Valentine's Day is quickly upon us. There are so many cute valentine ideas around blogland that I have just been in awe. I have just had so much fun looking at everyone's ideas and getting inspired. Instead of posting a lot about the crafty holiday ideas, I have spent this holiday actually crafting and enjoying it with my kids. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it is best to make them first priority.

I have made some cute valentine decor for the house including some of these ideas:

Valentine Subway Art from Eighteen25

Valentine Snowflakes

(photo from Peppermintplum since we already mailed our off valentine packages to family members)

We also made these heart shaped snowflakes from Family Fun. So clever!

Along with Julie's McRae's "Owl Always Love You" Owls. Haven't gotten around to make the plaque yet, still on the to-do list.

I decided to make our valentines this year. They were so much cuter than store bought cards, but a little more time than I thought they would be. I guess everything always looks easier in blogland. That's okay though. We had a very enjoyable family night fully prepared with suckers in our mouths, making valentines, and listening to music.

Okay, not sure about the very wild hair going on here...Livy did the ever so famous lollipop photo cards.

Next, was Howie's Valentines. I blog surfed and found five of my favorite ideas and then let him choose which one he wanted to do. Of course he didn't pick the one I was wanting him to do, still picked a great one, but I guess that is what I get when I give him autonomy! So Dana over at MADE is the awesome person that claims the credit for this stinking cute valentine idea:HEARTBREAKER VALENTINES. You have to check out her post. She has a way with photos. This is our version. Lots of cutting, letting him do the writing, stapling two sides together, filling with candy to make pillow like valentines.

But, we couldn't have done it without Dad's expert stapling skills. No, really! There was a lot of stapling going on that night.

And we finished off with a simple and cute dynamite idea from Family Fun for his teacher. "You're the BOMB Valentine". Rolos covered in paper with a pipe cleaner fuse. We also made up a few single sticks of dynamite for neighbors.

Happy Valentine's Day in the near future!

Mom's 60th Birthday Party

Happened last week, but wanted to make sure I documented this. Mom's birthday is on the 21st of January, but our celebration happened on January 29th, 2011.

This is nothing spectacular by any means, but it was fun. I threw an impromptu 60th birthday party for mom. We are talking from a thought to the event in 24 hours! We had missed her birthday the week before because she was still very weak from the bad case of walking pneumonia she has had for what seems like the entire month of January. She was feeling better and aunt Susan let me know she was taking her out to dinner. I decided we would decorate aunt Susan's house while they were gone and have a dessert bar after their dinner. I only had 24 hours to pull this baby off and so the decoration are not stellar, but at least we surprised mom and celebrated her momentous birthday. 60 is a big deal and I couldn't just let it slip by without telling her she was special. Most of my time was used up calling people and baking cupcakes. It was mostly just family and a few neighbor friends, very small and casual. I think if it had been planned longer, someone would have blown the surprise.

We had chocolate cupcakes with a simple buttercream frosting and silver sprinkles and also a salted caramel cupcakes, YUM. Mom has recently been through a lot and I didn't want to really focus on the "you're older than dirt" aspect and make everything black. We added a little bit of color and tried to put some silver in it to make it a little more festive.

Surprise! She had no idea as she walked into a room with family, friends and neighbors shouting Happy Birthday! We love you mom, grandma, wife and friend!

We also gave her a nice portrait of the Salt Lake Temple where she and dad were married.

We also watched a short (5 min) video of pictures of mom. It was a super casual and informal party. Probably what mom would have wanted if she had been able to plan her own party. She hates the spotlight.

LOVE you Mom. Happy Birthday.

Kid's Choice

Made these the other day with the kids. They were Howie's favorite. They were fun to make, but messy on the griddle. Still fun to do with the kids.

Recipe HERE

Tagging Calves

Yesterday, we had stopped by my brother's house for a minute and he asked Livy if she wanted to go with him to tag two baby calves. I wanted to come along and take pics and see how Livy liked it. We drove around on our trusty four wheeler.

Tagged the new baby calf. That means give them an ear tag with a number that coordinates with number of the mommy cow. My brothers and dad like to know the genetics of where the calf came from, etc., stuff that interests them, but is over my head.

This photo is of us stopped in the middle of the creek we crossed twice to find a baby calf.

My brother Stoney, the cowboy.

He is really good with cattle and enjoys it too!

He told Livy to come and pet the baby calf. She wanted to, but got pretty scared when the mom cow got so protective and started making a fuss. Livy started to freak out, but Stoney kept telling her she was fine and he wouldn't let the mom cow hurt her.

This is the time of the year for calving. The time of year when his heard grows.

These are the two show steers that they are raising for 4H fair this year. I love this photo of Livy absolutely adoring her uncle Stoney.

Livy told everyone that day her story about petting the baby calf, tagging the ear and about the mom cow and how "Stoney is a good good boy." Translation: my uncle kept me safe. That phrase cracked us all up and I think Stoney liked being called a good good boy.

Goodbye Binki

We did it! Got rid of the binki (January 27, 11). We had Livy throw it away in the canal next to our house. It floated away and she waved to it. We kept talking about how big of a girl she was and how she didn't need it. She was all smiles and was so excited to tell everyone she saw about how she thew in the water. But, later that night, things didn't go as smoothly as planned. It has been a rough go with no binki, but we know we needed to get rid of it.