Happy Birthday to my Mom and my Brother-in-law and late Happy Valentine's Day!

My mom is 60 today...60 amazing years jam-packed full of life. She is an amazing woman, and I'm blessed to have her for my mom.

My brother-in-law also is celebrating a birthday today. I don't know exactly how old he is....older than me, younger than Steve, that's all I know. He's a great man who is perfect for my sister. I'm so glad he's a part of our family. He is a great dad and a wonderful provider. He is faithful, and righteous, and sweet and kind. I'm sad he and my sister have always lived far away from us, but I'm grateful to him for allowing my sister to visit me so much when he was away in Iraq. I will always cherish the memories we made during those visits. I hope he has an amazing birthday today and a great year to come.

Now, Saturday was Valentine's Day. My kids thought it was on Thursday since that's when they had their class parties. (The kids were out of school on Friday, and they're also out today and tomorrow for "mid-winter" break.) Well, I seized the day and gave the kids my Valentines to them on Thursday. I got them each a new movie. They were pretty excited. On Friday we went to Fred Meyer and bought lilies, 4 roses, and some babies breath and we made our own arrangement to take to Dad at work. He displayed it on his desk for the rest of the afternoon, then brought them home to enjoy over the weekend. I LOVE the fragrance of oriental lilies, and I've loved walking past them and enjoying them. (See photo below) After we delivered the flowers, we all went to Circuit City (going out of business sale) and we bought a video camera. That was Steve's Valentine gift to me, but we're all enjoying it. Hopefully at some point I'll figure out how to share a few of the clips from the boys' b-ball games on Saturday. The best thing about the camera is that it records right onto a small DVD and once it's finalized, we can put it right into our DVD player and watch it. So - the boys spent Saturday afternoon watching their own basketball games. It was so fun. Saturday evening we got a babysitter and Steve and I went to dinner and to the temple. It was a lovely evening, only slightly tainted by Steve's sore throat. Well, in the middle of the night Steve woke up and his throat was on fire. So we missed church and opted for urgent care instead. He is now on a Z-Pack and feeling much better. Thank heavens for antibiotics! Anyway, the kids are doing their chores now, and I need to work....have a great day!