Happy Valentines!

Happy Valentine's Day!  This year we are celebrating our 10th Valentines together.  I remember clearly our first.  We had only been dating a few weeks at this point, while we were both going to BYU.  I remember walking (a long walk!) to my car after a long cold day of classes.  I had never had a "valentine" before and wondered if this boy I was dating would do anything for me.  Probably not, I guessed--since our relationship had been very casual.  I got to the outskirts of the parking lot and could see a car covered in red hearts.  How cute!  I thought that the owner of that car would be very surprised...I got closer...and was AMAZED to find that it was MY car!  WOW!  I was so flattered and excited.  My only problem was that I had not done anything for him!  I drove over to my friend Liz's house--pretty much my only friend at BYU :)  She was awesome and helped me make cookies and cut out hearts to decorate his apartment with. 

 
Not only did she help me get things ready, she helped me do the dirty work.  I was so nervous to decorate his apartment door!  I don't know why--but I was!  I hurried and stuck as many hearts as we had up.  Set the cookies down and then threw a handful of kisses down before we ran off!

Well, it all worked out.  Turns out there was nothing to be nervous about :)  We were married less than 4 months later!

Right after we got married we lived moved to Houston, Texas for almost 2 years.  It was such a fun time!

But the time came for us to move back to Utah.  My dad came down and helped us pack up--but I took pictures of our first place before we left.  It was great apartment!  When we first moved to Houston we had a few places to choose from.  We opted for an apartment without a panic button....  In return, we had a raccoon in our attic that would scratch the ceiling and shake the dining room light while we ate dinner.  We also had a lizard in the kitchen light.  It was pretty well fried by the time the custodian came to help me.  He didn't speak much english, but I think he really wanted me to understand that it was "just a lizard" when he held it two inches from my face.

A few Houston memories:

Going to Galveston and seeing an 80 year old "cougar" in a thong
Lots of Blue Bell Ice Cream
Lots of really good food (let's face it--Texas has great food!)
Camping and hearing the alligators at night--oh, and the herd of raccoons trying to get into our car/tent/cooler/etc.
Jeremy buying me my first can of mace (another story for another time...) 
Jeremy learning what a 'transvestite' was (again, another story...)
 Our spontaneous camping trip on Thanksgiving night
And there are many more...I'll have to post on our Houston happening sometime...

 
Then we moved into our first home in Utah.  What a great place!  We had the most fabulous neighbors and we had our first two children there.  Soooo many memories!  It's always hard to leave one place for another--change is good--but sometimes hard!

I wonder if the new owners have seen our secret message yet?!?

 

Every year is a new adventure and it just keeps getting better and better!  

 



And how well does Jeremy know me???  He knows I would much rather have dishes than flowers on Valentine's Day.  Look what I got!  Yes, they are mini cake stands--Cupcake Stands!  I LOVE them!  Now I'm dying to make some yummy cupcakes!

Oh, and look at this pretty milk glass bowl I found in Florida.  I love it too--it's perfect for my v-day candies--which are just high enough that the kids still don't know they're there!  I just help myself and don't have to worry about the kids getting too much sugar :) 

And don't you love these too?  I do.  But simple things make me happy :)  I found these--from Pottery Barn at the clearance center--they were super duper clearanced and begged to come home with me.  I only paid $5 :)

And my friend Lois always keeps my fridge stylish for the holidays.  I had snowflakes over Christmas and bats for Halloween.  What's a good spring thing?   

Hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day!