Rat Race!

We're still here! Just way too busy to update these days. Here's what we've been doing since my last post:

• track meets in Perryville, Cape & Poplar Bluff for Caleb & Levi
• soccer tournament in St. Louis for Caleb
• Cub Scout boat race for Levi
• gymnastics for Lydia
• 4th grade choir trip for Levi
• Hours of Cinderella play practice for Caleb
• 3 days of subbing for Lori
• Hours of studying for Mark to pass his "green" test for work
• Levi's final mile run for Marathon Kids Club at school
• Teacher appreciation week
• Lydia's preschool field trip
• All our normal weekly stuff like church, BSF, school, etc.

That explains why my house is a mess and the laundry is piled high! And the next 3 weeks don't look any better as we try to finish out the school year. We are all counting down the days till our beach vacation at the end of school--24 more to go! We are all in desperate need of a break from our busy life! I know our schedule seems crazy to most people, but we are grateful for healthy, active kids that make our life so much fun!

Amazing...

If you've watched any news in the last few days, you've heard of Susan Boyle. If not, let me introduce you to her. She's a 47-year-old unemployed woman from Scotland who's never even been on a date before. She came onto this show called Britain's Got Talent to sing. The people and judges took one look at her and thought this would be a miserable audition. Take a look here at what happens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z0h1NNk1Ik

She totally blew them away with her voice! The judges and audience were shocked! I think this is so inspirational--I cannot stop watching it! We always try to teach our kids to not "judge a book by it's cover" and to give everyone an equal chance before quickly judging what we think they can or cannot do. What a great story to prove this point. Way to go Susan Boyle! We are cheering for you!

Happy Easter!

Here's a few pictures from Easter Sunday. We had a fun day, even tho the weather was cloudy and chilly. Not very good for taking pictures. The kids have been on Spring Break for several days so we've been sleeping in, shopping, going to the movies and eating at their favorite restaurants. Mark had Good Friday off so we took off to St. Louis for a day at the Magic House and the malls! Saturday the kids spent the afternoon at Nana's house dying eggs and decorating cookies. Sunday, after Easter services at church, we had a quiet lunch at my parent's house. My brothers and their families didn't get to come home this year so it was not nearly as much fun without all the cousins there to have our annual egg drop from the roof! We spent the evening with Mark's family to celebrate his sister's birthday. There was plenty of action there with all the little boys running around! And of course it was raining so we were all stuck inside! We've had a great break but I think the boys are ready to return to school to finish out the year. This afternoon Caleb has a track meet in Jackson and Levi has one in Cape, so we're off to watch them run. It's 40-some degrees here so I've got my winter coat, gloves and a blanket ready. Will Spring ever come to stay? On Thursday Mark and Levi travel to Jeff City for the 4th grade school trip to the Capitol. Levi is so excited! I'll post a slide show of our trip to the Magic House soon. Stay tuned...

Lydia in her P.J.'s with her basket on Easter morning!

I LOOOOOOVE CANDY!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure why Lydia always cocks her head for pictures!

My favorite 3, all dressed up and ready for church!

On Your Mark, Get Set, GO!

Wow! I can't believe I finally found a minute to sit down and write a new post. Sorry you had to look at those green pictures for so long! We just finished our big Mission weekend at church which has taken up most of our free time planning that. It's a really fun weekend where our church hosts missionaries for a Mission fair, banquet, projects and other activities. We've also been to a soccer tournament in Murray, KY where Caleb's team played well and finished in 2nd place! In the championship game, we watched the other team's coach get thrown out of the game for arguing with the ref! Then on the drive home I was pulled over by a policeman in Cairo, IL and given a speeding ticket! What a crazy weekend!

I think I mentioned before that Caleb is running track for the first time with his school team. He's had 2 meets and seems to love it! He's running distance so his events are the mile and the half-mile. He's not the first runner to cross the line, but he's doing really well and even shaved a few seconds off his time from last week's race! The only thing he doesn't really like are the uniforms and you'll see why in the pictures! You know he is still all about fashion, even while he's running!

Caleb is the 7th runner from the left of the photo (black uniform). That's his school in the background.

Sizing up the competition! Caleb is 3rd from left in black.

On your mark........

Sprinting to the finish line! It doesn't look like it, but there were still a few guys behind him!

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!