Happy Valentine's Day!

Other than poor Mikayla having Strep throat this week we had lots of fun Valentine activities!

Fun presents from Grandmas and Grandpas in the mail!

Zachary's Valentine's party at school!

His teacher, Mrs. Foust, helping him read his valentine's cards

Mikayla's crazy party! The school has a "Spiritual Lift ministry" where you can have balloons and treats delivered to the students for birthdays and holidays. Valentine's is clearly their biggest day!

Ended the day with a pink sunset in our backyard and some Olive Garden take out! It was way too cold to actually go outside to take this picture!=)

Just a random pic of Mikayla's bedroom door. I guess this is what happens when you have a little brother!

January Events~

We have had some fun happenings this month I wanted to remember. These are pictures from my phone, which is why they are so blury. Mikayla was invited to her first Libby Lu party. These are quite an experience and she had a blast. They get all sparkled up and then perform a little dance outside the store in the mall. This is her at Johnny Rockets afterward. They just opened in our mall and the kids are loving the nickel jukebox at the tables and all the "Oldies" music! She reminded me so much of Natalie with her hair up like that!Then, last weekend we decided to go ice skating. We've gone every winter since we moved here and usually Zach hates it and Mikayla loves it, but this time she was really mad at us for making them wear helmets and was really miserable the whole time. Zach hit his head last year on the ice after only going halfway around the rink and then refused to go back on the ice. He kept yelling,"I'm just not very good at this!" This year no one else had helmets on and I think she felt "babyish." Mikayla is the new expert on all things babyish! I pointed out a little girl who was smiling and having so much fun skating and she said, "Well that's becasue she doesn't have to wear a helmet and layers!" We also made them wear coats. I know! We are so mean! I got those skates for Mikayla at a garage sale for $4 becasue she has always enjoyed skating so much and we thought maybe she'd start taking lessons.
I finally let her take the helmet off and unzip her coat, but by then she was spent.
Zach was really flying around the rink by the end, reinstating Daddy's NHL hopes!
Not a happy camper! But no one cracked their noggin this time!

Happy Half Birthday Mikayla!!(a little late)

Mikayla got to celebrate her half birthday in school the week before Christmas since she has a summer birthday. Daddy got to be there since he was off work that week and we brought in Christmas tree shaped donuts with green frosting and sprinkles. They were a big hit!! I can't believe she is 7 1/2!! But then again I look at her and she looks like most 9 year olds and acts like it too!! She already gets embarassed when we(daddy) sing along to Billy Jean. She gets 100% on almost everything she does in school and the other night answered a question right on Jeopardy!! We were all sitting there stumped and she yells out "Nancy Drew!" It was like a $600 question. I think the category was authors and she recognized the author's name in the answer. The kids just discovered Jeopardy and love watching it at night. Nancy Drew books are her new favorites next to American girl. She checks them out every week from the library at school and she says she loves them so much because they are mysteries!! She somehow inherited a love of mysteries from RuthAnn!
Her sweet teacher Mrs. Stroop!
Click on this picture to see her 105% A+ on her spelling test!

December's verse finally!!

Our New Year's Eve!

I know I am very late in posting this but we did have a great New Year's celebration. Low key as usual. The kids celebrated before bed at about 8:30p.m. Woohoo! And then went to bed as usual. I don't think they realize yet everyone else stays up until midnight because they really didn't care about going to bed. Anyway here are the pics!New Year's also brought more visitors and presents!!

Grandpa Don and Grandma Frieda

Auntie Lindsay!

We also spotted a Deer in our backyard by the creek!!

Happy 2008!

I think they are ready to go back to school tomorrow. They seem to have run out of things to argue about.

*

Mikayla~ Mommy! He breathed on me.

Zach~ No I didn't! She breathed on me!!

Mikayla~ He almost pushed me!!

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Some pics from when we first got the digital camera, March 2004. 3 1/2 yrs. old
2 years old

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderfully busy week with lots of visitors! We had an extremely blessed Christmas again! We started off picking my mom up at the airport on the 23rd and went to Christmas eve service on the 24th. We all opened one gift each on Christmas Eve. Mikayla gave Zach a book to put his football and baseball cards in and a bunch of cards as well and he backed up and took a running leap at her to give her this sweet hug!

Mikayla got her Julie doll from Grammie and she was absolutely thrilled! All her other stuffed animals got kicked out of bed and she only slept with Julie that night.


Even though the ups guy brings the presents Zach still wanted Santa to have a good flight.
Santa clearly wasn't holding a grudge.They both kept yelling, "AWESOME!!!!!"Her reaction to seeing another American Girl box!He immediately gave Mikayla the present he bought for her with his own money, a reindeer webkin. Doesn't he look so proud!?!!Zach decided to name his frog webkin Christ. So I think we hammered in the true meaning of Christmas pretty well. He later changed it's name to Chris, but what a sweet thought that was.He was very happy to learn this was a snowball thrower and not a toilet scrubber. Thanks Aunt Kelly!
He also got several very cool transformers and has spent hours playing with them!!Little glasses for her doll, too cute!! Thank you Tall RuthAnn!Monkey Boy!
Mikayla also got Felicity from Grandma Barb and Grandpa Tim!He wore this hat from Papa and RuthAnn all day!
Even Julie got in a little practice.The kids stayed very busy all day playing "school" with their webkins. They each got 3 new ones. Thank you to everyone who made our Christmas so blessed!