Sewing

Rebecca took sewing lessons today from Mom. She fixed a pair of pajamas and a Barbie outfit. She also used thread and the colors were blue and purple. The first thing she had to learn is to make a knot at the end of the thread. Then she had to stich it. After that she learned to make another knot and she did it twice in each thing. She had fun doing it. They also went over a page of her "Faith in God" activity book. She is going to do the sewing every Sunday after lunch or a few things after lunch. It is going to be one of her new talents.

(Dictated by Rebecca, typed by Dad)

Ballistics Conference

Tyler and I attended a ballistics conference. My good friend and his son took us out to massacre bowling pins and golf balls. It was a lot of fun. Rik had a little .22 rifle that Tyler got to shoot. He was doing really well by the time the day was over.

Valentine's Day

Being that Michelle and I hate crowds, we have created a tradition of staying home on Valentine's Day and making dinner for ourselves. It started when we were dating. I made shrimp fettucine alfredo and the tradition has just kind of stuck. Every V-day that is what I make. Lots of garlic, lots of cream sauce, lots of shrimp... It is good. We often end with a slice of cheesecake, but not always. I know, think of the clogged arteries. This year, I had help with cleaning the shrimp. Tyler loves to cook and loves to be Dad's helper. So combine the two and here you have it. I can't guarantee that all the shrimp got deveined, and I did get a small bite of shell, but Tyler and I had a good time making dinner for Michelle together. (Although it doesn't look like it on my expression.)

Bathroom Accessories

We got new bathroom towels for Christmas. Woo-Hoo I know, but Michelle made a curtain for our bathroom to go with them that turned out nice. Here is the kids bathroom:

And here is the curtain that Michelle made to hang in out bathroom to match the new towels. Notice the clock on the wall. We hung a clock on the wall there when we first moved into the house. That clock died in May of 2008. It hung there until we replaced it at Christmas. Even though we knew it was dead, Michelle and I both continued to look at the dead clock to see how late we were while getting ready in the morning. You would think that after half a year we would have learned to not look at the dead clock. Better, yet you would think that it would have taken us a lot less time to replace the clock.

Piano Lessons

Well, back in May Michelle convinced me to buy her a piano. It has been on our long term plan to get one, and she felt like this school year was a good time to start Rebecca on lessons. She got some beginner books for the kids, some at Rebecca's age and some at Tyler's. Rebecca and Tyler have been practicing and doing really well with it. I am not usually home when they practice and so I don't have the opportunity to hear it very often. Tonight after dinner they each took turns playing their favorites for me. Rebecca is learning Christmas songs so that she will be ready to play them next year.

Tyler played his favorite out of his book.

And you can't forget Meagan. She always turns to the same page in Tyler's book and just lets it come naturally. Notice there is no music on these pages, but it is always the one that she turns to. The name of her musical masterpiece is "Hands".

Hiking

Michelle took Tyler, Meagan and a few friends for a hike up Honeybee Canyon. It is basically a walk up the wash. The kids had a great time and did it all without complaining.

It wouldn't be a hike without collecting sticks along the way.

Mailbox

We left one evening and when we came home we found our mailbox looking like this:

It happened on a Saturday evening. I didn't do anything about it on Sunday and when I came home from work on Monday, it was back to normal. The neighbor must have put it back up.