sweet holiday moments & the last day of school before Christmas!!!

***We celebrated Andres' birthday on the 14th with our parents and his grandma @ Carrabbas!!! 

When we got home, Tanner had wrapped up some of his favorite books and put them under the tree for Andres to open for his birthday! 

***Kynlee discovered the Christmas tree and the warmth of the lights on it and loved it. She'd often leave the table after dinner and go find the tree so she could play with the branches and feel the lights while we watched a movie or read from the scriptures before bedtime!

***The kids had fun shopping for, wrapping and handing out gifts to some of their friends this year!!!

 ***I enjoyed cutting out paper snowflakes with the kids to hang from the chandelier and in the window, and taking lots of pictures too! 

***We all loved admiring and sitting by the tree!

***Mr. Yummy & I celebrated our 16th anniversary together and I took my very first instagram picture with my new iPhone he gave me! Yay for instagram & my man.. I'm totally hooked!

***Last minute Christmas shopping with the kids.. instagram caught 'em bein' silly on the sleds in Walmart!

***And finally.. the last day of school! Pajama day, the Christmas around the tree program and class parties!!! All the kids were so excited, I surprised them with new pajamas to wear sitting outside their bedroom doors when they woke up in the morning on the last day of school!

love is in the air~

We love heart-day at our little house! How 'bout you???

It's such a fun holiday to look forward to during the winter months, especially for us since it's tradition to head south for a warm visit with my parents! The kids have been so excited for all their class parties this year.. I think they're looking forward to tomorrow just as much as the actual heart day itself! The boys are having a valentine box contest! They each wanted to get a pinata for the kids to drop their valentines in, Chandler chose a long dragon and Marcus chose a spike-back dinosaur! 

What makes tomorrow so special...

• dress-down day @ school! (no uniforms!!!)
• class parties, exchanging of valentines to teachers, friends & secret crushes!
• beginning of a long holiday weekend! (no school Friday OR Monday! Yay...)
• road trip to visit G-ma & G-pa!!!

Last night we pulled out all the stamps, stickers, paper, scissors, markers, etc... and the kids went to town makin' their handmade valentines! 

 

  

I love to lay out a bunch of supplies and see the kids having fun while letting their imaginations guide their creative flow!

Look what my special little valentine made for me...

{he says that the two people on the little heart are Tanner & Mom}

Oh! How I love the crooked heart he cut out, it couldn't be more perfect!

 

pretzel sticks 

+ 

chocolate 

+ 

valentine polka-dots

= 

A sweet gift 

for the ones 

you love 

& 

appreciate!

dip, drizzle, sprinkle...

wrap with cellophane & pink curly ribbon..

repeat! 

Then...

send to teachers.

mail to long distance friends-n-family.

deliver to close-by neighbors.

and don't forget to

ring the doorbell and run!

for that's the best part...

Babysitter was available to watch the kids tonight...

so off we went.. on another great Valentine date!

Lucky!!!

I know...

I bet you can guess what we did...

Yep!

dinner and a movie.

Did I like it you ask???

NO

I LOVED IT!

I love movies set in this time period.

the music.

the love story.

the dresses.

the jewelry.

the list goes on...

Last Friday we went to dinner and watched the movie "Dear John." There were a few things I would've done differently in the movie had I been producing it, the end to name one... but since that wasn't the case, I'd say I liked it overall, and I'd be lyin' if I said Channing Tatum didn't have anything to do with that!