Snow Day, Gaming and more fun!

Sorry for the lack of updates! We started our Spring Break this week, and I actually had to "work" Monday and Tuesday so I am just now getting around to getting the pictures posted. There is something in the Education field called "In-service", and in this county, if you do not get your required number of days (30) by April, you get your pay docked. Since I wasn't hired till late in the summer I have been scrambling to get all my hours in. Hopefully I will be able to get most of them done this summer for next year. That way I am not left trying to get them all in- gets a little stressful! My mother in law, Linda, came down for those days and helped us out. The kids enjoyed it and hopefully she did too! It was a little crazy I'm sure, but they had fun digging out some bushes in the front of our house (see we put her to work, not only watching the kids, but getting some landscaping done!) and playing in the amazing weather. We have continued having all the fun since. The weather has been great and we have played to our hearts content outside. Our driveway is an amazing mural of the kids creativity and the dirt in the front has never looked more lively! :) I thought I would post some pictures of recent activities and just fill everyone in. We will be doing some fun things this weekend and next week so I will post more later.

We had a few snow days this month and I never really got a lot of pictures. We had on on the day of Caleb's surgery, but I didn't get any pictures since we pretty much stayed inside because of Caleb. So we had another snow day and we went out early. The kids had fun just running in it. They didn't want to wear gloves, so their little hands got pretty cold. We attempted to make a snowman, but he got stomped on by all 3, so he was not much more than a pile of mush, when I got the camera! After the playing we came in and had pancakes and hot chocolate with marshmallows of course- is there any other way to warm up?







One thing that I am trying to be more consistent at is doing a family devotional in the evening before bed. We have a book that we are going through right now, and then will be doing a few activity books later on. The other evening we were reading our story and I always have them repeat the bible verse of the evening and they each take turns saying it. They are getting pretty good at remembering them. They really like the stories and enjoy asking and answering questions. We have always prayed together and with each kid, but I want to get better at doing these.



For Christmas Matt got his wish of a bigger TV. Luckily Tommy was here to help Matt pick it up and get it set up. But we also got a PS3 and the kids (I am including my husband here) are enjoying it. We downloaded some demos to try and see what we liked and the kids have 2 favorite games. They love the duck game and this little toy car game. I even love the games. I took some pictures of them playing. They are pretty good at them too. On the toy car game you have to turn the controller to direct where you are going. Riley actually did really well and had fun. They are so good at taking turns and making sure that everyone gets a chance to play. Right now the TV is on an end table since we can decide if we want to mount it or just get a stand, but it works perfectly!


Caleb has also taken an interest in playing the guitar. Matt has been playing songs that the kids can sing to and I think it sparked a flame in Caleb. He was trying to practice on Daddy's the other day and I snapped away. We are going to go get a smaller one this weekend so Matt and Caleb can practice together. He has been counting down the days since Sunday, just to get to Friday so we can go.


Next week we will be hitting the Zoo with the Tomlinson's and getting in lots of time outside. We spent about 3 hours in McDonald's yesterday. Yes, I did say 3 hours! Marcie and I worked on Prom songs while the kiddos played. It was actually a lot of fun and we got the much needed song list out of the way. Some of you don't know, but in addition to just plain going back to work this year, I was nominated for the Faculty Advisory Committee and I offered to help Marcie with the prom. So far it has been pretty fun and Marcie really handles all the transactions, but we are able to bounce ideas off of each other and it helps the decision making go smoother. Plus it gives Marcie and I opportunities to get to know one another better. She really is a wonderful friend and co-worker. So I will be posting again soon with some more fun pictures and our adventures over spring break!