Young and the Restless

Valentine's Day

Another Valentine's day come and gone. I love this holiday and I love the little traditions we have.  The kids get so excited about the heart attacked doors, strawberry crepes, heart shaped bacon, pink hot chocolate, little gifts on their plates, red themed lunches and the candlelight fondue dinner. I always wonder which traditions they'll pass on to their own kids.  The holidays can sometimes seem overwhelming and I go to bed exhausted and vowing to simplify, but this year was just right.  The kids felt special and loved and I found time to soak it all in.

Ryder is always stealing Jayden's nerf guns so they were both so excited that he got his own.  He calls it his "bew, bew" and I really shouldn't think that it's cute that he goes around "bew-bewing" everything, but I do.

That Maddox takes "mama's boy" to a whole other level.  He is fiercely loyal to me and I love it. It's also no secret that he loves craft projects, he dreams about them (last night was making a train out of strawberries for birds) and prays that we can find good craft projects.  He insisted that I needed a present on my plate then went to work all morning eating the chocolates out of this box, replacing it with conversation hearts, re-wrapping it ever so carefully with satin ribbon and an entire roll of tape then drew me a card and had me dictate it.  I loved it so much, it made my heart ache.

The day before we made homemade fortune cookies for activity days and filled them with scriptures about love for the "fortunes".  I think the girls had fun, but I was too busy keeping Ryder off the counter, making sure the cookies didn't burn, stopping Jayden from squirting the girls with water guns and rushing to get out the door for the blue and gold banquet right afterwards.  It was chaotic, but it made for a fun Valentine's day family scripture time the next day. 

Maddox made it clear that he needed a Valentine's day lunch too and it was the perfect day for a picnic outside.

So I'm still in the market for the perfect cheese fondue recipe, the last two years have been duds.  But the atmosphere is fun (although I was in hurry to get the kids to bed early because we had an early morning the next day, so we weren't exactly relying on the candlelight) and Jayden would take snack foods over real food any day (he takes after me).  We were sad Jason didn't make it home in time, it's the peak of his busy season, but the next day was all about me and my sweetheart....