Valentines day....

As usual, I had to bake valentines day cookies. You see, as a child, that was something special my mother did with us for every holiday. And it just doesn't seem to be special if I don't do it! And I usually rope my friend RO into decorating them with me, but this year she had a family emergency so she couldn't come over. But I had a GREAT time -- and it was well worth the effort. They turned out BEAUTIFUL! Above, some of my favorites. And don't think I can take credit for the design - most I saw somewhere else...but they sure are beautiful! And when I got them bagged - here they all were! 

Whew. That was a lot of cookies. I took some to brunch with the girls, some to a birthday party for Miss LM since she was so blessed to be born on Valentines day, and then the rest to work. Let's just say my work friends were LOVING me that day! ha! 

And I made these:

yeah, I feel like I might have outdone myself on these. They are oreo balls with red hearts on them. I had seen on a blog where someone did chocolate hearts with the melty chocolate -- and thought I had to try them. You do the hearts on wax paper using decorator tips and then just stick them on when the chocolate is not set on the oreo balls. They looked awesome!

And with all that Valentines Day madness - we also got to celebrate sweet LM's birthday! We went to Red Lion Pub for some food and drinks and had a great time catching up and celebrating Miss LM! Below, LM and TH. LOVE these two girls - and hoping we can take another trip like our last trip to Greece. We had a BLAST together!

And here are all the girls....it was so much fun and a great time together! And I feel so blessed that my time in public accounting brought all of these girls together in one way or another! 

And I got to spend valentines day with a friend from work who was in town from LA. We went to Barnaby's and had a great time hanging out and catching up. I'm so excited for him to move here - he is one of my favorite people I work with from that office - he has more experience than me and is always teaching me one thing or another. I'm glad he is working in our new finance organization and we have an amazing new boss. Its going to be fun learning together!