Every woman needs one. 

My sweet daughter is very much interested in childbirth. She talks about having babies constantly. Pretends to be pregnant. Pretends to give birth. Pretends to nurse her babies. She has been known to give birth up to 10 times a day. It's really pretty impressive. 

She asks me questions about home births too. She's my girl!  

Not yet one....the countdown is on, though. Next Saturday, March 3, my Dorien Valor will celebrate his first birthday! So, he's been practicing walking. He's not proficient yet. But every day he walks a little more and a little more. And one of these days he'll abandon crawling. But not yet. And for that, I am very grateful.

Just a little video showing that I did actually climb up! 

Her first selection? Shipley's Doughnuts. Always an excellent choice. August agreed as he sipped his chocolate milk.

Then, we opened a few presents - these books from Nan and Grandad! 

And two Hello Kitty bags from Aunt Kara! Super stylish!

Have a happy birthday, kiddo!

Farmer B

These two monkeys were little hoarders. 

Swear up and down I'd never have kids. Couldn't imagine how anyone would ever want to have kids. Lord, I'd been a mom my whole life anyway as the oldest of 7...and now I have 3 and pray daily that the Lord will bless us with more...they're fantastic, wonderful, exasperating, exhausting, never-ending hours of pure 100% amazingness that I wouldn't trade for a gazillion dollars.

Love this goofy little man...

I made a late night run to Target yesterday to grab some Valentine goodies for my kiddos and a card for Kyle. I found myself thinking that I should have perhaps made the trip earlier as the aisles were clearly combed over and I was left with candy scraps...aka...not much. I did what I could and brought home some Hershey kisses in the appropriate Valentine colors, some candy corn in pink and red (slightly frightening) and some Brach's candy hearts which seem oddly thicker than normal, but no less delicious. They remind me of those double-stuffed Oreos. Those were truly more for me than my kids. I. Love. Candy. Hearts. 

*not sweet-tart hearts, though....this must be clarified.

I also bought 2 little cutesy cereal bowls in which to place my candy stash for the kiddos. Look at me thinking ahead for future use!!!! Oh, and a card. 

I was so proud of myself! I know that there are moms who go way over the top and incorporate Valentine's into every aspect of their day, and this would be so nice. Heart-shaped waffles sound so yummy, but I neither own a waffle-maker nor have the time in the a.m.to do that! Nor did I have the foresight to incorporate all manner of Valentine's Day activities into our homeschool. Not so much. Maybe next year! 

I do fully intend to bake sugar cookies with B this evening and possibly cut them out into heart shapes. There may even be red and pink icing involved. 

But I will say that I'm particularly proud of what I had the kids do for their Daddy.  They each made him a card (handwritten by EACH kid, except Dorien) that says, "Happy Valentine's Day!" Ok, B's actually says Valeentine but she was just so caught up in the beauty of her E that she did a second. And I was fully intending to write August's message for him, but I'm quickly learning that one just does not DO anything for him. He must do it all by himself. So with my guidance and a written example, he wrote out all by himself all 18 letters. And did a stinkin AWESOME job. For a 3.5 year old, he is catching on fast! (We use Handwriting Without Tears as part of our school and it has been great at teaching them their letters..)

I even let them decorate the cards with glitter glue, sequins and other fun stuff. For me, it was huge. I didn't even squawk when B dropped her card and got glitter glue on the floor. I swear, for a second, I even admired how pretty it was before cleaning it up!

 And the kids were fantastic. We all got so caught up in the creativity of the moment that we almost forgot lunch.  

Also, I should point out that right now, Brooklyn is standing by me looking through my Pioneer Woman cookbook picking out what she wants for her birthday meal this Saturday. So far, we're up to: beans and cornbread, mashed potatoes, meatloaf, meatballs and some marmalade muffins. I think she must be hungry.

Happy Valentine's Day to all. We love you!