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????