Jake’s 11th Birthday

For Jake’s 11th Birthday he invited several friends over for a hangout.

He was joined by his brothers, Kyle, Trevor, Colin, Mason and Caleb for a night of pizza, brownies, soda, skateboarding, video games & movies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy 14th Anniversary

In March John & I celebrated our 14th Anniversary.

He gave me these beautiful flowers to help celebrate the occasion. 

We were also very blessed to getaway for 2 days to Oklahoma.  Our friends the Norton’s kept the boys overnight and John and I went to Echo Canyon Spa & Resort in Sulphur, Oklahoma.  It was a beautiful, relaxing place.  We really just took it easy and enjoyed the beautiful weather, great views and fabulous food. 

They also have mineral spas in each room.

They have a restaurant on-site which served an amazing dinner of steak, roasted duck and shrimp with a flourless chocolate cake & chocolate mousse for dessert. 

The next morning they served a 3-course breakfast which included fresh jams made from fruit grown in their own orchard as well as a gluten-free waffle for me!  After we left the resort we enjoyed 9-holes of golf at their local executive course and made our way back home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a great getaway and a wonderful way to celebrate 14 years of marriage!

The “Un” Highlights of March

 

 

 

I really thought the kids were too old for such delights…but apparently not.  I keep telling myself that someday I’ll look back and laugh about this.  I figured if I post it in my blog, and print my blog as a photo album, them maybe someday it will come true!

 

 

 

 

This second picture is something we’d all rather forget.  I won’t go into details here about how this window came to be broken, but let’s just suffice it to say that it won’t be happening again (right boys???).  I was awfully proud of my “Scentsy Wickless” Window.

Yellow Belts

 

Dylan & Ryan earned their Yellow Belts in karate on March 7, 2011 .

Birthday Fun

What a wonderful treat to wake up to on my birthday!  We had the Norton kids over for a Kids-Night-Out sleepover on Friday night.  On Saturday, the morning of my birthday I found this outside my door.  It definitely softened getting another year older!!

 

We also got to enjoy going to Cowboys Stadium in Arlington for the Muscular Dystrophy Muscle Walk.  We enjoy supporting our good friends the Combs family each year at this great event. 

 

Here’s the boys enjoying seeing a NFL field at Cowboys Stadium.

Team Combs at the Muscle Walk

Iced Over

In early February, we received a royal icing over here in Texas.  Texas is famous for ice storms in the winter that lay down a thin layer of ice and shut everything down due to lack of equipment to deal with such weather.  Starting February 1st we had a large ice storm that shut down the schools for 4 days!!!  During this same time we also had a deep freeze where temperatures were below freezing for three days.  On the fourth day we woke up to snow which had fallen overnight.

The boys enjoyed their time off from school and especially Friday where it was fun to play outside in the snow.  The first three days were a bit rough because roads were impassable and it was too cold to go outside…so we all had a bit of cabin fever.  But we survived with a lot of hot chocolate :)

Ironically, this occurred the same week that Dallas/Ft. Worth was hosting the Super Bowl at the new Cowboy’s stadium in Arlington.  This storm caused a series of heartaches for the planners, but temperatures did finally warm up enough on Saturday to melt all of the frozen precipitation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Dylan & Ryan all bundled up!                                                                                 Jake ready to snowboard!

Melanie freezing with the boys outside

 

 

Snow Fort built out of ice blocks

 

 

The remnants of the snow fort, transformed into a snow man!

Karate

Dylan & Ryan started a new sport….karate. 

Hopefully they’ll use it properly and it won’t result in more “rough-housing”!

Dylan’s Work of Art

Dylan is very talented as an artist so we were thrilled when his piece was selected for the local school district art show.  He was one of two second graders selected to represent his school.  The district rented out a local art studio for their show and had it setup for two weeks.  We went twice to see his piece and enjoyed looking at all the other talented works of art as well.

 

Dylan’s Baptism

To top off the birthday extravaganza weekend, Dylan was baptized on January 22, 2011 by his grandfather Julian Anderson.  It was a wonderful weekend and a very special event.  The spirit was strong and it will be a day that Dylan will never forget.

We had a great program for the baptism with people who are very special to our family.  Dylan also received special gifts from both of his speakers.  Terri Kofoed gave him a picture frame so that he could always remember his special day and Randy Lund gave him a flashlight lantern to help him remember that the Holy Ghost will guide him in his life.  When the Bishop spoke at the end he mentioned that he had called Dylan the day before to wish him a happy birthday and Dylan told him that one of his wishes had already come true since he was getting baptized the next day and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Something that meant a lot to me was that after Dylan was confirmed and shook hands with all of the men in the circle he came to me and gave me a big hug and said “Thanks for helping me Mom.”  I took it to mean thanks for helping him get to this point in his life.  It really touched me.

Dylan received some very nice gifts including his own set of scriptures & black carrying case, a pillow case and Book of Mormon floor puzzle.

Cub Scout Pinewood Derby

What a better way to enter cub scouts then with the Pinewood Derby the day after your 8th birthday.  Dylan enjoyed competing in his first derby and got to have his grandparents there to watch too!  Jake and Dylan are nearly 3 years apart, so this is the only cub scout event that they will be in together.  They got to race each other a few times, it seemed to be a split as to who won.  Each won some.  Jake built a skateboard and Dylan a camo car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dylan’s 8th Birthday

Dylan turned 8 on January 21st.  He shares his birthday with his Grandpa Anderson, but has never spent the day with him since they live so far apart.  This year, however, my parents visited for the big birthday weekend!  What a treat to get these two birthday boys together!

Dylan had a great birthday.  We enjoyed a pork chop dinner followed by a delightful chocolate cake.  He received some nice gifts including a cub scout uniform, a karate uniform, a camaflouge watch and a new bike!