Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

We hope you all have a wonderful day and are able to spend it with those you love, whether it be family or friends.

Wanted to share a few pictures of the beautiful roses that I received at work on Friday.

And for those of you who may have seen the Super Bowl commercial about flowers being delivered in a box, don't believe it for a minute, because these beautiful things came in a box!

Thank you David! I love the flowers and I love you!

I thank God for putting it in your heart to take that exit in Lexington almost 10 years ago. It's amazing what God can do in our lives when we just sit and listen to him. Thank you for the best 10 years (well, 14 if you add them all together) of my life! I'm looking forward to the many more we will share together.

Valentine Parties

Grace made these Valentines for her class. After last year, I was concerned that they would take days and much prodding to make, so we started last weekend. I cut the card stock, and we used the Cricut to cut the hearts out - the rest Grace did by herself. She made 14 Valentines all in one evening!
Thursday, while Grace and I were at work and school, David and Tristan baked cupcakes. After supper, Grace and I got busy decorating them.

She placed the heart and wings on each one.

The final result - 12 cute cupids

I wish I could say I came up with this idea all on my own, but I didn't. You can find this and many more very cool ideas at http://familyfun.go.com/. A site/magazine that I think I will find very handy through the years as I have a little girl who loves to do creative things (and I don't have a very creative brain very often).

This is one of the cupcakes I did for Tristan's class

Tristan's class during their party. He went from being the only boy in the class to being one of six three days a week! The girls still love him though - especially the ones on either side of him. One of them is always at his side...

Grace was so very proud of her cupcakes! Her teacher allowed her to serve them to everyone. Of course, the cupid concept was lost on all of them, but they did think they were cute - and delicious!

Grace with her Valentine mailbox.

She drew a picture of two people kissing on it with the words "I Love You" written above them. I got a kick out of that and just kind of rolled my eyes when I saw it that morning because everything is about princes, princesses, and happily ever after with her. It wasn't until after her party that she explained it all to me. "Mommy, this is a picture of you and daddy on Valentine's Day, and here are me and Tristan with you too." The man had dark hair, the woman and two children (which I had not noticed before) had blond hair. That made me feel pretty good at that point, and I told David later that night that we must be doing a good job of showing our love for each other if Grace would draw a picture like that!

Back In The Day

David and I got each other a couple of early Valentine's gifts... Here's my boys playing with one of them.

Pole Position - you just can't beat the video games we grew up with!

Tristan giving Pac Man a shot

Grace did remarkably well at Pole Position

We found a bunch of old Atari games that they've made into plug and play games on your TV, and we decided we couldn't live without them!

Western Day

Today was western day at school. There were cowboys at school reciting their poetry, singing their music, and showing us some of their animals. We all were able to dress in western attire instead of our normal uniforms, and all in all, it was a day of fun - especially since everyone's Valentine's Day party's fell on this day too!

Tristan and other members of his class enjoying the music and stories

Grace - looking a little concerned at the moment, but she was singing along with the music!


A father/daughter duo

People from the Agape Youth Ranch came out and shared a few of their animals with us. The Agape Youth Ranch is a place here in Southeastern Arizona that strives to "provide life changing experiences for at risk troubled teens who are headed down a destructive path." They believe "that through the practice of Christian based principals and having Christian based programs that true positive change can occur in a teens' life." (From their Vision Statement) They offer mentoring programs, take on troubled teens, board them for a year, having them help on the ranch, and home school them so they can reach their school level and continue to move forward in their education.

The kids really got a kick out of all their activities today - will post their Valentine party's later.

Clouds Part 2

I noticed some low lying clouds when we were headed to school the other day, so I turned around to go get the camera. Although they are still not as magnificent as the ones we saw earlier, this is just a taste of what we saw.

Clouds

We've had some pretty amazing cloud formations the last week or so - unfortunately I never have my camera with me when I see them... Two days in a row there were clouds at the base of the mountain, then a break where you could see the mountain, and then more clouds above the mountain. The days that this happened though I was on my way to work and running late (who me? Imagine that!), so I couldn't justify turning around to go get the camera.

I ventured out on Saturday morning to see if I would be lucky enough to capture those clouds on film, but no such luck. I did however see these beautiful clouds:

I think we have seen the most interesting cloud formations while living here, and the kids are always looking for pictures in the sky now.

Another Road Trip

David had his follow up appointment in El Paso on the 25th of January, so once again we headed down the road. We stayed with "Nana" and "Grandaddy" again, and were able to see a few friends this trip.

The kids with "Nana" Daphne

A couple of close ups that I just love

On the way home we stopped along the interstate at a place called Texas Canyon (in Arizona, no less!). It is a stretch along the interstate about 2 miles long that has these odd rock formations. Everything around it is flat or normal mountain areas, and then you come upon this:

David was having a hard time getting comfortable in the car, so we stopped here to stretch our legs a bit. It's about an hour from home, but no one wanted to get back in the car after we were out for a while. The drive to El Paso may only be 4 hours, but it is a dull and monotonous drive, and this last trip seemed to take forever!

Here's a look at the terrain - normal mountains all around...

One I thought turned out kind of neat

I love the snow peaked mountains in the background of this one

We'll be headed back the end of February, and will see what the surgeon says about David reporting to Korea in March.