First Middle School Dance

School days have been busy and so much fun! I love seeing three of the four cousin crew every Monday when I cover duty free lunch! Zander, along with the Hawk Leaders, collected money for the local animal humane society. He is making great friends and I love watching him be a leader at his school. Emmy helped me in the car rider line last week since she is on student council (collecting money for Blood Cancer United). Maddox has been working hard on his Hatchet project that he will turn in next week. Zander attended his first middle school dance (they didn’t have a dance when he was in 6th grade). His friend, Chloe, had agreed to go with him as his date (just as friends) but he spent the evening with the guys…. Which is perfectly fine by his mama!;) While Zander was at the dance, Maddox and I had a date… he requested sushi and a sweet treat and that’s exactly what we did! We also celebrated good grades with their free donuts from Krispy Kreme on the way home from the soccer tournament last weekend! I’m so proud of how hard these boys work in school! We continue to enjoy AWANA on Sunday nights. Maddox is excited that his buddy, Austin, comes each week with him… we stop for an ice cream treat on the way home before dropping him off at his house.

Happy Valentine’s Day 2026

My (not so) little loves and forever Valentine (year 22 and counting) had a busy but memorable Valentine’s Day. Zander and I headed out the door at 6:15 am this morning for a soccer tournament. He remarked that he loved watching the sunrise with me so I wanted to make sure I documented it here because it was such a peaceful way to start our day. I truly enjoyed the one on one time we had together in the car this morning traveling back and forth. After Z’s first game, we headed back home to catch Coach Zack and our favorite basketball player on the court. After a decisive victory by the Boilermakers, we grabbed lunch at Chick-fil-A and then headed back for soccer game #2 of the day.  I loved getting to spend the day with my boys. 

In other news, we watched the Seahawks win the 60th Super Bowl (at least watched until halftime). Emmy enjoyed the game by completing our second and final gingerbread project. We celebrated the 100th day of school (by dressing like 100 year olds) and got lots of cuddles while daddy was out of town for work. We loved sending him pictures to show how much we missed him last week! Grannie got to visit for Maddox’s basketball game last weekend!

Snow Much Fun

We woke up on Saturday morning to snow! It kept falling from the sky all day making for a winter wonderland in our neighborhood. It looks like we got about 11 inches in all, making this one of the largest snowfalls in our area since 2018. The boys and I enjoyed using my childhood sled and our neighbor’s driveway to frolic in the winter weather! We had broken our orange plastic sled in the ice the week before but we made quite a few passes down the driveway with this runner sled while large flakes continued to fall from the sky.  We have eaten a lot of delicious food while at home. Zander helped Zack make two of our meals, dinner one night and breakfast another morning. We made snow cream on two different days snd it was perfect snow for this. Hot chocolate has been a daily treat.  I love how beautiful our house looks in the snow and you can see how much snow was coming down while we were outside in some of these pictures. Beau preferred using the tire tracks for his walk the second day since the snow came up to his belly. Our boys shoveled our driveway on Sunday afternoon and I was so proud of Zander for walking down the street to take care of the bottom part of a neighbor’s driveway. It has been so much fun enjoying slow mornings and cuddles on the couch in the evenings. I’m not sure I’ll be ready for a “normal” week after two weeks of ice and snow. I think our whole family has enjoyed being home even if we have had to fit in working from home and some remote learning days.