Strickland Engineering Goes Green!

Our little cousin Abby along with the office manager Cathy planned a St. Patrick's Day party for Mark's office yesterday. We had a great time eating green cupcakes and cookies and drinking green foamy punch! The kids even had a shamrock maze to challenge the engineers and an office scavenger hunt. I think it might become an annual event! Thanks to Abby and Ms. Cathy for a super fun party!

Spring Has Come and Gone....

Just a few days ago Spring arrived at our house! The weather was warm and beautiful, the kids were wearing shorts and playing outside. So glad I took a few pictures because just as quick as it arrived Spring is now gone again--today it's cloudy, cold and snow flurries are in the forecast! Crazy!!!

The boys' Spring sports practices started up last week. That means we're living in our van once again each day from about 3:00-8:00 p.m. Caleb is running track for the Jr. High school team this year and still trying to keep up with his soccer team. Levi is still jumping for the jump rope club and will start running track for the city team next week. Caleb loves running about 3 miles a day but look what it's doing to him:

These last few pics are of Lydia with our little puppy that sits on our front porch. The kids named him "Jay" after our Grandma J. who passed away a few months ago. The kids gave this puppy to Grandma because the lantern in his mouth lights up at night. She loved it, so now Jay sits on our front porch. Lydia pets him every day and says Grandma J is thinking of us when he lights up! I know Grandma is happy that her puppy is being loved!

Daddy-Daughter Dance

Saturday night, our city Parks and Rec dept. hosted their first Father-Daughter dance. Several of Lydia's little friends from church were going so Lydia invited her Daddy to go too. She was so excited to get all dressed up in her princess dress, have her hair done and wear sparkly make-up. I had fun trying to figure out how to do her hair since I was too cheap to have it done! Daddy even dressed up in his tux for their special night! Mark was going to drive her in the van, but she wanted to go in Daddy's truck! She had a great time having pizza, decorating crowns and cookies, doing silly dances with friends and just hanging out with her Daddy. The night was special for them--I hope she still wants to do this when she's 16!

Spring Makeover!

It's March so Spring has to be just around the corner, right? Thought it was time for a little Spring makeover for the blog! Leelou blogs has the cutest stuff and it's free and super easy to do. It has to be for me to figure it out! Stay tuned for a slide show of the Daddy/Daughter Dance from this weekend. Lydia and Mark looked adorable and had such a fun night together. Can't wait to share the pictures with you, hopefully later today or tomorrow!

The Red Envelope

I found this idea on another mom's blog yesterday and thought it was really neat and super easy to do. I'm going to send some and I hope you will too. Go to this website to read more about the project:

www.sendaredenvelope.org

Here is all you have to do:
Get a red envelope, or buy a whole package at Staples or the party store to send out. On the front, address it to:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.
Washington , D.C. 20500

Seal the envelope and on the back, write the following message:

This envelope represents one child who died in abortion. It is empty because that life was unable to offer anything to the world. Responsibility begins with conception.
Even you, President Obama, stated during the National Prayer Breakfast " There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being."

Put a stamp on it, then put it in your mailbox and send it. Then send this website to every one of your friends who you think would send one too. I wish we could send 50 million red envelopes, one for every child who died before having a chance to live. Maybe it will change the heart of the president.

Our Valentine's Weekend...

As you can see we had a fun Valentine's weekend! The kids had their school parties and then they were out of school for six days due to teacher conferences and workdays so we had lots of time to celebrate. Friday night the kids spent the night with my parents so Mark and I could have our date night to Outback and the movies. Thanks Mom and Dad! They had lots of fun going to dinner, making sugar cookies, dipping strawberries and playing Mexican train dominoes (they are now addicted)! Saturday morning Levi played basketball, we had heart quesadillas for lunch then went bowling as a family. Lydia beat us all and even scored over 100! The boys say she cheated tho because we let her use bumpers and not them. It was great fun till Levi hit his mouth with the bowling ball and chipped off his front tooth! Our good dentist friend took care of it quickly tho and Levi now looks like a new man! The last picture is from Sunday night's silly hat night at church. Lydia's purple cowgirl hat even lights up! I know it doesn't fit the valentine's theme but I had to share it anyway! Hope your Valentine's Day was filled with lots of fun too!

Snow Days and the Super Bowl!

Things are finally getting back to normal around here since we had all the ice and snow. The kids had 4 snow days plus a weekend so we got a little stir crazy around here! The boys went back to school yesterday and Lydia back to preschool today. I think they're all happy to be back to our normal routine. The roads are all clear now, but there's still quite a bit of snow and ice hanging around. We had a fun weekend, despite the snow and ice. Friday night Lydia went to a little friend's Hannah Montana birthday party. Saturday morning was Levi's basketball game and we finally won--I think Levi was the high scorer this week! He needs to eat Honey Kix cereal before every game! That night Mark and I went to our Sunday School class' Valentine party and had a great time. Sunday was church, Mark's mission lunch meeting and then our little family Super Bowl party. The kids dressed up in Cardinal's colors, Lydia grabbed her poms poms for cheering, and Levi helped cook some of our favorite appetizers. My parents came over after church for the 2nd half and we were all so sad to see the Cardinals lose. Oh well, it looked great though since we were watching in HD on our new TV! Here's a few pics of our snow day vacation!

All the neighbors sledding down our street--Caleb's in red!

Lydia's in the green coat with her neighbor friend

Levi at the bottom of the slope!

Yummy snow ice cream!

Levi and Lydia watching the game!

GOOOOOO Cardinals!!!!!!