Happy Valentine's Day!

I've always loved Valentine's Day. I love flowers. I love chocolate. My favorite color is red. Oh, and I love any excuse to have a special night with my husband. :) It's my kind of holiday.

This year we had a low-key night in on Friday night (we had things going on both Saturday and Sunday nights). We put James to bed and had a quiet dinner for two.

This was my gift to Paul:

The menu included appetizers (stuffed mushrooms, hot artichoke dip, and fresh fruit and dip), pan-seared salmon, broccoli with roasted garlic and lemon, cheddar biscuits, rice pilaf, chocolate chip cookie dough truffles, and apple cider pudding cake a la mode. :) I went a little bit overboard.

This was Paul's gift to me:

I don't know if the picture adequately shows how large this bouquet is. When Paul walked in, I thought he was holding a rose bush! It's pretty safe to say that this is the biggest flower arrangement I have ever received. Thank you, Paul! :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Mini Makeover

Paul went out of town a couple weeks ago. I tend to do crazy things when he goes out of town. This time, I decided to chop off my hair!

This is probably the shortest I've had my hair since I was a toddler!

Look Who's Two!

Yep! We officially have a two year old in the house!

James' birthday was tons of fun. :) He could tell it was a special day because people kept calling him throughout the day and singing to him. His face would just light up every time! Thanks to everyone that called to say Happy Birthday!

So, here's how it all went down...

As the preparations for his little party (just us and a couple friends) got underway, James showed us that maybe we didn't need to get him so many presents after all. The box they came in was plenty of fun!

When we brought the stack of presents out, though, James quickly left the box behind. He was SO excited to open them! Opening presents is one of James' favorite things to do.

We made him wait until after cake and ice cream. We're so mean. ;)

This year, we decided to do cupcakes! Baseball cupcakes, to be exact. :) I should have been a little more patient with the red frosting, because they turned out a little wonky, but hey, he's only two right? He thought they were awesome.

We sang to him, he blew out his candle (all by himself!), and before we could even get a bib on him, James was chowing down on his cupcake.

And Paul thought he wouldn't make a big mess...ha ha.

After the cake and ice cream, we finally let James attack his stack of presents. Boy, did he have a blast!

*Disclaimer: I'm sorry the videos are so dark! Apparently we need more light in our living room!

After each present he wanted to stop and play with it, so we had to keep coaxing him to pick another one.

He got the hang of it after a while...

We did let him get in a few swings on his new tee in the middle of the festivities, though:

Overall, he loved pretty much every single thing he got...right down to the potty seat and Lightning McQueen bathroom stool. Thank you so much for all the gifts Grandma and Grandpa Peterson and Grandma and Grandpa Hansen! :) And thank you Diana and Jeff and Adam and Claudia! We feel very spoiled and loved.

The very last thing James opened was a birthday card from his Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Larson. And as all of us grandkids know, these cards usually come with a special treat...five dollars! We laid them out for James to count. He made a good effort (at least he's not skipping six anymore). ;) Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Larson!

Here's James with his giant haul of presents. He was so distracted by them that we couldn't even get a good smile.

We did convince him to tell/show us how old he is, though:

Happy birthday to our little James! I can't believe you are already two!

There are more fun pictures and videos in our photo album! Here's a link to the album: James' 2nd Birthday.