L-O-V-E

Okay, so if you do not like things pink, glittery, and filled with hearts, you may want to turn away now.

Now that I've given you a chance to avert your eyes, I will warn you that this is also a picture galleria.

Okay, so now that that is out of the way, here is my post on Valentine's Day. I, like a few of my dear friends, LOVE Valentine's Day! Not only do I love all things pink, glittery, and heart filled, but I love the idea to celebrate LOVE! Our God's greatest commandments were for us to love him and then love one another. Yes, I agree with the V-day naysayers that we can celebrate love everyday! And, we should! However, it never hurts to set aside one day a year to really do it up right! I mean, despite my love for all things pink, glittery, and heart filled, not even I could deal with that on a DAILY basis! Maybe...

So, here are our Valentine's Day activities. 

Here are my girlies before our little Valentine's gathering. We, along with some other crazy people, made some fun shirts. I can't believe how old these two look here!

Me and my girlies. This pic looks half way decent. At this point in the day, I knew something was brewing in my body. Once we came home from the party, I collapsed. It began a week long fight with a nasty virus.

Sweet Jen Brown hosted our gathering. She found these fun cookies that I just had to get a pic of!

This year we strung the Valentine's the night before and hung them on ribbon. 

I LOVE how it turned out!

Quick pic of the Brown girls and Hay girls.

No. caption. needed. 

The owner knows.

Marcie made the kiddos sugar cookies and the rest of us brought fruit and icing to garnish the YUMMY cookies. These are pics of the lovies decorating their cookies.

The Robbins boys made faces on their cookies!

Dani taking a bite.

Addie and Ashlyn giving me their sweet smiles.

Jens and Ash missed the fruit memo!

Jen's festive decorations!

The gang!

As I read Sarah's post about the gathering, I almost choked when she said that there are still SIX kids not at home! Ha! That both makes me smile and struggle for breath! Ha!

The gang take 25.

I just loved how Jenna threw her arms around her Robbins boys and squeezed tightly!

Now, on to Valentine's fun at our house. Each year I love to decorate for the big V-Day. This year I tried a few new fun pieces of decor. Here I made a heart chain with card stock.

And these are felt, heart garlands that I made. I really enjoyed making these and decorating with them. My friend, Mandy, inspired me when she made some last year. 

Also, each year, we make hearts with Bible verses about God's love and our love for others and hang them in the house. I made these hearts (Emma wasn't into participating this year. Surprisingly!) just before I got sick. I planned on hanging them the Saturday after our party, and that's when the sickness set in. So, they are put away for next year. :o(

Of course I had to include this verse from Jeremiah. 

I just love seeing my little guy's name whenever I can!

On these two hearts, I wrote some words from Emma and Jenna. I asked them what love means to them, and these were their responses. I loved each girl's response!

And, here is my Jens on the big V-day. This is her outfit that she chose to wear to CC. And, this is the face she chose to wear when I asked her to smile! :o)

Not to be left out, we made shirts for the boys as well. Their shirts say Prince Charming. These were the absolute best shots I could get. I wasn't feeling well, and they were not having a photo shoot!

My boys.

Valentine's Day at the Hay house! Now, you may go throw up all of the pink and glitter! :o)