Valentine's Day

My boys and I had a great Valentine's Day! Eric started it off fantastic by completely surprising me and delivering me flowers at work! They were so gorgeous and I felt ridiculously spoiled. :) Then on Valentine's Day itself, thanks to it being Tuesday I didn't have to go in to work so Levi and I got to hang out together all day! We made a valentine for Eric, hung out with a good friend and got to snuggle her new baby, made red velvet oreo truffles, and took some ADORABLE pictures of Levi! I seriously love how well these pictures turned out and I couldn't wait to share them! Full disclosure, the following do not capture: the dirtiness of our porch all around my fake wood floor, all the ridiculous sounds I was making trying to get Levi to look at me, the billion times I pulled the chalk out of Levi's mouth, his many attempts to escape the porch and hang out in the mud instead or the way his lip started quivering towards the end because it was a bit nippy out and I had him out there without a shirt (#momfail). It's (relatively) easy with photoshop to make it look like I have a giant beautiful hardwood floor or that my son wants nothing more than to sit and be my little model but both are so far from the truth. In this day and age, it is so easy for us to compare ourselves to the little glimpses we get into what we think are the realities of others' lives when in fact, those glimpses do not show us the whole picture. It's something I need to remind myself of on the days when everything seems to be going wrong and I feel like a failure. And it also just makes me so grateful for the depth of life and for the richness of our experiences. I love how the messy moments, the tears, the frustration, the loneliness are wrapped up and tangled together with laughter, and silliness and moments of intense love and joy. This life Heavenly Father has given us is truly amazing.