valentine's day

what a great day! i am not one of those people who counts down to valentine's day but i'm also not one of the haters. it's always been a nice day to me and a great concept- share your love with the people you love! i've never thought it was just about couples. i made valentine's this year and sent them to my family and best friends, because i love them! my mom sent evan a valentine, because when she thinks of love, she certainly thinks first of that little man these days. it's a wonderful day to show an emotion we are all too often hesitant to share.

neither matt or myself are particularly romantic, which is not a winning combination. but yesterday we managed to have a wonderful time without all of the romance, just a great night out! it started by matt bringing me home a dozen roses and card. this is a big deal in 2 ways- 1) i love flowers and matt is pretty good at remembering that and making me happy by bringing them to me and 2) matt hates cards so the fact that he took the time to pick one out for me scores him some mega points. so for the rest of the evening we went out with friends. our neighbors (who's name is also matt smith, seriously) had 2 extra tickets to spamalot at the brooks center on clemson's campus and asked us if we wanted to join them. we love going out with other couples and have been meaning to go out with them since we moved here, so of course we said yes. we also went to a really good chinese buffet before the show with them.

spamalot+chinese buffet may not equal a great valentine's day to many, but it was for us. we dressed up, got a babysitter, ate good and cheap food, enjoyed a really funny and well done show, and got to go on a double date. we haven't been on a double date probably since a usc baseball game we went to with our friends sarah and david back in may. matt and lindsay are so much fun, it's awesome to know your neighbors, have so much in common with them, and want to spend time with them!

i must make a little note about the babysitter thing- poor poor rachel. we asked matt's drum major to babysit for us, she's been wanting to forever, and she willingly agreed. evan really is the PERFECT baby... for me. i was a little nervous how he would do without me. he stays with my grandmother a lot but, he knows her really well so he's cool with that. well my fears were legitimate- he did not do well. rachel said he screamed crying for the first hour and then off and on the remaining 3 that we were out. poor rachel, she'll never want to come back! but he's got to get used to more people so i'm glad we've started, even if it was a rough start.

although it probably wasn't a perfect evening for dear rachel, it was awfully close to perfect for us. so thanks to matt and lindsay for hooking us up with the tickets and spending the evening with us and thanks to rachel for keeping our little screamer. and of course thanks to matt, for being my eternal valentine whom i love so incredibly much and am beyond thankful for. he's a wonderful man, husband, and father and i'm glad he's mine forever.

my little valentine!