Holly, Greta and I did some easy and effective Valentines' Day crafts that I thought I'd share. You likely have all the supplies in your home already.

First, we made some love bug lady bugs. This is done with construction paper, scissors and glue.

Second, we made heart garlands. I traced hearts onto card stock, the girls and I painted them, and then I cut them out. Using embroidery floss and a sewing needle, I strung the hearts into two garlands. You can do this craft with any age that can paint. They don't need to stay within the lines - you'll just be cutting the hearts out!

Easy Peasy!

On Friday, we celebrated Greta's third birthday. It was a regular day jazzed up. A special breakfast - crepes and OJ and some present opening in the morning. Greta loved opening the gifts and her reactions were awesome! "Another box!" she said many times as she kept removing the wrapping paper to reveal another box. Holly made painted wood beads and strung them into a necklace for Greta and as you can see below, Holly was very excited for Greta to open up the gift! Greta was very, very spoiled this year! Lots of fun new things to play with, lots of Sleeping Beauty. One of our gifts to her was a book and the girls were so confused when it was opened up and claimed we already have it. But no, we don't. We've just borrowed it from the library so many times because Greta loves it!

I printed off 28 photos of Greta from her last year of life and created a collage and taped them to the gifts. Growing up is bittersweet.

We wrapped up our day with cupcakes! We didn't do a birthday party this year, but we did have a fun family outing on Saturday. I really love this style of celebration. And I adore celebrating my daughters!

Taking deep breaths over here today... my youngest is officially three! She's as sassy as ever to me, Conor and Holly, but can be quite shy in public. She loves Frozen, her dollies, Bun-Buns, Sleeping Beauty, collecting toys in all sorts of different bags and then hauling them everywhere with her, dresses, skirts, nightgowns, ballet flats, hummus...

Greta continues to be a beautiful challenge for me. She's a wonderful, forgiving girl and she's forever loyal to our little family. Greta is an absolute joy and a blessing and has been from the day she was born. I am so grateful she's my daughter! Happy birthday to my darling Greta Elizabeth.

In January, our little family headed north to Victoria, BC to visit Conor's brother's family. Conor's parents, his siblings and all the cousins were there too! We were there to celebrate Noah's baptism and Dylan's mission call (Toronto!). It was a really short trip, so I only have a few posts to put up. The first is of our ferry ride. It was a fantastic break to be traveling, but not sitting in a car! It was a bit of a treat too! Below are some photos of the to and from ferry rides. More to come next weekish....

January was a very productive sewing month for me despite travel. I finished up one quilt top for my dear friend's beautiful baby girl and I made a second quilt start to finish for our next door neighbors and their new bundle. For the first one, I used Heather Ross Briar Rose fabric (the same stuff I used for the girls' quilts), and for the second quilt, I used some free spirit fabric that I had around. I've made 4 quilts (I think) from that one half yard bundle purchase. Babies are so wonderful and it's nice to help celebrate.