World Thinking Day

Every year Abby's Girl Scout troop attends and participates in a World Thinking Day event for Girl Scouts. It is a celebration of Girl Scouting and a time for Girls Scouts to think about other Girl Scouts all around the world.
Each year the girls parade in a flag from each country that has Girl Scouts while the name of each country is read. It's pretty neat.
This year Abby's troop has a deaf girl, Jenita, in it. (This is the same girl that is in Abby's class at school and is the reason that Abby has learned so much sign language in the last several months.) As our troop's presentation, they opted to have the girls all learn a song in sign language. Seeing as though it was for WORLD Thinking Day, they opted for the song "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands". I think it was a good choice!

(Sorry for the abrupt ending. My camera died...)

I am so proud of all of these girls for learning the song and for learning how to communicate with Jenita!

I love that Abby has continued in Girl Scouts. She loves Girl Scouts! She often wishes that she had a younger (more fun) leader (Her leader is 85!!), but she has hung in there. She says that she would like to make it all the way through high school in Scouts! I would love that for her!

Spring Is On It's Way!

Spring is my favorite season!! We have had a crazy, snowy winter, so I was thrilled when I looked down and saw this:
My daffodils are already coming up! Even though it's only the middle of February and we have had a ton of snow, the daffodils have decided that they would like to make an early appearance! I am SO happy about it!

We are year-round grillers, but with the signs of spring, it was reason enough to make up some kabobs and throw them on the grill!
(Kabobs are so pretty!)
Our dinner was delicious! We are looking forward to grilling in the warm spring temperatures again very, very soon!

Look What I Learned!

A while back I went to a yarn store in Tulsa with my friend, Deborah. In their front window they had some super cute wreaths that we both thought we would like to make. It was just a styrofoam wreath wrapped with yarn and then had some super cute crocheted flowers on it. Well, Deborah is a knitter and all I know how to crochet is the blankets that my mom showed me. I decided that it was time to learn how to make those cute flowers! Thanks to youtube.com I found tons of videos that show how to make flowers. Finding the right one took some time, but I finally found the one I liked best and came out with this:
I was pretty proud of myself!
So, (on another snow day, of course...) I set out to perfect my flowers and attempt recreating the wreath I saw at the yarn store.
This is how it came out. Not to bad for a novice crocheter!

Snow Day Craftiness: Valentine's Style

Again, Abby felt the need to be crafty. I was right there with her. I figured since we have been collecting jars ever since doing this crafty project, that we could change things up a little bit and go with a Valentine's theme with them. (I forgot to take a picture of mine.) Abby decided that she wanted to make a Valentine treat for her teachers.
They turned out adorable and the teachers loved them!

We also decided that since we were stuck in the house and wanted to be crafty, that it would be fun to make Valentine's instead of buying them and just writing her name on them. We spent a lot of time looking at options. Abby finally decided on this design.
We didn't download the design, we just came up with our own.
I think they turned out super cute!

Snow Days, Snow Days, Snow Days....

With all of the snow we've already had, you can only imagine how happy I was to wake up to this:
Seriously?! Another foot of snow?!
The original foot of snow hadn't even melted yet, and now we have that much more! Ugh...
This is what the boys are content to do all day.
Don't you just love the glazed over look of a teenage boy playing video games? I don't!
Thankfully Abby doesn't love to just sit around all the time. Not that she doesn't do that at all, but after having four snow days the week before, she couldn't take it anymore. She had to do something. On this day, Abby ended up making lunch for her and Ben.
She did a great job!
But making lunch just wasn't enough. We found a recipe to make snow ice cream. We had never made snow ice cream before, but it sounded pretty neat.
Abby did all of the work!
And she got to have the first taste! It was actually pretty good!
No, this isn't dirty snow! Abby, is not a fan of vanilla ice cream, so we mixed in some cocoa powder to make it chocolate ice cream.
She liked that a lot better!

Call us crazy, but we don't own a shovel. I know! It broke a few years ago and we just never replaced it. Being in Kansas and Oklahoma we just don't generally get that much snow, so we just let it melt on it's own. Well, FEET of snow don't just melt very quickly! Especially when the lows are really low! When we woke up on Thursday morning it was -28 degrees outside!! That's just insane!
So...I was thrilled when a guy knocked on my door and asked if I would like him to plow my driveway! (For a fee of course!) How could I pass that up?!
Luke LOVED watching the driveway get plowed! The boy loves tractors, so he was in heaven!
Apparently it was "bring your dog to work" day since the guys that did the driveway brought this guy (or girl) too. Luke was pretty fond of the dog too!

Like I said before, Abby likes to do. She didn't have a plan. She just thought it would be fun to be crafty. She went out to the garage to see what she could find. Wood and paint are what she came in with. And she got busy.
The two of us had a fun time doing some crafty things together. Check back soon to see what else we came up with!

Tag Junior

Luke got a Leap Frog Tag Junior for Christmas this year from his grandma and grandpa. He LOVES this thing! He will just sit and play with it for a long time! (That always makes a mama happy!)
Look at the concentration on this little guy's face!
Thank you, Ken and Jeanie, for such for such a cool toy! Luke LOVES it!

Mystery Date

As soon as Jon found out that my mom was coming out, he started planning a date for the two of us. (We always get to go on a date when Mom comes. :)) This time, he wouldn't give me any details. The whole thing was to be a complete surprise. (When I told Jon that Mom wouldn't be coming, he was disappointed, but then very happy when I told him that she was again.) All I knew was that the date was on Sunday after church and that I had to pack an overnight bag. Nice! I hate surprises, but I got to the point that I really didn't want to know anything and just let it all be a surprise. I was a little bit disappointed about not getting to watch the Super Bowl, but I would NEVER turn down quality time with my husband! (Besides, I didn't really care who won the game.) I was completely baffled by the little clues I was getting. I knew that Jon's original plans had changed. Then I found out that we were going to Tulsa, but that Jon was going to have to stop back by the house later to pick something up. Things just weren't adding up! Oh well...
So, we headed out! I had my choice of places to eat. My options were PF Changs, Carabbas, or The Cheesecake Factory. Sheesh! How to choose!?
I opted for PF Changs! YUM!!!
This was Jon's fortune.
This was mine. Hmmm...
I guess that means that cheesecake is to be enjoyed "today"! So, of course, we went to The Cheesecake Factory for some dessert.
Chocolate Tuxedo Cream Cheesecake. One of our favorites!
And it was DELICIOUS!

As if the first part of the date wasn't good enough, we headed back towards Bartlesville where Jon had rented us a cabin at Osage Hills State Park. I was blown away! Jon doesn't usually plan great dates like this! (No offense to Jon, we just usually do the typical dinner, movie and shopping dates.) The cabin was great!!
Jon quickly got a fire going...
and we laid in bed...
and watched a movie and had cheese and crackers and champagne! I was completely blown away that Jon had planned all of this without me knowing! He thought of everything!
In the morning, Jon made pancakes and bacon for breakfast. I was totally impressed!
Such a beautiful place to sit and eat my breakfast with my amazing husband!
This is our cabin. I loved it! So cozy and romantic!
I had such a great time on my mystery date! Thank you so much, Jon, for planning such a fantastic getaway that we needed so much! You made me feel so special! I love you!

Indiana Visitors

As soon as my mom knew that Ben was auditioning for All-District band, she said that she would be here for it if he made it. He made it and she made plans to come. (And bring Rebecca and Nolan along with her!) We were all very excited about it! Then the "Blizzard of 2011" hit... We weren't sure what was going to happen. The kids ended up having four snow days and All-District got postponed. I was very nervous about having Mom, Rebecca and Nolan on the roads after watching the news/weather reports all week long. I finally made the decision to tell them not to risk it. I was very sad!

Thursday morning, the day they were supposed to come, my mom called and asked if they could still come. Mom and Rebecca had been keeping tabs on the road conditions and didn't see any reason why they shouldn't be able to get here without any trouble. Besides, we had all been really looking forward to seeing each other. How could I ever turn my family away?! I said, "Of course you can come!" Mom said they would be heading out in the morning.

I was still very nervous about the roads, but prayed all day long for safe travels. Mom, Rebecca and Nolan made it safely to our house without any problems! (Well, the roads were still a little bit snowy once they got close, but nothing major.) I was thrilled for them to be safe and sound at my house!
The boys took off playing right away!
(I know this is very blurry, but you can see that Luke was having a blast!)
I think their favorite activity was jumping from one bed to the other in Abby's room. They had a great time! And the happy sounds were the best!
This was the jumping pit and Nolan's bed. :)
From jumping off of beds to playing with trains...these boys are all boy!
Modern technology...
This little guy cracks me up! Nolan fell in love with this bear from Abby's room and had to take it out to dinner with him.

No trip to Bartlesville is complete without a trip to Frank & Lola's! It is my FAVORITE!! We go there pretty much every time someone comes to visit. The first time is because we love it and want to share it with our friends and family. The next time is because they love it! Come visit us and we can go check it out together!
We had to wait a while for a table so the kids passed the time playing pool.
Abby and Nolan are best buddies!
What did we ever do before we could watch Thomas the Train on the iPad?
It was great when the boys would play together nicely. Toddlers can be so touchy!
Story time with Abby.
And Aunt Becca.
Snuggly time with Grammy! :)
Apparently the little guys weren't interested in the Super Bowl. They watched Despicable Me in my room.
Facebook time for Ben.
Cooking dinner with Rebecca.
Nolan got to see his daddy! I don't know how we ever made it without modern technology!

It was so GREAT to have my family in town for a few days! I hate living so far away, but I still believe it makes our times together that much more special. I was able to spend some time with just Mom and Rebecca this time, which doesn't usually get to happen. We had a great time and laughed A LOT!! SO GREAT!! I'm not sure when we will all be together again, so I cherish these times that we have had!

Thank you SO much, Mom and Rebecca for braving the roads and coming out for a visit!