Be My Valentine.

The weekend of February 13-16 my mom and sisters came down for a visit. They hadn't been down to Lethbridge since Grant's baby blessing last April so it was super exciting for me! It was a fantastic weekend and so I thought it deserved it's own post.

Thursday Night, the Relief Society put on the cutest little valentine's party. It was fantastic, I am always impressed with the amount of work they put into the activities. It was decorated beautifully, there were fancy drinks, chocolate fondue, and little goodie bags on everybody's chair. I am so glad my mom came down and could go with me. 

Over the course of the night we talked about different things to do to keep the "spark" alive in a marriage. Different speakers ( I was one of them) would come up and talk about one special thing that they do to maintain a happy marriage. And then they had a little handout to go along with what they said in the goody bags. For instance, Always Kiss each other before you part = gum etc. Mine was that we like to sing together all the time, or that ever couple should have "your song". For mine, I made a cute Valentine Printable of The Lumineer's song lyrics.

Although we talked a lot about marriage and love (there was also a panel of the bishopric and their wives answering questions), we spent the majority of the evening talking about how to love yourself, which I think is really important! I know so many people that talk badly about themselves, criticize themselves and have no self-esteem and it makes me want to shake them! They are always beautiful people with so much to offer. I think a lot of the time confidence is looked upon as being "proud" or "self-centered" or "conceited" even and that's really too bad because there is a difference. Everybody has something to offer to the world, we need to focus on our strengths and not worry about what other people think. We also need to be kind and focus on other people's strengths as well. 

We talked about a couple different ways to feel confident and here are a couple that stood out to me:

1. Wear lipstick. I love lipstick and I wear it everyday, it classes up any outfit and makes me feel 1000x more beautiful and confident when I put it on.

2. Smile. All the time, at everyone, everything.

3. Say hello to strangers

4. Talk to yourself. Look in the mirror and tell yourself you are important, that you are beautiful., anything you need to hear. I do it all the time and it works. Garth does this all the time with his work, and he is successful. Lots of people think this is weird but maybe they should just try it ;)

It was a great night that I am glad I could be a part of.

Valentine's Day has never really been my thing. I mean I loved it when I was a kid but not so much when I grew up. In fact I kind of always hated it. I was one of those emo kids that purposely wore all black just to show that. Garth and I threw an "I hate Valentine's Day" party and we started dating the day after Valentine's day so we don't celebrate it. We like to celebrate our love in lots of ways on any other day.

Since having Grant however, I decided to change my attitude. I was going to make Valentine's Day special for my kids. I always felt special receiving a little gift every year from my parents and so I want to do the same for him.

Here are the Valentine's that my sister Carissa gave Garth and I. Possibly my favorite Valentine's cards ever.

Grant after receiving his first Valentine's gift from Grandma!

Grant opening his present/card from Mom and Dad. 

I will use any excuse to buy a new book. And this one is my new favorite.

We spent our afternoon shopping and getting some Froyo. Grant thought the raspberries were a little sour.

When we got home I decorated our table and we had a delicious dinner together, all 7 of us!

Afterwards, my family stayed home to watch Grant so Garth and I could go on a date! We got all dressed up and headed to the Stake President's Ball put on by our church. Not without taking "prom-esque" pictures first of course haha.

The dance was beautifully decorated and Garth and I would joke about how someone should have hijacked it as their wedding reception. They had a whole buffet, chocolate fondue, photobooth and a real live Big Band.

We danced for hours and hours. It was so much fun and we talked about how we wished there was places that you could go to dance like this now a days. It almost felt like we jumped back into the 1950s. 

Having fun in the photobooth!

I don't remember when I last had that much fun at a Church dance but I can't wait to go again next year (cross your fingers we're still in this stake!!). I was so impressed that I lasted the night in my new 4 inch heels... even though Garth ended up carrying me out to the car and into our house at the end of the night haha.

When we got home we watched Frozen with the fam jam and goofed around like usual.

The next day, we all went swimming together at Nicolas Sheran.

Grant loved having his Grandma (I still feel weird calling her that, she certainly doesn't look like a grandma!) and his aunts around all weekend and we were sure happy they came to visit as well!

In church on Sunday, Garth and I sang a beautiful version of "Be Still My Soul". I absolutely love singing with my love <3

-A.