2019 Pinewood Derby

The day after Trek's birthday (& the day of his big surprise party) there was a cub scout pinewood derby in the morning.  Bladen was SUPER excited to race his car (this was his 3rd as a cub scout) & Craiger was invited to participate since his 8th birthday is less than a month away.

Craiger made a Pikachu car.  (Trek did all the cutting, but Craiger sanded the whole thing, painted it, & put the wheels on all by himself.  He was SO very proud of his car.

Bladen was clever & made his car into the shape of a Wii remote.  I thought it was adorable & it turns out, it was SUPER fast.  He won a LOT of races.  He also sanded his down & painted his all by himself.  He also added some weights to his car which is why I think it was so fast.  

The boys enjoyed this derby even more because they got to do it together as brothers.  It's SO adorable seeing my boys grow up together.  They are best friends (& sometimes worst enemies, I won't lie), but most of the time they just love each other so much.

Congratulations boys!!!  Mom is SO proud of you both.

Trek's 40th Birthday

Happy 40th Birthday to the best of the best!!!  Trek turned 40 on January 25th.  I really played it down like I was "SO" busy that I couldn't make him a cake or doing any of my "usual" birthday shenanigans. . . when in reality I had a HUGE surprise birthday party awaiting him on the 26th with all his high school friends who he hasn't seen in over 20 years.  Ha ha ha.  He had no idea.

But we still had a birthday breakfast (eggs, bacon, & oranges & of course WHITE cake cupcakes with CHOCOLATE frosting. . . he's the only one that asks for these)

For his birthday dinner I made him "mock chicken" (his favorite), salad, & grilled pineapple.  We also had one can of apple beer (carbonated apple juice) he brought back from UT before Christmas.  It's his favorite & we only get it when we're in UT.

40 never looked so good.

We ended the night opening up some presents.  My friend Nancy got him some cocoa, a death star waffle maker, a chocolate fish, & tons of clothes.  Everyone else put our money together to get him a cool 360 degree camera he's been wanting FOREVER.  Spoiled boy.  Now he can take 360 degree shots of GERMANY when we go traveling.  He's SO excited about it.

It was a very simple birthday celebration, but the next day . . . . SURPRISE!!!!

Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Montgomery, AL

One thing I absolutely LOVE about moving so much, is that we get to see some pretty amazing things everywhere we go.  Right now we're in Prattville, AL which is only 10 miles from Montgomery, AL where the civil rights movement began.  What better way to spend Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, than to visit his church, where he marched, where the entire movement started (Rosa Park's bus stop), & teach my kids about this important part of American history.

We started out at Rosa Park's famous bus stop.  There was a kind homeless man there that gave us an amazing "tour" of the area & taught us all SO much about this wonderful woman.  

Our "tour guide" then took us to the famous Mongomery Fountain located just across the street from the famous bus stop.  It was known as the Court Square & was the largest slave trade square in the US.  He told us sad stories of what happened to people during that time period & it was SO good for my kids to listen & understand what the world was like then.  I love giving them the opportunity to learn about hard & terrible things.  History is fabulous.  We read it, study it, & LEARN from it.  We talked with each of them about how we could do our part to make sure that part of history doesn't ever happen again.

After visiting the fountain & Rosa Parks, we headed over to the first white house of the confederacy, which is more of a "civil war" site rather than a "civil rights" site, but it was right in the middle of everything so why not?

After that, we visited the Dexter King Memorial Baptist Church, the very church that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a pastor for.  It was a beautiful church & it was great sharing stories & history about this great man with my kids.

Below the church is a great little museum dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr. & the kids enjoyed getting to know him better through that as well.

We also got interviewed by the news.  Of course they wanted to interview ME!  Not Trek, not the kids, ME . . . the cry baby.  And yes, I bawled as I talked about what Martin Luther King Jr. meant to me.  I just hoped I cried enough that they wouldn't air it on the State news.  No such luck.  I had several friends, neighbors, & even my kids' teachers calling me to tell me they saw me on the news!  SO embarrassing.

After visiting the church, we talked to the kids about the Selma March, where it took place, why it took place, what happened, etc.

The Selma March began in Selma & ended on the steps of the State Capital Building.  The AL state capital is beautiful.  We were SO blessed to be able to talk to the kids about this march on the steps of that very capital it took place on.

It was a beautiful day.  I am SO very grateful for the many many brave men & women who fought so hard for equal rights in this country & am SO happy I got to share this day with my family.

January Happenings

January seemed to last forever.  Isn't it crazy after how quickly the holidays pass, everything after than seems to take forever?  But we had a lot of fun in January.

Taya got an amazing 3-D Harry Potter puzzle for Christmas, so she spent most of January putting it together.  It's AWESOME.

While the boys went to the Monster Truck Rally, the older girls had a dance to go to, so Taya & I got some alone time & got pedicures.  I think we BOTH enjoyed that.

Canyon is so funny.  He's had a hard time re-adjusting to school after the long holiday break.  For the first 2 weeks in January, he came home from school every day & told me he needed just a little rest.

Craiger, Taya, & Bladen were all honor roll students this semester so they got to participate in a school bowling party.  Leave it to one of my kids to get a BOWLING BALL dropped on their finger.  Craiger was the lucky one this time & we had to run him to the hospital to make sure nothing was broken.  We were SO lucky.  No broken bones, just a really really really black finger.

And all the kids celebrated their 100th day of school in January.  Canyon got to make a poster with 100 stickers on it.  He was pretty proud.

January was a good restful month with lots of fun family time.