Snow and Snowshoeing!

The Youth in our ward partnered up to make Pinewood derby cars for an activity. There were no rules and therefore, anything goes. There were long things pointed out front, motors, weights of any sort. Stephen and Shay were partners.

Zeona, Brady and Laton getting their cars ready.

Jayson, Andy and Jeff taping a hammer to their car.

See Brady's long extension on his car?

Laton getting ready to race. What is with these boys and NO smiling?

Laton, Oakley and ?I believe this car was Brother Wright's and he attached a 9 volt motor to his car.

Brian, Barry and Aaron watching what is going on.

Todd with Brian and Aaron.

Jessica and C.C. were partners. It looks like they had string and attached a rock to their car.

Stephen and Shay with their masterpiece!

Devree was taking pictures and she forgot to take a picture of Elena and her car which was a darling replica of "Lightning McQueen" from "Cars". Devree loves that movie and can quote it. She just got playing "Cars" cards and can tell you all of the characters in the movie.

Kennidy, Zeona and Brady in the background.

Elena with "Lightning McQueen" racing her brother Stephen's contraption. Notice the long pencils taped together in the front?

Jessica looking surprised at how good the banana splits were after.

Devree bought a special shirt for St. Patrick's Day. She was in a choir competition that day so she made sure she were her frog earrings because she was only allowed to wear black and White for the competition. Her group sang wonderful with 3 songs including 1 fun song. They came in 3rd after Douglas and Carson. Those schools are HUGE compared to Dayton. Grandma Rice and I went to the competition which was held at Dayton High School.

We went snowshoeing. This is Janice and Jen. We have had lots and lots of snow, but this is close to Spooner Summit. It was a fast trip because most of the ladies have kids in Kindergarten which is only 1/2 day.

This is Paula. Mom and I are lucky to have her for our visiting teacher now. She took most everybody up in her car and most of us used her equipment.

This is Staci, Julie and Bridget getting ready to go.

As you can see it was gorgeous with heavily flocked trees and icicles hanging down. There was no wind on this side of the mountain. A perfect day.

This is Star and Me. As you can probably tell, I was the slowest one. Julie took our picture. Star and I were having a conversation. She told me she was a TIGER! I said "A tiger for righteousness!" I didn't get a picture of Emily or Heather, a non-member friend of Star's. We talked alot about the church on the way up and back. I didn't make it to the top of the mountain but it was a wonderful day to be out getting a SUPER workout with some lovely ladies!

We have been having snow and snow and rain! It was a snowstorm on the way back from the temple on Friday night. Todd volunteered to get Devree back up to Reno for an all day seminar on how to score better for her ACT's. That is the only test BYU accepts for entrance. Devree feels better about taking the ACT's again in May. But the road was very snowy going into Reno on Saturday. Meanwhile Dane had his first baseball practice in the cold wind and lightly snowing morning.

Today as we sat down for Sacrament meeting we opened the program. Along with the other 3 missionaries from our ward is NOBLE"S address at the MTC. Our family looked at it and got big smiles on our faces. Devree leans over to Grandma and says "That's our boy!" If you don't know, I have set up a blog of Noble's letters. He is at http://noblesmission.blogspot.com/

Two weeks since Noble left

Dane at his Music Concert with the 4th graders at his school.

Most of these children are in his 4th grade class. The boy in the front in the striped blue shirt is Dane's good friend Jason.

This is the other side of the risers with his good friend in the white shirt Meagan. She is in his class at church.

Before the concert began.

Stephen came over to spend the night and finish their pinewood derby cars. The Youth are having an activity where they will race their cars.

This is Jennifer and her two daughters. They live in the other ward. Jennifer has just finished her rounds of chemo for the second time having breast cancer. They have a boy just younger than Dane and they played on the same baseball team last year. Here we are at the tryouts for the boys to get picked for the Minor league.

Dane is out practicing catching and throwing before the actual tryout. Dane is the only kid in our family that has told us he really wants to play a specific sport. He really enjoys baseball and was able to hit everything pitched by the pitching machine. His dumb mother was embarrassing him by yelling to him about batting left handed, when he was doing it right in the first place! I got confused. We went shopping and got him some new baseball pants, batting gloves, under armor stuff to keep him warm and a bat. His silly mother just about bought him a softball bat! Thank goodness I didn't embarass him further by making sure I read the labels and bought him a BASEBALL bat. He was very excited to show the family all of his equipment.

Last week was something every night. Dane had his final basketball game on Monday. He was able to make a couple of baskets with the whole family watching for Family Home Evening. Then Tuesday was the basketball party, Wednesday the concert, Thursday Visiting Teaching and Friday and Saturday were filled with the aerating and thatching fund raiser for our ward. The young women and scouts go out with the leaders and make the money they need for camp by doing lawns. It is alot of hard work in one day but a little longer and harder for Todd because he has everything on his computer to set up etc. They did meet their goal in even in these tough economic times.

We try to stay busy and not miss Noble too much. His first letter was devoured and he is doing well. He is maintaining his sense of humor and his love of the language and gospel. If you would like to see how he is doing, I have set up a blog for him. http://noblesmission.blogspot.com/

We have found out 2 methods that might help with Devree's paralysis on her face. I took pictures to send to a doctor in North Carolina. He wanted pictures of at rest, smiling etc. Devree chose this one to put on the blog. This doctor is actually on our list of providers! We find that a miracle. Then when I was telling the story at church, our high councilman actually told us of success he personally had with a woman that had paralysis for 40 years! So we are excited to start these procedures. I am so amazed at the miracles we are still finding in our lives. We hope you are finding the miracles too!