* Little House in the Country: February 2015

I'm definitely one of those girls who is into Valentine's Day. Like, I can't understand why people DON'T like Valentine's Day. Can't it just be a day to celebrate love? Love for everyone? Not just boyfriends and girlfriends and husbands and wives. I liked Valentine's Day long before I ever had a boyfriend and always got excited to send and receive carnations to all my girlfriends in junior high and high school. And let's not forget getting to decorate shoe boxes in elementary school to house Valentines cards from classmates! Always very exciting! My daddy used to send me flowers when I was in college, and I'm smiling right now remembering that. Before I had kids, I actually baked heart shaped dog treats for Max and Drake and LJ and Sammy one year. And this year, I had presents picked out for Eden and Ila long before I realized that I should probably get something for Dustin too! See? It doesn't have to be about significant others! (Though I DID eventually get Dustin a gift, and I'm super proud of it as he is VERY hard to shop for!)

When I see pink and red, I am overcome with happiness.

We had a simple, little fun day yesterday.

Ila had a "First Valentine's Day" photoshoot.

Eden and I spent the afternoon decorating hearts for our back door.

I love that Dustin always gets Eden (and now Ila) flowers too.

"hmmmmm, what are those?"

"Whatever they are, I like 'em!"

These are the chocolates I got from Dustin this year:

He got the entire. dang. box. FORTY-EIGHT Reeses. He knows me well.

Yep, I love Valentine's Day. It's so happy. But really, I love every day. Because every day is happy. And every day I just feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have the little family that I do!

This past Monday, Dustin came home for lunch. And when it came time for him to go back to work, he opted to take the afternoon off and take us to play golf instead.

It was the best day! The three of us watched Dustin play, and every time he made it to the green, he would hand Eden his putter and tell her to come with him.

Eden was in heaven.

Dustin wasn't doing that great when we started, and I said, "Uh-oh, Daddy isn't having a very good golf day today." A few holes later, after Eden struggled to get the ball in the hole, she came up to me and sadly said, "Mommy, I'm not having a very good golf day." Dustin and I cracked up. Ila and I drove the two golfers around. And it's like really hard to drive a golf cart with a baby in one arm!

When we were done, Eden begged for us to do it again soon, and we definitely will! The Easter Bunny will be bringing her a little set of pink golf clubs this year, and Dustin had better get used to us tagging along every time he decides to go play golf now!

That is the same hole (different angles) two and a half years apart. And I love that in both photos, she's wearing outfits that Dustin bought her - the first one from his trip to The Masters and the second one from The Shell Houston Open.

Eden got to celebrate Valentine's Day at gymnastics on Tuesday. She got to pass out and receive little Valentines from the kids in the class, and I made sure that she was definitely dressed up for the occasion because a few weeks ago, they had a Super Bowl week at gymnastics and I completely forgot, and I felt terrible when we walked in and all the other kids were wearing football jerseys and Eden was in her leotard!

We drive an hour to the place where Eden takes gymnastics (such is life when you live in the middle of nowhere), but it's only five minutes from where my grandma lives. So she comes every Tuesday and gets to watch Eden and hold Ila.

After class this week, we went to watch some of my former students play in their last basketball game of the season. Eden was highly disappointed when we got there as she had thought SHE was going to get to play basketball. At halftime, all of the students not on the team went down to the court to play. Stacy, my friend and former teaching partner, asked one of the guys if he would get a basketball and play with Eden. I told Eden that Jake was going to play basketball with her and to go down to the floor with him. He went and got a ball and brought it back and slowly bounced it toward her. Stacy, Jake and I were all under the impression that Eden and Jake would just be bouncing the ball back and forth at the bottom of the bleachers out of the way of all the big kids, but Eden didn't get the memo. As soon as she got the ball, she took off for the court, planted herself directly under the basket and threw her ball straight up into the air. There were about twenty kids running and playing and balls flying everywhere, but Eden had NO fear, she did not care about them at all, and she was determined to play. Jake, bless him, stood next to her and guarded her from all the kids and balls the entire time, and she was so happy and proud to be down there playing.

After half-time, she came back absolutely beaming and all excited about her basketball playing experience.

Two other little happy pictures:

Ila wakes up every morning around six to nurse and then falls right back asleep. At that point, I just leave her in our bed to sleep. A few nights ago, Eden came to our room in the middle of the night, so the next morning, they were both there, sleeping right next to each other.

And last weekend, on the drive home from lunch, they both fell asleep in their carseats, but they never let go of each others hands.

Yep, every day is happy.

Ila is four months and two days old.

She pretty much does just two things: sleep and smile. When she wakes up, she just smiles and smiles at us. Then she falls asleep. Then she wakes up and smiles some more.

She had her four month check-up yesterday.

She weighs 11 lbs. 6 oz., placing her in the SECOND percentile. And I thought Eden was my small one! Like her big sister, she eats lots and lots... she's just small. And like her big sister, she's perfect and healthy in every way... she's just small. The doctor said, "I'm not worried at all. You obviously just make small kids." I called my mom on the way home from the doctor to tell her how Ila's appointment went, and we were laughing about how small I used to be... how I couldn't open the door to my classroom in kindergarten, how there were second graders taller than me when I was in fifth grade, how I entered high school at 5 feet tall and weighed about 90 pounds. They get it from their mama! :)

And after all that, I ended up pretty average at 5'4. It'll be fun to see how they end up!

How can something so little bring us so much happiness?