love. love. love.

I made it! This is the last of my "catching up" posts!

Can I start by saying that I love having Valentine's Day on a weekend?
It made the celebration a lot longer and more fun!

We first celebrated on Friday night by going to Texas Roadhouse.
Mmmm...nothing says I love you like steak and 10,000 rolls. haha.


Earlier that evening Steve had gone shooting with a friend, which gave me some time to prepare a Valentine's surprise for him for after dinner.
I didn't want to spend any money, and I was having a hard time coming up with something to give him that wasn't overly cheesy.
My friend Mallory had a great idea that she shared with me on Thursday night that she was going to do for her husband.
She's student teaching right now and had asked her students about what she should do for her husband.
They asked her what he liked and she said "outdoors stuff."
They told her she should set up a tent in her house and go "camping."
Such an awesome idea!
I wasn't going to use that idea, but later that night when Steve came home, he was frustrated and stressed with school and said to me, "I just need to go camping."
What?!
Haha, okay, so Mal I had to copy you, I'm sorry!
With that kind of a hint from him, I just couldn't resist!

So I met Steve at the restaurant and when we came home, I made him close his eyes and go into the bedroom to change his clothes into some camping clothes I had set out for him, while I set everything up and changed into camping clothes in the bathroom.
Then I had him come out and see the tent and sleeping bags I had set up in the living room (with the help of my awesome brother in law, Spencer).
Complete with non-flame glowing candles in the tent, a little campfire (more like a Halloween cauldron, haha), a nature-smelling candle in the candle warmer and cricket noises taken straight from youtube.
Haha, he was really surprised which was nice, because he's always the one surprising me!
It felt good to surprise him for once.
We didn't get home from dinner till about 10 o'clock, so by the time I showed him the tent and threw in a movie, we were exhausted!
(Yeah, sounds lame, but we were up at 6 am, so give us a break, haha).
We only made through about the first 5 minutes of the movie, but that's okay, it was really fun to take a break and go "camping."


The next morning (Saturday), I slept in while Steve taught piano.
I woke up to a dozen beautiful red roses and the cutest homemade card from him on the table.
So sweet!
We made breakfast together--heart shaped pancakes and eggs.


Then we went to the temple.
The best place to be with my valentine, I decided.
It was great.

After that, we decided to make dinner at home for once.
It never happens because we're always gone, so we wanted to take advantage of the time we had.
Steve got ready while I was starting dinner.
He came out all dressed up in a suit and tie.
I decided I better look more presentable.
So while I got ready, he finished making dinner.
I came out to this.

How romantic!
Steve made teriyaki salmon.
SO good!

Then we headed to the stake center where our stake was having a valentine's dance for everyone age 18 and over.
There was a live band playing all the great oldies stuff for every generation.
We loved being at a dance where everyone actually danced.
It was awesome to see all the older couples in our ward and stake celebrating their love for each other that has extended much longer than ours has.
I hope we look like all of them in 20-40 years.

What a perfect weekend!
I couldn't ask for a more perfect husband and love of my life.
Thanks for a great holiday, babe!