Update

SO I usually do this on a mass email I send to close friends and family. Since I am into this whole blogging thing I decided to do my family updates (reason being that we live 100s of miles from pretty much all of our family) here. This way you can catch up on other posts I have also done, but you can also get pics and such here. For all you local blogger friends, just think of this as a really long "catch-up" post!!


February was busy. The shuttle launch took up a lot of time for Shawn at work, as well as consuming many after work hours of thought process. However, he was still able to get some seeds planted for the Spring and put into his little closet greenhouse he constructed to sprout them. He planted over 100 tomato plants inside, and the seedlings are starting to take shape. Outside he has already planted over 300 onions. What we will do with them, don't ask me. I think we are planning on making a lot of canned BBQ and Spaghetti sauces for our food storage. YUMMM! Shawn also added sides to the trailer so he could take a few trips a week to the Botanical Gardens to pick up some of their 'donations only' compost. He usually takes about 10-15 loads off their hands for our 1/3 acre garden. He has bags of starter potatoes to plant and some peas soaking as I type. Most of the 40-50 trees we planted in our yard last year seemed to make it through the winter and are starting to show their stuff! Yeah!! About 10-15 are cedars to block our view of the oncoming new homes behind our home. The others are a combination of fruit and nut trees, a few flowering bushes and a couple dogwoods. You can never have too many trees!! He has been thrilled to get in some gardening, especially since he will be preparing soon again for yet another launch.


Zach has kept busy with scouts, earning his bobcat patch and recovering from his exciting first Pinewood Derby. He placed about second-to-last, but we are so proud of him because he did it all by himself. He has also been keeping busy reading, of course, and trying to play the piano (I need to get him started on lessons). He also enjoys turning on the music and dancing with his sisters...


Zach has also been moving right along in Cub Scouts, earning his Bobcat patch last week. It was a great Pack Meeting...


They played a relay race using chopsticks... Thank goodness for all that Korean Food!!! Zach did a great job, and had a fun time with friends.

Zach is continuing to sign off in his Scout handbook and we are enjoying every little bit of it!

Ranoah has been spending a lot of time improving her reading abilities. She has just picked up this whole reading thing and has requested a lamp in her bedroom, which we happily obliged. She, too loves to spend time with her brother and sister doing all sorts of things...

She also enjoyed a visit from the kids' great grandparents to finish off February. The last few days of February were full of sunshine and beautiful weather. We had to go to the park for a picnic and some time on the slides.

She is practicing for her dance recital in May and is enjoying dance, but feels she wants to do something else. She is actually leaning towards playing the violin like Mommy (she will probably surpass me in no time). But, for now, we will finish up the dance season and see where we go from there.

Skylah has been busy keeping me busy! Not really enrolled in anything, Skylah enjoys coming with me to the gym and playing with her friends there. She has been enjoying the plentiful amount of children there are to play with there, and I get to exercise without someone climbing on the back of the elliptical behind me.

She has also been starting to read, a little. Recognizing every letter out there, and reading some of the lowercase ones as well. She amazes me sometimes. She asks how everything is spelled and must count things! She seems to have 'blossomed overnight'.

After Zach got his scooter for Christmas Skylah has been wanting one. At a recent resale event here I found this little thing for $3!! I couldn't pass it up. And she loves it!!!

Her smile takes me away sometimes. I love her (and my other two) to pieces.

Skylah spent a lot of time with Great Grandpa on their last visit. Reading books, playing with little stuffed animals, or just talking on the couch together... Skylah was always disappointed when Grandpa left the room.

I have been kept busy with these critters getting the Spring Fever. No, no body is falling in love here. But they are just itching to get outside and do stuff. So, Saturday when I was cleaning before our little outings outside, the girls brought down their paints and decided to go wild!

You gotta love washable watercolors!!! Not to mention the $1 pack of slightly faded construction paper I scored at the resale shop!! (They couldn't be more worried as you can tell!!) I have been baking lots of bread, and other good things since I was informed of Shawn's slightly elevated cholesterol levels. I was baking before as well, but now I have become, as Shawn puts it, the Food Nazi. Flax seed mysteriously makes it into cookies, bread, cereal, smoothies.... as well as the family's newest favorite, Oat flour Pancakes. I made some Jam Thumbprints last week using nothing but Splenda, Whole Wheat Flour & Smart Balance Butter and they were great. We have all enjoyed the better eating, and I am learning lots of new things and discovering lots of new flavors.

A couple weeks ago the kids wanted to teach our Family Home evening lesson, so we let them. They made puppets and did a puppet show about Adam & Eve and the creation. It was well-played and well-performed.

We are looking forward to a fun Spring Break spent here at home this time around. I am hoping to take the kids on a little field trip each day to something out-of-the-house and enjoyable. Shawn will be busy with the next launch and scouts and such, but plans on making time to do stuff with Zach in his Scout book and take the family to the Space Center since he gets in for free now that he is a NASA employee.

Until next month!!