Valentines Day 2015

So...remember that one time when we celebrated Valentine's Day?  Oh yeah, me neither...because I never blogged about it!  Argh!  Here's a couple of pictures and thoughts to document the holiday.

In preparation for Valentine's Day, we went to the store to pick out valentines for Daphne's preschool class.  There were dozens of choices and I was recommending Hello Kitty, Princesses or Strawberry Shortcake when Daphne squealed in delight and said, "No, I want THAT one!"  Ninja Turtles...I should have known!  I still have no idea where the Ninja Turtles obsession came from.  She has never seen anything about them, she doesn't even know their names, but she carted around a Ninja Turtles coloring book for over 6 months when she was 2, chose a NT backpack out when she went to school, NT bandaids when she had a owie and then the valentines.  I actually love that she is not your typical girl in this regard - what a goof!

Daphne was our little Love Bug for Valentine's Day this year.  They made cute Love Bug hats at preschool, the perfect accessory to her red, white and black outfit.  Darcie is just a little Love no matter what holiday!  We could eat that sweetums up!

The young women in our ward heart attacked our door and left cupcakes one night in February, so we kept the hearts up until V-day was over.  So thoughtful of them!  We decided to spread the love as well and heart attacked a few people in our neighborhood.  Daphne loved the covert mission, sneaking to the door and running for our lives when we doorbell ditched.  Her little heart was pounding after each one! :)

The big culmination for me this year was giving Burke a gift I have been working on for TWO years!  You see, several years ago I saw my sister-in-law Marinda writing in a book for my brother.  She had been recording something that she loved about Elijah each day for an entire year to give him as a gift for (I think) Christmas.  I was impressed with her thoughtfulness and stored her excellent idea away for future reference.  In 2013, I decided it was time to start my own list for Burkie.  I planned to record things I loved about him on a secret blog every day for a year from mid January 2013 to mid January 2014, giving myself enough time to pair the love notes with pictures from our dating, engagement, wedding day and marriage and printing it in a book for Valentine's Day in 2014.  

Weeelllll, as it turns out, in December 2013, after I had nearly completed the project, somehow Valentine's Day came up and Burke (remember, this is the man who is NOT a romantic) begged that I not do anything for V-day that year.  I said offhandedly, "Burke, you ask me not to get you anything EVERY year."  To which he heatedly returned, "Then why won't you do it?! If you really wanted to show me how much you loved me, you would respect my wishes!"  Of course he couldn't know that I had been sneaking to computer every day to jot down another amazing attribute that I loved about him, nor could he know the hours upon hours spent making the book in my precious free time.  Somehow he finagled a promise out of me that I would do nothing for Valentine's Day that year and I just couldn't break my promise.  Hence, last year I gave him nothing but a lousy piece of scratch paper (see HERE) reminding him that I was honoring his wishes.  He absolutely loved that!  As you can imagine, it killed me to put my book on hold for another year, but I think that made the gift this year that much more meaningful.  He was completely surprised and touched of the effort that went into its creation.

Recording something I love about Burke every day was such a neat experience as it helped me to continually focus on the positive.  I was reminded repeatedly why I fell in love with this wonderful man in the first place.  He is truly so good, so kind, so selfless.  After recording 365 things I love and admire about him, you would think I would have been burnt out on things to say, but the more I wrote, the more things I observed, appreciated and grew to love about my sweetheart.  I would highly recommend this exercise to anyone wanting to either foster more appreciation for their spouse or demonstrate that love.

I tried to get Burke to take a picture holding the book, but he was being a turkey and this is the best I got.  His reluctance to take pictures is NOT something I love about him! Haha!