c spot: happy valentiMe's day (part 1)

this is what i woke up to this morning.

it's been a while since i've received flowers.

these were a site for romantically sore eyes. i think when there are 4 kids involved...chad and i can easily swing right into co-habitating real fast. not that every day shouldn't be valentine's day...blah blah blah...but it is nice to have a day that reminds us to give flowers or make a special desert or set the ipod on dinner mix shuffle and dance a little in between homework and soup's on.

we don't get out much.

so, as chase would say...

"happy valentiMe's day."

i don't know if some of you experience this or not...but it seems like, at any given time, i feel more "in sync" with one or two of the kids at a time. it's not like my love is any greater for one than it is another...it's more like...as we are all traveling from day to day, inevitably...one of us is sprinting; one of us has settled into a nice, steady jog; one of us is walking; one of us is meandering...eyes off the road and completely distracted by the lovely surroundings; one of us is frustrated and being pulled in a zig zag fashion while holding a dog leash with a 60 pound dog on the end of it; and one of us is refusing to get up off the couch. we are all in the same book, and even on the same page...but every so often, 2 or 3 of us just happen to jump onto the same line.

chase and i are on the same line right now.

his meandering and my sprint have somehow brought us together for the common purpose of showing each other how special we think the other is.

i appreciate chase and all of his..."chaseness."

like i love that he told the whole 3rd grade, including his teachers, that we took him to budapest, hungry over the christmas holidays to visit the birthplace of harry houdini. and somehow...he convinced them that this was a true story and that we are actually "that" crazy...or historical...or whatever it is that we would be if we actually did something like that. he has had them all believing this for the last month.

i also love that he has this new imaginary friend, named cody armstrong...who's father is neil armstrong. he has never had an imaginary friend before...and i have no problem with it. maybe i would if i thought he was being serious. but he is not.

he's being chase.

and he is being creative and funny and imaginative...all in the name of entertainment.

and i love me a good entertainer.

i tweaked an idea that i saw online (you can guess the website) and made these for the teacher's for valentiMe's day.

i filled mason jars with bubble gum and hershey kisses and labeled them

"blowing kisses your way."

aiden's teacher's birthday was yesterday. so i kept it simple and made "pampering in a jar." it's simply a fuzzy pair of socks, lotion, bubble bath, and lip balm. i saw this on pinterest too. i'm telling you. there are lots of good ideas out there.

speaking of valentine's day...we had a little house concert at our house saturday night as an early valentine's date night with friends.

i only wish i had taken more pictures of our friends. i was sorta busy blabbling with people and didn't think about pulling out the camera until our friend, tom conlon, was performing. this caused me to actually crawl across the floor to where my camera was located in our bedroom. this wasn't the classiest move...but it got the job done.

if you have not heard tom's music...check him out on itunes.

some of my favorite tom conlon songs are

made to spend

wake me

speaking of truth

over my shoulder

cover of the impression's people get ready