14 days of love

I am working on fun, inexpensive surprises for Mark for Valentine's Day. In years past, I have not celebrated Valentine's Day. I don't see the point in wasting money on overpriced flowers, candy, gifts, and other "romantic" things on any one specific day. I'd much rather show my love and appreciation when the moment strikes me...not when I'm told I'm supposed to.

2 years ago was our first Valentine's Day together. I felt the same way about the holiday then. So instead of what the average couple would have done, I created loving, inexpensive gifts to show Mark that even though I don't believe in the holiday, I still loved him more than I could have ever imagined. Below you can see some of the things I made for him (what is still left of it after two years anyway) WAY before Pinterest existed to stifle creativity and limit originality (don't get me wrong, I do enjoy Pinterest).

I put all of Mark's mini-gifts inside of this beach pail. He loves his annual family vacations and the beach means a lot to him.  I bought some sticker letters and put, "i dig you" on the front of the pail.  I also wrote it on the shovel. 

I do the below craft every year for my students in my classroom. I was excited to see it all over Pinterest this holiday season. Mark really does color my world <3

Two years later and this was still in tact...until Ainsley got ahold of it. A self explanatory gift :)

Mark is hilarious and makes me laugh more than I make him laugh...which is a must for me. My life is full of laughs thanks to him!

This year I am trying to do the same. I have decided to give Mark something each day for the first 14 days of February. I will post pictures as they are created :)

Day 1: Banana; I'm bananas over you

Day 2: Orange Slices (his favorite); Orange you glad you're my Valentine

 Day 3: Apple; You're the apple of my eye

Day 4: Pear; We make the perfect pear

Day 5:Ring Pops: Can't Wait For You To "Put a Ring" On It!

Day 6: Picture frame; Love You with scrabble pieces

Day 7: Picture frame; Love One Another saying

Day 8: Secret Vday Messages that Ainsley and I will make using white crayons and watercolors.

Take a white crayon and write your message. Then, ask the receiver to use a paint brush and water colors to reveal the secret message. This was Mark's favorite!

 Note: Yellow didn't work out great. Best Daddy Ever!

 Top Gun...

Day 9: You are cute as a button (& I LOVE buttons)

Day 10: Pop Rocks; You rock my socks off Valentine

Day 11: Goldfish; Will you O"fish"ally be my Valentine

Day 12: Hot Tamale's: You are one Hot Tamale

Day 13: Lollipop; I'm a sucker for you Valentine

Day 14: Jar Heart Pouch...a reminder for those days of doubt :)

organization

Pre-baby I was a very clean, neat, and organized person.  Some people called it a sickness.  Disarray and not being organized drove me crazy.  Post-baby it seems that I am one hot mess after another. Disarray and not being organized still drives me crazy.  There just never seems to be enough time in the day! We travel a lot on the weekends and before I know it, work is staring me right in the face!

Today, I took the ENTIRE day to catch up. Literally.  To catch up on everything that I have been putting off. It felt great.  I still have a ton to do...like, put our Christmas presents away, but my house is beginning to feel like a home again.

It is currently freezing rain outside and I can't help but wonder if we will have school or not. Mark is home tomorrow and I would LOVE another day at home with my sweet Ainsley. Our winter has been non-existent and I could use a snow day :)

smile

nothing is better than hearing the man of your dreams tell you you're his best friend. the end. <3

here's to a New Year and another chance to get it right!

Here is my second attempt at blogging! Life sure does get busy sometimes :)

Where did I leave off?  Our daughter, Ainsley, is now 14 months old! She turned 1 on November 4th and we threw her the cutest Owl themed 1st birthday party. We had our closest family and friends there and it was the most perfect day...besides the fact that her Uncle was not here and Ainsley was actually sick (though she was a trooper). We are so very blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives. Here are some pictures from her special day:

Great Grandma, Nana and Mommy. Ainsley is so loved!

Our sitter made this awesome owl cupcake cake for Ainsley! It was perfect and oh so yummy :)

S'more favors!

Most days I can't believe how fast the time has gone. Everyone warns you, but you don't realize it until you're in it. She has become the most beautiful, full of energy and personality baby I've ever laid eyes upon. Her big eyes constantly sparkle with curiosity and excitement as she explores the new world around her. I am so proud to be her mommy and sometimes wish to find the pause button in this fast paced world.

Her loves of the present are mangos, goldfish crackers, music, dancing, legos, playing on the dog beds and her baby dolls. I think she runs faster than I do :) She can say (clearly): mama, dada, hot, up, uh-oh and elmo. She signs for: more, milk and all done. She makes me laugh hysterically when she pretends to sneeze and cough! She also knows to strip all of her clothes off when mommy says it's time for a bath. She's amazing. It was her second Christmas and she was an absolute blast! After showing her what to do, she wanted to delicately open and play with each toy first before she opened another one. Her favorite gifts seemed to be her two puppy dog toys. She has also recently discovered Elmo and she think he rocks.

Mark and I have set our wedding date to 9.2.12. We haven't planned as much as we'd like to, but we are doing the best we can. We would love to have another baby before Ainsley gets any older, so we battle waiting until September for the wedding or having something small and intimate sooner so that we can expand our beautiful little family. Weddings are so expensive and I've never been the type of girl that dreamed of her wedding day, so do we want to spent loads of money for our wedding or not? That is currently the question we keep asking ourselves. I am not a good decision maker!


I have been trying to make myself more of a priority lately as well. I have taken up photography more often because it makes me happy. And not to mention it really would be my dream job. I am looking into taking a class at our local community college to hopefully learn more about camera/lenses/lighting. I also would really like to take an Elements class as well regarding editing. I would love for this to become a part of my daily life. I think I need to have a career where I can express creativity and education has become such a micro-managed career and it stifles me. I could talk for years on the topic of education and my current career, but I won't bother.

In the new year I hope to accomplish a lot of goals; mainly to become more healthy mentally and physically and making time for Mark and I to make fitness a priority like we used to pre-baby. I miss going to the gym with him every day. He is truly my best friend and the best feeling is knowing he feels the same way about me.

Life is good.