Happy Valentine's Day...

You know, I had such great expectations for Valentines this year. I was actually going to get a Valentine made, printed out, and sent to you all. But the furthest I got was taking the pictures. So, here you go, a Valentine from my crazies...

Ainsley was sleeping and I wasn't about to wake her up. What you can't see very well in that picture is that Caleb was actually holding the toilet plunger, otherwise known as his "flying machine", which he usually wears with Dave's ski goggles. Which fit him perfectly. He's a pretty funny kid. This week I was waiting for Emily at ballet class with a nice grandma who brings her granddaughter when he went up into a handstand, held it, and then slowly lowered himself down into a somersault. The grandma looked at me and said "Did you KNOW he could do that???" To which I could only honestly reply "I've never seen the slow lower before. And usually he ends up doing the splits." We've talked about putting him in gymnastics, but his favorite color is currently pink, and we just feel like that's a bit much.

Emily is all ga-ga over Valentine's Day. I don't think she has a clue why, but she very carefully labelled all her "Dr. Suess" valentines for her entire class and stuck them, carefully, to Fruit By the Foot packages. I loved hearing her running dialogue about why she chose each particular card for different kids. For example, "Hm. I need one for Jeremy. Jeremy doesn't choose the right. He chooses the left. He always gets a sad face. Hm." Or "This one is for Cora. Cora is very kind. And nice. But she talks really fast, so I don't always listen to her." The world is a fascinating place through Emily's eyes. She is really into "girl time" right now, so I try to make sure we get some in every week. Her favorite is to stay up late, watching a grown-up girl movie (like Pride and Prejudice or Little Women), and eating popcorn and red pudding. (My personal favorite.)

Ainsley is just herself. She loves to bite people, but she tries to be charming about it. She signs really well and will use the sign for "cheese" for food, the sign for "milk" for any liquid, and we see lots of "MORE!" around our house. She continues to love weird food that none of our other kids will touch, and avoids all of our family staples, like rice. I'm hoping that maybe she's going to turn out left-handed. I would love that. She has been sick this week with RSV and a double ear infection, so we'll all be glad when she's over that.

Dave is learning to be elder's quorum president and I, personally, think he's doing an absolutely magnificent job. I spend a lot of time watching how much thought and effort he puts into the details of his quorum, and how important it is to him that he leads to the best of his potential. I know that he doesn't feel he's doing his best (does anyone?) but I'm his wife and you're his family so I can safely say that I think he's absolutely amazing. On top of that calling, he finds time to play with our kids, make dinner, read his scriptures, feed the cat, do the entire bedtime routine with the kids, and make me feel special. I seriously lucked out with this one.

And me... hm. Well, I have an etsy business doing some graphic design, and I am thoroughly (thoroughly!) enjoying that. I'm also in my third week of "Bee School" to learn how to be a beekeeper, and am really chafing under our HOA restrictions. I want to keep bees NOW, and not "someday." I will learn to be patient and save my pennies so I can get the perfect hive when I have the space for it. (Did you know that one hive will produce 40 pounds/12 gallons of honey, per season??? Isn't that amazing?! *smile*)

So. That's us. Nothing funny or exciting really. But we love you.