Why I Love Valentine's Day....The Dinner!.....

Our Valentine's Day dinner was actually on Monday the 13th, instead of the 14th...

The Darlings had mutual on the 14th...so we decided that the day before would be great...

it was also FHE...so that made it even better!;)  We began our evening delivering some

yummy cupcakes to family and a few friends that we may as well call family;)

When we returned...The Farmer headed for the grill to prepare some very tasty steaks

for us to enjoy. The dinner was filled with favorites...The Rooster's favorite was the steak and

sliced cucumbers with vinegar and seasonings...

The Farmer's favorite was the Roasted Asparagus...PreShie's favorite was a perfectly

prepared baked potato...I enjoyed it all!

and we all indulged in a Coconut Cake topped with blueberries and whipped cream!

YUM!!!

It is always a treat to have The Darlings around the dinner table...

The Farmer takes advantage of the time to tell them stories...always with some great meaning

at the end;)...They hang on every word he says...he is a great storyteller!

I do love Valentine's Day....

Why I Love Valentine's Day....Heart Attack!!

I look forward to this....all year long!!  I love our family HEART ATTACK!!

We begin this on the 1st day of February, each morning before school, The Darlings and their

parents write on a little heart...something the like about the other people in the family.

This year...I found the cutest Post it Notes that were heart shaped...that made the note writing

much easier.  In years past we have used foamie hearts...and doiley hearts..but I love these the best.

The first days are easy...are not too creative...but sweet...it is on about day 5 that the family

has exausted the "standard" compliments and begins searching for something kind to share...

This get really creative and pretty funny....

We've gotten ALOT of laughs from this one...by PreShie...

It makes me sad when the time comes to take down the notes...I really love them...and I love

watching The Darlings and The Farmer...search for "their" hearts to see what other

family members have written about them.

It is one of our favoite family traditions!

Why I Love Valentine's Day....The Cookies!...

There are MANY reasons that I love Valentine's Day....I love the colors of the day...I love

all the fun traditions that we have established around the day...

and I just love the idea of LOVE for one complete day!

Sunday evening...after The Rooster's Board of Review for his Eagle Scout Award...

The cousins arrived ready to decorate sugar cookies and make a Valentine craft to take home.

They each had one large sugar cookie...and all the frosting and sprinkles you could imagine...

to make those cookies beautiful and yummy!  For some of the cousins...unlimited access to sugary

items is almost more than they can handle..;)...they LOAD those sugar cookies with frosting...sprinkles...

candy and whatever else they can find...and end up with a very very heavy cookie..but they

enjoy every moment!  While the decorating was going on...a rousing game of basketball was happening,

thankfully the group moved the breakable items out of the way....

In the kitchen...the Mom's and kids were chatting...and decorating...and yes...eating

those heavily loaded sugar cookies....when it was time for the cousins to leave...they were all

on a pretty big sugar high.  One of my sister-in-laws said something like...stuff em' with sugar...

and send them home;)  For me that worked our pretty well!  Although I am not sure what happened

once those darling cousins reached their homes;)  I was a fun family evening...when we have moments

like that...I am reminded why we chose to live in this community....

FAMILY!!

It was the perfect beginning to Valentine's week...the week of ...LOVE....

So Very Scary........

The neighborhood has been...."Booed!!!"

Thanksgiving.....Mexico Style!

This year was a "Mexico" Thanksgiving! Some years we go to Mesa and other years, we have been known to escape to the beautiful mountains of New Mexico to a little hotel that we love.

This year was Thanksgiving....Mexico style. And it was great!

Mexico doesn't celebreate Thanksgiving...but then again I am sure you already knew that;) The weather is still very mild, not too cool and the tress are fantastically beautiful with changing leaves. We have not had Thanksgiving dinner as an entire extended family, for several years. So our very brave cousins invited the whole family to their home to enjoy dinner together. It totaled 67 people, and it was great fun! The food was wonderful. The tables were beautiful and the company was the best! Just what Thanksgiving should be! So while the rest of our little neck of the woods was "business as ususal" we were enjoying Thanksgiving together as a very large family, feeling very blessed. Thanks to those very brave cousins for giving this great gift to our family!

God Bless America

God Bless America!!

Hope your day is filled with gratitude, family and lots of yummy food!

Happy 4th of July!

We Are Free!

I love the Fourth of July! I have always loved it. I think I have developed a deeper appreciation for the celebration of Independence by living in a foreign country. It is easy to see the fault in systems that are not functioning as we might like them to and it is easy to blame those systems for some of the challenges that we may face today. But for me the bottom line is .....WE ARE FREE....to worship who and how we want. WE ARE FREE....to eat what we want, whenever we want, while the people of other countries are starving because of the oppression of their governments. WE ARE FREE....to vote for who we want to lead us. WE ARE FREE.... to be educated if that is our desire. We have so many FREEDOMS that we don't think twice about. Living where I live, and how I live has taught me a greater appreciation for these wonderful FREEDOMS that were a gift to me. I did nothing to earn them, I have not paid the price for them, as many have. But I do enjoy them and am very grateful for them. I do love the country in which I live. I love all the good that it has to offer me and my family. But nothing touches me to deeply as seeing the American Flag fly.


I hope that your celebration of the Fourth of July is full of gratitude for all the wonderful freedoms that we enjoy....I know mine will be!