Happy Valentines Day...belated!

Since Valentines Day happened to fall on a day where Griffin had class and I worked all day we decided to push it back on day. And it ended up being perfect! When i was a little girl my mom would often make these heart shaped pancakes for us kids on Valentines day. I was never a fan of pancakes but something about the pink food coloring in the batter and the hearts made me excited for them every time!
Griffin came home from his one class he had that day with a hot pink Gerbera Daisy...in honor of our wedding. :) (I gave him a $5 budget) It's been decorating our kitchen table since.
One of our favorite highlights of the day was going and doing initiatories after having a romantic dinner at Olive Garden. I think you can see the bread sticks popping out of my stomach in the picture because holy hannah I WAY over ate those bread sticks! I ate tons of salad and breadsticks and had most my dinner boxed up because of it! Little Jaylee was not happy with how crammed she was and kicked and kicked like crazy afterwards.
We also enjoyed pigging out on Dove chocolates Mom Anita sent to us...sooo yummy. She also surprised us by buying us Breaking Dawn (which is all about marriage and love) which we were planning on watching on our Valentine's Day. But we are still working on it...5 minutes here and there since we've been so swamped with baby stuff and homework and work. Thank you mom anita though for making it so convenient to do romantic things on Valentines Day.

I must say though that this was the best Valentines Day of my life! I haven't taken pictures of them all but Griffin went above and beyond with romantic gestures... I forget sometimes how he really did sweep me off my feet when we were dating...

For those of you who don't know, Griffin is quite the poet. He just has a way with words. I've typed below the poem he wrote for me for Valentines this year. It's not your straight forward "I love you" stuff...it's deeper and I just think he's so amazing for having the courage to put himself on paper in the form of poetry! I mean really...how many guys are willing to do that? My Griffin is. :)

Untitled
I often am curious how some describe love
For me it is the most powerful force, love
It is a force that makes you powerless at time, love
It is also a force that takes your breath away, love
Other times it is a force that can bring you to tears, love
But most of the time I like to think of love as a driving force-a force that motivates and inspires you to serve, give, speak kindly, and above all, love
For me today love has inspired me to change and be more of the man my sweetheart wants me to be (as well as the man my Father knows I can be), love
Let me tell you a little about my love

(Just ask)

Then when I looked up to see what he meant he had outlined a little program for me.
He had taken my name and for each letter assigned a word that described a quality he LOVES about me...and then he went on and on and expounded on each one...bringing me to tears.

C is for Compassionate (Reach out to Irene and always give ppl benefit of doubt)
H is for Helpful (Washes dishes when I don't and helps co workers out time and time again)
R is for Radiant (Your countenance)
I is for Incredible (So dedicated to the gospel and to truth...that is rare)
S is for Sporty...which made me laugh since he's never seen me when I've had the health to work out and do stuff (Yoga and jogging in such cold weather you slipped on ice and fractured your elbow)
T is for Tough! (Broke elbow and didn't even know it...waited it out 3 weeks)
I is for Intelligent (Social intelligence and Musical Intelligence)

J is for Jovial (Always laughing)
O is for Openminded (example is you reading Hunt for Red October)
Y is for Youthful (If it were up to you we'd dress up for Halloween every year, Play, go outdoors and to parties)

and THEN he said I had a quiz where I had to recite to him by memory each of the things he shared with me that he loved about me. So one by one, for each of the 10 things I got right he would massage one of my 10 fingers...telling me that if I got them all right that I had a prize awaiting me. And prize there was...a giant Reese's Bar (they're new). He stayed within the $5 budget and still managed to get me flowers, chocolate, and poetry! What an incredible husband I have.

PLUS he included one of our romantic coupons (from a booklet Natalie Stadelman gave us when we got married to help keep the love alive) which said "Let's fill in the blank together". I'm so excited for us to find something to do together to keep our love alive. :)

And I'm ashamed to admit what I did for Griffin for Valentines day...well I pretty much made him a short and simple card with a cut out $5 bill representing him getting to put $5 in his allowance. That's what he wanted but wow...no pressure...I gotta make it up to him somehow! Any ideas????

But we had such a great Valentines Day that I asked if we could make the next day Valentine's Day too. he agreed and we've been saying "Happy Valentines Day" every day since! :)

I love my sweetie.