Four Years

It has been four years, today, since I woke up on a Saturday morning with a miserable headache. Had not a clue that four years later, I would still have it. Although I could write a book of all the ups and downs these four years have brought me and my family, due to this chronic headache, I think this song, I so love, from JJ Heller, sums it up. I am in the Lord's hands and at this time the Lord has answered my prayers with wait and rely on Me everyday. So I will.

Swimming Lessons

One great thing about having year round school is that during your breaks, the local rec. center has all kinds of classes, just for the track that is off. The girls started swim lessons on Wednesday and will have five lessons throughout their three week break. It's nice not having to try to squeeze in swim lessons during our busy school schedule or during summer. The girls lucked out to be in a class together with only three total students. They both did so well.

Josie, the instructor giving instructions to the class.

Emma coming up for a breath as she is swimming by herself. This is the first time I have seen her actually swimming by herself.

Madi working hard at her swimming technique.

Valentine's Day

We had a fun and relaxing Valentine's Day. I have to start with my husband.... He had a dozen roses (second time I have received a bouquet of flowers from him) and a box of chocolate sent to our house on Saturday AND took the girls and I out to Chili's for lunch (my favorite restaurant) after church on Sunday.

When we got home from lunch we made heart sugar cookies. While I was baking them, we got phone calls from my brother & family and my parents. My niece (2yrs.) is used to seeing us on the web cam, but since Chris' computer is still at the shop, she had to settle for just talking, although she still tried to show me her Valentine's outfit. She even recognized every one's voice perfectly as we took turns talking on speaker phone.

Decorating the cookies was definitely a highlight of the day, but I am safe to say eating them came in 1st place. What a treat to have all of us making yummy cookies.

After we finished making the sugar cookies, we watched the Olympics and ate Chris' favorite meal by candle light. Madi did not want the lights off, but after I explained to her that you can't have a candle lit dinner with all the lights on, she tolerated it. As soon as I blew the candle out, she went and turned on all the lights.

T&T Quiz

Yesterday Emma competed in the AWANA T&T Quiz of Utah. She has been working hard at studying and memorizing scripture. She was an alternate and was asked to jump in last minute, just minutes before the competition started. Emma's team consisted of Emma, Josh, and Hannah. In the pictures, Josh and Hanna are sitting right in front of Emma. There were 11 teams competing in the book 1, so some of the kids had to sit on the floor. There were two parts to the competition. The first part was to take a written test consisting of 10 questions. Then answer 10 multiple choice questions in front of an audience, which you see in the first three pictures below.

Out of 8 places (some teams tied), Emma's team tied for 3rd place (unfortunately didn't get a picture of her whole team with the ribbons)

Great job Emma, I am so proud of you.

Never...

Chris learned the hard way... never leave soda in the car, during the winter, while living in Utah; it's like a freezer. Chris took two 12 oz. packs of soda to a youth's house to share. He forgot about it until one day he opened the trunk and saw that almost every can had exploded. What a mess! Honestly, I haven't looked at the mess yet. I am hoping he will clean it up before I have to see it, but I think we can all picture what his trunk looks like.