A beautiful winter day

Man, how the time has flown! When the last post on this blog was posted, I was turning ten and dancing around in the living room. Now, my thirteenth birthday is coming up on April 1st. Well today, February 24, it snowed in Scappoose. It coated the ground with white, dusty powder that was hard to have a snowball fight with but beautiful to look at. The huge evergreen tree that sits in front of our house was stunning, all powdered with white fluff. Early this morning we got a call from the Scappoose School District saying that there would be a two-hour delay for school. Moses, Henry, and Lincoln, and I were heartbroken that Henry and I would have to go to school (Moses is home schooled). As we were devising a plan to convince mom to let us skip school, the phone rang and there was another recording about how they had changed the school schedule and there would be no school. The first thing we did was get on our snow gear and head outside. We threw around snowballs ( which were very hard to make) and made snow angels and played with the dog in the snow for about an hour. It was fun, but there had only been about an inch of snow on the ground. soon, anywhere that the snow had been touched was green and almost all the snow was gone. After that, we went inside and warmed up with some tea and relaxed while looking out the window at the dripping world. The day was magical, and we were blessed to have one last snowday (at least I think:).

-Emma

April 1 marked the first day of double digits for Emma. What a special day! We celebrated with manicures at Dosha. We were really roughing it! The two of us had fun doing a little shopping around town afterward too. I am very proud of my little- I mean big girl! She is so wonderful and such a joy.

One of her gifts was a Spanish guitar CD. She popped it in the CD player and put on one of my "flowy" skirts and danced the night away. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of another little girl who used to like to do the same thing.

The only frustrating part of the night was (of course) when the boys all tried to blow out her candles. Instigated by none other than Lincoln "the stinker". But the moment was redeemed by letting her cut the cake. Who knew she has been waiting all this time to do that? Maybe to sneak licks? Oh wait that's me. Hee hee.

It's always the simple things that end up being the most fun. We got to have Sam for a couple days last month while our friends and Pastor Rick and Becky took off to the coast. The kids loved every minute of it, especially climbing trees at the park. I think they were kind of hoping he would become a permanent fixture. Especially Lincoln, he kept saying "Where's Sam...where's Sam?" after he left. But I think maybe Sam was a little more ready than they were. After all how often does he get followed around be three boys everywhere he goes?

Speaking of climbing, my goodness Lincoln does it practically in his sleep...Literally. Once he learned to "fly" out of his bed, (a pretty amazing maneuver) it was all over, for me that is. In the last few weeks I have heard him fumbling over toys in his room in the middle of the night. Once he gets past the door frame he usually walks right into a console at the end of the hall, instead of going straight to our room. I really don't think he is fully awake. Or maybe he is just directionally impaired like his mommy. Let's hope not for his sake!

His new found confidence then only grew exponentially. Suddenly anything that the stood vertical became fair game- baby gate, deck rails, piano, you name it! Extra prayer for this one right now.

A little recap on Christmas shopping- Even in the holiday rush we always take time to stop by Sees candy for a little treat. I guess Lincoln was totally watching because no sooner had we left the store he managed to reach behind him into my purse and snatch the whole bag. All while being buckled in. Pretty smooth. Impossible to be upset when he looks so stinking cute with chocolate all over his face.

Christmas tree shopping with good friends is way too much fun- especially when everybody starts feeling and acting like kids! The only problem was choosing between the two trees we had narrowed down. Mo insisted that the "other one" was way better, and after getting ours home I think he may have been right. Oh well, you know how it is- Here's me insisting that this will be the year that the tree will truly be just perfect, only to find out as soon as we get home that there is a huge gaping hole dead center of the tree, not to mention it takes up half of the living room. Lots of tinsel there I guess. Hmm, I thought we really checked all this out but perhaps we were just blinded by love and excitement. Any hey the kids love it! And Linc takes a gasping breath every time he sees it in the morning after waking up and says "Tree!".

I'll take it!

Three sisters and a momma!

Getting together with family is absolutely my favorite part of the holidays! We are so richly blessed with each other. Any day our beautiful Z-girl will be joining our girl crew. It's kind of funny how we were three girls and one boy growing up, then we were sort of overtaken with mostly boys for a while in our family. Now the scales are evening with Jess' fiance and her daughter in the mix and my new niece on the way. Yeah baby-girl power!

The Powerful Women of Song of Hope Church - and their incredible spread at their annual getaway.