Valentine's Day 2011

Daniel has such a gift for making even little things like breakfast seem special. Heart-shape waffles are, of course, special for Valentine's Day. However, he always arranges things "just so," and adds the whip cream to make it so fun and festive. This is one of his gifts that I love! And, it's not just on special occasions... he does this quite often, which really makes the girls and me feel special!


Our Valentine mailbags each contained a special card from Papa. Poor guy has 5 cards to write; 3 Valentines for the girls, 1 for me, and a birthday card for me. That is LOVE!

One of our Valentine activities, of course, was playing with the play dough we made. (We made a double batch so that we could give some away and still have lots to play with!)


Ok, so here is another example of a special touch and why my husband melts my heart. See that gorgeous box of chocolates? My husband saw me reading about them in my last issue of Sunset magazine, and ordered from that San Francisco gourmet chocolatier. It is so fun trying all the different flavors like salted banana caramel and honey fig! The picture on the far right shows the box of chocolates on top of the Sunset magazine article.

I was able to go for a jog with Sierra in the afternoon, then came home, took a shower, and hurried off to my massage appointment. Awwww.... there are no words!

Another fun surprise... flowers!

I walked in from my massage to the most wonderful-smelling house.

Macadamia-encrusted scallop salad. Yes, it was that good!


...And, beef bourginion, once again! He used a different recipe this time, and it was different but just as yummy! You can imagine how spoiled I am feeling at this point...

For dessert, we did chocolate fondue with strawberries and blackberries. I can't even believe how many Allison ate!


After dinner, I played a quick round of Valentine BINGO with the girls before our cousin came over to watch them and put them down. In the meantime, Daniel and I walked across the street Starbuck's for our date. I cannot even tell you how nice it was to sit and chat! Before leaving, we had Natalie take a picture of us using our big new camera. It is so heavy for her, she can barely hold it up. But, as always, her picture still turned out pretty good. Here it is:

Disclaimer: after my massage, I was too tired and lazy to change into anything nice for our date. Hence, the jeans and sweatshirt!

What an incredible 36th birthday! Thank you so much for your love, and making me feel so special, sweet husband! I LOVE YOU!!!