Put a little love in your heart...

While my sweetheart was gone most of the week, I still had opportunity to fill my heart with love.  The first couple of days I worked hard for my clients, visited some neighbors and helped my brother, Greg, who was very ill.  Early Wednesday morning, I left for Idaho to visit Heather, Aaron and the kids.  The long drive up and back enabled me to listen to some spiritually uplifting cd's and get ideas for my upcoming Relief Society lesson.  The weather was cooperative so I was able to make the drive without incident.  My intended visit was to be filled with making and decorating valentine cookies, hearing the kids musical accomplishments and just plan fun! I got to see my sister, Jackie, for a minute too and give her a valentine's hug.  Thanks for meeting me at the gas station, Jackie. You fill my heart with love too!

Anna is really doing homework on the computer.

Everyone helped with the cookies.  We made enough to share with their favorite church teachers.

Quinn loves making hats.  I am wearing one of his recent creations.

Jantzen plays the recorder like a professional.  I didn't know a recorder could play with a symphony orchestra.  I want him to give me lessons.

Elsie is doing her homework and practicing her writing skills.

The kids love music and there was a bit of dancing going on throughout our cookie baking.

Quinn loves his grandpa.  The first cookie he decorated was for Papa.  Then he picked out an equally appetizing one for me.  Thanks, Quinn.  You have a tender heart.

Elsie and Brinley practiced their gymnastic moves and stretches.  It was hard to take a picture of that.

Tanner is doing his science  homework on my computer.  These kids are so bright.

I loved my brief visit up north.  It is always fun to have a last minute surprise trip!  After I picked Steve up at the airport on Friday, we headed up to the second home.  Steve will be gone for the next month so we were eager to spend time there doing a few things.  He suggested that we paint the wall above the book case "chocolate" too.  He did and I love it. He painted a second coat on the kitchen beadboard.  Then we did a lot of touching up with the paint.  We mopped floors and cleaned up our painting mess.  Hooray.  We have put the paint away until we are ready to paint the basement.

We walked over to Hilary's to check on her basement project.  They are way ahead of us at this point.  Here are some closet shelves in her basement.

This is her exercise room.

Here are their new French doors.  Now they can move things in and out of their basement.

Here is a yummy cake that my visiting teaching lady gave me for valentines.  We shared it with the kids in Cache.  I'm supposed to take treats to her and she brought this yummy treat to me before I could.  She is a special lady. Thanks, Lois.

The following are some photos of the house without all the paint supplies.

I wanted to go to the barn.  It is the first time we've ventured out there in a couple of months.  I literally walked on top of 2 feet of snow.  Unfortunately, it will take us a long time to sort and clean out all of the stuff in the barn as you can see from the photo below.  We have a few treasures for a lot of people.