Someone Turned 9!

Well Jared is officially nine. It doesn't seem possible, yet it is true. I thought he was just baptized yesterday, not a whole year ago. He had to do a treasure hunt to find this present. Riley was his helper. He's been begging and borrowing Nicole and Riley's Ripsticks, and now he's got his own. He was thrilled. His is a smaller and smoother rolling board. It could be that the other boards around here have been used and abused and thus don't roll as well.

He obviously already knew how to use it. I have no idea how they do that, but I like to watch them. I also like that they get outside and get some exercise. It's not something I usually allow in my house....especially since "the hole in the wall accident". What a bunch of crazies I have!

Don't ask me why I got that look from either of them. The girls are just looking at each other like..."Boys!!" Jared you are loud, crazy, smart, a daredevil, and good boy and we're glad to have you in our family.

Butterfly!

Our kids were playing with their friends and they brought in a fat, green caterpillar. They wanted to keep it and see if it would turn into a butterfly. We got a jar ready and let them keep it. Things like this don't usually go well for me. The insect usually dies and then we have to go through a long explanation about why and what and all that. When it looked like it was making a cocoon the next morning, we were encouraged. When it was mostly black and looked really sad by the evening, I told them not to expect much. We decided not to throw it out yet, but to see what would happen over the next week or so.

One morning Sarah was getting ready for school and yelled. She scared me and I didn't know what she was talking about, but she said "It came out!!" Sure enough, this beautiful butterfly had emerged from its cocoon. We were all very happy it had survived and I'm glad I didn't have to explain why it died.

We let it go outside so it could be free and live a good life.

Here's what was left of the cocoon after it came out.

Snow Day!!

I know it's a bit late to be posting this, but I just uploaded these pictures and I was reminded about our huge snowstorm we had on March 28th! Winter is over by then, but we got the most snow I've ever seen here in OK. It melted the next day and we were enjoying 60 degree weather, but just look at the amount on the ground. Considering I've only seen it snow about four times in the four winters I've lived here, this was amazing.

Our Awesome Spring Break Adventure!!

We had so much fun on our trip. It felt like we had been gone for a month instead of almost 13 days. We went to Disney World, Ft. Lauderdale, and on a short cruise to the Bahamas. I'm posting a slideshow for your viewing pleasure. We definitely have to do something like this again!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Pinewood Derby

Jared participated in his first derby this year. He didn't come in first, but he didn't come in last either. He was somewhere right in the middle and that's just great for us. We're not engineers around here, but Jared had fun and that what matters. The leaders did a great job setting everything up and running it smoothly. I was very impressed.

Thank you great leaders!!

Everyone who raced had a lot of fun!

Court of Honor

Riley had a Court of Honor and was awarded his 2nd Class Rank and a few merit badges. He's doing well in Scouts, but we all need to get on the ball and finish up some badges he has in the works and get a few more things done on his 1st Class. He conducted this meeting to pass off a requirement for his Communication badge. He did a great job!

Here he is with his leader, Bro. Bingham and Jesse in the background.

I usually have a jacket with a collar when my kids get to "pin" me with something. I really am proud of him for putting for the effort he does for his scouting activities.

YMCA Basketball

Jared played basketball again this winter. He really enjoys it and I'm glad that he wants to do something so active. He really tries hard. Their team had a rough season, but ended up winning their last two games. I like it when I see a team improve. Way to go Jared!

This last picture is during the awards party at Mazzio's. I always appreciate the coaches who donate their time to help our kids.

Soccer Referee

Ok, I've been reprimanded again for not updating my blog. I'm a serious slacker and I apologize. I really do have a lot of exciting things to report, but I get overwhelmed easily. I'll do my best to catch up and keep up!

Riley really wanted to become a soccer referee this Spring. He paid for and took the class, passed with flying colors, and bought his uniform. He's refereed several games and gets paid pretty well for them. It will really help him with his own knowledge of the game and I love that he has ambition to do something that can be difficult. I wouldn't want those parents mad at me for calling something on the field. He started with U8 teams and will move up to U10 and become a line ref for the older U12 and U14 teams. Eventually he may ref for competetive teams, but that's a few years down the road.

I have a few pictures of him at his first game.



Great job Riley!

Nicole's Valentine

Make a Smilebox greeting

Sarah's Valentine

Make a Smilebox greeting

Kelli's House at Thanksgiving

We had a fun trip at Thanksgiving. I posted about the friends we were able to visit. I'm a little bit late, but here are some pictures of our time at Kelli's house.
McKenna's making a face. I'm sure one of my kids got this picture of her and she's being silly. McKenna turned 10 on January 5th and is getting very grown up.

Here are Kelli's other three girls. Avorie is on the left. She is very loud, but very loving and really enjoys life. Brielle, in the middle, is going to be a year on March 7th. She's getting around everywhere and has to be watched a lot. I heard she's walking a few steps at a time already. Marlena, on the right, turned 7 on November 15th. She waited for us to come so she could celebrate her birthday with her cousins around. I thought that was super nice to wait 10 days to celebrate. She and Sarah actually had a joint birthday party.

Here they both are just after blowing out the candles on their cake. I wonder what they wished for, they sure are smiling big.

Lance loves his baby. He's a great dad.

Avorie's waiting for something exciting to happen.

Marlena's contemplating something.

Like I said, we had a great time visiting with family. We played a lot of games and ate a lot of good food. The kids played in the snow and down in the basement for hours and hours. We love Kelli and her family!