Daddy/Daughter Dance 2010

Arrow of Light Ceremony

Last weekend, Levi received his Arrow of Light Award which is a pretty big deal in the Boy Scout world. This means he has completed every requirement in Cub Scouts and is now bridging over to become a Boy Scout. He's only been in scouting for a couple years so this is all new to us. He is now part of a new troop of guys that are in 5th grade through high school. They have some pretty cool outings planned, he's already been to Space Camp in Huntsville with them. And he's got his eye on the Eagle and is ready to work hard to earn it in the next few years. Here's a few photos of the ceremony. Great job, Levi! We are proud of you!

Walking across the bridge to receive his award.

Levi with his arrow to hang in his room! Not sure what Mark was explaining!


All the grandparents came to cheer Levi on!
Caleb had passed his soccer referee test this same day, so here's both boys with the patches they earned!

My new favorite song for this season of life...

Valentine's Fun...

Valentine's Day is almost here and we've been busy celebrating the whole month. Here's a few photos of our fun:



Our valentine flag in the snow we had a few weeks ago. For a snow day project the kids made this banner out of stuff we found in the scrapbooking box.



Last weekend, we had a heart-shaped cheese pizza from Papa Murphy's. It tasted much better than it looks in this photo!



This is our mailbox on the kitchen table where we've been writing love notes to each other all month. Lydia is really getting into this and writes about 10 each day that all say the exact same thing. I'm having to pretty much make the boys write some. They think they're getting too old for this kind of stuff.



And finally, the kids were out of school today so Lydia helped me make blueberry heart muffins for breakfast.

We (heart) Valentine's Day at our house!

Lydia's Big News...

It needs a little more wiggling!


It's out! Not the most flattering picture but it shows the missing tooth.


Thank you tooth fairy!


More exciting than the Super Bowl at our house last night--Lydia lost her first tooth! She was so excited and was up till after ten checking to make sure her tooth was still ready for the tooth fairy under her pillow! She is now 2 dollars richer and has the most precious little smile! She was off to school this morning to get her name on the class tooth chart and a little treasure box from the Nurse to keep her tooth in. The tooth fairy at our house lets the kids keep their teeth. Not sure why, since 20 years from now Mom will just probably find all their nasty teeth in their dresser drawer! The cutest part was watching Levi, who used to scream bloody murder when his teeth were pulled, telling Lydia how it's so easy and doesn't hurt or bleed at all! This was a hard tooth for me to pull--not because it wasn't ready--just because it was another reminder to me that my baby is not a baby anymore. I don't want anymore "babies", but the 3 I have are just growing up way too fast!

Princess for a Day...

What a fun weekend we had! The kids traveled to Kansas City with my parents to celebrate my niece Ellie's 5th birthday and here's a picture of the start of the party! I don't have the after photos yet. Ellie and Lydia went to a Kiddie spa where they had manicures, pedicures and their hair and make-up done. Then it was off to a fancy lunch--they wanted McDonald's but settled for the Dinosaur restaurant at Legends instead! Not a very girly place to eat, but lots of fun anyway! Thank you Aunt Gina and Uncle Kip for a great girly date and a super fun weekend! Oh, and Nana and Papaw too for letting the kids go along on your trip!

Mark said, hey if we are going to be kidless for a weekend let's get outta here! So we took off to St. Louis for the weekend and had a blast just shopping and hanging out in the big city. We saw the movie Leap Year too and it was sweet, funny, romantic, cute--my favorite kind of movie! Now it's back to the real world today with school, work, laundry, homework, schedules, etc. It was fun while it lasted, but as Dorothy says, "There's no place like home"! By the way, I bought the cutest plaque for my wall this weekend at Kirkland's that has that exact quote.

Saying Good-bye...

What a busy weekend! Friday night, Lydia went to her first birthday sleepover at a friend's house and had a fun time. She made it all night without missing her Daddy! Caleb had some friends over to sled, eat pizza and hang out in the basement. Saturday morning we all went to watch some of Caleb's friends play basketball at the Jr. High. That afternoon, Mark and my dad installed my new dishwasher and it looks great! Can't believe I'm so excited about a kitchen appliance but our dishwasher was ancient and rusting out so I am thrilled to have a shiny new one!

Sunday was a busy day at church since we had our annual Missions lunch where all the committees and their families have a meal together then have a planning meeting. For the past 6 1/2 years Mark has been the Missions Director at our church. This has been a volunteer part-time job and he has loved organizing the mission efforts of the church since he is so passionate about missions. But, it takes so much time along with his full-time engineering job that he just feels like he cannot keep up anymore. We've been praying about this for several months and Sunday at the meeting he announced that he would be stepping down as Missions Director of Lynwood at the end of the month. When he spoke, I could tell that he was sad to be letting it go, but he says he feels a peace that this is the right time to step down. Our family is growing up and getting busier by the year and he doesn't want to miss out because he was too busy with other "good" things. He has done a great job trying to juggle work, church and family but he can only do so much. We are not going anywhere and plan to stay actively involved in Lynwood missions, Mark just won't have to be in charge now and we're all excited about that!

I just thought I'd share that so those of you from Lynwood who read this could hear from us about his decision. We look forward to what God will continue to do in the Mission ministry of the church and to what he has in store for our family in 2010!