St. Valentine's Day the Hall way.

Happy day-after-Valentine's-Day to you! Also known as President's Day this year... but hey, potayto potahto.

We had a great Valentine's Day season this year. It always seems to go on and on. But this year it wasn't that bad. Like it didn't drag on and we didn't eat a million sugar cookies. Which I was very very grateful for. Last year we came out of the weekend on thee worst sugar high/sugar crash and it was not enjoyable. At all. So yeah this year was loads better.

Our festivities began with Peter's preschool party. We decided to have our kids pass out valentines pretty last second and luckily I had the exact amount of frozen cookie dough balls in our freezer are there are kids in the co-op. So we defrosted those babies, snagged a tag off of pinterest, and bam... his valentines were ready! He even did a spectacular job signing his name. Spelled PFW of course.

When I picked him up from preschool they were all chowing down on their valentines. There are times when I realize... oh, I have to teach my kid that? Like... how you don't have to eat every single valentine treat as a second breakfast haha. Other moments when this has happened include realizing I had to teach my children to sleep through the night and to not lick the booster seats at the theater.

Anyway.

On Thursday night Todd and I went out on a really fun date to Taste in Provo. Todd had gone on an MBA field trip there and apparently these guys are incredibly passionate about chocolate making. So we booked a little mini chocolate tasting and it's true... these guys know their stuff! The tasting was so fun. Like I would highly recommend doing one. We tried some amazing chocolate and some really cool vinegar and olive oil. Outside of tastings they sell desserts as well as fancy chocolate, balsamic vinegars, and olive oils. We'll definitely be going back for a treat pretty soon.

This is me about to "passionately suck" cherry balsamic vinegar out of my "snuff box." Haha seriously.

On Friday we went to Provo Rehab and made valentines cards with the residents. I didn't get any pictures of our buddies there but I did get a picture of Calvin's new friend, Annie B. It was a great time and we can't wait to go back for our next activity!

On Saturday evening we didn't have anything planned so we decided to make a valentines treat. Usually we'd just do heart-shaped sugar cookies but I'd been seeing so many valentines donuts on my instagram feed so we made some of our own! Turns out the spudnut dough fries up really nicely when there isn't a hole cut in the dough. And the maple glaze/frosting stuff... it smelled and tasted awesome when we made it but it didn't really hold up it's own flavor once on the doughnut. Either way it was a tasty treat and we had fun taking them to our friends.

Sunday morning we started off our Valentine's Day right with heart shaped pancakes! The boys devoured them and weren't hungry again until dinner haha.

After church we spent the evening with aunt Callie and her fiance, Spencer, then we dined on a super romantic dinner of ribs and mashed potatoes! Yum.

Do you like the flowers and vases Todd got me? I've been going through this phase where if something in our house bugs me I declare to everyone that it will not make it on our next move. My flower vase is one of those items. It's huge and the top of it flares out like crazy so bouquets always look goofy in it. Todd took notes and went and got me some cute smaller ones that take their flower-holding-responsibility a little more seriously. ;)

And here are my valentines! I had three this year! They were all so nice to me and looked so handsome in their Sunday best.

And that, my friends, was our Valentine's Day! We had a great time celebrating our love for each other. And a handful of our friends brought over some edible love... which we also loved. (:

Hope you're feeling especially loved this season too!

♥♥♥♥♥♥

a Pocatello Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving this year was pretty low-key. Usually we get together with lots of family and there are cousins running wild at every hour of the day making all sorts of ruckus. There is always garbage bag after garbage bag after garbage bag full of dirty paper plates and bowls that once held bulk dinners and tasty treats. And the card games. All of the adults always get to stay up "late" and play Rook. Although over the years our extended family has grown and moved farther away and getting together for Thanksgiving has fizzled into smaller groups. This year our group got even smaller and we had our first solo Barfuss family Thanksgiving!

Todd wrapped up classes Tuesday evening and we made our way to Pocatello for a long weekend of yummy food, family, and football.

I was especially proud of our Thanksgiving dinner. Mel had so many new recipes that I had been wanting to try and fortunately my mother is very patient with me and went right along with all of my ridiculous meal planning. Here's what we had... it was all fantastic and you should probably give these recipes a try next Thanksgiving. Or sooner... nothing says "gratitude" like pretzel roll stuffing in April!

Pretzel and Sausage Stuffing

Fresh Cranberry Chutney

Stuffed Apple and Bacon Sweet Potato Casserole

Chocolate Caramel Pecan Pie

Classic Pumpkin Pie

We also dined finely on an excellent turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, some killer gravy, and an assortment of uber tasty pies.

I can't forget to mention that Thanksgiving Day marked 5 years since Todd proposed. FIVE YEARS! I know for many of you that's nothing. But right now I'm having a hard time believing it...

Brennan Scott and Calvin Scott.

After Thanksgiving half the party had to return to Utah for work. Fortunately Todd's research job is very flexible so we got to stay for a couple more days. 

No Rook went down but we did make a sweet marble tower.

And we decorated for Christmas! Peter got to put up grandma's special Christmas tree heart. Lucky duck... my siblings and I used to fight every year about who's turn it was.

And that's pretty much what went down this Thanksgiving. We took it pretty easy. The boys had loads of fun, we ate loads of food, and we came back nice and rested for the looming finals week.

Even though our numbers were few we were still very grateful to have family close enough to visit.

I know I've probably shared this already but recently I've also been especially grateful for my boys. They love me no matter how much of a bum I am. They are constantly teaching me and setting examples for me that I didn't know I needed. Because of them I've been able to better understand a stronger, deeper kind of love. A love that isn't even close to the love that the Savior has for me and my family.

daddy time 3.0

A while back Todd pointed out that Peter has gotten to do a lot of really neat things in the first two years of his life... so many fun things that his first two years may be the coolest of his entire childhood. And he's not even going to remember any of it! Poor kid. Hopefully we get to continue to do some extra neat stuff in the future. Anyhow, this last year has been especially fun and let me tell you... no two guys know how to have fun more than Peter and his daddy. They've been on adventure after adventure and I've been the lucky one behind the lens that gets to watch this father-son relationship develop.

Here's a little large taste of what I get to watch, and oh so luckily, be a part of...

Father's Day 2014... where we left off,

Wisconsin and Illinois provided many of our extra neat adventures... for example...

we got to tour a Jelly Belly factory (can I just have a bag of root beer belly flops like right now please??),

attend multiple Giants (vs, Brewers, Cubs, & White Sox) games,

we ate deep dish pizza in the heart of Chicago,

and really only saw ate fraction of what Chicago has to offer.

On our camping trip last summer we swam in Lake Michigan,

adventured around the thumb of Wisconsin (Door County), and saw a lot of very beautiful sights.

Our next big adventure took us (via vehicle) clear to California. Peter met Todd's cousin, Peter, who had chickens! Too cool.

One of Todd's other cousins, Blake, had a sweet Jeep that the boys loved.

The rest of our California trip was nice and touristy... Fairytale Town and the Zoo. Can't beat that when you're 2 years old!

Next (and more permanent) stop? Provo, UT. Although not as new and exciting as the rest of our year we have been having lots of fun! Provo truly has come a long way in the last few years...

reliving memories at good ol' Campus Plaza,

making new memories at better ol' Wymount,

temple open housing,

Rock Canyon hiking,

Sunday napping,

Halloweening,

pumpkin patching,

apple picking,

meeting Santa,

building edible chook-chooks,

cheering on our cougars,

visiting the Midway Ice Castles,

and eating our favorite Midway treats at Dairy Keen. Yum, guys.

Really our days are usually filled with the usual "boring stuff." But Peter (an now Calvin) tends to liven things up a bit. (:

Like dish doing while potty training (yes the warm dish water did make Peter wet his pants),

 and building toy classification wheels.

BYU does provide us with a lot of fun stuff too... this human/Cosmo hybrid statue is pretty neat.

There's also Easter egg dying,

making treats (always a hit).

and oh my heck! becoming a new daddy again! Very exciting. The most exciting, really. (:

Don't worry, Calvin hasn't eaten up all of daddy's attention. He still finds time to take us to tasty eateries and share his favorite root beer,

take us to more temple opening houses,

and visit the horsies with us.

Isn't this daddy such a fun guy?? And look at that smile... I mean, come on! 

Amidst all of our extra fun adventures we've filled our time with the little ho hum stuff. The stuff that Peter actually likes the most...

like story time, and cuddles, and playing ball-ball. Looks like no matter what he and Calvin will have a pretty decent childhood. (: Especially with such a great daddy around!

Happy Father's Day Todd! Thanks for going on this parenthood journey with me and for being so great for our boys. They're some lucky ducky kiddos.

♥♥♥