Valentine's Day

I learned something this year about myself--and Valentine's Day. Until this year, I thought I merely tolerated Valentine's Day--a silly holiday filled with red, pink, and my least favorite shape. I thought it was cheesy and silly. During my high school years, it was a yearly reminder that the guys in my high school weren't interested. So, a few weeks ago, when contemplating Valentine's Day, I admitted to Brian that I didn't really care about the holiday. Yet, if Brian didn't buy me flowers, I knew that I would be a little bit upset. Brian felt the same way--except that he wanted something a little more fun than flowers.

And then we started talking about what we were going to do for our kids, and I started getting excited. I like an excuse to get fun little things for my kids--or to make things fun for them. Brian planned to bring them each home a balloon, and I sneaked a little toy and box of candies in the cart to give Michael on Valentine's. And then there was that little pink sock Monkey for Rachel.

Then, on that cheesy red and pink heart day, I saw numerous posts on Facebook about how people hated Valentine's Day, with the argument that "We don't need a holiday made up by the greeting card company to force us to show our love for others. We should be doing that everyday of the year."

Which got me thinking: If that is true, we shouldn't celebrate birthdays, because we should be making the birthday boy or girl feel special every day of the year. And we shouldn't celebrate Easter or Christmas because we should be thinking about Christ everyday of the year. The same goes for Veteran's Day, President's Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and pretty much every other holiday.

Except St. Patrick's Day. Really, do we need to think about Leprechauns more than one day of the year? No, I don't think so. The same goes for Halloween. These are the only truly legit holidays that we should celebrate.

I hope you sense that I'm joking. If you hate Valentine's Day, I completely get it, and I most likely agree with your reasoning. I absolutely refused to buy a "Valentine's Day Card" and instead purchased a card from the $.99 section that was an "I miss you" card solely on principle and frugality. Because I do believe that the commercial greeting card aspect of Valentine's Day (or any holiday, for that matter) is just ridiculous.

But, I did realize that I DO like Valentine's Day--and the other silly such holidays--for providing me an excuse to do something a little bit extra special for the people I care about. An excuse to do fun crafty things with my kids. An excuse to watch my husband make our children feel special. And an annual reminder that my dad was my first "Valentine" and always got me a little something on Valentine's Day--whether it was flowers, chocolates, or a huge teddy bear specially delivered to me anonymously during school hours so that I would feel really cool. A reminder that I have amazing parents. An excuse to have another family tradition that creates warm memories for our children and brings our family together. And what is wrong with that?


Plus, it is the only day that I will tolerate hearts.

Six Weeks

Yesterday marked Rachel's Six Week Mark!! That's an entire mission transfer! And we are doing great! Here is a summation in Pictures:

1 Week Photo Shoot:

 I'm pretty proud of these since I took them.

Rachel's first bath, January 30:

 Michael LOVES his sister. If she is sad, he's always trying to help. He talks to her, winds her mobile, gets diapers, burp cloths, blankets, and pacifiers for us.

 Meeting Natalie (February 5):

 Modeling the cute little dress made by Aunt Martie. We LOVE this one, and I'm sad that she's already out grown it.

 In un-Rachel news, someone is finally building a house in the lot behind ours. I won't get into my annoyances with it. I've finally accepted it. But, Michael has LOVED watching the progress so far. He sits on the sub-woofer and looks out the window at the construction. On one of the first days, I found all his construction vehicles on the sub-woofer--evidence of his excitement. While I was snapping a picture of it, he came up to be in it. Notice the REAL excavator in the background.

 Now back to the Miss. Rachel's first Holiday: Valentines day. She loved the balloon from her dad.

 First day at Church (Feb. 17):

 Meeting Camille (Feb. 18):

Mille and I both have two kiddos now. Crazy! Wasn't it yesterday that we were pulling that finals week all-nighter with the Krispy Kreme run in the middle?

We went to Ogden on Feb. 21, and Rachel got to meet her Good cousins, Chelsea, Cal, Thomas, and Jessica. And since all the girl granddaughters on the Chadwick side were there, we had to get a picture, crazy hair kids and all. 

 Amber though Rachel was awesome! They must have been friends before coming here.

On March 1, we got to meet 2-week-old Baby Henry. He's much heavier than our Rachel! But oh so cute.

 (Henry is Emily's baby)

On March 2, Rachel got to meet her only living great-grandparents, Grandma and Grandpa Linville:

 We had everyone staying at my house that night, except for my two brothers. They all came for Rachel's blessing the next day. I'm amazed we all made it to church by 8:30 the next morning for Rachel's blessing.

Our family picture after Rachel's blessing on March 3:

Three generations: Savilles

 Three Generations: Chadwicks

 Four Generations:

 The New Age Order Part 2: Just one baby left!

 Three generations of Raes: Leta Rae, Devri Rae, and Rachel (with too many Raes on the Saville side, I decided the Rachel would have to count for the continuation of the Rae).

 Me and Mini-Me:

 Four Generations of Beautiful Ladies:

And here she is yesterday, at 6 weeks, with Dr. Cloward, my awesome OB who delivered her. 

We are settling into a routine, getting back to a new normal, and loving, loving our little girl!