February

How about a quick run through of some of February's highlights? Have you heard of the ranches in Russia hiring families to move there and paying them well to do so?

                                                                We did it. Oh, wait....

                                                   We just dress like we moved to Russia.

                                           We still live right here in the southern U.S.A - and we don't take any chances on getting cold when we're working outside on a cold day. :)

I had a birthday and we ended up going to the big city for the weekend. My sweet brother-in-law picked the perfect place to eat, with me in mind. It was classy-country-shabby-chic and the plates they used were the same pattern (or similar to) the ones we used to eat Thanksgiving meals on at Morgan's grandmother's house......plus it was tasty. I love this picture of Uncle Will and 3 of his biggest fans.

The next day Will took the kids to a climbing wall while Morgan took me shopping for old junk to put in the new house. The kids were so happy to not have to go on the junk shop marathon and I was happy to be able to shop for junk to my heart's content.  Back at Will's great apartment, we played Catan.

So funny to see Morgan try to use his "older brother" authority to make Will trade cards with him....but Will was not as easy to sway as he was when they were little. :) No deal.

                                                                     So much fun.

                                                  
The next weekend the kids and I went to an amazing homeschool convention. One of the highlights for them was meeting and visiting with Jim Weiss, a master storyteller. He records lots of classics that have been fun to listen to and also help us with history a lot. He was most gracious and they left feeling like they were the only kids he came to see. :)

Shane and Ivey had birthdays too! Ivey loves decorating cakes and asked to decorate her own.

                                                                     Pretty cute!!

We celebrated just a smidge early because Frank, Jessica, Rose, and Adelaide came to visit! They added a lot to the festivity of 2 birthdays in the house! In fact, I must have taken pictures of Shane's birthday on Jessica's camera. I'll try to get them and load them too.

                                              Happy Birthday, dear Ivey Anne.......Miss 11!

                                        

                                     Just loved having Frank, Jessica, Rose, and Addie here......

                        The morning of Shane's actual birthday, Morgan left for work super early but the kids and I had tea and breakfast in style. :)
                                          

Now Shane is officially a teenager, but from this picture you can see he didn't turn rotten overnight like he was afraid he would (when he was younger he thought "teenagers" were only rotten). :)

In the evening, we did presents. Sadie had carefully picked out a card for Shane with Snoopy and Woodstock on it.....see how funny this is.

Guess Shane is a little rusty on who Woodstock and Tweety Bird are. The girls too! They know Tweety Bird isn't right, but they dropped it pretty quick because they didn't know his name either! Guess they weren't raised in the eighties!

     Reporting for duty, sir! Sadie's choice of outfit to go feed the cats and dog during the cold. The goggles are such a nice touch. :)

 Sledding....sort of. We got a few inches of snow and thought a hill on our place would be great....and the first turn down it was. The others all did too, but it was really more like dirt sledding. :)

 We moved on to Daddy pulling kids behind the truck on a sled. Sadie hung in for a good while, but got back in the truck before I took this picture. I rode for awhile too, which was fun. But also enlightening. Right at the point I felt like it was fast enough, Shane felt like we were just approaching acceptable speed. And Ivey was more on his side than on mine about it. :)

                                              Back in the truck warming up. Rosy cheeks.

                                                 
                    We don't get much snow, but we make the most of it when we do get some.
                                                   

 The kids built a little snow house that was big enough for the three of them and the dog! Shane told Grandpa he'd take a picture of the snow house....so this is for you, Dad. :)

 I am glad we had some good winter fun, but am also happy that as I post this, the fruit trees in this area are putting on buds and we expect scissortail birds and buzzards to appear soon and tell us that spring is officially here. Happy spring!