Happy Birthday Caleb!!!!

The celebration had to be delayed a few days since Caleb was attending a Model UN conference for school, but it was a great one!!! He even got to go to his first dance at the conference, so he was excited about that! Chris and I gave him some advice on asking a girl to dance and how to escort her out on the dance floor and how to dance appropriately. When Shelby found out what we had told him, she said it was way too old fashioned......gotta love always being critiqued by your teenagers!
The birthday was celebrated with an ice cream cake and the favorite present was a very hard to find basic Rubik's Cube! He has spent the last 36 hrs. trying to solve it! I am much happier with this than the typical gameboy game!

Why I Love My Husband

Years ago, when Chris and I were dating, we carried on a long distance engagement for about a month and a half. During this time, we wrote to each other often and he made sure to decorate my letters with stick figure drawings depicting the two of us and our future together. Last night for Family Home Evening, Joshua did a "cultural arts" lesson where we looked at artwork and poetry from The Friend magazine and then had to create our own and present it to everyone.

Here is what my husband did (hopefully he won't kill me for putting this on my blog!) in the 15 minutes we were given to create something! Oh, and Savannah helped out by coloring my dress after Chris finished!

Once upon a time
a boy became a man.
He took a cute little girl;
and walked hand in hand.
Together climbed a mountain
and went for many drives
A rabbit hatched a ring
a token of future lives.
In white they walked together
and at an altar kneeled
Hand in hand across the altar
Together forever sealed.
Each year thereafter a family grew
Not one, or two, not three or four
but five tiny angels
crawled on their floor
Their home was happy
their family the best
One boy, one girl,
love birds in a nest.

Colonial Times

I've always thought that I was a bit too old-fashioned for today's world. I love the romance of the olden days and the slower pace of life, so I jumped at the chance to take Savannah and Joshua to Colonial Williamsburg this weekend.Looking down main street

Every house had a well, and even though they are no longer functioning, they add a fun ambiance to the properties. They have even built a drinking fountain inside of one.

In the cellar of the Governor's Mansion

With the cook at the Governor's Mansion. The kitchen is actually an outbuilding so that you don't heat up your whole house when you cook a meal.

Joshua was drafted into the militia when he purchased a gun at the general store. Here he is helping to escort the prisoners to the courthouse.

How's this for time out?!!! I should build one of these in my backyard! :)

Watching the carriage with the courthouse and town square in the background.

So now I am hooked! I really think I need to make period costumes, dress us all up and go back and hang out there for a while! All the workers remain in character for the time period and they make you feel a part of that life. If I lived closer, I would probably be tempted to go to work there! I could just see myself working in the dressmaker's shop and sitting around sewing by hand and answering questions all day.....Until summer came, anyway......I love my air conditioning!

Fireproof

Have you seen this movie? Chris and I rented it for Valentine's Day and really enjoyed watching it. It is a low budget movie, so the acting is not the best, but there is Kirk Cameron and I totally LOVED him as a kid! But it has a wonderful message and it will make you look at your marriage in a whole new way. I highly recommend it! It's not really a movie you would watch with your kids, but definitely date-night worthy!

Keeping Busy

Samuel and Joshua participated in the Pinewood Derby this past Saturday. It was Samuel's first and Joshua's last, so it was an exciting day for both of them!
We had a wobbly start! Joshua's car was dropped as they were putting it up for his first race, then it jumped the track several times before dad got the the wheels fine tuned.
Joshua advanced to District finals, which upset Samuel because his car actually beat Joshua's, but you advance by den and Samuel wasn't in the top two cars in his den.

Following the derby, we headed straight to Samuel's swim meet. He did great, bringing home 4 first place ribbons and one personal best time!

It was a good thing he had such a great weekend, because Samuel spent Monday home with Strep! Four members of my family have now had the dreaded disease and it looks like they are all coming down with it about a week apart. So frustrating! If Chris hadn't been travelling, I seriously would have considered taking myself, Savannah and Joshua and moving out till they all get better and sanitize the house!

More Strep and SNOW!!!

Our household strep count is now up to THREE! After listening to Shelby complain of a sore throat for a week, we finally got her to the doctor. Even though we already knew it was in the house, she has never had a fever and she has been to school everyday and she seems to feel good enough to go hang out with her friends and play on our church basketball team, so I really didn't think she had it. Guess I was wrong....

After waiting and wishing and hoping for snow for a month, I finally gave up on the prospect of seeing any of that white fluffy stuff this year, and wouldn't you guess.....IT SNOWED! We went from 60 degree absolutely beautiful weather one day......
To THIS the next.......
NOW, to all my Utah friends, I know you are thinking "THAT IS NOT SNOW......What kind of wimpy snow is that?" Yeah, well, I used to be a snow snob too! Living in areas of the country where snow is rare for 12 years now has helped me to appreciate snow in whatever small amounts it happens to come in! But really......is it TOO much to ask for enough to go sledding or build a snow man out of????

I Hate Strep!!!!

Chris got strep a few weeks ago and I was so glad that he was away on a business trip and could be isolated in his hotel room while he got better rather than being here with us sharing his germs. Unfortunately, Caleb still got strep...... In all fairness, it is that time of year and it is running rampant in the schools, and it has been two weeks since Chris had it, so he probably did not give it to Caleb. I still hate it though! I turn into the psycho sanitizing mommy, carrying around my bottle of clorox cleanup and wiping down every surface. I throw out toothbrushes and toothpaste (although my last doctor told me we could just throw the toothbrushes in the dishwasher on sanitizing cycle) and by the time strep has run it's course through the family, we have spent about $1000 on doctor visits, medicine, toothbrushes, and toothpaste. I have had it twice now.....never did get strep as a child that I can remember.....and it is the most miserable disease anyone could ever have! I try to avoid it at all costs! So now my hands are raw from cleaning and chemicals and repeated washings in the hope of avoiding that nasty little germ! Wish me luck!

Playing Catch-Up

I haven't made the time to blog lately, but I still wanted to catch you up on what we have been doing.

Caleb was one of 12 scouts who went on the 50 miler bike ride over Christmas break. Only two finished the entire 50 miles and we were so proud of Caleb for being one of those two! You may not know that in December, Caleb was finally diagnosed with late lyme disease. It had progressed to transient arthritis in his large joints that would come and go over periods of a few days at a time. He has been unwell for the past 6 months, so it was incredible that he could do this bike ride after being treated with medication for lyme disease for only 2 weeks. Way to go, Caleb!

Savannah has been going to a kids skating group where they teach pre-school age kids to skate during the day when the big kids are at school. She is having so much fun! Especially since they play all her favorite songs and turn on the disco ball!
Joshua celebrated his 10th birthday with a Nerf Gun party for a bunch of his friends. It was FREEZING outside, so we were very thankful for our basement that they could be crazy in! There was a lot of ambushing going on, and I was fortunate to escape with my camera intact!

Samuel became a cub scout and passed off his Bobcat. He is so excited to finally be a part of the fun! He has been going with me to cub day camp since he was 2, so it is about time!
And not a moment soon enough, Joshua moved up to Webelos and passed his cub shirt down to Samuel! He will have plenty of room to grow into his shirt since I brought home a medium and large for him to try on before deciding that he was definitely a medium. So I packed up the other shirt to return to the scout office and sewed on all the badges. When Joshua tried it on, we realized that I had accidently packed up the wrong shirt and sewn the badges onto the large!!!! Oh well.....maybe it will encourage him to grow!
And last, but definitely not least, Samuel has returned to the pool! When all he wanted for Christmas was a Webkinz, Santa decided to give him a membership to the local YMCA swim team. He has LOVED being back in the pool! He already competed in his first meet where he collected 2nd place ribbons for all 4 events that he swam in! For those of you who know USA swimming, he is currently competing in the BB division.

Babysitting Fun

Sometimes its a little boring being the last kid left at home with mom all day. Savannah has missed out on being able to help take care of a younger sibling, so she was thrilled when I offered to babysit a friend's 16 month old twins today. She had so much fun being silly and making them laugh! Almost made me want to have another baby........OR NOT! I think I will just borrow these two every now and again!

It's Been Awhile......

So now I guess its back to life as we know it! I have been playing around a little with Facebook over the Christmas Holiday and realize now how much easier it is to update there rather than on a blog. I am debating whether or not to keep my blog up; but in the meantime, here are a few pics from Christmas (oh, and look me up on facebook if you have an account).

Here is what I made the kids teachers for Christmas.
Samuel's teacher got the Apple bag and Joshua's teacher got
the flying pig! She collects flying pigs and she could not believe
I found something so unique for her! Little did she know, I made it!