February 2015 little things

 (on a super foggy day)

To this:

Totally lickety-split.

I love these blossoms every year…even though they cause deathly allergies.

They trekked all over the neighborhood and knocked on doors to see what kinds of little jobs they could do for people.

We introduced our friends who just moved her from China to some of the finer things in desert-living:

 Max is still taller than Dave 🙂

Sometimes I have my teenagers send me their pictures since so much of their lives happen away from me.  This kid (#35) is a freshman who is 6’10” and is a star basketball player.  Needless to say their team beat ours.

One of Lucy’s “plans” I found laying around:

 Dave and I went on a little get-away with some friends.

 …where we jumped out of a perfectly good airplane.

 For reals we did, but for reals this next picture is not me (it was just one of the pics on the website).

And I thought Claire’s signs by her bed were pretty beautiful too:

 (that top one says “wake up, learn, eat, tumble, repeat” in case you can’t read it)

I don’t know why I took this picture…

Maybe to remember we always have that breakfast when the cousins sleep over (recipe HERE).

…and maybe to commemorate President’s Day…

A President’s Day lemonade stand:

Dave works with the 16-18 year-old boys in our ward.  He and my friend who is over all the girls put together a whiz-bang bonfire activity in our back yard.  I was running some carpool and arrived after the spiritual thought which was given when all these chairs were filled:

By the time I got there everyone was setting off their lanterns.

(which are 100% biodegradable just so you don’t worry…)

 The kids loved it.

Grace is the best baker in the history of the planet.

I finally put up my special cubbies in this new home.  Each holds a little piece of places we have visited.  (More about that back HERE.)

 My mom and sisters came for a visit…more about that back HERE.

 I love when Claire does my hair when we read Harry Potter…

 …and when I get to go on dates with this girl:

Grace was asked to put together a little presentation on China for the Young Women her age in our church.  Oh boy she did a great job putting together all the pictures and articulately explaining everything and the girls asked such great questions.

I had and IEP meeting with Lucy’s beloved teachers at the school.  I can’t even talk about Lucy’s teachers ever without getting teary-eyed.  She has had the best of the best.  Her teacher showed me one of her assignments she didn’t really understand and what she wrote on her paper:

Oh man she cracks me up sometimes…I think she was just confused for a minute because she totally “got” those when we talked about them later.  I just love how she expresses her frustrations when it’s not whining and crying!

Here are her vision teachers:

I love them, that is all I can say.  They “get” Lucy so well.

We had a great turnout for book club at my friend’s house.

We read a book called Three Little Words: A Memoir
that made for a really, really good discussion.

I think it’s a book that anyone with anything to do with social work or foster care …and everyone else for that matter…should read!  It’s not a literary work of art, but it sure makes you think about our foster care system, and the good and the bad.

I got to do art masterpiece in Claire’s class.

It was on Picasso’s “Three Musicians.”

We did our own self portraits Picasso-style.

There are a bunch of little artists in that class I tell you!

My handsome, bearded lunch date:

One Saturday morning we cleaned the church:

All the families in our congregation take turns taking care of the building…it’s a lot of work and I love it.

Then we went to the Vision Walk for the first time in a few years (we have been out of town the last two years when it took place):
…Just me and three of my girls this time.

We didn’t even tell anyone else this time around (so don’t feel bad if you missed it) because we are working so hard on raising funds for the BBS Registry and we don’t want to take away from that.

Once we get that going strong we will be able to partner up a little better with the Foundation Fighting Blindness and all the great things they are doing but at this point we can’t spread ourselves too thin (speaking of the BBS family community as a whole).

Read more about the BBS Registry HERE.  (I’ll have to do a current update on that soon.)

It was fun to be there again this year…it was a great day and a great turnout by so many wonderful people.

It was hard to keep up with Lucy who trotted around that course a few times like a little champ.

…we had to run visit our good friends who live so close when we were done…

That night Grace and Claire got to go to an NBA game with some friends, lucky girls!:

…Max and Elle had big plans with friends, so my mountain-man husband and I took our baby out on a little date with us.

I already talked about MORP back HERE,

…and Valentine’s Day back HERE,

…and now we are on to almost the end of March.

What???