A Fabulous February

FEBRUARY.........

We love the month of February at our house. We celebrate 2 birthdays, Ground Hogs Day, Valentines Day, and the President's Day holiday-(yeah! no school). It is the shortest month of the year, but it seems to be one of the busiest for our family. Along with all the regular happenings this year...a trip to Florida was thrown in the mix as well.

Mark shares his birthday with Abraham Lincoln on the 12th. We had a birthday party for him where he was spoiled with lots of great presents. It is always tradition that we have pie for dessert...thank you Marie Callenders for always having a pie sale in February! Yes Dad...you can have a little of both!


Cupids arrow found it's way into everyone's heart at our house this year. Ken and Barbie were no exception! Don't they look like they are in love? Avery always makes sure that they are well taken care of...

Another family tradition is held on Valentines night. We have heart shaped pizza, with heart shaped ice cubes in our drinks, and of course mood lighting with candles. SO ROMANTIC! The kids get their Valentines cards and treats on their plates...it is something that we all look forward to.
The kids eat fast, take their candy and usually disappear to the basement to enjoy their goodies where they can't hear mom say "Don't eat too much chocolate...you'll get a tummy ache!"
Good times are had by all.

A Day at the beach.....or two.

On President's Day we had great plans to spend some time at the beach. We packed up the chairs, the books and were ready to enjoy the sun, sand and scenery. Unfortunately...the wind was not our friend that day. After a few minutes of trying to enjoy our surroundings, we were tired of being pelted with the sand and we ventured out to do some shopping instead. We did however take time to snap this photo..

Our second attempt at the beach came a few days later....Wednesday was official beach day. Mom and I had a great time walking along the water collecting sea shells. When we thought we could get a bigger shell without getting too wet, we would try and out smart the waves to get to them. Only got surprised a couple of times. We spend an enjoyable amount of time wading in the water and sitting on the sand digging for more shells. You know, you can never have enough sea shells. It was a wonderful day! I don't miss the snow at all!

Big Accomplishments

ARROW OF LIGHT

On Sunday, January 25th, Evan received the highest award that a Cub Scout can earn. He was honored in a special ceremony that night along with two of his friends, Porter McNeely and Colby Neville. We set up a display table with some of Evan's favorite things that describe him best and had a great time celebrating his BIG accomplishment. The night wouldn't have been complete without some face painting and a brag session!

Each one of the rays of light on the arrow represents aspects of the Cub Scouting program. As a story was read, Mark took a colored feather and painted each color that correlated with the Arrow's values on Evan's face.
By the time Mark was done, Evan looked like a real Indian Chief!

*Wisdom - Blue
*Courage - Black
*Self Control - Orange
*Justice - Green
*Faith - White
*Hope - Yellow
*Love - Red

Evan is a fine young man and he tries very hard to live each of these values...he's been a very good example to those that are in the Cub Scouting program with him!

SOLO AND ENSEMBLE FESTIVAL

Mason had his first opportunity to perform in the Jr. High Solo and Ensemble Festival. He played "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" on the french horn while I accompanied him.

He did fantastic! I say this not just because I am his mother, but because I think I know a little about music and I was very impressed. The judge was the Syracuse High Band teacher and he gave Mason some great compliments when he was finished. We couldn't record it during the actual performance, so when we got home, we made a video of it instead.

Later on this month, Mason will have another fun opportunity. The Syracuse Junior High Symphonic Band is 1 of 12 bands that was chosen to participate in the State wide Jr. High Band Festival. He will get to spend the day at the University of Utah listening to other bands and then he will have the chance to perform later on that night. Hopefully we will be able to record some of what he plays.