14 Days of Valentines 2016

Our tradition is alive and well.  This year was the 17th year to honor the holiday of love.  And it was the first year that Chad had a theme for his gifts to me.  He made everything a sign of some kind or included a sign in some way.

This sign hanging across the driveway was clever.

I didn't have a sign theme.  But I did make sure to fill Chad's truck with balloons.  That's kind of a tradition.

Joseph and Sarah helped blow up balloons for me.  It's a good thing they have such chubby cheeks to help them fill up nearly 70 balloons.  Yeah.  They probably get credit for 4 or 5.

I did make some truffle type things.  They were an interesting first time activity.  Thankfully, we have a lot of kids to help Chad eat them.  Except for Nathan, he tasted the minuscule amount of peanut butter in them and wouldn't eat any.

Chad did put a keep out sign on the bathroom door and had the tub filling for me.  I turned on the jets

to get the bubbles going.  Unfortunately, the switch to turn it off can't be reached from the tub, and it isn't on a timer.  So things got a little overwhelming for a while.  I finally got Chad to respond to a text and come turn things off!

But not before the bubbles got so high that they started spilling out of the tub.  I was laughing as I spit them out of my mouth and blew them out of my nose.

I did make a couple of signs myself.  I had the kids help me quickly cover the back of his truck after school one day.

Chad also got the kids in on the fun.  They made these little signs and he lined the driveway with them.

They looked a little bigger in person.  :)

When we lived in Las Vegas about 14 years ago, and I was only on the third or fourth year of Valentines, one of Chad's coworkers mentioned that I would not keep it up for very long...after a few kids came along.  I guess we showed him!  

Crazy Week!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Here is a little piece of our decorations this year. I saw this idea on Pinterest.com and thought I'd try it myself. It would have been nearly impossible without my Silhouette, so I must give the credit where it is due!

Of course, these last two weeks have found us deep in the throws of sharing Valentines with each other. Chad came up with some great Valentines this year! Sunday night, Chad filled the tub with really hot water, bubbles and this:

(That is a little Fisher Price lamb in a boat.)

I got a pretty good laugh over it and then climbed in. When I turned around, saw this:

The joke is funnier when you know the tub looked like this a few days before:


It all started on Tuesday, 7 Feb when Chad went out to feed the animals and found 2 little lambs! By the time Chad got home that evening, Leah and I had brought this little ewe lamb inside because she wasn't standing on her own anymore.


She lived in this box, sitting in front of the heater in the bathroom, for the night while we bottle fed her through the night. Daniel named her - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. We called her Super instead.

Here is Super's mother and twin sister. They are still doing quite well. But they no longer recognize each other as family.

She's pretty darn cute, though!

The next day, we had more babies. Chad found them in the morning again. There had been triplets, but sadly, one was already gone. The other two were doing quite well for a while, but we eventually brought the littler one in and put her in front of the heater. We caught her earlier and she's still a better eater than Super. We named her Ali as in Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Those two little gals were so SKINNY!

During the night, while we were feeding the lambs, Chad went out to check on Ali's brother. He was fine. Less than 4 hours later, he was moments from death. Those lambs will die for no reason! We bought a second heat lamp that evening and got it up in the shed.

Meanwhile, I was getting my fill of lambs in my bathroom. Their poop was really stinky. I tried to keep them in the tub to make the clean up easier, but Chad was worried that the cast iron tub was too cold. So then the poop built up in the box we were keeping them in. Gross! On the other hand, I am quite impressed with my washer and laundry detergent!

I would put them in the tub to hopefully catch the poop and pee that inevitably came after a feeding. When Ali started getting OUT of the tub, I knew we were at our limit. Chad moved them outside to the warm heat lamps. And then he cleaned the bathroom. What a man!

Two quiet days passed and then we ended up with triplets again on Saturday. We watched them so closely. OK...Chad did the watching. He got up every 90 minutes to make sure everyone was well and occasionally to feed Super and Ali. He was pretty tired on Sunday!

The lambs were growing well and seemed fine. Here is a shot of them from yesterday.


And then I went out today and found the smallest one (a ram) cold, on the ground. Shoot. He was doing so well! So we are currently at 5 lambs. There are two ewes that have not had babies yet. We just wait and watch and pray over our little flock. Even the kids mention the lambs in their prayers.

We are not very skilled shepherds, but we are trying. Hopefully, we are learning and will have a better year next year (provided next year is as we plan).

Valentine's Day (for real)

Our last day of Valentines included a special dinner (pink waffles, raspberries and whipped topping, heart-shaped sausages, apple wedges and pink fruit dip) and this on the garage door. I took so long getting everything ready, that I was still putting all the hearts on when Chad pulled up. Oh well, it's no real mystery how these things happen.


Since it was Monday, we had FHE. It was Joseph's turn for the lesson and he wanted a lesson on Joseph Smith and how he loves us. Chad did a good job with that interesting twist.

Then we play a hide and seek game with a little, red heart. (You can hear that game happening in the background of the video of Sarah I posted a couple days ago.) We had pink, heart-shaped rice krispy treats for the treat.

Afterward, we had the kids get pajamas on and got ready for bedtime. But before...

...we gave the kids their v-day presents.

I found a deal to get 6 knock-off Pillow Pets for $40...shipped. That is a perfect number for us! I also made each of the kids a personalized book with special things about them. Scripture reading went very smoothly this night...everyone was hugging their pillows.

That night, Chad presented me with a (real) Pillow Pet of my own...a Valentine's Day puppy. I think he was building on the theme. The kids were tickled by it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We finally finished up the kids' valentines last night. Or was it the night before?

Anyway, it took a few days to make 80ish of these babies. But it was fun.


All four kids have been so excited about their Valentine's Day parties. Rebekah is already home and now Joseph and Sarah are trying to get her candy. It's not pretty.

I'm planning a nice dinner tonight. I hope we get one. And I hope that everyone has a special day with those they love.

14 Days of Valentines...for the 13th time

Yes, January eventually ended and February first came rushing at me. Most of you know that we have a little Valentine's Day tradition in our home. It started the year Chad and I were dating (1999) and continues still. This year was no exception...with one exception. I'll share that exception at the end. :)

Each year I try to have something that's the same every day...like a theme, of sorts. This year, I used my new Christmas toy to make 14 boxes. They all nest inside the one after them, so I didn't end up with a pile of boxes toppling all over the place. Inside each box, I placed a brain teaser or puzzle of some sort. They had no real meaning...it's hard to find Valentine's Day-themed puzzles in large quantity. I just made a little attempt to have them increase in difficulty as the days progressed.

Here was the first day. The lid of the box is decorated, but you can't see it in this picture. The puzzle was very easy. The pin taped to the bottom of the box is crucial to Chad's safety...as I learned about 10 years ago.

You see, it's hard to drive when there are TOO MANY balloons in the same space as your feet. But it's a balancing act because if Chad doesn't bring home as many balloons as he can, the kids will be disappointed. After all, they watched me blow them up (all 50 of them) and were very good not to play with them...even though they really wanted to.


Incidentally, I can't figure out how I do it, but I seem to catch the coldest days to carry out this act of vandalism. And the windiest.

The next day was another box with another puzzle, but this time it was 15 (because that's how many fit in the pan) mini chocolate cupcakes. There were 12 heart picks (because that's how many were in the package) and I wrote a highlight from each of our nearly 12 years of marriage on the backs.

The days went by, and so did the gifts. On Monday, we had waffle cones with the waffle cone maker that was the treasure at the end of a long hunt. I wrote one or two-word clues on hearts, but scrambled the letters. The kids had fun helping and Daniel proved to be quite adept at unscrambling some of the clues. But I do think it was kind of sad to see how long it took for them to unscramble "erci."

YUM!

Other highlights include putting paper conversation hearts on the windows of his truck at work. (That day, the temp was -4 degrees at 9:30 AM! I can't catch a break.) The kids and I wrote things we loved about him on little hearts and put them inside plastic heart containers. I slipped a half dozen large sugar cookies into his truck one night. He found them early the next morning and ate them ALL before lunch! Other things were simple gifts.

And this year (here is the exception I teased about at the beginning), Chad reciprocated! I haven't expressed to him how much it meant to me that he did. I'm not very good at that...I need to be better. It has included several foot rubs, some Girl Scout cookie Samoa ice cream, a HOT bath (in which I read a whole book and the water was still warm), a colorful message on my mirror, a dozen roses and some other gifts. No wonder Chad likes this holiday so much!

Here are the roses...the kids picked them out. :)

One more day left in our countdown. But I feel like it's already been Valentine's Day. It shouldn't just be for one day, anyway.

I love you, Chad!

Valentine's Day without candy?!?

I've started mentally preparing for the "14 Days of Valentines" that is fast approaching. (When I did this for the first time, I never thought I'd still be doing it 12 years later!)

Ordinarily, it's hard enough to come up with 14 different ideas, but I have usually been able to rely on at least a few days of candy to take the pressure off my creativity. Thanks to Daniel's no-candy challenge, I can't use candy this year.

This is going to be interesting, to say the least. I hope it turns out well.

Thai Foodd

OOPS!!! This is a sleep deprivation warning...you'll lose your mind if you don't get enough rest. My hint was really bad. There are actually THREE words, two of which would say...dinner in...so you just have come up with the last word, which is 3 syllables. Remaining letters are in bold to help. I will reveal soon. It's 4:53 AM now. We just gave Sarah a breathing treatment are hoping to get back to sleep soon. She just doesn't stop coughing and giving me that look that says, "Do something, would ya?"

Some of you were wondering what happened with the hershey kisses and the message they were building. (Only one of you was curious enough to come right out and ask, right Brooke?)

Well, as smart as I thought I was, the rest of the message turned out to be a little tricky. The first part WAS Thai food. (Which Chad brought home for dinner last night.) There was that extra 'd' and then there were these letters: c, n, a, c, i, o, n, e, h, n, g, n, i, i. Anyone want to try it out? Turns out, it wasn't 'hot daffodil.' (Don't forget that extra 'd'.)

Post your guesses. (Or beg for hints.) And I'll let you know if you're right. 8)

It's over, again.

Today is Valentine's Day, for the 14th time this year. Do you know what that looks like? It looks a little like this:

OK, it's not that bad. But that's what the web of love was looking like this morning. I put it out of its misery this evening. This is what the garage looks like. Those hearts have been up there since Friday and are getting a little faded. I'm not even sure how that's possible, since we've hardly seen any sun. Those will need to come down tomorrow. It sounds like a really good job for Daniel.

We had a Valentine's Day dinner tonight. I was trying to decide on what to eat that was red. I was down to spaghetti or red pancakes. We settled on leftovers since we had so many in the fridge. But we did get pink milk!

I set the table with heart plates and paper cups. I put a box of conversation hearts on each of the kids' plates with a clue inside that led them to a new set of sheets. Now I have a whole pile of sheets waiting to be washed. I'm not sure I thought that one through!

And then there was the cake. Looks good enough to eat, doesn't it? We devoured half of it tonight. Rebekah has the FHE treat tomorrow. She's agreed to pick the 2nd half of the cake for that. It would be really wise to get it away from me. It's funny, I have no problem leaving the celery alone in the fridge, but cakes and cookies always get me...no matter where I hide them!

Valentine's Day gets a little commercialized, but I think it's a great motivator to show the people in our lives that we care. I love my family, near and far...even the ones who won't believe it. I guess that just makes it that more important. Right?

So happy Valentine's Day to all of you. I hope it was a good day for you and your families.

Enjoy this video of lots of love!

Wrapping up Valentine's Day

It's been 12 days so far. Two more plus one days to go before I wipe my brow and rest up for the next year. Here are some of the highlights:

This sign went on the fence on Day #2. I started too late in the day, so the paint was still wet when we hung it up. Less than 20 minutes later, Chad gets home and brings it inside! I was hoping for at least a few days of public display!



On Monday, I constructed this web from crepe paper and stuck little "heart flies" to it. Each fly had a reason why we love Daddy. There were 15 flies.

These are the flies. I should have made them from pink paper so we could have picked them out from the web a little better. Oh well...next time. (Next time I make a huge web of streamers and stick little heart flies to it, that is!) Leah cut out the hearts for it. She does need "cutting on the lines" practice, after all!

Wednesday was the day I finally decided to put the traditional balloons in Chad's truck. He works a lot farther away these days and I have to make sure that he's going to be there if I'm going to haul lots of balloons and kids out there.

Yesterday, the kids and I made some flowers from construction paper hearts. We stationed ourselves around the house, along the length of a really long string. Chad had to follow the string into each room where one of the kids was waiting for him to give him their flower. That was a frenzied activity. I was trying to do too many things at once and Joseph was TIRED of standing in the library holding a paper flower and a part of the string. I'm sure it made no sense to him.

I have included a card like this each day. The drill bits get progressively bigger and I write the day's number and something that made/makes me fall in love with him on the back.

This year, Chad is playing a little game of his own. For three days, he's given me 3 chocolate kisses with a single letter written on the paper flag. I've unscrambled the letters and come up with THAI FOODD. He assures me that he really can spell and that there are more letters to come. I'm happy with what I've learned so far. It doesn't bother me much if he stutters at the end of his message. :)

The kids are getting the hang of Valentine's Day in this family. They probably think everyone celebrates for two whole weeks. They'll have to work that out with their spouses when they get married. But they are still kids. Leah wants to know when SHE will get something and not Daddy. :)

BTW: I spell checked this post and the ONLY spelling error to surface was "FOODD." That one's not even my fault.