Made my week.

The other week, I found these beautiful flowers on my front porch.

No note, no trace of a visitor, just flowers.

If fact, TWO beautiful bunches of flowers.

I've had two empty ceramic pots on either side of my front door for a while, but I just haven't gotten around to putting something in them.

I was a little worried that my neighbor must have gotten embarrassed by me and my lack of 'gardening' skills, but it turns out, that my sister got some on her porch too.

At first I tried to call and call everyone I thought would do such a nice thing. You see, I like to figure things out.  I wanted soooo much to thank whoever did this for such a wonderful surprise.

But everyone I asked genuinely told me that, although they would love to take credit, they had nothing to do with it.

I gave in. I guess I don't ALWAYS have to know everything.

I'm just going to enjoy the fact that it happened.

That someone thought of us.

 I hope that whoever it was reads this, because I want to say THANK YOU for doing such a thoughtful thing.  After having a hard couple of days, it brought some sunshine into my week. 

I am blessed to have many people in my life who are caring, and thoughtful, and who love me and my family.

And I am blessed to love those same people.

So, here's to you, our silent gift-giver.

We love you.

And we love them:

Grace's Perch

Grace has found a new favorite place in our house. 

The shoe rack.

According to her, it is not a shoe rack anymore, but instead a bench for a mischief-maker that happens to live at my house.

I even cleared off the top of the shoe rack, to make room for her new favorite place.

But, she still insists on sitting up there and leaning over precariously to throw all the shoes off the rack.

She also likes to bring random 'treasures' to her perch to play with...hence my pearls, and a church program.

Silly girl.

The look on her face as she sits there, completely proud of herself, makes cleaning up the pile of shoes 10 times a day a little easier.

A Nice Surprise

I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day. I don't hate it. But, I would just rather my husband show me love everyday and surprise me with flowers or what not on another day just because.

So, we decided to just keep Valentine's day low key and order take-out to have a dinner at home with Grace.

I thought I was being really smooth, and I ordered online to Chili's so that we could still have a good meal, but not have to cook it or clean up.

Stephen was supposed to get home at 5:15, so I ordered it to be ready to be picked up then.

Well, Stephen didn't get off on time(and therefore, wasn't in the best of moods), so he wasn't going to get there until 5:30.

Our food was going to be cold.

He gets to Chilis and gives them his name.

NO order.

Nothing on record online.

Stephen calls, and I confirm, that yes, I ordered it.

Maybe I didn't complete all the steps? I have no idea what happened.

But, no big deal, right?

Our food will now be hot, because we are ordering it now.

And then, all the good things started happening.

They offered us a free appetizer because of the inconvenience. 

Nice.

Then, as Stephen is waiting, they offer him a something to drink.

Soon after, our food comes out carried by the Manager.

As Stephen hands her his debit card, she says, "Tonight, you meal is on the house."

Really? Did that just happen?

Stephen gets home with a HUGE Chilis bag and we start unloading our dinner.

Included was this:

My steak with two sides

Stephen's hamburger and sides

Supreme chicken nachos

and entire bag of chilis chips and salsa

AND

they snuck in a free dessert. Brownie, fudge sauce and ice cream.

It was crazy to see the entire spread, and know that it was free to us.

The food was great. In fact, I still have an entire steak in the fridge for dinner tonight.

Grace enjoyed eating about 20 fries for dinner.

Stephen couldn't stop talking about his hamburger.

And we all were full and happy.

Happy Valentine's Day to us!

Valentines day...

I'm not one to really get into Valentine's Day, but I do love making Valentines.  

So, without further Ado...here is Grace's Valentine for this year.

And just for comparison....this was Grace last year on this day...

I smell Chocolate

Last weekend, we went to a ward activity. (ok...we really missed most of it, but we were there for a couple minutes)  And as we were leaving, our friend Brad gave Grace a miniature Snickers bar.  Of course, Grace immediately TREASURED her treat, and would not let us hold it.  Seeing that we only live about 5 minutes from the church, we thought, "What's the harm of letting her hold it on the way home?"

So, Stephen and I are talking in the front seat when I suddenly stop, turn to him and ask,

"Do you smell Chocolate?"

And then we turn around to see our little girl literally sucking out all the contents of that smashed Snickers bar.

She had somehow gotten it to open on one side and had managed to squeeze just about all of it into her little mouth.

Moreso worried about getting chocolate on the car seats, I tried to take it away from her.

That caused this:

So I let it go. We have cleaner. 

We let her have her moment.

And have it she did.

Hiccups

The other night, I got the hiccups. 

I.HATE.THE.HICCUPS.

Well, I was lying on the couch watching TV and Stephen was doing some work on the computer.

I said, "Stephen, will you scare me so these hiccups will go away?"

He just laughed, and said, "I don't think I can"

So, I just continued watching my show, which was a little on the suspenseful side...

Then, a few minutes later, this happened.

Not even kidding.

Stephen LEAPED across the room at me, and I screamed and jumped in the air.

He had crept right into the blind spot that I had because of the pillow I was leaning on, and then leaped onto me on the couch. 

It took about 10 minutes for my heart to stop racing.

It took .001 seconds for my hiccups to stop.

I guess it was worth it.