Love is in the air...

Our house is decked out in red, pink & white....there's hearts and reminders of love everywhere you look, I've changed the music on my blog to mushy-lovey stuff, and I'm ready for the big day!

However, once again, long time in between posts = lots of pictures & random content in next post!

This is something that was probably only funny to me, but I'm sharing it anyways. The girls love tostadas, so we made our own. This is what they looked like:




and the funny part: this is what Mallory's looked like (finished):



she loves tomatoes and cheese and lettuce, so I don't know why on earth she left hers so bare!

Last Saturday Arissa & her sweet Drill Team buddy Olivia performed at a talent show at St. John of the Cross, a local catholic church. They did their new number, "Broadway Baby"...this is a very blurry photo of the performance:


Not one to be left out or out-done, Mallory is back in dance. :o) This is her & Mariah on their way to the first class of the new session....I just thought they were so cute in their tights:


And now onto current holidays and celebrations! 7 days till Valentine's day...I can't wait. I'm getting all our family/friend gifts in order, still putting up more decorations, and trying to get 60 (20 classmates x 3) valentine's ready for giving at school for the girls. Not to mention trying to do my own little Valentine related stuff. This is sort of Valentine-y, even though I made it quite some time ago (I think I even posted a picture of it before). C'est francais, and it says 'toi et moi', 'you and me'. I was going to frame it real nice and give it to someone until Jesse pointed out that to an english-only speaker, it kind of looks like it says "toilet" but is missing the 'l'. :o(

Getting our family/friend Valentine gifts all ready:

Special treats for Arissa's drill team buddies:


Aren't these the cutest things? My friend Courtney and I attended a Stampin' Up open house a few weeks ago and this was the project we made. Inside are Hershey kisses. :O) My favorite part of this is how a paper crimper is used to make the ends look like this was a store-packaged thing, not just some paper twisted up and tied with a bow. Thank you, Cula, for the Open House & idea!

This is the tag I made to attach to it:


And these are the tags I'll put on the rest of our Valentine gifts:

And now....SPOLIER ALERT!!! Courtney, if you happen to be reading this and it's BEFORE we've come over to wish you a happy birthday, don't scroll down any further!!!

This is something I've been working on for Courtney for her birthday. Remember this post?: http://howardfamilyof5.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-next-knitting-project.html

She left a comment saying she liked it and, jokingly, that her birthday was feb 7th. So of course, being an Obama AND a knitting enthusiast, I got right to work.

Ladies & Gentlemen.....please stand for.......OUR PRESIDENT:

Nevermind the wee bit of black showing above his tie....I was going to cover it up but Jesse said maybe Obama just has a lot of chest hair, so I let it be. :o) I got the YES WE CAN button off of etsy.com....I thought it added a cute touch.