*Karter's excitement over the Pinewood Derby.

*The ability to learn new skills.

*Haircuts :)

*Family time (especially Family Movie Nights)

*Running errands with only two kids in tow (while the others are in school).

*Nate having a day off.

*Loving parents (both sides:) and for their willingness to help.

*Pilates.

*The fact that February is only in 3 days!

*Brekken's crush on his little friend Sydney... (it is very cute to watch.)

*Brynlei helping me with the laundry! (She really does love to help and does a good job)

*Grandpa Abbott & Nate helping and teaching Karter how to build his first Pinewood Derby car!! (good bonding moments)

*My Beehives.

*Good neighbors and their friendships!

Basketball 1.24

Karter and Brekken's basketball games last Saturday were awesome!  Karter's team played a really advanced team and played awesome!  They only lost by two, the score was 26-24 (I think).  Brekken's team killed the other team!  End score was 20-10!!  Good job boys!! We love watching you progress each week!

Just a little behind......

Okay, so I admit that I may be just a little behind on this.  On the 12th Brekken celebrated his "school" birthday!  I thought this was really neat.  Brekken's birthday is in July so being a summer birthday he never gets to celebrate his birthday while he is in school.  His teacher wanted all the kids to be able to feel special and have a day that was their own.  So she picks days when the summer birthday kids can come and celebrate their "school" birthday with their class.  They are spotlighted and get to make a poster, sang to, get to have their parents read their favorite book, bring treats, and wear a special crown.  Brekken was so excited to do this  that he counted down until it for days!

Brekken's spotlight poster!

Brekken wearing his crown.

Nate reading Skippyjon Jones to the class :)

When I asked Brekken who he wanted to read for the class he said he wanted his dad.  Nate took the day off just to be able to do this for Brekken!  The birthday song that the class sang was very funny (I forgot to take pictures of them doing the actions.)  Peyton and Brynlei came along and helped pass out the treats, which of course were Reese's peanut butter cups.  

* That Leia made it through everything alright. 

* When my kids say sweet things that totally make my day!

* Basketball season for the boys!

* That February is getting closer everyday!

* For Brynlei's little "teenage" conversations...

* Tickling matches with the boys.....

* Time to organize a little bit more...

* Being here for my children...

* That playing soccer makes Nate happy...

* Kisses & Hugs!

* For sisters who just call to talk (it means a lot)!

* For the many blessings that our Heavenly Father gives our family!

* Examples of others...

* For Valentine candy...(I know it makes those last 10 pounds that much harder to lose but it is just so tempting.)

* Watching Peyton's excitement to be "Star of the Week" at Preschool!

* Traevn's enthusiasm for accomplishing running a marathon at school!  He has worked so hard for this and to see how happy he was when he received it was priceless!

*Brekken's humor and the way he always keeps us laughing!

* Watching Karter grow-up (way to fast, I might add) and doing older boys things i.e. building his first pinewood derby car mostly by himself.

* The warmer weather :)

baSKetBAll

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Along with all the excitement from Leia, Karter and Brekken started Jr. NBA basketball on Saturday!  They both play for the CAVS (different teams).  Karter's(#8) game was first, they tied 24-24!  This is his first year playing, and he played so good!  He loves basketball and hopefully he will be able to use his height to his advantage:)  Then we had a break between games, so we decided to pass time at Grandma and Grandpa Abbott's house.  Then it was back to the courts.  Brekken (#5) played two games back to back.  They lost the first one but won the second one!  He played awesome!  They both enjoyed it so much that I can tell this is going to be a fun season!

What a weekend!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

So our weekend was pretty eventful.  Let me backtrack for just a minute.  We own two purebred german shorthair pointers; (Princess)Leia and (Han)Solo.  I bet you can't tell that our kids named them after one of their favorite shows:)  Anyway, on Friday night Leia went into labor.  This is one thing I can honestly say I never thought that I would ever do in my life.  She was in labor all day.  The first puppy came at 11:30 PM (a boy!)  Dogs can go up to four hours before giving birth to the next puppy, so as you can probably tell this was a LOOOOONG night! The second puppy didn't come until about 3:00 AM (another boy!)  Nate ran to Walmart to grab a few things, thinking he had time before the next one came, but the third one decided to come at 3:30 AM (a girl!)  Around five Nate and I were exhausted to say the least so we thought we would try and rest for a minute.  We checked on Leia and she was ready to give birth again (another boy!)  By 6:00 AM we decided we should probably try to at least get a little bit of a nap before the kids decided to wake up.  Well, the kids let us rest until 7:00 AM until they decided to wake up for the day.  They were so excited to see the little puppies!! Well, we checked on Leia and she was ready to go again.... so around 8:00 AM she had another little girl!  The kids had a primary activity/party that they had to get ready for at 10:00 AM.  I drove them over to the church, came home, and around 10:05 Leia gave birth to another girl!!  We knew that she was probably close to being done, so we let her rest.  I just have to say that it was kind of a cool thing to experience.  Now we have six little purebred german shorthair puppies to take care of.  The kids LOVE them!!!  and of course they too all have Star Wars names:)  The boys are: Chewy(chewbaca), Luke(Skywalker), and Vader(Darth) & the girls are:  Amidala(Padme), Ahsoka(Tano), and Aayla(Secura).   

HeArT DeCoR

Well since it is officially less than one month to Valentine's Day, I don't feel guilty putting up my V-day decorations.  I love the month of February, which may be why two of my children were born in that month and that was the month that Nate and I were married.  Having decorations up get the kids all excited about the upcoming holidays (plus I may tend to get a little excited myself:))  I love holidays and traditions and making new traditions for each one.  We will have to see what fun stuff we can come up with this coming month....

i HEART february!