The Constitution Bowl

Rachel was chosen to enter the Constitution Bowl at her school.  After 3 days of competition her team came in 3rd Place!!!  Congratulations!!!  She knows every article, amendment and more about the U.S. Constitution.  We are so proud of her.  (I think she may have come in 1st place if she hadn't been in a fog on the last day of competition from staying up until 3:30 am the night before to see Hunger Games).  Oh well.. live and learn.  :)

Dad, when did you learn Spanish?

We have a tradition at our house that whenever anybody comes to dinner we ask if they can speak another language. If they can, then we ask if they will say the prayer in that language. Well, on St. Pat's Day we had Jared and Tori who have both done the prayer in another language already so David said he would do it in Spanish. Adam looked strangely at him and then David said the prayer. When he was done Adam looked at him and said, "Dad, when did you learn to speak Spanish?" It was so funny. Somehow we have never told Adam that David speaks Spanish and I guess David doesn't ever speak Spanish around Adam. Our 7-year-old son didn't even know that David went on a Spanish-speaking mission until a few days ago. I guess that's what happens to the youngest... we think he already knows everything that the older kids know and he ends up missing out. We'll have to be careful about that. :)

Corned Beef and Cabbage for St. Patrick's Day Dinner

I was going to remember to take some pictures of our St. Patrick's Day celebration but of course, I forgot. Jared and his girlfriend, Tori, and Josh came up to dinner. I made corned beef and cabbage for the first time ever. Usually we have Irish stew and soda bread but this time I decided to do the famed Corned Beef. I searched for a good recipe and found one online that had hundreds of 5-star ratings. It turned out OK but wasn't really my favorite. I like Irish stew better. That was probably my last time fixing corned beef.

Mr. Snowman

We finally got enough snow for Rachel to build a snowman. Aren't they both so cute?

What a Funny Dog!

I came into the family room to see our dog, Ace, sleeping like this... what a funny dog!!

Fabric on Fire

Rachel did this great science fair project which was due today. She did an awesome job. She was testing which kind of fabric catches on fire the fastest. If you were wondering, cotton goes up in flames the fastest at like 2 seconds. It was a fun project and I'm proud of her for working so hard on it.

Introducing....

MR. TURTLE

Rachel got this cute little tortoise for Christmas and named him Mr. Turtle (I hope that doesn't psychologically mess him up). He is really small - he can fit easily in Rachel's palm. He's very cute and easy to take care of. Rachel loves him and I've even heard her talking to him (she makes fun of me for talking to our dog because she says, "he's a dog, he can't understand you"). I guess it's natural to talk to your pet when you like it. :)