Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

The night before Valentine's day was the night we flew home from California. :( We ended up stuck overnight in Great Falls because of bad weather. Boo. Just the welcome we were hoping for! The on ramp and freeway looked AWFUL so we decided to get a hotel. I cried. So done with winter and snow and it ruining my plans!!! So inconvenient and unpredictable. We were trying to get back for Valentine's Day because the girls had their field trip to see 'Aladdin' that the local high school was putting on and then their Valentine Party after that. Zach also had his last day of ice skating lessons with his kindergarten class and we had already missed one of the 6 lessons because we went on our California vacation. So I was mad. I was mad at the weather and the snow and not knowing if it would be better up ahead (which I think it did clear up, but we felt like we should stay, so we did.) It ruined my plans and my kids' fun. I was also sad because I had just come from my former reality to my present and eternal reality. Winter. Snow. For the rest of my life. ;)  "There is another way people! We don't have to live like this!!!" I know I am being dramatic, but really there are lots of winter days where I can't help but remember/dream of my sunny, warm beach-going-pool-swimming-sunshine-and-clear-roads-all-year-round (excepting the traffic of course but kids don't care about that stuff) childhood. I tell my kids I didn't really know what snow was and had to drive an hour to it in the winter if we wanted to play with it and got so excited with the first tiny patch of snow we saw on the roadside. They always look confused. In the beginning of winter they think that is sad! But by the end, they too are asking Justin to move to California by Papa and Mer Mer. And no, I don't ever pressure them or teach them to say that because I want them to love where they live. But they are seeing the light on their own!
After I got out of my 'woe is me' moment and realized how blessed I am and how good it was to be home, and after we drove home the next morning in the light on clear roads...,I was happy to be back. I love my home. And the people around me.  And everything turned out great. Justin went skating with Zach. I got to take the girls to another showing of Aladdin. And their classmate brought their Valentine's home for them and put them on our doorstep. All is well.



Here is our cute little Valentiny. :)

Justin and Zach brought me some of my favorite flowers for Valentine's Day.
Sunshiny yellow tulips in February. Yes please!
I love my men.



And here is what I got him! My practical man. He is always complaining about our vegetable peeler for potatoes, so I quizzed some of my Facebook friends and found that this one was a good one. The best part was my note to him though...

I'm so punny. :)
"Words CARROT express the way I PEEL about you. POTATO have to when I can show you instead."
Get it? Carrot = Cannot...Peel = Feel....Potato = But they don't
Yeah, he didn't really get it either. Well, the first part he did, but the "Potato" kinda took him a while. I should have just stopped after the first sentence, but I couldn't because I was giddy driving home in the car at 8:30 pm that night with his gift and thinking I was so funny. :) 

V-Day was also the 8 year anniversary of our first kiss! :) Woo woo.

And here's Kate with her Valentine, Waddles, all jazzed up. She is funny. :)