Jazz festival

We got to watch the Jazz band perform at the Jazz Festival.  

They earned a GOLD!

Basketball Star!

Emma's American Heritage Girl's troop had a Father/Daughter basketball event.  They didn't have an actual game, it was more a series of activities some with the Dads, and some against the Dads.  What fun!

A few favorite pictures:

The winners from each group participated in a final Knockout competition... Brian and Emma were in it!

 At the end, it was Emma against two Dads.

She won!  She was such a great shot!  The crowd kept cheering for her!

The star and her Dad! 

Spring concert

Nathan had another band concert.  We always enjoy their performances!

Samuel's poem

Samuel's teacher had his reading group write a poem after they had read several.  She encouraged them to use one of the ones they read as a model since for many of them, this was their first attempt at a poem.

We were all SO impressed with Samuel's!  His teacher told him it was like an "adult poem."

The poem he patterned it after was this one:

We like HIS better. :)

Kindred Spirits

I was blessed to be able to spend a weekend with my beautiful niece Jenna.  We hiked and explored, taking pictures with my Dad's old cameras.  It was kind of a gamble, not knowing which ones would turn out or if they even worked properly.  We had a wonderful time.

Pie

Grandma helped Emma make her first pie!  It was blueberry and VERY yummy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine Cookies!

Emma and Lucas did the decorating because Samuel was at Savannah's house for a play date!

Drummer Boy

We are so proud of Nathan and his drum playing.  He has recently begun playing during some of the youth group services (the rotate drummers, singers, etc).  He really enjoys it!  One of the leaders sent these two me on evening.  I am going to sneak in to watch sometime!

And a picture I found on the camera, compliments of Nathan!

The Plains Indians

Samuel did an excellent job on his project and presentation on the Plains Indians!

Snow

The snow came down fast and furious.  It was amazing to watch!  Unfortunately it didn't stick around very long.  This has been an awful winter for snow.  I think our total snowfall is less than 5 inches!

Basketball games

Nathan is getting lots of drum time at the basketball games

I haven't gone through my videos yet but will add one later...

Finally...

Emma isn't crazy about Pokemon, but she and Samuel finally figured out a way they could play it where they both were happy.  They changed some rules and Voilà it was all good!

Reading buddies

Samuel class at school often joins with Lucas's class and the kids pair up for "reading buddies".  Samuel and Lucas are always so thrilled to see each other and are partners every time.  Samuel's teacher sent this to me:

Many teachers have commented on how all three kids get SO excited when they see each other at school. 

Feb 1

February 1st and love is in the air...

We had special visitors... a new tradition for a new house...

Meet the Kindness Elves:

 Each day they had a little Kindness assignment for the kids.  Most days they completed them right away!

When Lucas realized it was Feb 1st he rushed to make a Valentine for his best friend Sloan.  He made an envelope and filled it with candy... He decorated it and attached a foam/glitter picture he made.  I got to see him give it to her- it was a hit for sure!

Time

Sicknesses

I'm very happy to say that we've had very little sickness in our home overall for quite some time.  We did get slammed recently though between Samuel and Lucas- bother were sick twice within two weeks.  Gracie is good at helping to take care of our sickies...

Emma didn't get sick, but I thought this was too cute to not post.