A few things I know fo' sho'

Max is a little piece of heaven *most of the time*. The other night he picked me to be the one to read him stories and sing songs before bed. He likes to prolong the routine by asking to snuggle or to hug. Smart boy. It always works. "I want to give you a hug, Mom." He wrapped his arms tightly around my neck and said, "I love you, Mom" to which I replied, "I love you too, Max, sooo much." He said, "I love you too so much. *deep, adorable sigh* We love each other, Mom." We sure do, buddy, but I don't think you know how intensely and completely I love you. You will, though, when you're tucking your oldest child into bed one night and they wrap their little arms around your neck and tell you that they love you. Actually, you'll know the minute that they are born and you see their little face and body for the first time. You'll know then, Maxwell, Kelly, and all future children of mine, just how deeply I love you.

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I was born to goodly parents. Today my momma turns 50...finally! :) The woman has twelve grandchildren (ages 6 and under) and two on the way. I think she should be at least 50. She doesn't think so. My mom has always been young at heart. I consider myself incredibly blessed to have been born to such a woman. She has great faith, a great sense of humor (and laugh), loves her family, landed herself an awesome man, and has always been one of my best friends. I love having babies for many reasons, but one of those reasons is because of the visit I get from my mom right after. She takes care of everything. If she's not hanging with me and the rest of my little fam or holding the baby then she is cleaning or cooking or crocheting the babe's blessing blanket. It is such a sweet, tender time and is filled with treasured memories. I love you, lady! Happy, Happy Day to you! Have fun on your romantic getaway with Dad.

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I should not let Max play with the camera while I'm exercising....

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I have a couple of adorable kids who want to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day!

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An eleven-month old little girl should NOT have to deal with a yeast infection. However, if she does, then she should at least have a mom who doesn't think it's just a diaper rash and try to treat it as such in several different ways for three weeks before she prays and gets a very clear voice from heaven while she's walking through Target telling her matter-of-factly that, "It's a yeast infection!" Do I ever feel like a horrible mom! My poor little woman. She was SO not herself those three weeks and I thought that we had entered a new stage and my sweet, all-smiles baby was no more. She would shriek often and cry more than usual. Even people who see her every week at church were asking if she was getting a tooth or something. Which, she actually did, but that wasn't what she was trying to communicate with those shrieks. The girl was in serious pain - I know because I've had a yeast infection before. A few days is misery - three weeks would be awful. However, we got her into the doctor the day that I heard heaven in Target and she is on the mend. My happy babe has returned. I'm sorry, Bo Belly!

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My friend, Janet, rocks. She rocks for many, many reasons. One of those reasons is that she

passed on the outline for the BEST Valentine's Party several years ago. We threw it in New

York as NEWLY newlyweds and it was super fun. It's seriously the coolest party and if you want to throw your very own next year, please contact me and I'll e-mail the details on how-to. We invited 12 couples and 9 came. Perfect. Our house is small-ish and so we were semi-hoping that a few wouldn't be able to make it. :) We had to move out some furniture as it was. We put up red heart-shaped mylar balloons everywhere, turned down the lights, lit tons of candles and got the party started. Our Love Tree - where all of the couples got to "carve" their initials - was constructed by the ever-talented Mr. Foster. Have I ever mentioned how amazing I think he is? We had a perfect mix of younger and older couples. I think it's best with both. My cheeks hurt from smiling/laughing just 1/2 hour into the shindig. Then there were a few tears as the

husbands read their surprise love poems to their wives. One of the hubbies even broke out the guitar that he just started taking lessons on in January. Oh, so sweet. And, of course, my husby wrote me a rockin' poem to get it all started. I feel lucky to be wed to a poem-writin' fool. I've received many-a-poem from this wonderful man in our four years of bliss.

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Kelly is a total dancing queen with a sweet side-to-side move she started about 2 months ago. Her dance reflex seems quite involuntary. No matter where she is or what she's doing, that little body HAS to groove when it hears music. Oh, and she has a really cute older brother.