Michael was old enough to go to Bear Essentials that year.  He had such a good time with the other scouts and he earned lots of achievements that day.  We are so glad Mike loves scouting and is so involved.  If it's something to do with scouting, Michael will always have a chance to go. 

This is our traditional trip to the OKC temple/overnight Easter Egg Hunt.  A little chilly that day, but the kids had a blast.  Decorating eggs was another day; and as you can see, with five kids wanting to decorate eggs-we end up with a lot of hard boiled eggs. 

The beginning of April is when we celebrate Michael's birthday.  He got some new cub scout gear.  A Class B uniform which he loves and a pocket knife which he earned by showing us as a wolf that he was responsible to take care of it.  We also got to take some joy rides in a Cessna-our family friends rented one for the day. 

Bekah turns 7 years old!  Our awesome friends, the Andersons, helped us celebrate.  Bekah picked an all-you-can-eat buffet.  At home, the kids like to set up a "throne" for the birthday girl/boy to sit on to receive/open presents.  We like to decorate when someone actually comes all the way out to visit us.  Sometimes it's a big banner, sometimes just sidewalk chalk all over the driveway.  All the kids love to sing on the karyoke machine. 

2011 and some winter fun in the yard.  It's a little too cold for Rachy.  We don't get much snow here, so we revel in the few days when there's enough to play in.

Christmas Miracle

Christmas 2010 was filled with normal traditions, reading about the Birth of Christ, mugs of hot cocoa, presents, etc. But we also had a little Christmas miracle. We put up our little tree like we do every year and decorated it like we do every year. But this year when the kids woke up on Christmas morning, our tree had grown! Our friends, the Genteman family, had an extra 9' tree that was given to them when their house caught fire in 2009 at Christmas time. They asked if we'd like it since our new house has a vaulted ceiling. They wanted to make it a secret, so the whole family came over on Christmas Eve after our kids were in bed. They helped us get it set up and even stayed to help us decorate it. It is the most beautiful, pre-lit tree! The kids were amazed at it and at how it came to be in our house. We tell them it was a miracle-and it was.

Great Wolf Lodge

We went to the Great Wolf Lodge for Christmas!

It's an indoor water park in Kansas City.

A pretty long drive, but worth it.

Most of the pics inside the water park didn't turn out well-but this one did alright and definately captures the excitement all the kids had.

We got the "cabin" themed room and the kids loved the bunk beds with the T.V. and gaming system.

We had to trade off staying with Rachel in the little area, but she did go on the lazy river and into the big pool a few times.

We had such a great time, the kids still talk about it.

LOTS of chlorine-look at those eyes!

Story time in the lodge-when it snowed indoors.

This was a big hit! A family trip that will go down in the record book. In fact, Bekah came home and wrote in her journal all about the fun she had at "Graet Well Flosh".