A Valentine Family Tradition

Since I was small, I've always loved Valentines Day. Even more than Christmas. You might think it's weird for a young kid to love Valentines Day so much, but my family had a very fun tradition. Each year my moms brothers & sisters would leave elaborate Valentine gifts on our doorstep. In return we also spent months preparing & making over-the-top Valentine gifts for them. It was fun to sneak around their doors, spending several minutes setting up an adorable display, then hiding so we wouldn't be caught after ringing their doorbell. I remember having all our Valentines we got set up on the kitchen counter and admiring the beautiful sparkly pieces of art for several days after wards. Each valentine was very clever with a lot of detail.

Our family has carried on the tradition. All though our Valentines to one another aren't as elaborate as I remember them being growing up (at least the Valentines we give out). It's still a fun tradition. I hope to be able to make more time next year for this fun tradition. Thanks Mom, Trisha, & Call Family for the cute gifts. We love them.

Why you should think twice before commiting to a major tradeshow

Tyler asked me what I wanted for Valentines day.

Truthfully, all I want is a day to do laundry, clean the house, do some dishes, give my kids a much needed bath, read to them, run errands, unpack from our trip to California (I know... we've been home for two weeks, but our suitcases are still left untouched.) Take Lily to the Library (she begs to go there several times a day), take Lily to dance class, cook dinner. Well at least try to cook, we all no I'm not a cook, but it would be nice to eat something other than hot dogs, crackers, & raw vegetables for every meal. Maybe we could even squeeze in a little time to make & deliver some valentines to family members?

So that's what I'm going to do. My valentines gift is to be a stay-at-home mom for a day. Well, at least until I put my kids to bed that night, then it's back to work. I have to say that I'm honestly looking forward to all the work that goes into being a good mom tomorrow. Thanks Tyler!

Don't ever sign up for a major trade show while you have young kids to care for, unless you have enough money to hire help.
That advice is my Valentines Gift to all of you. Happy Valentines Day!

Mean Monsters

Lily: I told my baby doll that a monster is going to bite her head and poke her eyes out.
Me: Why? That's so scary.
Lily: Because I don't want her to fall asleep.

Lily's bold Interior Design skills

Ella has been enthusiastic about decorating for several years now. You can't come to our house without seeing her artwork or designs displayed throughout. Lily's desire to decorate is starting to grow as well... but on a whole new level. Ella has begged me several times to hang shelves that she's made at the Home Depot. Lily on the other hand just goes ahead and hangs the shelves up herself. The shelf shown above was hung by Lily. I'm scared to see how she adhered it so well to the wall. I doubt that at the age of 3 I would have been able to securely hang such a heavy item to my wall.

My favorite part of CHA

Can you believe it took us over 5 hours to set up our booth? According to the show rules, it's only supposed to take 1 hour, but since we are a small company, nobody (but us) cared that it took so long. The hardest part was getting the heavy floor & buffet up to the 3rd level, and carrying it through the entire floor back to our space. I was really nervous after trying for over an hour to get the floor put together and it wasn't working. After a few hours of trying, we gave up and decided to tape it together with duct tape. It actually didn't look too bad and we got several compliments on our flooring.

(The white stripes are the duct tape.)

People enjoyed using our mustache, glasses, & chalkboard photo-props. Hopefully they post the pictures to their face-book accounts & help us get our name out.

Tyler and I were invited to a Cricut party on Saturday night. We had no idea what it would be like, but it turned out to be pretty fun. We made flip-books of ourselves, then we got to watch some of the stars from “So you think you can dance” perform live. It was very entertaining.

You might think the Cricut party was my favorite part of the show, and although I enjoyed it very much, my favorite part of the show had to be when a little old lady came up to me and told me she had something for me. She then dug through her purse. After a minute of digging, she handed me two large handfuls of loose buttons. Since they wouldn't fit in my pockets, and since I had no where to put them, I just stood there for a long time. My hands were filled with buttons, and I tried not to drop them all over the place, as I talked with potential customers. It was pretty awesome.

I also loved seeing some old friends I used to work with at Stampin' Up!

It's nice to be home. Tyler and I missed the kids. Now we just need to figure out how to catch up on all the work we missed while we were gone. If anyone needs a part time job for a week...