Valentines Day

At the beginning of February Tiffany and I decided it would be fun to make cookies with the kids. She has this great sugar cookie recipe that does NOT require you to chill the dough. The kids had a lot of fun! We also did a few chocolate molds. They were a little more tricky so Tiff and I did them. Here's a few pics...



Levi is pretty content to just hang out on the floor...

And here's one of Emma and Dakota with their chocolate lips!

Here's the recipe for those who want it:

Sugar Cookies
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C. sour cream
3 1/4 C. flour
1/2 C. shortening
1 C. Sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 egg (beaten)

Mix together. Roll out and cut shapes. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

The week before Valentine's Day I worked at the flower shop in town. This shop is AMAZING! It is a really big flower shop and the building was built in 2000 so it is pretty new. It has a big greenhouse as well. They have a bunch of full time floral designers, 2 full time greenhouse ladies and also a full time girl that manages the gift area. They have tons of different things in the shop for gifts such as paintings, tons of different candles and lotions, furniture, home decor, lots of baby items and even tons of cookwear. The manager is really cool. I wasn't sure what they wanted me to do at first...and when I asked he told me to use whatever flowers and containers I wanted, to have fun and be creative. LOVE! In the greenhouse they have rows of vases and containers to choose from. We also had almost any flower imaginable for Valentine's Day. They also have a lot of fun things like wire mesh, colored wire, picks, and wire moss. It was fun to see all the different styles of the designers. I had a blast working at the shop and actually worked for 9 days straight! It was crazy and exhausting but we had a ton of fun. My friend Mandy also works there so that is fun too. The girl that works in the gifts is named Mandy also...so that makes 3 of us!
They didn't have enough room for all the designers in the design area so Mandy and I and another designer, Amy, got to design in the greenhouse. It was fantastic! We could actually hear the music, the sun was shining down on us even though it was FREEZING outside, and there were flowers everywhere! We also didn't have the stress of all the customers bugging us. We sold just under 7000 roses! That is crazy! They said that this was their biggest Valentine's Day ever. They had about 750 sales at the cash register on that day alone. There were people everywhere in the shop the entire day. We would design something in the back and walk out to put it in the cooler and someone would take it out of our hands. It was impossible to keep up. In fact, they quit taking orders for delivery by 2pm on Valentine's Day so the rest had to be delivered Tuesday. I am going to start working just a couple days a week and Tiffany will watch my kids for me. Way fun!
I took just a couple pics while my phone...

Gettin' a little cheeky!...

Levi is a little stinker! This little guy is SO BUSY! A few weeks ago Ivan was getting Levi ready for bed and made the mistake of leaving him alone with just a diaper on. I was in the room but I just watched. :) As soon as Ivan went up stairs to get pj's, Levi ripped off the diaper and took off. When I grabbed my camera and said his name he just looked at me with this grin! He knows he is naughty. I say NO NO all day long! He knows what it means now...he will go to do something naughty and stop to look at me to see if I will tell him no no. He does have the fact that he is completely adorable going for him. Look at those cheeks! Don't ya just wanna pinch 'em?...all four of 'em? And those thighs! I just can't get enough of this kid. He has finally decided to really crawl. At the beginning of this month he would just roll and army crawl to get anything he wanted. He would also walk along the furniture, which he is still doing, but now he is REALLY fast at it! He has taken a few steps between Ivan and I but hasn't really taken off walking on his own yet. He will turn one this coming Wednesday and I will post much more about him then.