happy THURSDAY! hi Valentines day, bye valentines day! i know it gets some slack as a holiday but i love it. and a big big reason is because it brought me my brother!! his birthday falls on the holiday  (colintines day to my family) and it all feels very appropriate. he is one of my best best friends and the most loving and hilarious person i know so its so easy to get in the spirit and celebrate not only him but the ones in our lives who we love the most. (plus, how much do i love sending valentines from ansley? so much.) so valentines day, year one with baby ansley and year eleven with my boyfriend! wait. pause. how has it been that long?!! i do not know. pretty sure we were just in college and i was headed over to austin's apartment all dressed up where he gave me roses for the very first time. it's so fun to see how life has changed and with that our valentines day celebrations. sometimes fancy, sometimes at home, sometimes very very bittersweet knowing he would leave for baseball two days later. geez i forgot about that tidbit (selective memory) it makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it!! moving right along...

we made our cards this year which i think needs to be a tradition forever and always because i will never tire of seeing what austin comes up with. (as for mine, in college i was 'chel-say' to him and he was my stone - short for austonian - sexy nickname, why yes, yes i agree- which i still call him to this day. and i figured v-day would be a good day to throw it back ;)) him and ansley exchanged cards and he gave her flowers and i busily snapped the moment because he will always be her first love and it needs to be properly documented! in fact!! last year on valentines day we went to a concert with some family and there we shared the news that we were pregnant!

earlier that morning we headed off to ansley's four month pediatrician appointment to check on our growing girl. it had been since december since she had been and i was definitely ready to get a weight on that girl to make sure everything is a-okay since we are nursing and thankfully, we put our tiny sleepy valentine in her car seat and cruised on down the street to our favorite pasta restaurant. so good!! so good. we had a table in the corner, ate some ravioli, cheersed some wine and all was right in the world. it was a happy v-day and a happy B-DAY for that brother of mine (who is 30 !!!! what?!!) and all in all a success.