Last 1/2 of February

Feb. 15 - Nonnie and Poppie have been here most of the month, helping us with the house. Nonnie and Pella paint the hallway this day.

Feb. 18 - Tuff's One Year Photo Shoot (3 months late, but hey, at least we did it!)

Feb. 22 - Eben and Tuffy iPad time. The kids use the hot tub that we bought to have Baby Thumper in the MamaDada room.

Feb. 23 - Skiing at Snoqualmie with the Ouries

Feb. 26  - Tuffy walks!

Opal's Cow Party

Opal decided that she wanted a Cow Party this year for her 8th birthday.

The kid's get the choice of either having a party or going to Great Wolf Lodge for their 8th and the boys have both chosen GWL and the girls have both picked a party. Interesting! Her menu consisted of roast chicken, acorn squash, olives and pot stickers with chocolate milk. 

We played some fun cow games with the parents as the cows. First the kids had to lead their dads around the basement blindfolded to their water and food but along the way, their "cow" would "poop" so the kids would have to clean it up before they could continue. Then the moms put on the cow attire and the kids tried to milk them, however this was more difficult and most of the utters popped!

Opie and her cowhands.

We played pin the utter on the cow, she opened presents and handed out cowpies.

She chose ice cream as her dessert and we all sang to the birthday girl and gave her a big 8 year old birthday kiss!

We love you, Opal! You are generous and creative. You are an amazing reader and great at math, a grade level above where you should be.  Your penmanship is lovely. You love to get gifts for your siblings, make cards, and take care of Tuffy. You have a knack for fashion and come up with some super cute outfits. You like to draw, dance and sing. You love Kivi. You love cows. You sometimes like to be by yourself and still love your NayNay (blanket) and have to sleep with it every night. You love Jesus and you are working really hard at having self control, especially when you don't want to do something that you are asked to do. We can physically see your spirit fight what you want to do and try to obey. You're getting there O! We know you can do it! We pray you will use your strength and passion for God's kingdom and to do things others can't for the glory of God.
Happy 8th Birthday, Opie O!

1/2 of February

Feb. 1 - The Kids put on a lovely show, "The Tuffy Ballerina Ninjas" with music by the musicians "The J" and "The B" all dressed in matching costumes and of course, a ballet skirt for Tuff. It's a musical show all about how much they all love their Tuff.

Feb. 5-7 - Peter surprised me by planning an early Valentine's getaway with the Schocks to Seattle! We ate at Lulu's spent the night at a hotel and had our fun game playing friends join us at Card Kingdom for some food and game time in our own private room! Shari and I even got to spend the whole day shopping at the Seattle Goodwill Outlet! We packed the van so full of cheap stuff, I still don't know how we got it all home!

Feb. 12-13 -Time to cut out the driveway and put in a new line! Our main water line had been leaking for some time and we had a guy come out and tell us where the line needed to be repaired, but since he said it was leaking in many different places and ran underneath the garage, Peter decided to just put in a whole new line. It was a huge project because it's a long way from the water main to our house, but he did it! The kids really wanted to help with the jack hammer and the boys removed all the asphalt. Then he rented a ditch witch to dig a long narrow hole. I tried it for a little while - it was hard to control, so Dada did it. Later that day we had Opal's birthday party!