Random happenings...

Things for us are going well. The weather has warmed up, which we love. The kids have been having a great time playing outside, riding bikes, playing basketball, climbing trees, playing in the sandbox, etc. We LOVE warm, sunny days!

We've been preparing for a few milestones in our family...we got PJ all registered for HIGHSCHOOL a couple of days ago. CRAZY! We still can't believe he's going to be starting highschool in the fall! He is excited and a little nervous (the school has about 3500 students). But I'm sure he'll do fine & have a great time. He is also going to be attending his first "Varsity Adventure" scout campout this June, as well as EFY (Especially for Youth) for a week in July. It will be a busy summer, but lots of fun.

In addition to that, Tessa went to New Beginnings last night (introducing her into the Young Women program of our church that girls are involved in from ages 12-18). She is excited & it will be a lot of fun for her (even though she has to wait clear until November when she turns 12). And next year, she'll get to go to Girls' camp in the summer. And it's hard to believe that just one more year of Middle School for her & then she'll be moving up to Jr. High!

Jonah has his last basketball game this Saturday. He's had a lot of fun playing this season. He is also having a great time in cub scouts & will get to go to the Cub Scout Day Camp this summer, every day (all day) for a week. I'm sure he's going to LOVE that! And Jonah is going to be in his first Pinewood Derby in about a week. He is SO excited! :)

Mr. Clay is doing great too, and just loves playing outside, reading books, drawing, and playing with his big brothers & sister. He is looking forward to starting back up into swimming in about a month. And we are thinking that we will let him try soccer in the fall. He is still loving kindergarten & doing great, and is such a smart little guy.

Neil's job is going really well and there are lots of great opportunities coming up. He will be heading to England at the end of March for about a month, then he will most likely spend a little time in South Africa as well, a little later in the summer. The International job with Walmart that he's doing right is giving him some great experiences, and it sounds like there are some great possibilities just around the corner. We are SO grateful that everything has worked out so well & feel very, very blessed!

I'm keeping busy with all the usual stuff...helping the kids with homework & school projects, volunteering in class & on field trips or class parties, running kids to various activities, and then all the usual stuff like cooking, cleaning, laundry, running errands, paying the bills & balancing the checkbook, and my 2 church callings (compassionate service leader & visiting teaching coordinator). It's funny, I thought that once all my kids were in school I'd have so much extra time, but I'm still so busy with everything. However, I do keep thinking about going back to school in the fall, just a couple classes at a time, but we'll see...

In a couple of weeks we are going to be taking off for Spring Break. We are going to drive to Gulf Shores, Alabama (about 12 hours from Bentonville). I know...who goes to the beaches in Alabama?! It is actually right on the border by the panhandle of Florida. We were originally going to go to Destin, Florida (we've heard of so many people that love it there), but Gulf Shores is just a little bit closer & sounds like it's just as nice. And along the way, we are going to stop in Memphis, Tennessee, and spend a day checking out Graceland & some of the sights there. Then we'll continue on to Gulf Shores. We have a nice hotel that's right on the beach. We are looking forward to a week of relaxation, playing in the sun & sand & just having a great time!

So, anyway, that's everything that's going on with our family right now...
Here are some pictures of the kiddos that I've taken over the past few days:

Clay enjoying some reading time
PJ working on his science project
Tessa & Jonah enjoying the nice weather, climbing our tree
I just had to add this too. Jonah was making a whole bunch of paper airplanes yesterday & decided to make a really, really small one. He said he wants to enter it to be the "Smallest Paper Airplane in the World" for the record books. He said we could just go down to the County Courthouse to submit it. Funny kid!

Oh, and one more random thing...I came home from picking the little boys up from school today, and this is what I found on the kitchen table. Awww...what a sweet husband I have! I LOVE beautiful mixed bouquets, sweet surprises, and my sweet husband! :)