Kirsten's visit!!!!

A lot of you know Dewey's sister Kirsten is in the Air Force. Well I'm happy to say that after spending 6 years in including an active tour in Iraq and a tour in Afghanistan she is out and home safe and sound!

She actually lives in Texas but was able to come up for a week long visit.

She is amazingly thoughtful and brought us all back something from Afghanistan.

Look at this cute pic of her and Dewey wearing his new hat :)

For dad a hat and beautiful wrap. Authentic men's winter wear. And my favorite....gorgeous outfits including hats for the boys. Its hard to tell from the photos but the hats are beautiful, They are covered in hand riveted sequins. Don't they all look so handsome?

And a cute family photo!

She brought me a stunning black beaded pashmina, which I LOVE!

It goes without saying that our very favorite gift is to have her home safe.

We are so proud of her for serving our country. (and for being a strong amazing woman) Especially since she put her life on the line everyday in two different countries during active wars. Its an incredible sacrifice for our country that we will be forever grateful to her for. We love you Kirsten!!!

In honor of Spring...

For your weather enjoyment, yesterday in photos

This morning as we left the house.... snow

Still morning looking out our office window
Noon, looking out the same window blue skies are here

Afternoon ........snow

Home around 5ish blue skies and no snow.

You didn't think a day of snow/blue skies would be all for our spring enjoyment. The night before the wind blew ALL night long. According to the news the gusts were 50 mile plus hum I bet that could do some damage.

Like bend our neighbors flag pole.

Notice anything missing on our horse trailer?

Maybe the roof.... Which apparently was torn off the trailer and flew up and over the barn to land in the pasture. It might be hard to tell but this is a hard top that is to heavy for me to lift.

The neighbor across the street had his fence broken in several places and the house down from them had their shingles torn off.
Yep just another spring day in southern Utah.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Green Breakfast.... Check

Green Milk...... Check
Check

Green Shirts on to wear to school... Check

Green hats with rainbows and pots of gold from school... Check

Green Jello for dinner..... Check

Green notes left by a clever leprechaun leading the boys on a treasure hunt.... Check

"Pots-O-Gold" found at the end of the treasure hunt.... Check

St. Patricks crossword..... Check

St. Patrick's day maze...... Check

Yep a fun St.Patrick's day for all.

Hope you had the same :)

Lukes Wrestling Match

Things I now know about wrestling...

Its HUGE in our small town, we are talking jam packed auditorium.

Luke wrestled 3 separate times, this took 5 hours its not a fast sport.

Its better if you pin the other guy rather then let him pin you.

We all got up early early on Sat morning to make it to the high school in time for weigh in. Even Dewey who was very very sick from the cold Luke and I gave him. Luke got weighed in and made it in the "kindergarten" weight class. He was the first to wrestle in his weight class so none of us knew what to expect. Even so he was such a little trooper. He walked right out in front of everyone and tried his best. His next match was with one of his friends from school. The pictures are not the best but you get the general idea.

By the end he was pretty tired but said he had had fun.

He came in fourth in his weight class. YEA!!!

I don't know that we will drive hours to go to any of the out of town Matches but I'm really glad we went to this one.

Dewey spent the rest of the weekend in bed, poor guy. But what a dad to support Luke in his first match.

And the sports have began.....

Our theory is try everything and see what sticks.

Luke and Kolby spend 98% of their time at home wrestling with each other so when we got the flier for Wrestling I thought it would be a natural fit. Ok in my mind I thought yippee something both boys could do at the same time leaving me with an hour and a half to run errands, exercise whatever twice a week. (Did I mention we are new to this whole sports thing and I know next to nothing about wrestling)

The first night we get there the coach starts yelling in a loud couch voice for the boys to run. Luke and Kolby both started around the gymnasium. Kolby made it around once and ran straight back to me with a horrified look on his face. Apparently it was all a little to much for him. Luke on the other hand ATE IT UP. If the coach yelled "Who are we" he was right there jumping up and down yelling "falcons". So as it turns out we have Luke in wrestling with Kolby and I watching until Dew gets off work and trades us places.

"Never Quit" is their motto this year. And I have to say I was very impressed with the coach explaining it to the kids (with a lot of yelling). He used cleaning your room....never quit. My ears perked right up at that :)
The pictures are not that great but you get the general idea, that's Luke in the middle.

Luke seems to really like it. I don't know how much of the actual techniques hes getting down but hes having a good time.

This Sat is his first tournament....... I have no idea what to expect. Luke is pretty excited so we will see. Hopefully I will be able to take some pics and post later.

The start to what I'm sure is years to come of hours and hours spent on sports, let the fun began.

When it snows.........

Why not build an igloo?

This past weekend we had a huge snowstorm come through. So there was no question that we would be out playing in it. There was some debate over what to build, but an igloo won out. We took out tupperware in various sizes for our "bricks"

Of course its important to taste the snow to make sure its the right kind.
Also pretending your at the beach (he gets that from me :) and the snow is sand is important too.

After much stacking and gathering of snow.....ta..da an igloo

Being that we are not igloo making experts it was a little small. But there was enough room for two boys to fit in nicely.

They were both pretty pleased with all of our hard work

It only took them a few minute before they decided they needed windows. So Dewey dutifully gave them each a "window" to look out of.

One of out wonderful neighbors stopped by as we were building. Last night he brought over an American flag for the boys to place on their igloo.

This morning while we were waiting for the bus Kolby Luke and I went out to place their flag. Luke was so cute, he carried it very proudly. We had had a talk about how important our flag is and how it is to be treated with respect. As soon as I put it on the top Luke said "I think we should say the pledge of allegiance". I have to admit I was not aware that Luke knew the pledge of allegiance. (Its been a long long time since I was in kindergarten) He put his hand on his heart and started reciting it perfectly.

Such a sweet site.
This morning made me think of Dewey and I landing in Minneapolis with Luke after two months in Kazakhstan. How we both cried to be landing on American soil knowing that the moment we did our son would become a citizen. Its a time I will never forget.