Lovely Valentines Decor Projects

I've had way too much fun sprucing up our home for Valentine's Day this year! I can't seem to stop doing little projects!

I made this cute wall of free V-tines printables using thrift store frames. Gwen decorated those doilies and I wanted to use them around the house! Printables from Yellowblissroad, 18twentyfive, the36thavenue, and theredheadedhostess.   

Completed this adorable free printable candy hearts banner from sandytoesandpopsicles.

Found this 'house' at the thrift store and new it would be adorable for the girls little pet shops and princesses to have a Valentine's cottage especially for them! Painted it white then added in scrapbook paper to each hole. 

Burlap and felt heart inspired by Embellishinglifeeveryday.

Speaking of embellishing, check out Gwen's work on that doily!

These pink rose topiaries were inspired by the Idearoom.

Now I just need to finish up the simple peasant dress I'm making for Gwen (pink and green argyle-- so cute!) since she doesn't have a good V-tines dress and I'll be 'set' on the projects! Then I can add some more, or start on my St.Patty's decor, or begin their Easter dresses, or work on my spring hexie quilt for our bed! So many options! I LOVE having a project (or projects!) in the works! What are YOU working on these days?

Asian Love

Eric and I got to celebrate Asia 2 weekends in a row! We had our monthly in-home date to Japan and then the next week was Lunar New Year so we had our annual Korean feast!

Japanese in-home date night. We are poor with no extra vacation flexibility but we both LOVE the idea of international travel! So we decided this year to have a monthly "trip" to a place of interest! We get take out, plan small activities for our date, and then enjoy our evening as though we took a quick vacation! For our kickoff date, Eric chose Japan! We had delicious sushi (not pictured) before we put the kids to bed. 

We made some fancy but sweet origami flowers together.

I put up some gorgeous light posters given to me by my mom's Japanese friend, Yoko, back when I was in 4th grade. I love them! 

We had a great evening of delicious food, music, movies, and entertainment and I am loving our travel dates! Some day we'll go there for real, but in the mean time, this was a ton of fun and nicely romantic. 

We had a great dinner celebration for Lunar New Year this past weekend!

Emmett loved the japchae noodles. He had a pile of them in his lap by the end of his efforts!

kimbap and ddeokbokki

Kasia was a natural at rolling the kimbaps!

Stacey's hubby was a missionary in Korea like I was (just different place and years), so she came along for the Korean market shopping and food prep. It was so much fun to have a friend in the kitchen with me! Thanks Stacey!

Caroline wasn't feeling so well. She fell asleep right there WHILE everyone was running around her!

an impromptu blanket peek-a-boo game was warmly received by all the kidlets!

Our lively game of Yutnori went down in favor of guys... TWICE... but we're saying that we just let them win. Twice. :)

I made Hoddeok for the first time and it was a smashing success! Adding it to the yearly menu for sure! Why have we never done it before? Oh yeah: because there is already so much food and we are always stuffed. Though it is traditionally essential for Lunar New Year, I think I'm going to remove ddeok guk from the menu. No one really enjoys that soup as much as the rest of the food. I'd rather have more room for other foods. Would that be heresy if I left it out? :)

We had a wonderful time! Thanks for celebrating Lunar New Year with us, folks!

St. Patrick's Day Festivities

For Family Home Evening activity Gwen helped me make a leprechaun trap.

Gwen's contribution to the bait

the finished trap

the bait

the lovely golden ladder

We checked it every morning and she was starting to lose interest, actually, because we never caught one. But this morning we found tons of Leprechaun gold, so I guess he came on St. Patrick's Day Eve!

Gwen has been very excited about eating her special gold coin chocolates...

notice that OUR leprechaun happens to be Jewish? :) (that's because he saved the gold coins from the after-Hanukkah sale)

We made some festive green block jello, using the instructions here:

Caroline enjoying her jello treat

And my favorite part: the corned beef (my first time to try it), cabbage, carrots, and whole wheat Irish Soda Bread for dinner!

For the record, I actually wasn't the biggest fan of corned beef-- too fatty. But the FLAVOR of the corned beef ON the cabbage and carrots was AWESOME. and I loved the whole wheat Irish Soda Bread. All in all a delicious dinner, even if the protein wasn't my favorite ever.

Gwen 'enjoying' her dinner (aka, playing with her food)

#1 Eric Cameron Allan

I love my husband. I can't even express in words, really, because they don't measure up to what I feel and just start to sound like a sappy love song.

Suffice it to say, this man is THE best man I know.

He is patient, kind, compassionate, a good listener, a problem solver, talented, intelligent, hilarious, handsome, a handy man, curious, dedicated, and sensitive to the Spirit. He brings out the best in me. He brings out the best in pretty much everyone, I'd say, and is amazing at making people feel comfortable 1 on 1. He is a wonderful father, an amazing husband, my very best friend.

What more can I say? He is the best thing to come into my life besides the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am more in love today than I was when I married him 5 1/2 years ago... and we were pretty in love then too! In my estimation, this is what Valentine's Day is all about: LOVE.

And I LOVE ERIC with all my heart.

Chinese Lantern Festival at the Allans

As mentioned in today's post for countdown to love, today is Chinese Lantern Festival. I thought it would be fun if we did a little lanterning for Family Home Evening. After a lesson about how Jesus Christ is the Light of the world and how we are supposed to be a light too, we did a lil crafting.

Gwen went to town with her new Fancy Nancy stickers (thanks Mama and Papa! She loves em!)

and Eric turned his into a puzzle-math-quandary. I love seeing how this man's brain works. I was perfectly content with the average lantern, but not Eric. He wanted to do something challenging.

the idea is for a spiral lantern...

you'll see how it turned out in a minute...

Gwen wanted to see the candles

and then when she realized I was taking pictures of her, she started posing... lol!...

the lantern lineup

with candles

my favorite: Eric's 'spiral' masterpiece! LOL!!!!

(I should add that the prettiest one, featured at the top, was also one of Eric's creations. But this one is still my favorite)

Caroline just wanted to play with the lanterns

what I mean is, she wanted to eat them. Surprise, surprise.

Happy Lantern Day!

Delicious and Daunting

The prospect of returning home to our own space and schedule is both delicious and daunting.

(I neglected to bring my journal with me to Idaho. Well, I guess 'neglected' is misleading. My suitcase was crammed and I purposefully selected my journal to stay in Ohio. I figured my blog could be my journal. That is why you are getting more "Elisa's thoughts" posts than usual. Hope you don't mind too much.)

How delicious it will be to return to our own beds and rooms, our own daily plans. As usual, the leisurely days have given me the break I needed and motivated me to get right back in there with learning activities for Gwen, exercising at the gym, cleaning, cooking, studying, and completing other organization or crafty projects. I am eager to get back into a routine of productivity. I am looking forward to a quiet Thanksgiving just us. I'm looking forward to the culinary preparation that goes along with it, especially the hours of poring over recipes to decide which new ones I'll try this year and add to our traditional favorites. That is really going to be fun! I'm looking forward to play dates with friends, chatting with my gal friends whom I've missed so much. I'm looking forward to driving with 2 girls in the back seat, on our way to the gym or the store or wherever--just in control once again (I guess I'm a control freak because a month of being passenger has started to bug me). I'm looking forward to reintegrating myself in my ward, which will have so many faces I barely know and some I've never seen. It will be delicious to serve again, to contribute. I'm looking forward to preparing Christmas offerings for friends, Christmas gifts and packages, and even the obligatory cards. I am looking forward to the rotation of seasonal decorations that are just 'ours' and already so full of memory. It will be delicious to tidy our home, make it beautiful, and count each little blessing.

All the while, I am daunted by the prospect of weaning Gwen off of her 'shows', her new toys (which I think she thinks are hers), and her adoring fans. I'm also daunted by the prospect of weaning Caroline off of those same adoring fans. The girls are going to be going through attention-deficit-shock. I've really enjoyed the time with family, the opportunity to get to know my in-laws better, to spend one-on-one time with Elise in a Rasputin dance off on the Wii, to be tutored by my oh-so-talented MIL on a sewing project, to teasingly remind my FIL that Caroline cannot have cake and ice cream yet. It has been wonderful. The best part, though, was actually seeing how content and happy Eric is every night has we cuddle and whisper in bed. He has really enjoyed this break and I've loved seeing him so relaxed and at ease with the world. No worries to furrow his brow. Such will not be the case when he is in a rotation AND doing interviews AND preparing for boards AND serving in his calling AND trying to maximize his time with us. No, it will be a rough coming month for Eric, and I am going to miss the peace in his handsome hazel eyes. I am definitely daunted by the return to responsibility.

But, ready or not, here we come. Tomorrow will be a day of laundry, packing, putting away things we've gotten out, and walking through again and again to pick up any last item we may have missed hiding behind pillows or stacks of books or toys. (I'm sure we'll forget something. Isn't that to be expected?)

We'll be home in Ohio on Wednesday. How deliciously daunting. (hopefully I don't get a tummy ache like this guy is bound to get...)

The Littlest Pumpkin

Most of you, like me, probably remember trying to find the BIGGEST pumpkin to carve when you were little, or at the very least, the one with the most personality. Well, Grandma wanted Gwen to get a chance at choosing her own pumpkin for carving. So she took us down to a cute lil pumpkin store. The patch was across the street, supplying all the pumpkins for the store. But that meant the store was cute and child-friendly, just the perfect size for wandering unattached without fear of losing anybody. Gwen loved the freedom to explore.

She was excited about this maze until she realized they had put some plywood down over the hay bales to create a 'tunnel'. Then she was done.

After that distraction officially behind her, the real process of choosing her own pumpkin began. Grandma said she could pick out any she wanted.

We pointed out the huge carving pumpkins. "Oh," she said, "they're Daddy ones. But where are the baby ones?". Hmmm.

So we pointed out the pumpkins with personality. "Oh", she said, "it's squished. But where is my baby one?". Hmmm.

So we pointed out the eggshaped ones. "Oh," she said, "but where's my lil pumpkin for me?"

....Apparently, she was not interested in pie pumpkins either, calling them Mommy pumpkins. Or gourds, because they didn't look like pumpkins.

But when she found the smallest pumpkins in the whole place-- these tiny lil ghost pumpkins--it was love at first sight. She picked out the very smallest one she could find, cradled it in her hands, and cooed "Oh, here's my lil baby pumpkin! I love you so much!"

Caroline and Aunt Elise

and, no, we didn't attempt to carve it. Gwen loved her littlest pumpkin so much!