February Happenings

Just a few pictures to update what's been going on around here!

Beautiful flowers delivered to me on Valentine's Day from my wonderful husband.  The card read, "To the Best One. Love, Brian"

Valentine's Day celebration in Zeke's class.

Brian opening up his birthday gifts... with lots of help!

Me with my new baby cousin, Nathan.  I got to spend 5 days with Mel and the fam--so great!  And thanks to my wonderful in-laws and hubby, I got to go sans kids so that I could actually be helpful with her little ones!

Had to try to capture the weirdness of totally sunshine and snow.  Two minutes after these pictures, the sky turned totally dark and it poured pellet sized snowballs, but within 20 minutes, we saw the sun again.  So much for the 'crazy' storm the media hyped it up to be!

Zeke & Emmy enjoying the brief snow!

BABY!!!

No... not mine this time!

The Stone Family

Melissa and Bryan had their baby yesterday... Nathan James Stone.  He came at 9:39a.m. on Feb 16 and weighed 7lbs, 13 oz (just about the size of Emmy when she was born).  I couldn't make it down in time to be here for the delivery--takes a long time to drive to Thousand Oaks from Sonora--but thanks to my wonderful co-workers and in-laws, I was able to come a day early to be here for all the fun baby holding and hospital experience. 

I'm loving being here with Mel and sharing in this beautiful time with this beautiful family!  Both mama and baby are doing very well, and they'll be going home tomorrow!

Fun. Sun. Family. Love.

We decided to take advantage of the unseasonably beautiful weather and head to the beach!  We camped out at Pismo State Beach - Oceano instead of North Beach because it was closed due to flooding - and had a great time hanging out together... beach, butterflies, campfires... just playtime was so good.  We also enjoyed seeing our wonderful friends, the Leonards, their beautiful boys and new home! 

 

Grrrrr!

Ethan started doing this funny thing in the car on Sunday on our way home from church.  This kid cracks us up... all. the. time.!!!



Watching the video they just made--and cracking up again!



Ethan's a Big Boy!

Our little escape artist gave us good motivation to transfer him to a bed!

Ethan got a 'big boy' bed from PaB for Christmas, and we finally got a mattress and it set up for him last weekend.  He was soooo excited to sleep in it, and it's been such a blessing to us in more ways than one!  Ethan likes his new bed so much that he has been sleeping until about 6:30am each morning since... some of you might think this torture... but try the 5am regular he was doing before.  I LOVE it... and so does he!!!  Thanks, PaB for his beautiful bed, and Auntie Rachel & Uncle Mark for the cozy new sheets!  Now we need to find a cool comforter to complete the bed... then to paint the room!

Ethan loves going 'nigh-nite' in his new bed!

Open

One Word can have a big impact... and my word for 2011 is OPEN.

I want to be open to all God has for me.  I want to be more open handed with my time, money, energy, friendship, and love.  I want to be open to Brian's crazy ideas.  I want to be open to learn what I need to know, to know what I need to learn.  I want my home to be open to others.  I want to walk through open doors of opportunity and feel God's peace about it.  I want to open my Bible more.  I want to feel open to others.  I want my calendar to have some open space on it.

Ali Edwards was a contributer to the scrapbooking magazine I subscribe to, so I've been familiar with her for a few years, and it was my friend Lisa Leonard's link to Ali's blog that inspired me to choose a Word of the Year.  Lisa even designed a new necklace for it (see it here)!

This 'one word' journey was so inspiring to me personally, as well as so many others on Ali's blog, that I decided my students should take this journey with me, too!  The first week of class, I had them come up with their 'one word' for the semester.  They all wrote their word out for me and why they chose it... so inspriational to me... I can't wait to see how it plays out for them this semester.  I made a bookmark that I'll be printing out of each of my students with all their words on it... (again, thanks to Ali for the compliation inspriation!)... check it out...

Saturday Morning

Brian made donuts for his high schooler's yesterday, and made another batch for us this morning!  It was fun to make our own flavors, decorate and enjoy eating our treats!  I'm glad someone in this family likes being creative in the kitchen!