Our family loves Valentine's Day and always looks forward to it. My husband Jim Bob and I like to have a special day to celebrate it, either before or on the day of Valentine's. We write sweet notes to each other, which is something we do all the time -- we'll write a little sticky note and leave it somewhere for each other to find, or we'll leave each other a voice mail. But on Valentine's Day Jim Bob will usually surprise me in some way.

I'm not big on flowers because I don't have a green thumb and can't ever keep anything alive and so I figure, if it's going to be flowers let's do something that lasts for a while -- like a plant or silk flowers. But the notes are the sweetest presents.

We make it a point to go out on a date on Valentine's, and the older kids encourage us to by offering to babysit. They'll say, "Now, daddy, where are you going to take momma this time?" (It's usually my favorite restaurant.) I think they realize the importance of being able to encourage those sweet moments in a relationship, and they look forward to having their sweetheart, whoever that person will be that the Lord brings into their future.