Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day was really fun this year.  It actually started on Wednesday when Kristi organized a fabulous playgroup V-Day party at the park in our neighborhood.  Everyone dressed in their Valentine's best, the kids decorated boxes/bags (we were late so we missed that part) and exchanged valentines, we ate treats, and the big kids (2+ is "big" for this group) ran around and played.  It was a blast! 

I copied my cousin Amber and made these cute little feet-heart valentines to share at the party and also sent one to each of the grandmas.

Here are some of the kids (before we got there... picture courtesy of Kristi) Yes, Lila is definitely the youngest!

The cute bags and boxes everyone decorated (with some help from their mommies) to collect valentines.

Ella and Lila just happened to be wearing the same little "Love Bug" shirt!  Lila got hers from Gammy and I found out it was from the dollar spot at Target, a place I'll be checking out very soon.  The other moms were in shock that I didn't know what it was.  Ella wasn't too thrilled to be taking a picture with a baby : )

A cute clippy I got off etsy (I know I could've probably made it...).  Lila is getting so good at sitting!

I know she's not the happiest in this picture, but I just wanted to post a good picture of her sitting up.

Now on to Valentine's Day itself...

When I got up with Lila Saturday morning and we went out to the living room there were presents and cards waiting for us on the kitchen table from Byron.  I didn't get pictures of our surprise, but Daddy got Lila a teddy bear and me some yummy Ghiradelli chocolates (the thin square ones with different fillings).  What a great surprise!  When Byron woke up, I had a card and a bag of mini-twix (one of the few sweet treats he actually loves) ready for him.  We've got a few twix left, but the Ghiradelli's are almost gone... I have no self-control.  

The best present of all was that Byron didn't have to work and we got to spend the whole day together as a family.  We spent a good part of the day at Costco picking up food for the fabulous dinner we had planned.  That evening we watched a beautiful sunset over La Jolla Cove from our car as Lila was a good girl and napped in the back seat.

The sun got a lot brighter as it got closer to the water... gorgeous!  I LOVE living near the ocean.

Lila gave us the greatest present she could have: She was happy the whole day and went to bed easily.  Look at that smile as we were putting on her jammies!

After Lila went to bed, we started preparing our yummy dinner: filet mignon, oven-roasted veggies (finger potatoes, asparagus, onions, carrots, leeks, and whole garlic cloves), crusty sourdough bread, and a poppy seed spinach salad we couldn't eat because we were too full (yes, we went for the main dishes first!).

The steak turned out absolutely perfect thanks to tips from my friend Shona who made us some great steaks a few weeks ago.  Before then, I never knew you could cook such an amazing steak on the stove!  Just cook over high heat in plenty of olive oil and butter.  We also used her not-so-secret secret seasoning she was kind enough to share with us.  Byron said it was the best steak he's ever had.

Just before diving in...

...we both finished every last bite (minus the salad).

To top it all off, we each had a slice of delicious cheesecake (Costco-made... who wants to go to the effort of homemade on Valentine's?) with chocolate sauce (it's actually that kind that's supposed to harden on ice cream but apparently the cheesecake wasn't cold enough) and fresh strawberries.

Are you hungry now???

I guess you can see where our priorities are because we got a lot more pictures of food on Valentine's Day that we did of ourselves!  It was a great day to spend time together as a family and to remember how special it is to have a spouse who truly loves you.  I'm definitely lucky to have such a wonderful husband who lets me know how much he loves me not only on holidays, but every day of the year.