XOXOXOXO (Happy Valentine's Day)

Today is Valentine's Day and all across the country, candy, flowers, jewelery, balloons and other gifts were exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of love! Whether you celebrated a quiet Valentine's Day at home, at a romantic restaurant or some other venue, I hope you and yours enjoyed all the blessings and bounty of your special love and romance!

At our house, Valentine's Day kicked off with Paige and Taylor discovering what Cupid had brought them overnight - 2 HUGE "I Love You" balloons. These were the mother of all balloons...comparably sized to that of a bean bag and nearly as big as Paige and Taylor. (I don't think I've spent $10.00 on one measely balloon EVER, but this year, I spent that twice because these were THE coolest balloons in the store and I just knew Paige and Taylor would love them for all their big red HUGE-ness). The twins also received some other goodies from Cupid -- Valentine's Day M&M's, (2) Webkin Valentine's kittycat stuffed animals and a couple of little miniature-sized Cupid dolls including those infamous novelty conversation candy hearts! It was candy and sugar overload and it was only 9:00 AM....wow, what a way to start the day! Oh, and did I mention that before Cupid gave the Valentine's Day candy and goodies to Paige and Taylor, we all sang "Happy Valentine's To You, Happy Valentine's To You, Happy Valentine's Dear Paige and Taylor, Happy Valentine's Day To You".


Following the little song, we all gave each other hugs...mommy and daddy gave each other hugs, mommy and daddy gave hugs to Paige and Taylor, Paige and Taylor gave each other hugs and since their "Momo" from Virginia is still visiting us, hugs to "Momo" as well.

Below are a few photos of Valentine's Day at our house this morning.

Happy Valentine's Day (4 Days Early)

Paige and Taylor just couldn't wait any longer...

...to give their daddy their first homemade Valentine's Day card.

AND

...to give their daddy their hand-picked, from Jelly Belly's finest selection of gourmet jellybeans, candy hearts.

Tonight, when Mike walked in the door from a long day at the office, I had him sit down at the dining room table and instructed him to close his eyes. As he waited - with baited breath, I'm sure - Paige and Taylor joined me in the kitchen gathering up their homemade Valentine's Day cards and candy hearts from Jelly Belly. Then, both girls walked over to daddy and shouted out, "SURPRISE" and "Happy Valentine's Day". It was very, very sweet!

As fun as tonight was watching Paige and Taylor give their daddy their Valentine's Day gifts, we still have 3 more days to go in anticipation of the REAL Valentine's Day! What can I say...when there is this much love to go around in our house from the twins, ya' just can't limit it to one day!!!!

Here are a couple pictures of each of the girls' homemade cards:

In The Spirit of Valentine's Day

I find that I begin to celebrate the festivities and seasonal occassions much, much earlier than I ever would have prior to having children. For example, Christmas tends to last for about 2 weeks at our house beginning with the trips to the mall to sit on Santa's lap, to decorating the house and Christmas tree, to the grand finale of opening all those presents from Santa; and of course, there are always lots of photo opportunities to capture every moment along the way of Paige and Taylor. Now, it's February and although it is only the first week of February, I find that I am already participating in the spirit of the coming Valentine's Day. First, it was a trip to the photography studio to have the twins pictures taken (yes, for Valentine's Day)...today, it was baking cookies with Paige and Taylor - those ol' familiar slice 'n bake cookies with the little red, white, pink hearts on top - and, yes, these too were done in the spirit of Valentine's Day.


The twins were eager to help placing their cookies on the cookie sheets, then waiting patiently while the cookies were in the oven. Oh, and Paige and Taylor's "Momo" from Virginia is visting us, so baking the Valentine's cookies today was a little more special for the twins (not that baking cookies with dear ol' mom isn't special, but come on, mommy makes cookies with the twins a lot so it's no longer that 'big a deal').

Each girl started with their own plate of cookies...

Paige and Taylor helped place each of their cookies onto the cookie sheet...

Paige does a quick counting of her cookies...

Taylor waiting her turn to add her last 3 cookies...

Tada! The cookies are on the cookie sheet...

Watching and waiting at the oven door...

The longest 8 minutes of their lives...

Cookies are almost ready, but not yet...

Still waiting for the cookies, but a slight change of venue...

Still waiting for the cookies, but now doing a choo-choo train to pass the time...

Still no cookies?! What's taking soooooo long?!

Seriously, what's taking those cookies so long?!

Mom, do you hear me...seriously, I'm asking you what's taking the cookies so long?!

But we're trying to wait patiently...

After what probably seemed like the longest 8 minutes of their little lives, the cookies were at last ready. When the timer chimed to mark that their cookies were in fact done, the girls both started clapping and shouting, "the cookies are ready, the cookies are ready."

So, with 8 more days to go 'til Valentine's Day, besides baking a lot more fun, festive cookies, the twins will likely be taking a stab at making their very first "homemade" Valentine's Day card for their daddy. Now that they're 3, they are quite the little color-ers, glue-ers, and best-all-around crafty kids. But, shhhhhhh, that is a surprise for daddy!

P.S. Seriously, how cute is it that Paige and Taylor are sporting their "big girl" panties in these pictures?! Elmo and Barbie "big girl" panties are a big hit in our house. Even better, their "big girl" panties stayed - oh, how should I put it - unsoiled for a good couple of hours today! Awesome.