Will you be my Valentine?

I have to laugh...in writing this post I realized Jeff and I didn't take a single picture together on Valentine's Day. Oh how things change when you have children!

We've decided, though, to do something small for each other on V-day but really OUR day is our anniversary. And Valentine's Day is our chance to celebrate with the other loves of our lives:  the kiddos!

The boys definitely had made up their minds as to the kind of boxes they wanted for school.  I had to get my creative juices flowing to figure out how to make a stegasaurus & pteranadon.  (The latter of which has never been made in blogdom, so I was on my own!!!) The boys helped and it turned out to be super fun, and pretty darn awesome, if I do say so myself!

Cute little Ryder after opening his little Valentine treat from mom & dad in the morning.

Callen's first Valentine's Day!!  

Oh these little heartbreakers.  I am so glad they are mine:

Our delicious dessert:

In keeping with tradition, we celebrate Valentine's Day as the Day of the Book & the Rose.

The kiddos get a book (and small treat) from us. This has become a favorite tradition that we all look forward to.  For the sake of saving $, Jeff & I committed to reading a book we already own that has yet to be read.   

We are a bunch of book-lovers over here!

And Callen really just likes to eat them:

I had to get a shot with  my little love, how this kiddo melts my heart:

Story time with daddy:

Jeff surprised me with a stunning bouquet of roses & this delicious cupcake. 

I enjoyed every last crumb!

Happy Valentine's Day from this little family of mine!

Jingles

We had a friend come visit over the holidays. 

Yup, we started the elf on the shelf tradition! 

We had so much fun with this little guy, who the boys finally named Jingles (after many days of debate!)

Jingles got into quite a lot of mischief at our house and he is most definitely part of the family for good!

Most of our pictures are on Jeff's phone...but here are a few of the things Jingles was up to:

Christmas!

Christmas Morning at our house:

Kiddos woke up and got to open stockings right away, then we had breakfast:

Callen thought it was okay:

We tried something new this year and had the kids open 1 gift every half hour. It was a lot of fun because they actually played with the gifts in between. We loved it!

My parents made the boys these AWESOME sling shots and angry birds.  Seriously, they are the coolest things. I am so impressed with my mom and dad's handiwork. Of course they were a  hit and we all had a blast shooting down the pigs! 

We love watching Nonny & Grandpa open their stuff from us:

And Uncle Shawn:

Mckenon:

I think every boy under the age of 7 got the Imaginext Castle this year...all our friends now have it!  It is definitely a favorite, though, and the kids were THRILLED:

My mom made the gift of $ so much fun:

Love my bros:

We were SO excited for the boys to open the trampoline. We waited until the end of the gifting and it was so worth the wait:

Uncle Shawn & Callen:

Since Callen is not old enough to care, we just wrapped a few toys that were the boys at this age.  I hadn't pulled them out, yet, so I could do this. New toys for him, $ saved for us = win/win!  

Jeff and his Christmas/birthday gift, he was happy!

The best part of Christmas is spending the time together playing with everything.  We loved it:

And Merry FIRST Christmas to this little man, we are so glad you are part of our family:

We were too busy having fun and playing together to get a group shot! 

Christmas Eve...after the kiddos go to bed

I love Christmas. I love the magic and the Spirit and every bit of it.  I love the giving and the loving and the selflessness that comes with doing for others.  

As a parent, Christmas is even better than I ever thought as a kid. 

We spent the evening listening to music, putting toys together. And wrapping. And wrapping. I kind of procrastinated that part! It was awesome, and I loved it. Although, next year I WILL wrap before hand so we can watch a Christmas flick and go to bed early!

Because winters are so snowy and cold and we are stuck inside for so long, we decided to get the boys a trampoline.  My dad and bros helped Jeff put it together and then we had some fun on it...as much as we could considering we had a ceiling to watch out for!

All wrapped up:

The tree:

The stockings:

Our little family:

 So excited for the a.m.!