Caleb the Bear Scout

Caleb's grandma gave him his first pocketknife. Within 1 hour of receiving the knife he earned the Whittling Chip Award and passed off the requirements needed towards his Bear patch. Below is the penguin he carved out of a 3 inch bar of soap.

Last night was the Pinewood Derby. Caleb came up with his car design and helped in every aspect of the car building. Unfortunately things didn't work out fast for his car. I was REALLY impressed with his good sportsmanship. Any other 9 year old I know that would've lost every race (not even finishing the last race) would've broke down crying. But Caleb held it together even though he was devastated. For that we treated him to a great big ice cream cone!

Near Death

Thank heavens Megan was being watched over last night. An hour after we put her to bed, Megan came out crying about how her night light wasn't working. Trevor and I couldn't understand why that was such a big deal until she explained (after the tears stopped we could finally understand her) that she'd stuck a "penny" in it then it stopped working. Needless to say we asked if she was okay, realizing that she blew the circuit breaker, the nightlight and burned the side of the nickel. If she would've been electrocuted we'd have never known it for a few hours (when we check in on the kids before we go to bed). Once again I'm so grateful she was being protected from above.

New....

Gabriella's first day of primary was "awesome". She has a great and creative teacher. Gabriella hasn't even once asked "where's the toys".

For Christmas we gave the older 3 kids desks. Megan loves hers a lot. Even during Christmas vacation she'd spent hours at her desk drawing pictures.

For Christmas I asked Trevor for a way to display the family's accomplishments. He gave me the words "Family Glory Wall" and together we came up with this layout. The smaller pictures are the photos of each of us doing something notable like.... Michelle's is one of her leading music at her Christmas program, Caleb is running a 5k with his grandpa, Megan won 2nd place at the County Fair Art Show, Gabriella started primary, Trevor is running a personal best in a half marathon and I won 3rd place in my age group in a 5k.