Birthday Celebrations and Snow

We have had some pretty good times here lately. It is the birthday season at our house. We celebrated Avery and Abby's birthdays with all our extended family, first. The girls had a great time playing with all their cousins and getting all the attention from their aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

Thanks Grandpy and Gina for our new art supplies!


Paw Paw and cousin Tripp having some fun!


I made some cupcakes out of Janet's delicious Texas Cake recipe topped with butter cream frosting.


The girls decided on cupcakes this year, and of course, requested which exact one they wanted.

We asked the girls this year if they would rather do something extra special for their birthday with a few friends rather than throwing a big party with lots of friends. They decided to take two friends to Amazing Jake's and have them spend the night instead of a big birthday bash. That was our first time to go, and we will definitely go back there. We ate pizza first then hit all the rides. We finished up with bowling and arcade games. The girls were exhausted by the time we got home and went right to sleep. The next morning the woke up bright and early (when will they start really sleeping in?) for some more playing and eating pancakes.

Avery went rock climbing up about 35 feet up and rang the bell at the top. Woohoo!


Wes went up the hardest route.


Sybil and I getting ready to race.


This rocket ship ride bounced up and down and went around and around. The girls loved every bit of it!

On the merry-go-round. I am so thankful that Wes could do it with them. Any rides that go in circles make me extremely dizzy!


Future bowling team?

This past week was especially exciting because we got about 8 inches of snow. They dismissed school early on Thursday and then canceled school on Friday. The girls and I had a blast trekking up to the church together where we surprised Wes. Soon after we got there Todd, Bao, Shen, and Cina got there with a sled that they let us ride on too. The church has a nice little hill that is fun to sled on when we get a good snow. A while later some of Cina's friends showed up. We made a huge snowman together. Avery also rolled a big snow ball which she then used to make a chair. Abby enjoyed making a princess castle. Sometime during all of this Abby's hat fell off. I told her to come to me so I could put it back on for her. Instead, she got the bright idea to bury it in the snow. Way to go Abby! Then to top it off, she couldn't find where she buried it! I looked forever for that thing. Finally, Todd found it. I was seriously beginning to wonder if we had rolled it up in our big snow ball to make the snowman. We really did have a great time. We weren't too cold and the snow was perfect for making snow balls, snowmen, and castles. After a couple of hours we trekked back home to drink some hot chocolate with marshmallows. The next morning we made a large snowman in our front yard and attempted to play some snow soccer.

The girls are dressed and ready to go for our trek.


A bed of soft snow.


Ready for a snowball fight, mom?


I am ready, too!


Avery's chair of snow.


Abby's princess castle of snow.


Snowman #1 built mostly by Cina, Madeline, and Paula.


The snowwoman we made in front of our house which Abby named Barbiecutie.


We love you Barbiecutie!


Funny poses.


We love our Daddy!


We love our Mommy!

Abby hamming it up!

Avery and Abby are playing soccer this season. Avery is on the Denison Ponies team again. Everybody is back on their team and they gained two more players. They were undefeated last season (with 2 ties) so it will be interesting to see how they do this time. Wes will be the assistant coach on Avery's team again. He is Abby's head coach for the Denison Lightning. Gotta love these team names. It looks like our Saturdays will be pretty full this spring. Yesterday, after Abby's practice, there were a bunch of men starting to play soccer on the field next to where Wes and Abby were. Abby told Wes, "I think the name of their team is the Philistines!"

Wes and I are excited to get to be a part of an adult small group this year. Usually we lead/host the middle school or high school small group. This time around Wes is leading and we are taking turns hosting a younger couples small group. Nothing against the youth, but it is nice to get to spend some time in the word and fellowship with people our own age. We are studying the book, Crazy Love. I am really enjoying it so far.