Good by January, Hello February!

Audrey's Birthday Supper, Spaghetti!

We have finally come to the end of birthday month here in our house.  From the very first day of January until 5 days before it's end we have been bombarded with birthdays.  Corey, Bethany and Audrey have birthdays in our house, then there is Jackie - Corey's Mom, Chelsea - my Sister (it's technically an "inlaw" thing but well, she's my sister. Period.), we also have many, many friend with birthdays in January.  So each weekend was filled with party after party.

And Cucumber

And while I'm a fan of the b-day celebrations, I'm also tired.  It was a long haul, made longer by crazy work schedules for Corey and the colds we all battled.

Very first birthday cake, made my Bethany and Mommy!

When I got up Monday morning I let out a sigh of relief, "Ahhhh.  No more January for 1 year!"  The bliss was short lived, as I looked at the calendar and Audrey had her 1 year shots and I had a specialist's appointment, but at least neither of those required the singing of Happy Birthday, party hats or the polite "No Thank You" to birthday cake.

At least she ate some of it before she spat it out!  She liked the icing but true to her sister's form, didn't like the cupcake part.

You would think I'd still be relishing the whole, break thing, and I guess to some extent I am, but I'm also in another mode.  It's Valentine's Day in 1 week!  I love Valentine's Day!  Not for it's chocolate, romantically fueled events, but because it's a day about love.  Pure, sweet love. Yay!

Our buddy Konnor checking out his pink icing hands

In our house, Valentine's Day isn't just about Corey and I.  While our love is what fuels this family (and kinda created this family) it certainly isn't the only love around.  We love our girls and they are the lights of our lives!  And so, since Bethany was born we made the decision that February 14th is about all of us, Corey, Ashley, Bethany and Audrey. We'll get a night out later in the month just the two of us but I mean really, why should the girls be left out of the ooeyiest, gooiest day of the year.  They are, infact the gooiest people in this house, what with diapers, slobber, snot and drool.

Sophie devoured her cupcake in about 25 seconds, no lie.  It was so funny!  She's such a sweetheart this little girl.

I'm in the process of planning some pre V-day crafts and things to do.  This will be the first year Bethany actually understands the day, and that's making it all the more exciting for me.  I want to get some wonderful pictures, capture some heart warming moments (yeah, yeah I know) and have some family time. 

We're still trying to decide what we'll do with the whole day.  It's all of course hinging on what the weather is doing.  And ya know, I'm kind of excited.  We'll do a small gift for each munchkin and at least cards for each other, whether home made or store bought, I love the cards I get from my husband.  He puts so much thought into them when he remembers and the things he writes always bring me to tears.

I can't talk about birthdays and not bring back my favorites of Bethany's birthday.

Oh, I'm so excited!  This is almost more exciting for me than Christmas.  Valentine's Day holds no illusions, I refuse to allow it to be a commercial holiday (small token gifts aside) and it focus' on another wonderful gift Jesus' shared, the ability to love, Him, each other and our children, unconditionally.

I am amazed at how quickly she's growing and in awe of how beautiful she is, inside and out.

So, what are you doing for the big Valentine's Day?  Do you do it up big or keep it simple?  Do the stores aquire more of your hard earned dollars or do you stick up your nose to the monster that is consumerism?