Valentine's Day

Seth had 2 busy days to celebrate Valentine's day this year. Thursday the 13th he had a class party at his preschool where they exchanged cards, ate lots of goodies, and played games. Noah came along and played with the other younger siblings. Later that evening we drove 45 min to Jeff (Jefferson City) to eat at the new chick fil a! Unfortunately we we got home Seth threw up. I guess he had too many sweets and the chick fil a on top didn't help. But he was perfectly fine the next day, which was good because we had to gear up for another Valentine's party, this time with his church friends.  He had lots of fun exchanging more valentines and candy, decorating cookies, painting and playing games.  And afterwards we had fun running off some energy in the gym!

All of Seth's valentines for his friends

Seth's Valentine's with the candy added

Seth devouring his cupcake at his school party

Seth's school party

Seth exchanging valentine's with his church friends

Eating valentine's candy with church friends

cooking decorating with church friends with Noah in the background

valentine's painting with church friends

playing at church after valentine's party

Noah playing at church after the valentines party

Seth with all his valentine goodies at preschool

Noah (squatting) and his friend Will playing at Seth's preschool while the big kids have a valentine's party

Graduation Reception

Our church was so sweet to host a party for Spencer's PhD graduation a couple of weekends ago. Fortunately the weather was great...aka no snow or ice!  Several of the ladies in the church pitched in and made lots of food for the party, I'm so thankful for them and their culinary talents! Seth and Noah ran around like they owned the place, playing with the other kids that came, eating cake, and playing with all the basketballs and hula hoops. I set out his framed degree, along with a copy of his dissertation and some pictures from the graduation.  For the center pieces on the tables, I put out all the books from his PhD courses that he had to read, so people could skim thru them in case they got bored (just kidding). We had lots of church members stop by and congratulate Spencer.  I think he really enjoyed talking about the whole process (and show off his class ring) with some of them now that its OVER!

the tables with spencer's PhD books as centerpieces

Spencer's doctorate degree, pictures of the graduation and a copy of his dissertation

the cake!

a big thank you to the women of Riverview like Peggy for all the food!

my friend Heather helping with Noah (who entertained himself with the water fountain)

Dr. Plumlee

the food table (thank you Riverview ladies)

Spencer showing the pictures from the ceremony

some of the crowd

people dropped off encouraging cards of congrats

talking with people about the dissertation process

presenting spencer with a check to pay for his PhD ring! Wow what a surprise and a blessing!



the boys had a great time at the party



THE RING! SO PROUD!

Let It Snow...Alot!

We have already seen lots of snow here in the Ozarks the past 2 months! The schools here have already missed about 7 days of school all together! And we still have February to go! Here are some pics over the past 2 months...

the boys in the first snow of the winter- dec 2013

seth watching the first snow come down

getting ready for his first sled right

sledding

sledding was a good workout for me too

putting our new snow suits to good use

Noah in his snow suit -still working on getting daddy some snow pants and boots

the boys sledding together

noah and daddy

ready to inside and get warm

daddy's turn to pull seth around

the deer came out to find food- view from our 2nd story window

we are the red dot- we got about 8 inches overnight

snow blowing in sideways!

the snow drifts were up to a foot or more

spencer trying to shovel a path out while I watched from the warm house

never thought I would experience such cold temps

the greatest neighbor ever- thank you for plowing our street!

our street in under there somewhere

playing in the snow before the subzero temps hit

he can't get enough of the snow

all boy

plowing the snow on our deck

yep, he is laying down in the snow

mounds and mounds of plowed snow in the parking lots around town

as if 8 inches weren't enough, how about another 1-2 inches

view of the lake: light blue=frozen lake, dark blue=what's left of the lake