This week is my husbands birthday- Happy Birthday!!  In honor here's a brief life history. :)
Cute adorable always happy baby

Cute adorable always happy boy (with his older brother and younger sister)

Cute adorable always happy climbing and with hopes and dreams of growing up to be a chimpanzee. He loved eating bananas and loved climbing trees so why not?  He's on the left.  He's also living on the island of Kwaj- ahh the island memories, with a beach in the backyard...I should get him to blog his memories.

I showed a few high school pics a little while ago so we'll skip ahead to cute adorable always happy missionary in Switzerland German speaking and part time in Germany.
 The hair

New missionary cut (with the fam minus dad & older bro)

With the younger brothers

In the city (Basel, Switzerland on a building near the church, Brian in center)

In the country (left)

We met and got married.  So here he is, not just cute and adorable, but super hot in a tux :)

And now for cute adorable and always happy College grad Bachelor of Arts in Accounting... Summa Cum Laud (That means he is super smart ;), but he wants me to clarify for our children that it means he turned his homework in on time)  And a year later he also received his Masters in Business Administration, but we don't have any pics because we were in the hospital with baby #1

Actually...Here's us with baby #1.  Most new parents can pull off looking better than this, but this is how all new parents feel.

And now here is most recent.  Cute adorable and always happy at #38

Happy Birthday!  I love you. ;)

I got a great email from a friend today that has really made my day. Which is good because today my daughter is home sick, again, and our dryer quit working so my husband kindly called someone to clean our dryer vents, and I have been raking our lawn yesterday and today because it has snow mold and lots of trash.  Raking the lawn isn't so bad only some clever teenager I imagine thought it would be funny to open condoms and strew them down the street.  Not funny, not clever, just gross, and not something I really want my kids to find first.  When my kids grow up to be wild teens their jokes had better be funny!!!  If you are going to think you are clever and funny then do it right for crying out loud!  Yes, the snow has melted.  Last week it rained and rained and rained and now there is no more snow.  Last week when it was raining and melting the water and snow was rather deep and my nextdoor neighbor had a good 6" puddle going.  My neighbor behind me and I dug a trench in the snow from the puddle and slush in the back yard to the front yard where it could drain into the street so we had a temporary stream for a day or two.  A neighbor saw me working in the yard and said, "I bet you are glad to be raking instead of shoveling!"  I looked at the size of my yard and thought, "no! The driveway is smaller!"
Anyway, back to the email I recieved (my friend said she doesn't mind if I share).
Hi [me],

Jacob had been in our back yard yesterday when he came in to look for something. I walked in to discover HUGE, MUDDY footprints leading from the sliding glass door through our family room and living room, up the stairs, into my bedroom, a turnaround in my bathroom, followed by tracks across the kitchen floor to the garage door before back to the sliding glass door. I started to clean them up and then stopped myself - I am NOT doing myself or Jacob any favors by taking care of this mess. So I called him in from playing with the neighborhood kids and told him he had to clean it all up. Thus began lots of tears and frustration and a continuous stream or rant of how bad his life was. I pretty much ignored it until I heard him say, "WHY did I have to be born to one of the two worst families in the world?????" I couldn't help myself, so I asked, "one of the TWO worst families? Which family is also bad?" To which he promptly replied, "[my families last name]" I had to leave the room before I burst out laughing. I can only assume this has something to do with [my son who is 10] having to attend an adult class on Sunday (stories are sketchy at best with Jacob). I thought you'd appreciate the compliment from my son :). And I patted myself on the back to be grouped with such a good family! 
To which I replied:
Oh Ella, that is hilarious!  I think I will be laughing all day. :)  Do you mind if I put your story on my blog so my family can get a good laugh?
I did make [my son] come with me to the adult class-  Last week I got pulled out of class to sit with [my son], they found almost all the parents, because the whole class was not behaving.  After sitting in the class I noticed all of the boys knew the story being discussed and they are all very smart so many of the questions were answered very flippantly or sarcastically or mockingly or goofing off, but still answering the questions.  Sunday before church we read the story of Alma the Younger* together and discussed it and I decided he would be figuratively "struck dumb and paralyzed" by coming to class with me.  I decided to try taking [my son] to class with me so he could see that we are also studying the old testament and that you can get what you put into it, pointing out that people say hi and chat and joke a little before class starts but once class starts everyone's comments are about the lesson and people relate it to our own personal life and what it means today.  I also asked him if he noticed the Spirit was in the adult class and if it was different from his.  I then went to sharing time with him to make sure he behaved with his peers and when we were home I made him look up the lesson for next week so he can think about how it applies to his life today all week before he gets to class so that his comments can be more meaningful.  He wasn't too happy about it, especially because Sunday's lesson is Isaac marrying Rebekkah, so as a 10 year old he is having trouble relating that to his life- understandably, plus being named [a biblical name] I'm sure you can imagine how well that lesson is going to go :).  I am debating whether or not I go to class with him next week just as an observer to reinforce a lesson (hopefully) learned.  I really didn't think I was being that mean or strict- I just wanted him to see the difference in classes.  

So, there you have it.  Maybe my son will blog about his Sunday on his blog.  Hmm.  Oh, and a toast to mean mom's everywhere.  (& what is going on with my font color?- sorry)

*the story of Alma the Younger is in Mosiah 27 in the Book of Mormon.  Basically there is a young man who is the son of a prophet and is fairly popular and he and his friends go around convincing people not to believe in God.  An angel comes and tells him to knock it off and he is struck dumb and paralyzed.  His family takes care of him, he comes through, and he repents and he and his friends become missionaries of God instead.  It is a better story than that, but I'm summarizing.

Here's a few more wintery pictures just for fun.  Brian and I went on a walk in the woods one Saturday afternoon.  It is so nice to have a child old enough to babysit!  We haven't taken advantage of this option nearly as much as we should because life just gets too busy, but I treasure the moments.  I took lots of pictures, but I won't bore you.  I'll only post a few and you can imagine it is really cold outside but you are not because you are wearing snow pants because I told you to last time. 

 

  

 

Ah, March in Minnesota.  The sun is out, birds are singing, the snow is melting, we can wear a jacket, or go barefoot,

and...I have to remind myself it will not be spring for a long time still, it is only in the 30's and we will probably get another big storm before Easter.  I have to admit I am kind of happy I made it this far without feeling in a total rut.  Last week it seemed to hit me (when I decided it might be good to exercise, hmm).  I wanted to brag about how tough I am in the cold, but just couldn't do it.  It was a blah week and Thursday I woke up thinking I just shouldn't get of bed that day.  I shouldn't have.  I should have just slept through it until Friday.  My kindergartner missed the bus, I realized he forgot his 100 collection when another girl got out of her car with a nicely mounted 100 seashells collection and my son's was a ziploc bag of Cheerios, I ditched my visiting teaching companion (long story) and my youngest peed his pants at the woman's house I'm visiting, it was the Blue & Gold, I forgot I had the gathering activity until half an hour before and thought oh well, I'll just look in the handy dandy planning guide that usually has easy throw together in 5 minute ideas, but the idea was make a quilt! make a quilt?, I took a bucket of crayons and stack of paper and said draw whatever you want, and that night I went to bed knowing it could have been worse and Friday could only be better.  It was.  Now the days are getting noticeably longer and I'm up for bragging about how tough I am again and after you can send me all your pretty pictures of your tulips and crocus and daffodils I won't see until May.  Seriously, nothing grows until Mother's Day.  To help myself feel better here's what I wanted to post last week.

The Case for Snowpants.

I have been outside every day this winter and have been quite comfortable!  Even in the below 0 weather we stayed out for at least half an hour!  I can laugh at the winter cold advisory chart of when it is safe to go outside that was in the pediatrician's office, I can sled without a sled, I can crash and burn on my kids snowboards, I can make snow angels, or just lay down on the ground and stare at the sky.  The extra hybernating weight I put on, just the snow pants.  I can even take my kids to the bus stop and go shopping in my pajamas and no one even knows!  I could be in my underwear and who would know?  Snowpants are awesome!  I attribute snowpants to surviving outside, and I attribute spending time outside to my making it until the end of February in this American Siberia.  I know, I know, North Dakota gets that bragging right.  Now to get through March and April I will need rain pants (all this snow and it's flat=no where to go) and my two little boys to keep playing the 60's surf music they found yesterday.