Jazz Festival

Cooper is doing GES (Genesee Elementary Singers) this year.  They meet once a week after school.  He seems to be enjoying it.  The Jazz Festival was last week and there were over 300 groups that performed at it. We enjoyed watching them sing.  They have another performance next weekend at U of I in the Lionel Hampton Building.  Can't wait!  Although he has a basketball game the same evening, we hope to make both.

They even made the paper!

It is really hard to see them in these videos.  Coop is in the front row in the center.  

Emma turned 4 years old this month!

Our baby girl turned 4 this month!  She is growing up so fast.  One of her recent milestone's is she started saying Cooper's name correctly.  She has always called him Pooper.  Ahhh.... Emma continues to do well in preschool and is so excited she gets a week off next week for parent teacher conferences.  We love you Emma!

A few pictures from the past....

10 months old

And a few photos from her birthday this year....

 Hot cocoa!  Nanni and Boppi Stalling came to visit for Emma's Birthday.  Emma got to choose where we went out to eat and she chose, "The Hotel."  So we went to eat at, "The Pantry."

 The Birthday Girl!!  We celebrated before school.  Emma got to celebrate the day with all of her preschool friends.

 The boys made Emma some nice cards.

 After school we went to visit dad at his new office and then went out for lunch!

The Pantry cake is the best!

Thanks Nanni and Boppi Owen!  She loved her gift!

Emma had her Art Show at preschool a couple days before her birthday.  What a fun and special evening for the kiddos.

Ani and Emma

And on Valentine's Day, we got to attend the "Heart Cafe" at preschool.  The boys had the day off from school so they got to come with us.  

"The Heart Cafe"  

 The Menu

And then Cooper got a haircut while Emma finished preschool for the day. :)  What a fun month for this special girl!

4-H

Cooper is doing 4-H this year!  For his project, he decided he wanted to show a pig at the fair in September.  His pig order is in and they (we ordered two!) should be arriving at the end of May.  This should be a fun experience.  :)  He goes to one meeting a month.  At one of their meetings a couple of months ago, they made soup mixes for the food banks around the area.  It was a fun service project for them.  He is excited to start working on his Pig Project soon. He has to give a presentation in a couple of months.  The picture below shows all the soup mixes they put together.  I can't remember the exact number, but it was a lot!

Lutherhaven Trailhead 3rd-6th grade retreat. Coop had a blast!

Cooper and Nate went to Lutherhaven this weekend with Coop's Kids of Christ group.  They both had a good time, but were homesick.  There was a ton of snow which was great for snowball fights, playing EPIC outside, outdoor campfires (brr) and sledding.  There were discussion groups, lots of music, worship, prayer, acting out bible stories and much more.  The food was amazing as usual.  Nate said he is now going to fast. :)  Cooper slept on a top bunk for the very first time.  He was quite tired when he got home today and his face was painted red from playing EPIC.  Glad they had a great time!  Here are some photos.

 Snowball fights!

 Beautiful!

 Ready for a hot meal!

 Pillow fights

Getting ready for EPIC (Every person in camp)  Nate said every kid loved it!

 The lovely Becky! (This is Emma's preschool teacher)

Getting ready to go sledding

 The hill!  How fun!  

 Headed up to homestead for a campfire at night.  Brrrr

I think he was a little bit cold.  

Lutherhaven headbands for everyone.  :)  

Thanks for a fabulous weekend Lutherhaven and the Kids of Christ Group.  We hope to go up as a family for the Shoshone Work Weekend in May.  We have only ever gone to Lutherhaven and love it, but would like to go to Shoshone.

As for the rest of us, we enjoyed a low key Friday night, early mornings at 6am both days, watched Charlie play basketball Saturday morning, went out for lunch after, saw "Smurf's 2" at the theater in Moscow for .62 cents each (How do you beat that?), boys JV and Varsity basketball games, and a worship dedicated to our friend Rosanna.  It was a wonderful service and good to see everyone.  We continue to pray for Rosanna and her family.