So many sweet comments and e-mails after
my last post. Thank you all! Turns out there are other moms out there who often feel the same way. Who knew? ;) I think it’s so important to be able to talk openly about the ups and downs of motherhood. And life in general! We all have our days and it’s nice to know that none of us are alone in feeling overwhelmed sometimes. Your open, encouraging, sincere words cheered me up immensely and helped to make this a much better week. So thank you friends. Thank you so very much.
A while ago I mentioned having our family pictures taken for our Christmas card and how I need to get some of them posted …
My darling friend Josie took our pictures this year…
Josie is a long time BFF of mine and our families love to hang out and vacation together (our husbands are friends from high school). We went to
Disneyland together when I was pregnant and then
Maui together when she was pregnant. Lately we have decided we desperately need a vacation where neither one of us is pregnant! To say I was excited to hear she was pursuing a career in family photography would be a huge understatement. I am THRILLED! I feel like I now have a professional photographer in the family. :) I’ll share some family pictures later but here are a few she took of my kids.
The pics were taken in my mom’s backyard while we were visiting over Thanksgiving and Josie’s kids were there. El was dying to run and play with them so we only got a couple of photos out of this little peanut. Love what we got though!
Kole just wanted to play in the leaves so most of his pictures looked like this —
:)
But Addison? My little fashion loving diva. She was so proud of her missing tooth she could have posed and smiled all day. We got so many fun pics of her. Here are three of my favorite…
Thank you Josie! I adore every one and will treasure them always. (You can check out Josie’s photography blog
here and her facebook page
here). If you are in the southern Utah area I would highly recommend her! She truly has a natural talent for photography. And I’m not just saying that because she’s my friend. I’m saying that because she’s my friend and she’s GOOD. :)
Persnickety Prints had a great deal on picture Valentines and because I knew I would be short on time this year
and because I loved the pics of my kiddos so much it was a great solution for us. I let the girls choose what pictures they wanted to use (they chose two pics each to mix it up).
I knew my girls would want to personalize their Valentines so I picked up this pack of blank colorful cards and envelopes at Target last week. I figured they could write a little note to include along with the picture Valentine.
While I was in therapy with Kole this week I put the girls to work! They were so excited to make them. They worked…
and they worked on their Valentines. I thought they would just write a little “happy Valentines Day” or “thanks for being a good friend” but oh no. They wrote individualized poems for each person in their class. Oh my word they were cute. And hilarious. Kenny and I had a good time reading through them all. :) I’m off to finish teacher gifts before bed. Enjoy your Valentines Day everyone!!
xoxo, Erin
I find valentine’s day really depressing because here in the uk it’s all about being in a relationship & when you’re single like I am it really makes you (me!) aware of that.
If I was married I probably wouldn’t actually celebrate valentines day but every month on the date that we were married (Like Dec 1st) I would have a special anniversary every month as I would be so grateful to have someone.
I love how in the states you use valentine’s day as a way of serving others. I love how your girls have written a note/poem to every child in their class. I especially like the large panda:)
Anyway, have a brill Valentine’s Day & thank you for a great blog – I’d miss you if you didn’t do this.
Erin, the pictures of the kids and their eyes are beautiful. Your friend really did a great job.
The Valentine cards are so cute. What a great idea. They look so adorable sitting at the table and putting a special poem in each one.
To Julie… Don’t be depressed. I truly believe that God has that special man picked out for you. I am sure it will be worth the wait, :)
Are you doing anything special for Valentines day Erin? Whatever you do. I hope you have a great one.
Take care Erin,
Cathy
xo
Erin, THANK YOU so much for the shout out! You just made my day! My week really! I love the the Valentines, such a cute idea! The girls are cracking me up with their poems, they are the cutest, I can just imagine. I love that they would do that for all of their school friends. We didn’t even get Valentines in the mail to the girls this year (we just got the kids ready tonight!) so give them a big hug from us! Happy Valentines Day girls, we love you!
Wow what darling little ones you have and I love the valentines with their pictures! So fun! I am glad you are feeling better–that is so true–we all have days like that where we are just exhausted! Motherhood is taxing at times:) especially when you put your heart and soul into like you do!
happy Heart day! xoxo
The photos are beautiful! Such a sweet picture of the girls working on their cards.
Adorable Valentines! And your friends photos are beautiful! I looked at her blog, very nice.
COuld you post a pic of the Teacher Valentines you made? I love to see Valentines ideas ;)
Julie – Thank you so much. You are always so sweet to me. I agree with Cathy. It will happen for you! I hope your day was ok. We sure didn’t have much romance around here. Crazy day with kids hyped up on sugar! :)
Thank you everyone!
xoxo,
Erin
Thank you for your lovely comments. I managed to get through the day ok. A lady I work for gave me a bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate:)
I think what had made it worse for me this year was the amount of advertising on the telly & especially on Facebook. It was OTT!!!
My friend who used to live in Layton, Utah & is now back in the uk, was telling me about how they celebrate Valentine’s Day in schools – it sounds really fun. I especially like how they make a mailbox. Do the children each make their own unique ones or are they all the same?
Thank you everyone for your concern & I hope you all had a lovely day:)
Thanks Julie! Every year in my kids’ class it’s different. Some years the kids make their own unique boxes at home and other years they all make the same thing together in class. :)
And by the way – Cadbury Eggs have a way of making everything better, don’t they!? :)
It was actually a bar of Dairy Milk but yes, creme eggs are great:) Have you seen the ones called Splat? They’re miniature versions of the creme egg but a lot smaller & flatter – the original ones are nicer tho.
They’re also doing Creme egg ice cream at the moment:) The shops are all starting to fill the shelves with Easter eggs – in-fact they seemed to be in the shops just before Christmas! And Hotcross buns:)
SO fun! I love the Valentine’s! I’m just getting caught back up on your blog..you’ve been so busy. I love the house and all the plans!
Very nice pictures.