Valentine's Day

Our 7th Annual Valentine's Mess was a hit once again. Because Valentine's Day fell on Sunday this year and we don't have church until 1:00 I decided to have it ready for after church instead of trying to get them all to wake up and enjoy it at the same time on Sunday morning. When Derek woke up he asked with a pout "where's my stringy valentine?" I just mumbled something about it being Sunday and left it at that. Then I snuck home from church and got it all put together. Levi wanted to help this year, since it is his last, so together we (along with help from Kellie and Caytlyn - this is a big house and that it alot of yarn!) . . . we strung up 7 balls of yarn throughout the whole house. After it was all over he said, with his arm around me, "no matter where I am next February you better call me to help with this. This is my favorite tradition!"

So here they are following their strings:




And here they are finding their treasures:



This was my favorite picture! Instead of just throwing his ball of yarn through the closet he thought he had to crawl through the closet. He might be nearly six feet tall and wearing a man's suit but he's still my little boy!

My Valentine present this year was seeing my boys in their new suits. Derek has wanted one for quite a while and with a surprise sum of money that showed up from the insurance for the accident that Erika and I were in, we were able to finally get him one. Levi has made it very clear how he feels about "churchy" things and had been making very snotty comments about suits but when we told him the day we were going to go shopping for one and invited him to come he took a minute to think about it and finally conceded, "a suit might be kinda cool, I guess".

Derek knew exactly what he wanted. We had shopped around in Idaho Falls and he had given it much thought and went right for the solid black with a pink tie. Levi insisted that he wanted a thick pinstripe (red pinstripe, mob style) but the Man's Image doesn't carry mob suits so he settled for a thin pinstripe. It was so helpful to have Caytlyn along for the shopping because she raved about how great Levi looked in a suit. I'm not sure he would have picked one out without her there. When it took 2 weeks from purchase to tayloring both boys asked me nearly every day when they would be ready. LeRoy and I were wondering if Levi would only wear the pants and the jacket would hang in his closet forever but it has now been 6 weeks since he got his suit and he has worn the full getup every week.

Man, these boys are handsome (and TALL).

And then for our evening finale we glazed a bunch of cookies and shared the sugary love with our neighbors.