Katie's Birthday Party

 party favors...most in Texas shape, two in circles.  We made these the day before the party.

 fruit filled waffle cones...fun way to serve fruit and pretty...we dipped the cones in extra frosting!  Yum!

 The ones we made before the party!!

 The ones the girls made plus ours.

 We had the boy cousins drop by and had them stay plus a new friend of Mark and Matthew's and their cupcakes--they did not make birds!! ha!  Boys will be boys!!

We all had a great "bird-day party"!!!  Happy 12th!!!

Matthewism again...

 He fills up a balloon with water(very tiny size) and ties it...he says, "Mom, it's secure now, so if I drop it, it won't leak." *drop*, *water on the kitchen floor*..."Well, that wasn't in my mind!!" A very confused Matthew picks up the balloon disappointingly!! No, I didn't stop him or get upset...it was tiny and very well worth the wasn't in my mind comment!!! Well said!

  another Matthewism...looking up this morning at John, who just came in from basketball, Matthew is doing math multiplication facts(no, I'm not an over acheiver--Katie is teaching him, b/c...wait for it...)"Addition is for chumps!" Matthew . Oh, Matthew...just wait, you were only doing single digit addition. Addition is really for CHAMPS!!

 Let me just say, I am a very blessed woman indeed!!  My hubby and I were rearranging our room furniture and I was telling Matthew how lucky I was to marry a man that likes to rearrange things!  Matthew says in reply, "yes, you are a lucky woman!"  It made John and I both laugh!  Well said Matthew! 

Matthew---"Perfect!  You look like an angel," he said this to me...as I was getting ready for a CASA event.  Yes, it was prompted by me asking, "how does my hair look?"    He is a total smoosher!!!

The infamous cast

 Melissa got her cast off a few weeks ago.  She is a saver...I'm not, so much.  So, I suggest taking a picture and capturing it "forever" so she could through it away.  She actually wanted to wet it.  The doctor had warned her of getting it wet, and I think she wanted to see what happened if it got wet.  As if it would explode or change colors or shape???  Hmmm....nothing happened...she tried it!   The cast has not been thrown away as of yet.  I hope for the best, but the kids still put it on!  Ewww....gross---is that what you are thinking?  Those have been some of my thoughts. 

I've been thinking lately of posting some serious thoughts...on our life.  We have been back in the states for over a year and a half and boy, do some strange feelings/thoughts occur when one comes "home?!"  Do you wonder what I mean?  or Do you have some understanding of this?  It's like this cast---you have the evidence that something broke or changed, but you are expected by most of the people that surround you to not really be any different than before or just return to the swing of things.  Sometimes, this may be the case, but as with brakes, sometimes your bones "feel the weather."  Sometimes, I "feel" the weather of living in a foreign land and being home, feeling a bit "foreign" or changed or just somehow not the same as before.   I think a lot lately about how it seemed so long that we were there in Russia, but when I think of this time here in Longmoo, Tx---it's about the same amount of time(a year and a half or two years is not very long at all)...and yet this time here flew by(with a lots of different sets of highs and lows than Russia highs and lows) and the time there did not fly by.  It did not drudge along, but it was not fast.  Deep thoughts...maybe more will follow.  

Visit with friends!

We had some friends come visit us from John's ole' work in Dallas, back in January.  It was great to see the Rosses!  They have 2 girls whom our kiddos had so much fun playing with.  I forgot to take any pics, so these were my last minute attempt to remember the weekend with them.

Our first family basketball game at A&M!!! Whoop!!

A&M's President on the stairs...

We went to an A&M basketball game with my brother and his family in January.  We had a blast!!!  We all got free t-shirts and banners and Chris Middleton signed some of the shirts!!! Woohoo!
Check out the cousin picture---yes they did the age progression on purpose!!!

More Valentine's Day

A few pics of the kids waiting to open their boxes.  Just when I think my kids are impatient, they surprise me!  Last night, after dad got home, we ate dinner, then we go to open their boxes...and they are just waiting there in the living room for John and me with their boxes in front of them!  They didn't sneak peaks, they waited.  I love my kids!  They were so grateful for everything!  They made notes for each other.  John got a car from Matthew and a bag of cereal and I got a bag of oatmeal from him.  Mark had made a picture of us at a table with a heart over it, and he gave John one half and me the other---he is clever...we had a puzzle to put together from it.  We are not we without both of us!!  Katie wrote cards and Melissa designed little crafts for all of us!  I found a student at the school of our church who is amazing with her clay creations!  I had her make each of the kids a charm for necklaces---two angry bird charms, a normal bird, and an artist pallet.  They turned out great!
John and I gave each other a budget of a small amount of money for each other to spend on the other.  John said it was super duper hard to stay within the amount!  I thought it was fun and we really needed to keep our numbers small, so it was pratical:).  Some day, we will not need to be practical, in the past there have been times we could be "not" practical, but this Valentine's it was a practical challenge.  It's a season:).  Seasons come and go!  I look forward to another season, but appreciate what the Lord has provided in this time.

Our V-day mailboxes

Thanks to our inspiring blogger Jen, we did some Valentines Day mailboxes!  We are going to have a family valentines day this year, so we need places to put our gifts(notes) to each other.  The kids LOVE their boxes!!!  I had so much fun with them today putting this all together.  It was rainy today(or so it was supposed to be), so we stayed in and did this in place of our "park" day Friday.

Our Aussie / Russian friends

Last week, we drove down to Duncanville to see some friends that we met in Russia.  They are from Australia, but do mission work in St. Pete.  The girls went to school with their daughter and son during our second year there.  It was great to see them!  We met up at the main training center for translating the BIble---Wycliffe--SIL.  They had a museum and this teepee was outside.  They were showing living stations for different parts of the world.    They had a PNG living quarters...usually they would have a fire in the middle of the house!  Nice!  It was great to see you Nicolle's!!