Our Valentine's evening

I spent most of Valentine's day cleaning our rental home in spanaway. The tenants didn't clean at all when they left, and left some damage, so I've been busy down there every day since they moved out. After working hard down there, I picked the girls up from school. They were super excited to tell me all about their party at school. When we pulled into the garage, daddy was standing in there with 3 balloons waiting for us. That really added to the girls' excitement once they spotted him. He also had some stuff for the girls that he ordered online. Kiersten got a hoodie, Kara got 2 night gowns, and Evie got a special Mickey mouse.

The girls were really happy with their heart shaped boxes of chocolates, and valentine's themed pillows and blankets.

We took a video of Evie getting her Mickey out of the box. She was so cute and happy. I just wish I could have gotten her to smile for a picture with him afterward!

Here they are with their balloons from daddy. Every time I snapped a picture, someone pulled down on their ballon and got blocked out. This was the best one I ended up with.

Of course we had to get a heart pizza, as we always do. This one was barely shaped like a heart. Someone really didn't feel like going to a lot of trouble with it.

I already got my gift from Ben last week. the first day we were down in spanaway to do a walkthrough with our tenant, Ben surprised me on the way home by stopping at the jewelry store. I got to pick out some fun new earings. I chose a set of diamond hoops, and I am thrilled with them! Ben kept saying he was looking for a starbucks to get wifi on my kindle. I was totally annoyed, and kept saying, "let's just go home and use the internet". Then he seemed to be pulling into costco, and I reminded him we canceled our membership there. He said he thought there was a starbucks around there. As we pulled up to the jewelry store, I said, "there's no starbucks in there". he just laughed and told me why we were there. I felt pretty silly for being so annoyed with him, and being so oblivious.

St. Valentines Day 2011

We pretended that valentine's day was on sunday. the girls don't really know the difference, anyway. Ben made breakfast for everyone. He asked me for a heart shaped cookie cutter so he could make the girls' plates look like this. The U is toast that he cut out with a knife. I thought it was pretty cute. After breakfast the girls got to open valentine's from us. Evie got a cute little stuffed frog, and a bear that was free when I bought the frog. Kiersten has really taken a liking to the bear, and keeps asking Evie's permission to play with it. Evie hasn't had a problem with that so far.

The girls were so happy to finally get pillow pets. they have wanted them for so long. Evie got one for Christmas, and they have been totally jealous.

Kara got the unicorn she has been dying to have. She named it "pretty big fluffy bottom cutie".

Kiersten has been wanting the puppy. There was a red valentine's version of it, so that's what she got. I've heard her call it "love puppy", and "ruff ruff". So one of those must be his name.

We spent the rest of the day at the NW trek. The girls really love it, and I think Evie even enjoyed it this time.

Monday, Kara had a valentine's day party at school, and also class picture day. She had lots of fun, and was bouncing off the walls when I picked her up from school. Kiersten and Evie got to do a few valentine's activities in the daycare at the gym too. We always eat a heart shaped pizza for dinner. Our first valentine's date 9 years ago, was at Pier 49 in Utah. Not all the heart pizzas are as good as that one was, but pizza is pizza. This year, Ben brought home papa john's. The girls were pretty excited about it.

He also surprised me with new jewelry! yay! I gave him an out this year, (and I deserved for him to take me up on it...), so I thought I'd get flowers, or candy, or one of those baskets people sell on the side of the road. So I was thrilled to get this pretty necklace, and earings! All he got for valentines was a new wii game. but that's what he likes, so he's happy with that.

Evie wearing her cute heart shirt. She is able to do about 14-15 steps now, so we're calling her a walker. She really is a sweet girl.

Kiersten saw valentine t-shirts at the store a week ago. She asked if she could get the front one that she could see. I started looking through them and reading what they said. As soon as she heard this one said, "I love Grandpa", she insisted on getting it. There were cuter ones, but who am I to get in the way of a 2 year old expressing her love and admiration for her grandpa?

Kiersten picked out a shirt for Karalee, but I didn't want her to wear it on picture day. So she is wearing it today instead. Her hair was curled when I took her to school, but when I picked her up all the curls had fallen out. I used tons of product to keep the curl, but I'm hoping it looked good for the pictures. they were first thing in the morning. Her teacher is too smart to try to do pictures after they are full of sugar.

St. Valentine's Day

On saturday, we went shoppping at Sam's club, and when we were bringing all of our groceries in the house, I saw Ben bring in a jewelry bag. So I hurried and got his gift from my purse and gave it to him a day early. My plan worked, and that prompted him to give me my gift early too. Of course after that we had to let the girls open their gifts as well. Here they are on the couch starting to open. Kar wanted hers, but didn't want Kiersten to get anything. It was a not very nice moment for her, but she got past it quickly once there was a gift bag in her hands.

Kiersten was so excited to get a ni hao Kai-Lan see and say. It's amazing how just a few dollars can go so far to impress them. They also got some new barbie clothes. I have been having such a hard time finding regular barbie clothes. I've looked several places, and it seems barbies are just dressing slutty these days. So ben has been calling all the short strappy dresses pajamas. This inspired Kara's barbies to have a pajama party. it was cute, except when her "boy barbie", as she calls them, asked cinderella if she wanted to sleep with him. Of course Kara had no naughty intentions, so I just let it go, but said, "make sure they each sleep in their own bed". kinda silly, I know. Kara loves this mickey and minnie puzzle. She's already put it together several times.

They also got these cute suckers. They were soft marsmallow ones, kinda like peeps on a stick. The girls really liked them, but I thought they kind of tasted like play-doh.

my gift from Ben was a new pink saphire ring with small diamonds and heart shaped earings to match. I was surprised to get jewelry, and very happy. I totally just expected flowers or candy this year, but I love a good surprise!

a close-up. I know it's horrible my nails aren't done, but I've been really busy lately! I like to think the ring can outshine my dry, wintery hands, anyway.

Ben's gift was candy, and some new shorts. He also got to get some new shirts and ties at Van Heusen. The last few weeks, he kept saying, "we don't really plan on doing valentine's gifts this year, right?" or, "didn't we say we weren't really gonna do valentine's this year?" I realize he was trying to trick me, but I really did go low key because he kept saying that. And he actually was really glad because he would rather just spend money on things when he wants them, instead of hoping that I'll get him a gift he wants. So it all went well for us this year. And I have no problem with being the spoiled one, after all.