Bow-ing? I wuva bowing!

Logan was excited to get a spare!
Katie was a perfect cheerleader!
Hebby bowing ball! (Heavy bowling ball)
Yes! Tyler loved bowling almost as much as he liked the shoes! :-)

Happy Valentines Day!

Katie loved her first Valentines Day! She wore her favorite Valentines outfit, her "I love Daddy" bib each time she ate, and snuggled with her bear whenever she could (that is until she'd throw it again...) Hope you each had a fun one as well!

We are the CHAMPIONS!!

Today was a splendid day. James and I DEFEATED BUBBLE BOBBLE!

What's Bubble Bobble, you ask?! It's only the coolest Nintendo game ever (thank you 1988...) and we BEAT IT! Now, if you know James, you know that beating games is just second nature- in fact, why play a game if you aren't going to beat it?! Well, I am not quite the gamer James is.

I began the quest of beating Bubble Bobble over 20 years ago- and I never beat it. I did get to the final level (so I thought), but I never BEAT it. Today, with James on my side, we beat it. We beat Bubble Bobble (99 levels and shocked the bad guy 60 times), saw the "This is not the true ending" message, beat the 98 levels of "Super Bubble Bobble," got the crystal ball AND used the secret door and then proceeded to beat the final level where you have to shock the bad guy 80 times. At that point we got to see the dinosaurs turn back into people and save their true loves, and then we saw the congratulations sign and the theater curtains close.

The best part? The message we received at the end of the game: "The most important thing in the world is love and friendship." Awwww.

I am so incredibly excited, as the only games I've ever beaten are the Super Mario brothers games (shout out to Rach, Jonny, and Elizabeth Jaggi Shah) and Deal or No Deal (I won the million on both players when playing a two player game- it was amazing.)

Yay for Bubble Bobble! Yay for true love! Yay for friendship! Yay for a honey that helped add another game to my "Beaten" list! Yay to kiddies who cheered us on and took turns 'helping us beat it.' Yay for Saturday! :-) WAHOO!!! Yay for Bubble Bobble fans everywhere who can appreciate this post. ;-) you know who you are!

Answered Prayers

Yesterday around 5:00pm, James was still at work and my kids were gnawing the table legs...so I decided we'd start dinner. I asked Logan to say the blessing and it went something like this:

"Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for this food. Please help Daddy to get home soon." (We hear the sound of the garage door opening in the background and I see Logan's eyes fly open and his face light up for a second before he finishes the prayer) "Whoa, that worked fast. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

:-) We all were able to share the meal together, as James walked in right after "amen."

A Great Day

You know how morning comes quickly sometimes....TOO quickly?! That's what I was thinking as I rolled out of bed after having been up three times during the night (Katie twice, Tyler once). I do NOT like being woken up abruptly- and this morning was not different, however, when Tyler told me, "Mommy, my hungreem" I just had to smile. I made the decision to have a great day, and when I came downstairs and looked out the window, I saw this:

I LOVE our backyard- love that I can see across the field to the trees- and LOVE LOVE LOVE being able to see the sunrise. I enjoyed it until the sun came up above the trees- it was fun to share it with Tyler. He agreed it was "boo-ful, Mommy, boo-ful." :-)

Add to that Logan asking to hold Katie...what a great helper!! (Katie can't get enough of her big brother, so it was a perfect arrangement- even if it did only last a few minutes.)
And then James came home with flowers. I LOVE flowers!!! I'm not picky- well, that's not true, I don't really like $3 bouquets from Kroger because they die really fast...but these were definitely not that kind. :-) Here's my sweet little girl posing with my pretty flowers. It was a GREAT day!

Clowns in training

This is what I found as I went in the boys bathroom. I had just washed the mirror a couple days earlier....and yes, you're looking at the mirror. Those splatters are toothpaste and water. The boys had watched a show about how clowns spit water in a big spray to make it funny, and they thought they should brush up on their spitting technique. I had to take a pic before I cleaned it off- judging by the splatters, I'd say they're well on their way to the circus. :-)

Reading Fair

We were able to go to the Reading Fair in Columbus, and boy was it fun! We saw Ronald McDonald, Clifford, the Berenstein Bears, and lots of other people- plus they had lots of fun activities for the kids. They also each got a new book just for coming! It was a great day! Tyler had a blast figuring out the game of hockey at the reading fair. He did NOT like when he didn't have a ball, however.

Luckily, Logan took it as his quest to find Tyler a ball whenever he had lost his. I was so excited to get a picture of him handing it to Ty. What a great big brother!!

Logan was able to earn a toy by going into the blowup room and grabbing as much pretend money as he could. He was very nonchalant about it, however, because he had watched the kids beforehand and knew you didn't get to keep what you picked up. :-)

A Memory Lane Mystery

So I thought it'd be fun to take you on a trip down memory lane...which of these sexy ladies is pregnant in this picture?



It's a bit more obvious from this angle.... ha ha ha! That's me in the middle- I am 33 weeks along with Luke and Logan in this picture. I was growing exponentially at this point- and I still had 3 1/2 weeks to go! I'm wearing an XL shirt- and you can see it doesn't even come close to covering the entire underside of my belly. ha ha Those were the days. This is from my baby shower- Rachel, the best sister ever, is on the right and her roommate Kristi is on the left. Kristi is the one who drew that awesome picture of Luke and Jesus we hung in our living room! Ah, such good times- hope you enjoyed!

Families Are Forever

What a day! The 8th of February is always a little tough for our family, as that's the anniversary of the day our sweet Luke left to "live at Jesus' house" as the kids say. We try to focus on the positive, however, and remind ourselves that our family has been sealed for eternity and we will be together again.

Who are these adorable Supermen?! Luke and Logan of course!! Aren't they precious?! I can't tell you how much fun it was to watch these two interract. Memories I will cherish forever. I love reminders of things he did...like when he pulled every key off of the brand new laptop with Logan....or when he learned to say "LUKE" instead of "Doot"...or when he'd hear a "WeeOooh" (ambulance)....so many good times, with many more to come. We know he's near us, and for that we're grateful.

Here's a favorite pic after the boys ate carrots. Aaah- memories! Where would we be without them? Between that, the atonement of our Savior, and a knowledge of eternal families, we have much to be grateful for. If only I could remember that EVERY day! :-)

So, to put it in one word, today was peaceful. We went to church, had lunch together, took naps, ("everyone takes a nap on Sunday" is the rule I've started in our house), and then we took a cake to the local firemen in honor of Luke. He LOVES fire trucks! We always include a little description of Luke and also about Long QT. If you want to know more, visit www.sads.org and you can learn all about it! The more people know, the less people will have to suffer the loss we have.

Logan was THRILLED when the firemen invited us in and allowed us to not only see the fire station, but also allowed Logan to sit in the drivers seat of each and every vehicle he asked to see (ambulance, fire chief's truck, firetruck, rescue boat). He was also able to hold a water hose! He had a blast! Tyler on the other hand was scared out of his mind! He had on his favorite Batman stocking hat, and as we walked out the door into the garage, he pulled it down over his face and kept saying, "no like it! go home and play wii!" He eventually looked at the trucks, but wouldn't get anywhere near them. :-) Maybe next time. We came home and watched a movie, and began the bedtime routine. It was a full day, and I think we accomplished our task of spending it as a family and being grateful for those we've been blessed with. So, in honor of Families are Forever day, HUG YOUR BABIES & YOUR SWEETIES!!

Any memories you'd like to share about our darling Luke?! Please post away!!