Fun Night!

While Matt is in Ethiopia, we thought those of us left back here in the U.S. would also experience a little African culture (other than the African culture who wakes up in my house every morning).

We went to the Kenyan Jabali Afrika concert at the University. It was a lot of fun and it really made me miss Ethiopia.


All three of the kids really liked it and Grandma came along too! We also had our friends the Clarks and Schultz there.


I was most excited for Durant to see the show. He really liked it. During the whole thing he kept saying they're from my Africa, those are my friends, my big friends. They are from my Africa. Durant is very proud to be from Africa and loves when he can connect himself with that.

We do our best to try and keep African culture in Durant's life, but living in this part of WI that's pretty tough to do. So this was a great night for him!!!

Here's some other fun news, many of you know I am traveling to Ethiopia with my friend Mary when she goes to bring home her two sweet children. I have had the honor of spending time with these two and I can't wait to see them again. The new exciting news is that Mary will be bringing her son Noah along for the trip and I am bringing Carter along too! I am so excited to see how God works in Carter while he is in Ethiopia. I have wanted to bring him there since the first time I went. We are hoping to travel in April.

The two travelers!!

Build a Bear

Last week we took the kids to Build a Bear. They each got to pick out a stuffed animal and experience making it by themselves.

Durant chose a brown bear and was a little confused by the entire process.


Ana was a little nervous and wanted to use her hand instead of her feet to add the stuffing.


Carter is totally a pro and chose a koala bear.


Here they all are giving their new friends a bath. All three of them thought this part was the best. They combed and washed for awhile.




It was a really fun memory to make as a family! They looked so cute walking around Mall of America with their big build a bear boxes.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Quiet Time!

One of the many joys of being a parent is getting to see special moments like these. The other night when I went into Carter's bedroom to say good night, I found him and Ana sitting and reading their Bibles!! It was a very precious moment!

Some fun pictures!

Here are some cute pictures from the last couple of weeks.


Matching jammies!!




Ana in her super cute outfit looking 16!


Here are our cute boys in their matching shirts!!


Durant was super excited to match Carter!

Go Longhorns!!

Matt and I are huge Texas Longhorn fans so of course we had to have a party and watch their big game in the Fiesta bowl tonight!!!

The kids and I made signs and hung them up around the house for when Matt got home from work.

Here we are preparing for the coin toss (yes, we are both wearing our Texas Orange)


We won the toss!



Here are some pictures of each of the kids doing the Hook 'em horns sign!




Ana has a little trouble with it so she invented her own


It was a lot of fun!! Best of all, the Longhorns won with an awesome touchdown by Quan Cosby. He's one of my favorite Longhorns (Colt McCoy is my most favorite). If you want to know why, ask me sometime!! I'd love to tell you all about it!

Cause I needed something else to do!

I meant to post this a few weeks ago, but didn't......

For an early Christmas present, Matt gave me a Webkinz!!!! Carter loves playing Webkinz and now I can join with him. We have so much fun playing at the same time. Me on my computer and Carter on Matt's!!

I have to admit it really is fun and I can easily spent way too much time on there!!!

Meet Sammy the Love Frog, Root Bear the Bear, and Cammy the Frog!