LOVE

This post is a little late... But I do want to express my love and gratitude for the amazing people around me!

To me, Valentines Day is not just a holiday for husbands and wives, engaged couples, or boyfriends/girlfriends. To me, it is a holiday to celebrate your loved ones, your family, your friends. Of course Colton and I celebrated our love for each other. But we also took the time to express to our family members that we are lucky to have them in our lives and be loved by such wonderful people! Funny texts were sent to siblings, cards to parents, and phone calls to grandparents.

I have always had such a great example of celebrating this holiday: my mother. To her, this holiday meant an opportunity to do a little extra to show her kids how much she loves being our mom. She started a tradition when I was young of getting us heart shaped frosted sugar cookies from kneaders or cutlers, writing us each a special note, and making us a DVD of the past year's adventures with all of our funny pictures and memories. When I moved away to college, I really missed being home on Valentines because my mom always made it fun for us.

Well, this year my parents were so so sweet. They spent their holiday driving down to Provo to help me out with some car troubles (I had slid into a curb and bent a rim and my daddy came down with a new one and got it put on). And my amazing mom shows up with those delicious sugar cookies, one for me and one for Colton. This probably seems like such a tiny little thing to other people, but to me it meant the world. It meant my mother was thinking of us and remembering us! She was so sweet to bring us those cookies and I am so grateful that my dad came down to fix my car. I'm sure they could've thought of a lot of things to do that would've been more fun. I LOVE my parents. And mom's cookies were scrumptious!

And of course my husband spoiled me. I surprised him at work with THIS awesome thing and a photo calendar for his desk:

When I got home from work, I walked into our house and Colton handed me this dying and wilting carnation. I am not a fan of carnations! And I was thinking, "Seriously?! A dead carnation?!" But I kept my mouth shut and smiled sweetly and tried to be grateful. Colton then blindfolded me and drove me all around before pulling in to one of my favorite restaurants- Bombay House! Yum! And even though we had to wait an hour to be seated and another half hour to get our food, it was well worth the wait! I love me some chicken tiki masala :)

After dinner, we walked out to the car and opened the door to find THIS amazing surprise:

My sweet husband duped me into thinking he was lame sauce and only got me a freakin carnation so that the surprise of a dozen beautiful red roses was even better! And with the roses, he gave me 12 notes with 12 reasons why he loves me. What a sweetie!

I had a wonderful Valentines Day! I have so many people that love and appreciate me in my life and I am so glad. The purpose of this life is to be happy and I couldn't be happy without all of the loves in my life!