Budding authoress

Jordan has recently discovered

a new love.

She set up her own little desk

in a corner of the house

and started writing.

Over the weekend, she spent

several hours at that desk.

Before I knew it, she had written 6

of her own short stories

to give her teacher.

I was so proud of her!

She compiled them into a book.

Here's one of them, which I share with permission,

for your reading enjoyment.

THE PRINCESS GOES TO THE BALL

One day a lovley princess lay on her bed. She was so lovley her mother did not want her to have a prince. One bright sunny day there was a terrible storm that knocked down the castle! The Queen died, the king died, but the princess survived. What should the princess do without her parents! She thought and thought but did not know what to do. So the princess lived her life out on the streets. Until she met a charming prince. So they got merried and they settled into their lives. And one day a terrible thing happened, the prince broke-up with the princess. But the princess did not brake up. She told the prince he could not brake up with her because they had already gotten married so they stayed merried. And they go to the ball and they have a great time exept for the princess. She had a great halftime. And then they bought a house.

Larger than life

When I made that

phone call

to Doug a couple of weeks ago

to tell him I had had an

incident

with the car,

our nicest, newest, only-one-working-right car,

it reminded me all too well

of that time when I was 16

and had to call my dad

to tell him about that fender-bender

in our family's new mini-van.

He had reacted kindly to my tearful news,

making me feel better

instead of worse.

And that day, in my eyes,

my dad was larger than life.

So when I called Doug

to tell him what had happened the other day,

that I had made a mistake

that tore the front bumper off the car,

I was tearful as well.

And his reaction, much like my dad's,

was kind and understanding.

Yesterday he spent a couple of hours

fixing my mistake.

I watched him and thought

what a man I had married.

He's so handy

and can fix just about anything.

Like my dad,

I thought he was larger than life.

But not just because he's

good at that manly stuff.

Because he was compassionate and kind.

Because he knew I felt bad

and that it could be fixed.

Because he knew that

people mean more than things.

Boy, am I lucky, to have a man like that.

Going crazy

Today is

crazy hair day

at school.

This was the craziest hair

we could come up with.

Lots of ponytails

streaked orange to match her shirt.

Syd likes to live on the edge a little.

She was loving it.

Jordan's crazy hair

consisted of 2 ponytails

(with different color rubber bands!)

and red streaks.

She's a crazy girl.

Look out, school --

here they come!

Passion for fashion

Sydney's teacher this year

has been great about

encouraging Sydney to

follow her dreams.

She had her start a "Passion project"

of her choosing to work on.

So Sydney has begun keeping

a portfolio of her fashion designs.

These are a couple she created this weekend:

Syd's teacher also has a sister

in the fashion industry

who has agreed to be Sydney's pen-pal.

They write back and forth

and share ideas with each other,

and she encourages Sydney

and tells her her designs are

fabulous.

I agree, they are pretty good!

Who knows, maybe someday she'll be famous. :)

I love valentines!

There was lots of love

to go around

at our house tonight!

The kids each sneaked off to their rooms today,

making their own special cards

for each other.

All on their own! It was so fun to watch.

Jordan made 3 or 4 cute notes for each of us.

Sydney made scrapbook-type cards

with envelopes.

And Austin made an

origami box

in which he shared

some candy hearts

with us.

Doug outdid himself

and gave me a

gorgeous rose necklace,

in keeping with his sweet

rose tradition.

He is so romantic!

We hope you had a

Happy Valentine's Day, too!

Another year wiser

Happy birthday, Doug!

Thanks for everything you do.

You're amazing.

We love you so much!

Anything goes

The scouts decided

to have their own version

of the pinewood derby.

Only without any rules.

Other than a weight limit.

So there were some pretty creative cars.

They raced them the other night.

Austin's car had an air hog

attached to the top.

It did awesome!

We called it the Yellow Submarine.

The only car that beat it

was one with a bigger air hog on it.

Great job, Austin!

A giving heart

Our little Jordan

was hard at work

this afternoon.

We didn't see her for awhile.

But as I was tucking her in for the night,

she let me know

there was a surprise on my bed.

(Mom and "Dady'o")



These were
on Doug's
side of the
bed.







And this
is what
I found
on
mine.

It makes me so thankful
to think that, undeserving as I am,
I have a little girl
who thinks I deserve
whatever gifts she can give.
Even flowers on my bed at night.
Kids are such a blessing.

Monster

by Jordan

Age 6

Just a little, mom?

One day,

London decided

it would be nice if

she put some

lip gloss on.

So she did.

Is purple her shade, or what. :)

All in a day's work

Last Friday, Doug
and a
friend took
a little fishing trip.
I wondered if they
were crazy, fishing in
January.
I thought they might have a tough time finding anyplace to fish that wasn't frozen. It turns out, they had a great day!

Going solo

On Saturday, we took a
little family trip over to
Eagle Valley to watch
Austin.
He was singing in solo/
ensemble for
the first time.

It was so amazing to watch.

It was a room full of kids

from middle school to high school.

Each took a turn singing a solo

in front of Dr. Atkinson,

from the state college.

He critiqued each person after his/her

performance, and showed them

how to improve.

But he did it in a very kind way.

It was so cool to watch, and we

were so proud of Austin.

He sang his heart out,

and when he finished,

there was hardly a soul in the room

who wasn't touched.

These are the other kids from his school

who sang in the competition.

All of them did a super job.

You can hear it for yourself.

He sings "Homeward Bound".