10th Anniversary

Derek and I celebrated our 10th anniversary and he surprised me with 100 roses at school. We were not supposed to get each other anything since we are going to the Holy Land after Christmas to celebrate our anniversary. He did not listen to that and was so sweet to send the flowers. He knows a lady at church who does all the flowers for Easter, so he paid her a visit and then got our friend Marie, the school receptionist in on the event. He asked her to bring her camera to school and take pictures. I think he knew I would want to capture the moment.

The kids in my class were very excited when they all came into the classroom.

We went out to dinner to celebrate as well. I am one blessed woman to have married the wonderful man that I did.

This is the video of the flowers coming into the classroom.

Global 5K

I went away for the weekend with a friend to the Women of Joy conference in Orlando. While I was away the kids participated in the Global 5K at church. It was to raise funds for missions. They had a really good time. Here is Aubrey crossing the finish line of the kids fun run.

The highlight of the event was the medals.


I got to meet my favorite author, Karen Kingsbury, at the conference. She was signing books, but I had read all of her books and did not think to bring one of the ones I own with me. I did not have her children's books, so I got those and had her sign them. In my excitement over meeting her, I handed her the princess book and asked her to make it out to Ethan and the prince book to Aubrey. I realized it when I was at my seat and looking at them. All I could do was laugh. The kids thought it was pretty funny!

Guitar Lessons

Ethan had his first guitar lesson today and he was one happy boy! Of course, I had to be the dorky Mom and ask for a picture.

School Picture Day

Today was picture day at school so we had to wake up extra early to do hair at our house. Aubrey did not want a big bow this time, she wanted a smaller one.

Notice her cute little knee socks. I bought a lot of these last year and she refused to wear them correctly. She would always push them down to her ankles, so I gave up. I was delighted the other night when she came out of her room wearing her knee socks correctly and this year she loves them. Yeah, for the small things in life like cute little knee socks!

We changed out the hairbow for this one today that they were selling at school. I love matching hairbows and Aubrey now has quite the collection of navy and white hair accessories.

Ethan took a bad fall at recess today and found the one little spot of concrete where they play. His elbow is pretty bad and will be sore for a couple of days. It is his writing arm too and he already has sloppy handwriting, so the next fews days of school work could be interesting.

His knee is in better shape, but will still leave a mark for a while.

Here are Derek and Ethan tonight watching videos on his computer. They are funny times when people pass gas and they just think they are hilarious. Some are very funny, but it must be a boy thing. My camera setting was set wrong for the first few pictures, but I just love these pictures of them laughing together.

How can this picture not make you smile?

Tommy Walker Concert

Derek was at worship conference all week in Orlando and had the opportunity last night to sing in the choir at a benefit concert that Tommy Walker was doing. Some of the members of the worship team joined him as well. The kids and I drove after school to enjoy the concert. It was a small, intimate concert to benefit a charity that Tommy's sister and brother in law run. Derek has always been a big fan of Tommy Walker. He is a worship leader and writes amazing songs. We sing a lot of his songs at church. Derek was in the worst possible place in the choir from our seat to take a picture, but I gave it a valiant effort.

The people all around us were lifting their hands worshipping and I snapped this picture of Aubrey, it was just too precious.

Tommy's father is suffering from Alzheimers, so this year he took up the harmonica as a tribute to him. It was amazing and in fact Ethan's favorite part of the concert

There was a sort break and our friend Darren Petterson grew up with Tommy and was able to introduce him to Derek. I was the crazy wife who asked for a picture. One of the guys who came with Derek to sing is also a big fan and wanted a picture, so I asked Tommy again for another picture. He was kind and gracious to oblige.

It got late and poor Ethan could just not stay awake any longer. Sortly, after this I let him lay his head in my lap, followed by Aubrey. So by the end of the conert I had two sleeping children on my lap. It was a great concert though and glad we made the drive to attend.

When the concert was over, they wanted a group shot. So guess who went and asked Tommy one more time for a picture, yep the dutiful wife. I figured I will never meet him again and it was a small venue, so I asked and again he was happy to do it.