Feel the Love

When Aaron and I first got married, I relieved him of the responsibility of making a big deal about Valentine's Day in our marriage. I don't want him to get me something because he "has" to do it. He does a great job of surprising me with little things throughout the year, just because so I feel quite loved by him throughout the year. So I was quite surprised when he came home from the city two days before Valentine's Day with these lovely roses for me. It was super sweet of him. They are gracing my dining room table and make me smile when I pass them by.

I grew up with this tradition and have carried it on in my kids. Every Valentine's morning we would wake up to a hand cut out heart from our Mom with a note on the inside of it letting us know how much she loved us. I usually remember to do it very last minute. This year was no exception. Keilah woke up at 5:15 to nurse that morning and it was then that I realized I hadn't gotten my hearts done yet. So since I was up anyway, I got busy. They also received a small tub of candy hearts to go with the notes.

Keilah didn't get anything special for Valentine's Day, but she did take a nap in the sunlight.

She continues to be her happy little self.

David loves to stop by throughout his day (procrastinating from school work) and visit with her. She loves looking up at her big brother and giving him the biggest grins. It melts my heart.

We also think she is beginning to teeth. Too early for that, you think? David was my latest teether and his first two teeth popped through at 4 months. Ana had teeth already at this age. She's been getting quite drooly (yes, that is a word) and is constantly chewing on her hand and more lately, finding her thumb. I keep trying to replace her thumb with a pacifier as that's a much easier habit to break. But I keep finding that little thumb in her mouth much of the time. I'm hoping it's just a teething thing right now.

Our cookbook challenge continues to go well. There are 417 recipes in the cookbook and we have so far made 17 of them. Last night we had our worst and best recipe so far of the challenge. David picked out the meal again last night. The worst one was scallops in a citrus glaze. No one liked that very much and I didn't keep the leftovers. The best one was a key lime pie. A definite winner! There are two slices left and there will probably be a disagreement over who gets how much. I am finding out that I need to tweak the recipes just a bit more than I first thought mainly for my conscience with eating more healthfully. I usually half the amount of meat and double the amount of vegetables in most dishes. And if I can substitute a healthier similar item, I will do it. And the pre-packaged processed ingredients are usually swapped for homemade of the same variety.  It's still been quite fun to try out new foods and the kids are loving picking out meals and trying everything.