Happy Valentine's Day!

We woke up this Valentine's morning to this scene:  

If I weren't SO OVER winter, I'd be thrilled.  At least I stopped to snap a quick photo though, right? Even my cold, winter-hating heart was warmed by how beautiful the trees looked.

Oh, and since it's Valentine's day, we got right down to the business of using that as an excuse to bake.  I had already promised Eliza we'd make cupcakes, so we got right to it; nothing like some hard core baking at 8am!  We used a new recipe and I must say, it was the best white cake I've ever made.  And the buttercream frosting was equally amazing.  It would have been absolutely PERFECT if I hadn't over cooked it by like 3 or 4 minutes (that really does make a difference!).

She actually *HUGGED AND KISSED* the mixer... it's her preshus.

What can I say? Buttercream frosting requires a lot of butter. 

Hard at work.

Decorating was most of the fun - BESIDES licking the beater, of course. 

Our V-Day garland; cake that we made from half the batter after a slight cupcake FAIL; V-Day dinner table (in the actual dining room and everything!).

I've decided Valentine's Day is more fun with a kid.  I never really got into it and it always felt forced with just hubby and me.  But now it's sort of fun to get into it and make it a special day where we talk about love and how much we love each other and how we show each other that - not just today, but every day... :)  It was a nice day.

Last year's V-Day was nice too.  But today was special.  Today was an opportunity for us to think back to just one short year ago and how different our life was then - it was right before the first of many changes began for our little family.  We lived in a different house in a neighborhood we were becoming less thrilled about by the day (to say the least!), hubby was at a job he absolutely hated and felt like there was no way out, I was unhappy in my PhD program but not admitting it to myself.   Now things are so incredibly different.  Our new neighborhood has exceeded our expectations in every way - we've made so many wonderful new friends, we adore our new house, hubby has a new job he likes (and even continues to get head-hunted by other companies now that people realize how awesome he is :), I have found immense peace with my decision to leave grad school and am much happier than I was a year ago, we have a second baby girl on the way... and not to be forgotten, our dear girl still brings us joy every day in so many little ways.  We could not be more grateful!