Valentine's 2014

I thought I'd post a few pictures from Valentine's Day.  I love Valentine's Day!  I think I came to realize how much I love it once I left for college and realized how fun my mom always made it at home :) I also just love hearts so much!  I think Valentine's decorations are the most fun :)

This year I had Aiden "make" Valentine's to send to his aunts in Utah and deliver to Amber and his grandparents here.  Really he didn't help me make them at all.  I tried to get him to help, but he wasn't interested..haha.  He was very good about handing them out though :)  I found the printables on Pinterest.  Thank you to Passion for Savings and The Crafting Chicks :)

Tanis and Kent watched Aiden for me for a few hours while I ran errands on Friday.  I had to get emissions done on the car.  We passed emissions, but failed the equipment part.  First time that's happened! Stupid gas cap!

Aiden with Grandma and Grandpa Knuckles and their Valentine's.

They got him a little gift and then I couldn't get him to look back at the camera!  He really likes his new front loader and bubbles ;)

That evening I dropped Aiden off at Grandma and Grandpa Christensen's so that we could go out to eat at Maggiano's.  We were in a huge rush to make it for our reservation in Scottsdale so I only had time to get a quick picture with Grandma.  Dad was out (he got to come home from rehab earlier that afternoon).

Maggiano's was delicious, but I was uncomfortably full afterward so we didn't get a picture then either :/  I'm bummed about it, but I was not in the mood.

We made it home and before we put Aiden to bed we quickly opened our little gifts.  Aiden was on a Finding Nemo kick for a while so we got him a little Nemo :)  Since we've been in our new place though, Monsters Inc. has been his new go-to.

I missed the photo with the wrapping paper.

I think he likes it ;)

Kisses!

It's hard for me to believe that next Valentine's we'll have a 9-month-old baby girl!  I'm already daydreaming about how I'll dress her for V-Day!  I love dressing in pinks/reds and hearts :)  Oh and check out my Valentine's label on the sidebar to see how Aiden has changed over his last 3 Valentine's Days.  It's crazy!

Scrabble Love

I made a Valentine's decoration last night around 8:30 p.m.  Yes, I do realize yesterday was Valentine's Day..haha.  I had been meaning to make this for a while, but we've been sick around here for the second time in like a month (I don't know how we keep seeming to catch things), so I was finally able to get out this week to get a frame.

I got the idea from a PIN I pinned several months back.  I thought it was a tutorial, but found out it was actually up for sale in the United Kingdom. I thought to myself, well that can't be too hard to make!

Here's how mine turned out :) 

I had to take the picture at a bit of an angle to not get my reflection in it.

It's pretty self-explanatory.  You have to get a frame where the glass is pushed out front of the matting so that the Scrabble pieces will fit under. I got mine from Hobby Lobby with my handy gift card from Amber for Christmas.  I used some leftover magenta cardstock from my WREATH a few years back.  Just cut it to fit the frame.  I traced the little square opening to make sure I was gluing the Scrabble pieces on straight.  Then assemble and wa-la!  So easy!  This literally took me 15 minutes tops!

In other news, we had a low-key Valentine's Day.  I surprised Trent with this new recipe for a Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake from Less-Than-Perfect Life of Bliss when he got home. It was yummy!  I may just make it a little tradition for every Valentine's Day :)  If only I had a cute heart-shaped pie pan like Julie :) 

We ate a quick dinner (thanks to Bertolli!) and hurried off to Aiden's swim lesson.  I got a LivingSocial deal for four swim lessons and this was Aiden's second.  The first time Trent got in with him, but his nose was still really running so I got in last night.  Aiden likes it pretty well except floating on his back..haha.

Sometimes Aiden tries to drink the water :/  He does this in his bath too..haha.

Peeking over at Daddy :)

Oh..we sent a Valentine's shout-out to all of the aunts. I got this picture before we headed off to Aiden's swim lesson.  Notice Aiden's crabby flip flops.  Aiden and I did a little shopping yesterday and picked them up. Aiden doesn't know what to think of something being wedged between his little toes..haha.

We headed home after the lesson and Aunt Jen stopped by with Valentines.  She brought mini m&m's for Aiden since he's "mini."

We got Aiden new jammies yesterday too, as pictured.  I don't know why, but I love two-piece jammies!  I think Aiden looks so darling in them :)

We haven't exchanged gifts yet, so we'll do that tonight and go out and celebrate :)

Our Little Lovebug

My latest nickname for Aiden is "Lovebug."  How appropriate that was, yesterday, on Valentine's Day :)

Aiden being all thug with Daddy.

We had a nice, easygoing Valentine's Day.  Trent and I both worked (I've started watching a 3-year-old boy once or twice a week) and we exchanged gifts when we got home.  Then we dropped off Aiden at my parents' (always a thrill for them!) and headed to Olive Garden with a gift card from my parents for V-Day (thanks so much M&D!).  We got there around 3:45 and still had to wait like 40 minutes.  Dang snowbirds ;)  The whole meal was delicious, but my favorite part was the Raspberry Cream Italian soda.  So delish! Then we hit up Target for a little shopping.  Gotta love Target!

Hope you all had a wonderful day, significant other or not!

My Valentine's Wreath!

I am home sick from church today. Not only is my nose running like a faucet, but I'm on my period. No fun, no fun at all.

But enough of that. This is supposed to be a happy post because, guess what! I just hung up my Valentine's wreath!! Haha, I know it's almost a week past Valentine's, but I made this wreath and it took a whole lot longer than I thought it would. I discovered the tutorial for this wreath through a friend back in January and just knew I was going to make one for myself! Is it not gorgeous?!

One of the reasons I wasn't quite able to get my wreath done before Valentine's Day is because we couldn't find plain red cardstock anywhere. We could only find cardstock in multi-colored packs so there'd be like 10 pieces of red and then a bunch of other colors that I obviously didn't need. I finally just had to order online from Jo-Ann's and then it took TWO whole weeks to get here. I couldn't believe it! I knew then that this wreath was not going to be ready by Valentine's.

But that's okay. It's done now and I love it! Oh and the name of the color of my cardstock is Raspberry Splash! Isn't that fun?!

Here are all of my supplies before I got started (and knew what I was getting myself into..haha)

I have to admit that when I first started rolling my roses, and they weren't turning out the way they look in the tutorial, I was definitely frustrated. Luckily I got the hang of it! And it was fun to be able to pop in a movie while I was rolling.

Rolling yet another rose..haha. It was definitely tedious at times. Towards the end though, Trent jumped in! And I swear his roses turned out better than mine. What the?!

Sorry I don't have any other pictures. Trent was assigned to take candids, but was pretty sick during the week I worked on this. The only thing I did differently from the tutorial was that I waited to spray the adhesive and sprinkle the glitter until the very end. I thought it was easier that way.

And my final product!

What do you think?! I'm in love with it! And trust me, even though it's past Valentine's Day, this wreath is staying up for at least the rest of the month, if not longer!

Valentine's One Week Late!

So last weekend, Valentine's Day weekend, Trent and I were asked to give talks in church and I got sick and Trent had like the busiest week of his semester. It kind of ruined our plans for Valentine's Day (several weeks earlier we talked about getting out of Provo for a night or two and staying in a hotel or something..pretty common thing to do). Well a few days ago, Friday to be exact, Trent came home around 3:30 and said something to the extent of "I'm sending you on a scavenger hunt. Please just humor me." Haha. I was a bit reluctant (I was right in the middle of watching "Ellen"..I love her!), but I followed him upstairs to our bedroom and he had me sit down and count to 80 and then told me to come find him downstairs. I counted as fast as I could and ran downstairs and he was nowhere to be seen. In walks Amy (my sister) carrying a rose and a note. I read the note telling me that Amy was going to be my chauffeur and that I needed to go to the place we ate on our first date. So we head out to the car and Amy even makes me sit in the BACK SEAT..bahaha!

We get to Los Hermanos and Andrew (my cousin) is there with a rose and a note! I was a little embarrassed because every time I'd read a note I'd get all teary-eyed because Trent writes such sweet notes, so I was pretty quiet during this whole process. This 2nd note sent me to the Riviera where we had our first kiss. I knew this was over by Trent's old apartment, but Amy made me get out by my old apartment (she kind of messed up) and Bryn was there with a rose and a note! My next destination was supposed to be where Trent first told me he loved me which was at my old apartment, but because Amy mixed up we went over to his old apartment and Spenser (a friend) was there with a rose and a note! For the final note I wasn't given a clue, but was told that Amy was just supposed to take me to my final destination and that it was a bit of a drive. She made me put on my eye mask that I sometimes wear to bed. It was kind of annoying because I hate surprises and I was worried my makeup was getting all messed up b/c I had been teary-eyed. Amy ended up meeting up with Trent in a parking lot and I switched cars. I had a few guesses where we were going, but I'll get to that later.

When I switched into our car, Trent gave me a rose and I begged him to let me take off the eye mask because I knew the drive was quite a bit longer (I knew we were going to Salt Lake). He said I could as long as I closed my eyes when we got there. We got to Salt Lake and I closed my eyes and opened and we were at the Hyatt by The Gateway. Trent had booked a night for us there and had packed everything I would need (I had guessed we were going to a hotel because, like I said earlier, we had talked about doing this several weeks earlier)! Sadly, through all of this I didn't have my camera so we don't have any pictures. Anyway, that evening we went out to eat at Buca di Beppo (an Italian restaurant) and it was SO GOOD! It's a family-style restaurant so we shared chicken parmesan and both got raspberry Italian sodas. For dessert we shared a big slice of cheesecake with raspberry sauce..delish! We had talked about seeing "Valentine's Day" last weekend, so we went and saw that after dinner. We both thought it was alright, not fabulous or anything. By the time we got out it was around 11 so we headed back to the hotel for the night.

Saturday morning we got up and had our free continental breakfast and got checked out of the hotel by noon. We did a little bit of shopping at Gateway. Gap was having an awesome sale this weekend only and I got this fabulous zip-up hoody for $15 and it's normally $40! Once we finished at Gateway we headed to the Layers warehouse sale in Murray and I got a cute shirt for $10 there! Then we headed back home to Provo. We ate a late lunch at Cafe Rio (yum!) and had Coldstone for dessert (gotta love dessert!)

That was our late Valentine's adventure! It was such a blast! I am so grateful for Trent and all he does to make me happy! He knew that Valentine's meant a lot to me..I did tell him though that he doesn't need to feel like he always has to do something that big :) I love you sweetheart!