First Valentine All Over

I got home exhausted from a very long hard week of work but decided to stay up late after everyone went to bed to make a Valentine's Day tutu dress for my daughter.

She woke up around 3am, not long after I went to bed and she had a hard time going back to sleep, probably from more teeth coming in, so I was up most of the night. This morning I ran around getting things together before our professional photo shoot.

Right before I ran out the door I grabbed a teddy bear I've had for exactly six years. It was the bear my husband gave me for Valentines day six years ago. "Our First Valentine" it says on the heart it holds. A perfect prop for my daughter's first Valentine with us.

We were married two months before Valentines day, and had met just eight months prior. Things are a lot different now.

Forever Bliss Photography

I snapped a few photos myself while we were there for my 365 project, but I'm so glad I had these done. It took her a while to get into it and show us her breathtaking smile, but Mr. Teddy helped us pull out some laughs from my little girl.

Forever Bliss Photography

We put her to bed early and ordered from our favorite restaurant to go (Olive Garden). And hubs got me my favorite treats for celebrating: chocolate covered strawberries and sparkling cider.

Our first Valentine with our daughter was much different than it was for us six years ago, but one thing's for sure--There's a lot more love going around.

The Love Factor-- Things I'm Going to Miss Part 3

Well, it's Valentines Day. Happy Valentines Day! And I figure it's a good time to pose a question and concern I've been thinking about.

As I was babysitting two young girls last night so their parents could go out and celebrate Valentines Day, I thought how grateful I am that at a drop of a hat my husband and I can do whatever... Go out, make dinner together... And so on.

I got my dog Snoop last year for Valentines Day and I noticed how having a small puppy around kind of affected... Routines we'll say. It really bothered me. Eventually I got over it and things went back to normal but it was quite annoying at the time.

I think it's so important to continue to have couple time together, date nights and time to... Ya know, practice making babies and stuff.

It just seems that once kids come along that priority goes to the back burner for some, or it just becomes more difficult. What in the world do you do to fix that? Get ear muffs? Sedate the kids? Drive away and leave them for a night and hope they survived through the next morning?

I was reading a parenting magazine last night (funny I know, but it was just sitting there on the table ok?) And one of the articles was about women being angry at their husbands for not helping around the house, turning off the lights, understanding their children etc. To me it just seemed a little ridiculous and like a bunch of depressed and nagging women. I don't want that to happen to me!! I still want to be a happy woman and wife, as well as a happy mom. Some of the women complained that their husband's drive to have a love life went down and I kind of judgmentally thought 'Boy I wonder why!' That article is a discussion for a whole different topic but I'll use that part for example's sake.

Do you try to keep date nights together? How often? Right now every night is literally like a date night with me and my Boo and I wonder if it'll be a hard transition when we lose that one day.

This year we're keeping the holiday low key. I want a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's, some chocolate covered strawberries (my favorite) and a movie to snuggle up and watch. What are your plans?