Valentine’s Day has always been such a special day for me. I’m a romantic at heart – HELLO – I do photograph weddings for a living! LOL! How could I NOT love Valentine’s Day?? I absolutely adore days that I can dedicate to showing my loved ones how much I utterly and truly adore them! I hate that you need to have a holiday to remind you to do things like this, but I’m glad they are there, because life can just get sooooo incredibly busy, that holidays can sometimes force us to take days to just stop and smell the proverbial roses.

Food is so awesome. Who doesn’t love an amazingly delicious meal, right? I always considered food one of the most special gifts you can give some one. It takes a lot of time to a make a meal from scratch and work extra hard to make it delicious as well!

To kick off our Valentine’s Day, Arielle and I made Daddy a special Valentine’s Day breakfast! I guess all of these years of watching The Food Network have paid off, because I never really go off of any recipes when I cook, I just kind of throw things together the way I think it might taste good. For the most part, this has served quite well for me.

I decided to photograph Arielle while she was helping prepare breakfast. She is so stinkin’ cute! I love taking photos of my kids! If only I had more time in the day!!

Allowing my kids to help in the kitchen is actually a really special treat for them. I’m usually always kicking them OUT of the kitchen when I’m cooking! They can be like dogs at my heels 24/7 (which can get annoying at times, especially if you’re in a rush or don’t want to have to re-do things a hundred times from fixing little ones’ mistakes).

Here is a preview of the ingredients that I bought the day before to aid in our entire Valentine’s DAY menu.Genesis was looking so cute in her pink outfit that I had to snap a quick few pics of her! She is now 4 months old! Such a big girl!Spark is a totally raw, organic beverage, made by SUJA. Wow, I am like so totally in love with SUJA! Their juices are amazing! Spark is the perfect morning pick-me-up, especially on Valentine’s Day!I poured the juice in these vintage glasses that I had borrowed from my mom for my baby shower last August, that I never ended up using. I like to break out the pretty “serving-wear” for special occasions. It just makes everything feel more dressed up and special!Here’s my Muffin before he had to get on the bus for school!Next up, Arielle was eager to crack the eggs!Pouring in the milk like a “big girl!”Next up is some vanilla extract.And some orange zest!Some raisins and sliced almonds too!Genesis is enjoying being a part of the breakfast-making process!We can’t leave out the fresh blueberries either!Next, we need to pour our custard mixture over the brioche!Let it bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, and throw the bacon in there about the last 15-20 minutes or so!Mmm. Nice and golden brown and hot out of the oven!Daddy joins in to help Arielle make some stuffed dates for our backyard lunch picnic later in the day.A pretty yet simple table setting with nice lovely plates that I picked up at Home Goods for last Valenine’s Day.Some homemade whipped honey-date butter. Yum. I could eat this stuff by itself. Dried lavender is always gorgeous. Always.Enjoy!

xoxo and <3

Suzi