Mean Girls!

On Friday evening our church hosted a seminar called Mean Girls.  It was a chance for mom's and their daughters to get together and talk through how to handle the mean girls in your life (and how not to be one).  They shared tips and tools and encouraged all of us to approach the challenge with the right heart.  This was a really great event.  If you're a girl, you know how hard it can be if you have a mean girl in your life!

Natural History Museum

We took the kids to the Natural History Museum on Monday.  I love family days like this.  We all had such a nice time!

Luke loved the "hands on" exhibit.  Here he is digging for dinosaur bones.

I love this shot!  This is Luke's expression after just seeing a tarantula.

Here he is holding some snake skin that a Boa had recently shed.

Here in the bird exhibit, Dylan anxiously awaited his bone weight.  His bones weigh 19 lbs.

Give a Day Get a Day

We recently volunteered some of our time and items for donation to Steven's Hope with a great group of friends as part of Disney's "Give a Day Get a Day" program.  This included the Dodge family, the Hyde family, the McCaffrey family, Diane and the boys and a lot of help from our good friend, Traci Bolton!  Steven's Hope helps children and their families over at Loma Linda Hospital while they recover from serious illnesses.  They have recently opened a children's boutique to help fund their organization.

The kids worked on making "get well" cards for the children that the Steven's Hope foundation helps.

Everyone worked together to clean the donated toys then sort and tag the clothing.

(Diane was the fastest "clothes tagger" around these parts!)

  It was nice to get the whole family involved and share the experience with friends.  Thank you to everyone who joined us!

Golden Dust or Bust

Mariah was in her school's production of Gold Dust or Bust this past week.  She had a speaking part and did very well! This is actually the fourth time we've seen this play.  Dylan, Jacob and Michael have all done this fourth grade play and we've loved the performance every time.  Good job Mariah, we are very proud of you!

AdOpTiOn DaY

We celebrated Luke's adoption day at Wabi Sabi!  He loves that place...

We love you Luke! You are an answer to prayer and a huge blessing to our family!

Mystery Solved

Something fishy has been going on around our house!  Far too many of Luke's stuffed animals are missing their left eyeballs.  Mommy now has about five different animals that need surgery.  We finally solved the mystery...apparently our dog Maddie enjoys removing just the left eyeball and then she puts them back!

WANTED

Take a Hike

We went hiking this weekend at the Etiwanda Preserve. The weather was perfect and views were beautiful! This picture doesn't even capture how clear it was and how far you could see!

We took Maddie with us this time...she was so tired by the time we reached the waterfall.

Jake and Maddie resting while we stopped to eat a snack.

Diane and I at the waterfall.

We had such a great morning. The kids all enjoyed the hike. It was the perfect end to a great weekend...and a good start to a new year!