Happy Valentine's Day!

Sweetheart roses, fabulous chocolates, wonderful day with wonderful family and friends ... plus two amazing boys, a cute new puppy, and the most incredible husband ever HOME with me. This was a really good Valentine's Day!

All in all, I think Valentine's Day is a pretty hokey holiday ... largely dreamt up by retailers and restaurant PR teams. Sometimes I think it's pretty amazing what we can find to spend money on in this country. But I fall for it all and get all the cutesy gifts and snacks for the day. We had pink sprinkled cinnamon rolls with blackberries for breakfast (on our red and pink heart paper plates) and gobbled up pink heart-shaped marshmallows for a snack on the way to church. We all wore red and exchanged cards and gifts to demonstrate our undying love for one another. Yep, I know it's hokey but I play along anyway!

We started the day with our Valentine's exchange. I always like to get the boys a collection of fun stuff ... a book, game or toy, stuffed animal, and something really sweet and really unhealthy to eat. This year, they each got a kids' cookbook so they can pick out dinners for our family meal plan (this is more fun for them than it sounds in print, I promise), some Valentine Hot Wheels, a red puffle (from Club Penguin, don't ask, that's all I know), tangram puzzles, huge marshmallow lollipops and a small collection of chocolates.

Our big Valentine this year was our new puppy and even though he arrived a few days early, we are still enjoying him very much. The boys have never had a puppy before (our dog was already an adult when the first baby came along), so they're learning a lot about training right now. Lots of "Good Leo!" and "No bite!" and "Sit!" can be heard around our house these days.

At the end of the day, I am happy to be home, have my wonderful Soldier home, and be in a house with two sleeping boys and two sleeping dogs. I'm signing off and hope you all had a wonderful Sweetheart's Day!

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