The first morning while Kevin was in the shower and Ellie was getting dressed I put their gifts out. I put Kevin's on his bathroom counter and Ellie's by her breakfast. They were both excited to find them and excited about what they were. Kevin put his little planes together and flew them around. Ellie wanted to put one together so she took it in the car on the ride to school. Kevin took a couple of them to work and flew them around during the day with his co-workers. (Boys never really grow up.)
Cute Ellie said to Kevin, "Now we've got to get mom something!" I don't think either of them knew at this point that the gifts were going to keep coming until I hinted at it when they left for the day.
Day 1:
You make my heart fly!
I love you so much I want to wrap my heart around you!
The next morning, Kevin got his present but Ellie was with her dad. So I put Ellie's gift in her seat in my car and she got it when I picked her up from school. She was excited and wanted to know what Kevin got. She ate a chocolate or two, but then wanted to save some for the rest of the month. She does that a lot and we typically have leftover candy from each holiday long after the holiday itself.
Day 2:
I love you more than chocolate (and that's a lot)
February 2nd was also Groundhog day. The day before Ellie had hidden her Squinkie groundhogs in her room so I could find them the next day. After school I went on my search. I found two of the three, but I needed help on the third. They are so small and she has a toy-packed room, but with her hints - I found them. She re-hid them for Kevin for when he got home from work. She had so much fun we spent the majority of the night re-hiding and finding the groundhogs for each other.
Ellie was curious about the groundhog this year and where he lives and how he comes up to predict the seasons. This year he predicted six more weeks of winter. Our winter was so mild, we really didn't mind.
By day three, they knew they could expect a gift so they anxiously awaited them each morning from day three on.
Day 3:
For your love notes
For "owl" your love notes
Later in the month Ellie gave both Kevin and me a note from this paper that said she loved us. I love that she used her paper for her love notes as instructed.
February 3rd Ellie was invited to Kayla's rock-star birthday party. She had been planning her outfit from the day she received the invitation. She had an all access pass for the party and I gave her my old one from a Guns and Roses concert I went to with my friend Brooke years ago. (Brooke's uncle worked for the band and when they came to Salt Lake we got to be VIP's for a day and meet the band and hang out back stage.) Ellie couldn't believe I had a REAL VIP pass.
She looked super cute and incorporated her heart bracelets into her outfit. When we got to the party, the first two girls we saw weren't dressed up so Ellie got a little nervous, but inside the others were dressed up and so she fit in. I love that Ellie likes to dress up and pretend.
On Saturday while Kevin and Ellie were still waking up I sneaked to the kitchen to make some Cinnabuns for breakfast.
Day 4:
Kevin & Ellie, I (heart) your "buns"
Ellie had been wanting to go to the zoo and the weather was pretty nice at our house so we packed up and headed out. When we got to the zoo it was super cold and windy. Ellie and I thought we could handle it so we bundled up and walked to the gate, only to turn around because just the walk to the gate was freeezzziing. Luckily I had done some research on the day and knew there was a play, so instead of the zoo, we called the theater, bought tickets and drove downtown to see Johnny Appleseed. Of course Ellie had to have some apple juice to go along with it.
After the play we found a new sandwich shop downtown to try. It was such a fun unplanned afternoon together. Ever since the heart wreath I had been anxious for and doing a few more projects. I had seen an owl project so after lunch we went to the wood store and bought the stuff we needed for the craft. We come home and continued to have fun on our unplanned day together.
A few projects we had done:
Of course with Ellie you know a night at home will look something like this:
Even at bedtime - Ellie finds a way to make me smile.
The next few days of gifts looked like this...
Day 5:
Start your day with a bowl full of LOVE
Day 6:
I (heart) every piece of you!
I'm glad you found your way through my heart!
Day 7:
I'm stuck on you!
Mike & Ike don't even compare to my Kevin!
Day 8:
You are soft as tissue - I just want to squeeze you!
February 9th - Ellie was again at her dad's in the morning. Kevin was doing his normal morning routine but kept kind-of looking around and checking things out around the house. I didn't really clue into it, but eventually he said, "Do I not get a present this morning?" I laughed and told him he had to wait for Ellie this time. I realized it was the first morning he had to wait for her and thought it was cute that he was just as excited if not more than I was.
While they were away at work and school I made them some cupcakes.
Day 9:
Have a great day "cupcake" xoxo
I also made some for the neighbors and had Kevin and Ellie deliver a little bit of Valentine's to everyone that night. They found everyone home and were invited in to chat at most homes. It is fun for all of us to do things for our neighbors and to feel more and more like a "neighborhood" the longer we live here.
Day 10:
Smile! Some monkey loves you! xoxo
Day 11:
Never a "dull" day with you!
Your favorite from your favorite!
February 11th was also one of Ellie's favorite days...the day we go to the boat show. I didn't go last year with them because I was in Israel, but Ellie didn't miss. She was supposed to be with her dad, but did NOT want to miss the boat show. I told her we could go the day before, but she did not only want to go to the boat show, she wanted to go with everyone. I guess it's just not the same without grandma and Uncle Jed. So we picked Ellie up for a few hours in the evening to go to the boat show.
Ellie loves the boats with toilets.
And was sure we needed to get a new boat that had something like this:
Day 12:
A BIG KISS FOR U
And honestly, the biggest snow flakes I had ever seen in my life. The groundhog had predicted right, we finally got some decent snow.
That day for our craft at Sunday dinner we put together Ellie's Valentine cards. A few months before we had made these heart crayons and kept them for this exact purpose. Ellie wanted to make more for her friends and family so we also made some with heart erasers. During our craft we talked about how much fun we used to have on Valentine's day in grade school and how fun it was to make our own Valentine boxes.
Day 13 (on vintage spoons):
Happy Valentine's Day 2012
Every love story is beautiful, but ours is my favorite
After school Ellie told us that she was allowed to make a box this year. I was excited for her, but it was so last minute we just had to use what we had around the house. We ended up with a ladybug design. I wrapped it and Ellie drew the bugs. She decided it was not complete without its own set of legs so she got to work designing and attaching them.
Now that we know Ellie will be able to do it next year, I'm excited about having some time to design it with her. Woo hoo!
Back in November Kevin and I saw an advertisement for the Harlem Globetrotters on February 13th and we immediately knew we would be taking Ellie and grandma out on a Valentine date. I bought the tickets, reserved the night and anxiously awaited it. We didn't tell them what we were doing, we just told them to be ready at 5:30. We planned dinner at one of Ellie's favorite's (Olive Garden), Kevin planned and picked up flowers and I wrapped the presents.
When we told Ellie we were taking her on a date she said to Kevin, "Are we just going to dinner or are we going somewhere else too?" Kevin told her we were going somewhere else too. She then said, "Good, because I don't like dates that are just dinner because then it's just you eat dinner and then kiss kiss hug hug bye."
Kevin told her he would make sure to tell her first boyfriend that. :D
We headed downtown for dinner and our something else. When we got out of the car, we surprised them both with flowers and presents from the back of the car.
My mom's present was the tickets to the game.
Ellie's was a mini LaLa Loopsy. She had wanted the larger version of this specific doll since Christmas, but it was back-ordered. She was genuinely surprised and excited to get the smaller version.
After dinner we headed over to the game. I remember going as a kid to one of their shows and was super excited to take and share that same thing with Ellie. It was seriously so entertaining and fun. We laughed and watched in amazement and had a really fun night.
Before the date, Grandma had given us presents and Ellie brought "Luke" with her. There was a little girl in front of us that kept looking back at him.
There was one player that had his signature move to the crowd and we couldn't get enough of him. This is their impression of him after the game and they were spot on!
On our walk to the the game that night my mom's shoe kind-of slipped off and made a toot sound. Ellie was so surprised and asked my mom if she just tooted. My mom explained it was her shoe and Ellie said she thought, "I didn't even know grandma tooted." We all got a good laugh out of that.
After a more than fun night, Ellie got ready for bed in her new pajamas from grandma with an accessory from her flower bouquet.
Day 14:
Valentine's Day!!
With many days of anticipation, the actual holiday was here! A little back-story first....Ellie got money for Christmas from Mickey and Linda. She had decided she was going to save some of it in the bank and then spend the other. She also knew exactly what she wanted to buy with her money. Mittens Fluff-n-Stuff LaLa Loopsy. Unfortunately, it had been on back-order since before Christmas. She patiently waited for it as it was scheduled to come out again on February 1st. Sadly, on the 1st, it was still back-ordered. She asked me several days if I had checked on the status and it was always the same - unavailable. I found one for sale on eBay - so I ordered it as a surprise. It was more than I should have paid for it, but after she patiently waited I knew it would be a fun surprise.
Valentine morning, while she was getting ready, I got this ready.
The morning was so exciting, Ellie didn't want to wait for after school to open her gift from Kevin, so he let her have a couple of things - but not all.
Ellie headed off to school - Kevin worked from home and helped me get Ellie's last present ready. Ellie has a very tall wall on one side of her room that I have wanted to cover, but I had to wait until I found just the right thing. I found what I wanted and while Ellie was gone we got to work putting it up.
When she got home, Kevin had his gifts ready for us so we started with my cards and then Kevin's presents.
For Kevin's 34th birthday I gave him 34 presents, one of which was 34 Chapsticks. Ellie always wants one, but Kevin will never give one up. For Valentine's he put one in her gift bag. The first thing she asked was where it was from and she was so excited to find out he was FINALLY sharing one with her.
Kevin and Ellie then had to go in search for their gifts from me. I told her that her present was even bigger than her card. She found hers after a few minutes of searching. Kevin's was a little harder to find, but eventually he found it. It was a great afternoon of being together and celebrating our love for one another.
Ellie then went through her box of Valentine's from school. There were some really cute cards, but our favorite was from Davis. It was a little notebook and a picture of him with a wanted poster.
Of course they weren't the only ones that received presents that day. Kevin had planned dinner for me, so Ellie helped him do the pre-work for dessert before she headed out for HER date.
Ellie's girl scout troop hosted a daddy-daughter dance on Valentine's so Ellie and Garred went to the dance. He said she was hesitant to dance, but eventually did a couple of times.
I stayed home with my valentine and was spoiled with flowers, chocolates, Tiffany and a few more things....not to mention dinner and this tasty dessert. What a good man I have!
I love celebrating with my family and had so much fun extending the holiday from one to fourteen days. It was one of my favorite Valentine's ever.
On the 18th we helped uncle Jed shop for a table - Ellie was the perfect measure.
One the morning of the 19th, Ellie threw Luke from the kitchen and he landed perfectly on the couch. She just had to have a picture.
It was Sunday and we didn't have plans to go to grandma's because she was in California visiting Mason's family. Ellie and Mason spent a good part of the day talking on their iPod's - she was even trying to study her lines for her upcoming science project with Mason. Those two are so cute.
That night we took in some family TV with "The Voice." This is what that looks like.
The 20th was President's day. I asked Ellie what we should do and she said, "dress up as a president - what? It's president's day!" Instead - we decorated for St Patricks' day. Kevin and Ellie both had the day off. I love this picture because it is exactly the space I wanted to create for Ellie when we designed her room and exactly what a day off should look like.
When I got done with work, we spent some time at our favorite decorating stores getting everything we needed for our decor.
We filled our candy dishes:
I finished my wreath:
We all gave input to the mantel:
And our table was complete with some old and some new decorations:
On the 23rd Ellie's class presented their science project. Half of the class did plants and light and the other half did pendulum and bob weight.
On the 28th we had girl scouts and Ellie finally had her sash. She was super excited to wear it. That night, several firemen came to teach about what they do and helped the girls work on their first aid badge. The girls got a full tour of the firetruck.
The last day of February Ellie presented her book report to her class. This month the books were biographies. Ellie, with influence from our Vegas trip, decided she wanted to read about Elvis. The report this month was a poster and a two minute presentation on your book in which you could be the person.
Ellie did a great job as Elvis. At the end of her report we played an Elvis song for the class and it was fun to watch them come alive. They begged Ellie to do an Elvis dance move, she was hesitant to do it, but after much begging from the class - she actually did it. Kevin didn't think she would so he stopped the camera - and for a few short moments we missed it on tape, but have it in our minds - Ellie did some moves for her class. I was shocked she would actually do it, but proud that she had enough confidence to. It was awesome.
After her presentation one of the boys in her class asked me what was on her face. We had to explain sideburns. She tried to give them to him the next day, but he didn't want them. :D
Speaking of school and confidence - Ellie always comes home from school happy. She is sometimes hungry - but she always has a good day at school. One night while putting her to bed I asked her if anyone was ever mean. She told me that Jacob had once said they were playing one of these things is not like the other - looked at Ellie and said, "Ellie has buck teeth." He has also made fun of her socks. The best part is that Ellie is confident enough to not let it bother her and just let it roll off. (The even better part is Jacob's mom has told me of the big crush he has on her.)
One day Anja told Ellie she had hamster teeth - Ellie just laughed and said, I kind-of do. She didn't mind being compared to a cute hamster. (I do feel bad that Ellie's teeth aren't coming in perfectly, and on a couple of days she has told me it bothers her. I have reassured her that she is not the first kid to have crazy teeth and that when the time was right, we'd get them fixed up perfect.)
Occasionally, Anja says things like "I won't be your friend anymore." I asked Ellie if it made her sad or if she was rude back. Ellie said I just don't say anything, "She's always my friend the next day - she comes into class and wants to be my best friend." Ellie often just doesn't comment - which makes me happy. Anja is a really cute friend most of the time, but at other times I can see the early stages of pre-teen and teen girls. Like I've mentioned before I don't look forward to the little nasty comments. For now, I am proud that Ellie takes it in stride, doesn't strike back and is smart enough to see through the empty threats. I just hope she is as well equipped when she is older.
Like most months, I look back on them and am so happy for my family and enjoy the moments we have together. We really just enjoy one another and have a good time when it's a fully planned day or a lazy day at home. I love that in February we take extra measures to celebrate love, but I also know we feel love every month of the year.
