let me love you.

The overwhelming amount of great memories I have of all the different Valentine's day is amazing. Some of my favorite childhood memories are how my Mom and Dad always made that day so special. We would all wake up to our favorite candies on the kitchen table with a gift! We loved it. As I got older, my Dad would always send me flowers, which of course as every girl knows, makes you feel like a million bucks. Through high school, my friends and I grabbed a movie (usually The Notebook, lets be honest) and ordered in a heart shaped pizza... or two or three. Friends and sisters are always the greatest Valentines. The memories of funny things that we did and gave to each other is too long to list. To this day we still laugh and tell our husbands about our former hilarious single days and the stupid things we did. Sometimes they laugh and sometimes you get the look that says "that is only funny to you and your friends." - which I have to say, is usually true. To me though, I think the true value is in the memories that were made, the joy that is brought in those gifts, and the time spent together. 

The greatest joy that I receive is in giving love and the many different ways that we can show it. 

Here are some of my favorite things I have made / given / received!

made by me this year for my Mom & Dad

the card I made for my younger sister, Cait, this year

my gift for Josh this year ...

the phone case I got Josh this year for valentine's

my valentine from my boyfriend, Luke, this year

the card I made for my younger sister, Jamie, this year

my baby sister, Addison, with some of the things I sent her

the card I made for my Dad, Laura and Addison this year

my tea from my friend Jayne two years ago

cupcakes sent a couple years ago from my favorite bakery by my Mom & Dad

probably my #1, my first valentine's day card from Josh two years ago

& valentine's day last year from Josh

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Love is such a gift. The beauty of love is all it's different shapes and forms that it takes. The way we love one another is a reflection of who we are and how we choose to feel towards another. This past week Josh and I read through The Five Love Languages and we really learned a ton. We realized so much about how we feel loved, what we need to feel loved, how we can better love one another, and just how special that is that we are all so different. I love that we are different. I love that Josh feels love in another way than I do and now I know how I can better communicate that to him. So far, in the tiny steps we have taken to express our love to one another, through quality time and the simple hand on the back, we have both felt better loved. 

I love that God has blessed me with being Josh's wife and being able to love him in a way that only I was created to love him. As we enter into a new part of our relationship, passing the 2 year mark of being together, we have found the chapters of each part of our story to be so different but equally beautiful. Realizing that you can't live on a mountain top, that there is beauty in each phase of life, and seeing growth in both good and the bad has been a huge blessing to us both. Falling in love with each other daily in new ways, loving each other when you fall short, choosing to show each other love when you are tired and just want to go to bed... this is the beauty of our God to me. I love that He has modeled the perfect relationship and reflection of love. Thank God, because I fall short everyday. But Josh loves me the way that our God loves him, with mercy, grace, and unconditionally. 

This Valentine's day was better and different than any other because of that man and the love we have been given. I hope everyone else has had a great love day, whether it was being silly with your sisters or friends, sharing it with your parents, or with the man / woman you love. 

xoxo

memories on paper

Over the years, I have been semi-hoarding all the cards, notes, and letters that I have gotten from friends and family. There are too many funny, loving, caring, sweet, full of life memories that I can't just toss. It also seemed just as pointless to let them sit in a box in a cabinet where I never get to see them either. Lucky me, I stumbled upon a blog that showed her great idea for saving your cards! The way that she made hers was using a whole punch and keeping them in a small binder. It was really cute, but I wanted to personalize it for me. 

I have an addiction to journals. I can't help it. They are beautiful and I love to write. So needless to say, I can't finish one journal before I fall in love with another one. This actually happened to be perfect though! I had this amazing journal I had bought at Anthropologie and had been dying to do something really cool with. Seemed like with all my cards and this gem, I finally had that opportunity. 

It's gorgeous, right?

 

Pick your favorite memories! Cards, notes, letters, whatever! I used ModPodge to glue the cards to the paper.

( The second picture is Instagram'd- if you aren't addicted, you should be. )

This was my first page but you can decide to put whatever really.

just because's :)

Christmas cards

I love the way this came out! It is just so fun to flip through and see all the sweet words of encouragement, love, and joy that people wish you on graduations, birthdays, and for no reason at all. I am so blessed to be so loved by amazing people and their words are something I cherish so deeply and now they look adorable in my journal. Hope you guys can do something fun and special to you with your memories!!!