the love was flowing at casa cayton this vday!!  would you believe that i uploaded these pics & began this post 1 week ago?!  i'm a total slacker.  so, here it is... valentine's 2011.  rivers and my mom surprised jeremy & i with these lovely roses the friday before vday.

jeremy and i surprised rivers with a little vday decorating that he loved!  i simply cut out hearts, wrote a letter on each one, used a hole punch at the top, then strung them through a purple string we had laying around.  of course, rivers loves letters, so he loved seeing his name spelled out across the mantle when he woke up on valentine's day.  it doesn't take much to impress him, thank god!

i happened to find this little mailbox in the $1 bins at target a couple of weeks ago.  i picked up some red puffy paint from walmart & decorated it especially for my little valentine.  nothing fancy - just his name & a few hearts on it.  he loved it!

i filled the mailbox with more cut out hearts that jeremy stamped with animal stamps we already had.  as rivers pulled the hearts out of the mailbox he would say, "a dog heart, a cow heart, a whale heart..." super cute!

and the other little surprise we had for him on valentine's day was the living room full of balloons on the floor!  when we were at walmart i found a bag of 8 balloons that said happy valentine's day on them for $1.  jeremy & i just used our lungs & blew them up ourselves.  besides, balloons are more fun for little guys when they're on the floor, rather than in the air!  {a week later & a couple balloons are still hanging on, although rivers has pretty much lost interest in them by now!}

so that was our fun vday with rivers.  of course, we had to work, so i would have loved to have done more, but i know rivers appreciated all the little surprises of the day.

jeremy and i celebrated our valentine's day a little early.  we went on a date the saturday evening before & ate at plum tree bistro.  so, so, so delicious!  i can't wait to go back & we surely will!  it was romantic, quiet, delicious, delightful.  the perfect date.  i felt more connected & in love with my hubby after that delicious meal.  amazing what a couple hours to ourselves over a candle lit dinner can do.  i have to say, this was the best valentine's day we've had in a while.  i didn't need any gifts, flowers, or chocolate.  i just needed alone time with my husband at a restaurant for grown ups only.  {although he did spoil me with chocolate as well!}

so... check out my new pillows!  100% better than what they use to look like. (sorry no pics for comparison!)

 

they are not actually new.  they are re-worked & re-freshed.  aka: re-covered!  my friend christi, who i met when i was working at my sister's closet, sews just about anything.  she hemmed pants for me quite a few times before her & her husband moved to new bern back in 2008.  i was sad i had lost my seamstress.  but great news - they moved back!  so i've been fully taking advantage of her (in a good way)!  i dropped off 4 pillows & some fabric with her & 1 week later i had new pillows!!  i then dropped off 1 pair of my pants to be hemmed & 3 pairs of jeremy's suit pants to be let out (sorry jerm).  ;)  her prices are more than reasonable, she does a great job, and best of all she is so kind & fun to talk with.  so... christi is open for business in greenville!  if you or anyone you know is need of any sewing, please remember christi.  she is trying to drum up some business in this little venture & i wanted to help spread the word.  not that i have a whole lot of local readers, but you never know who may come across it.  if you'd like her contact info send me an email & i'll be glad to share it with you!

we're no fair weather fans.  with my mom & dad having been born & raised in pittsburgh, we are and will always be steelers fans!  so even though they played a disappointing game last night, i'm still going to post my cute boys pre-game. rivers is sporting his sweatshirt that aunt nanette sent him.  when we were up in pittsburgh last week we tried to find rivers a new steelers shirt, but couldn't find one his size. luckily nanette tracked one down for him & mailed it just in time!  thank you nanette!!  super cute & its a 3t, so we'll get good use out of it for next year!  we did find him steelers socks & a hat, {which he refused to wear}, so jeremy held it up.

and for the sake of reminising on better steelers games, here is rivers back in 2009 when the steelers won the super bowl!!!  and again, the adorable little outfit was sent straight from pittsburgh from aunt nanette!

 

and in other news... we had a nice little walk around the duck pond at the hospital yesterday afternoon.  we had some bread to feed the ducks, geese, and sea gulls, who were all quite happy to see us.  i also did a little self timer action with the camera.  the little gazebo was a great spot to prop my camera.  rivers refused to be in the picture until he saw mommy & daddy do it.

then he obliged & did a great job!  look at that smile!! :)  so this our february family photo. {remember my new year's resolution!?} which, by the way, i should add that i almost forgot to get a january picture {told you i'm horrible with resolutions!}, but thankfully i remembered on the 31st just before i put rivs down for bed.  we did a quick iphone photo, which for some reason will not email, so i haven't been able to get it off of my phone.  as soon as i do, i will share it.  not that its a great photo, but its the 3 of us, which was my goal.

next up, i'll share with you how much {or how little} i got crossed off my list this weekend.

household things...
jasper needs a bath.
swiffer & mop floors.
pick up pillows from christi.
the never ending pile of laundry.

business related things...
work on client wedding albums. {only half crossed out b/c i'm still not done!}
order client prints.
continue updating new website.  {again, worked on it, but still not done!}
work on blog re-design.
find gift bags & tissue paper.

so that's all for now.  i will soon share with you my new pillows that christi did a fantastic job on!!

either i'm really lazy, or the trip to pittsburgh last week wore me slam out!  every day of this week i have been in bed by 9 or 10.  that is pretty unheard of for me... ask jeremy.  he's usually complaining that i stay up way too late on my computer.  i've only turned on my computer once this week & i was only on it for maybe 15 minutes before shutting it back down.  yep, its been that kind of week.  i have just had absolutely no energy to do anything other than get in bed.  i have managed to get a few loads of laundry done... only because it absolutely had to be done.  so, i'm hoping this weekend i'll find a burst of energy & plenty of time to get things crossed off my "to do" list.  {or in other words - get this girl some more caffeine!!}

household things...
jasper needs a bath.
swiffer & mop floors.
pick up pillows from christi.
the never ending pile of laundry.

business related things...
work on client wedding albums.
order client prints.
continue updating new website.
work on blog re-design.
find gift bags & tissue paper.

i'm gonna guess that only half of that stuff gets done this weekend.  i guess half is better than where i'm at now though!?  and i'll be picking up my camera again for the first time in 1 month.  i have a maternity session on sunday that i'm really looking forward to.  and the steelers are playing the super bowl on sunday!  we'll be celebrating with mom & dad at their house.  go steelers!!

rather than reading tonight before rivers went down, I rocked & sang to him. it's unusual he let's me do that so I went with it & enjoyed such a tender moment with him. while I was singing a lullaby he actually began to sing along. be still my heart! a moment i never want to forget!! when I finished the song he said, "that's a nice song!" and even though i have a horrible singing voice I'm so glad to know that he appreciates my effort!