Valentine's Day

I guess I am working my way backwards, but we had a wonderful Valentine's Day this past weekend.  Thanks, Mom and Dad, for taking the kids!  And everyone else who spoiled them!  Friday night we had a heart shaped pizza and a movie, Saturday we checked out Owatonna, the outlets and Timber Lodge (still so yummy after all these years); and Sunday had church and then left to head up to pick up the kids and celebrate my mom's birthday.  Really perfect!  Here's my treats!

Big News!

Finally a lost front tooth!  I was hanging onto the little kid stage, but the missing tooth is so cute I can't stand it!  It happened while Jack was sleeping.  He woke up, and it was on the bed.  He was pretty excited about that. 

Happy birthday, Mom!

 We were able to celebrate with everyone for my mom's birthday at Osaka where they cook in front of you.  It's one of her favorites.  We had a great time being together and were so happy to celebrate with her on her birthday.  Love you, Mom!

Funny Ava

Ava came out to Matt in her princess dress, lifted it up, and said, "Yook, Daddy!  Jock yikes yicking naked things!"  

Kids 4 Truth Conversations

Suggesting a change of subject when it turned to throwing up, Ava says, "Yet's talk about God."   Her buddy Ryan says, "Yeah, He's nice.  He picks me up when I fall out of my bed."  Ava bursts out laughing and says, "What does yo bed yook yike, Wyan?"  He says, "It's a fire truck and it's this tall, and I can't even reach the top."  Ava just thinks he's hilarious, and I do too; so we have a blast on Wednesdays.  

Our big word last week was "sanctification."   "Can you say that?"  Ryan says slowly, "Santa's...vacation."  I said, "Yep, that's perfect."  It's so fun to see them really grasping these deep concepts when they are broken down for them.  Yes, I did explain that it wasn't about Santa on vacation!  After they learned their lesson, I said, "Good!"  Ryan said, "You know what rhymes with good?  Tood, dood, wood..."  I love this age!

Our Magic Bands are here!

What an exciting thing to be able to look forward to a trip with such anticipation.  I think we started counting down when it was around 150 days out, and now it is less than 3 weeks away!  We are so excited and grateful for this opportunity to go to Disney World with Matt's parents in a few weeks.  A very generous gift of time and expense.  We probably won't do this trip to this extent again, so it's very special.  Apparently our complete identities and itineraries are attached to these little bands.  I felt like a little kid when they opened them and right away I said, "Ooh, do I get yellow?"  I do!  

Birthday Boy

Another thing I love about this time in our lives is hearing Matt preach every week.  This Sunday he said that as Christians we crave the light of Christ.  And some ways to expose ourselves to that light include involvement in church and it's ministries, Bible reading, and fellowship, and then outreach will naturally reflect that light.  We had lots of good fellowship Saturday as we attended Aaron's first birthday party and met his large extended family which was a huge blessing and then later as we went bowling and had a lasagna dinner with our church group.   I didn't get any pictures of bowling because it always seems that with the lighting in the bowling alley, they don't turn out.  But we had a good group of bowlers and some spectators as well.  So here is the birthday boy and a few other pictures.