Rachel had awards day at school, and she got AB Honor roll!! She has been doing so great in 4th grade so far, and has stayed on the honor roll consistently. She also made Citizen of the Month!! We were surprised on that one. She asked me what is a good citizen?? LOL. I really am proud of her though, she is a sweet kid and helpful and kind to others.
After 3 long years, Brooke got her braces off!!! The reason she got them on at such a young age was that they said we needed to correct her jaw shape. It was a V shape instead of the normal U shape, and pretty misaligned. You can tell from the pictures it really did make a big difference in her jaw and her smile. She was so happy to finally be able to eat taffy and popcorn again. She has to wear a retainer for awhile now, but it is the clear slip in kind, rather than the metal kind I had as a teen, so not too bad!
Arnold and I have found our home church! It was one of my goals this year and it is now accomplished! I grew up Methodist and so switching over to Baptist made me a teeeeny bit nervous, but they really aren't that different! Although Baptists don't celebrate Lent, Ash Wednesday and giving something up leading up to Easter! Who knew?! Anyway, we officially became MEMBERS the other week, and we are thrilled. We have met a lot of amazing people already.
Arnold has become part of the praise team! Every few weeks he gets to get up on stage with the other musicians and play guitar! The kids and I have gotten a big kick out of watching him. We're like his own little fan club ;) The first day he played he was blushing on stage and so nervous, but I think he's getting the hang of it now!
We have been really great about going to church every Sunday, and getting back into the swing of things. I have had to get out of my comfort zone a little and wear dresses, leggings, etc. to church on Sundays. We came from a very laid-back, casual church before, so I was used to wearing jeans! And I know it doesn't technically matter what you wear to church, but I was always taught you dress up nice for Church out of respect ;) Poor Rach isn't loving the dresses either, shes more of a tomboy these days! ;)
What do you do when you get your braces off?? Go out to celebrate and eat cheesecake of course! You think she would have picked something with caramel or nuts, something she wasn't supposed to have while she had braces. But she was happy with plain ol strawberry cheesecake! It was ok because I got to finish what she didn't eat ;)
I have gotten back into reading on a regular basis this year, and I still prefer a good old-fashioned book to a kindle, so one weekend I went out searching for a new book to read. I had heard great reviews on "Where the Crawdads Sing" and so I picked it up. Well it lived up to the hype-- I loved it!! It actually will probably be added to my list of all-time favorite books! It's somewhat of a mystery, but the actual story is just really good and sucked me in. I stayed up one evening really late and had to finish it! Then I loaned it to my friend Kim. And she loved it too! Now my mom has it and I think she'll enjoy it as well!
We had a tree cut down in our yard last month. It was the pecan tree in our front yard. Arnold had been saying for a while that it was unsafe and the way it was positioned in front of our house, it would have been dangerous if we had a bad storm or something, and it fell on our house. Luckily our neighbor across the street cuts down trees and he gave us a great deal! We made it a family affair afterward and had everyone pitching in to clean up all the limbs and sticks in the yard, because it was a mess! I know it's silly to get so emotional over a tree, but I hated to see it go. We often took pictures of the kids in front of that tree.
Brooke has been growing her hair out for a long time, and everytime I suggest cutting it, she fights me on it and says that she looks soo much better with long hair and she would never cut it. But there have been so many frustrations and tears over knots that would constantly get in her hair, and she eventually agreed to go get some cut off. So although it wasn't drastic, she did get a few inches cut off and the split ends are gone, and it looks so much better.
That same day we were at the mall getting Brooke's haircut, we stayed at the mall for awhile, doing some shopping, and the kids had to stop for soft pretzels and lemonade! My mom used to always get me a pretzel when I went to the mall with her as a kid :)
Our poor Rachel got the FLU last month!! We got a call from school one day saying she had a fever. Arnold took her to the dr and sure enough, she had flu! A few days later, Brooke got the flu also! Our house was full of germs for days! I am SO happy and confused as to how Arnold, Caleb and I didn't catch it, but thankfully we stayed healthy! And this all happened over Valentine's, so we didn't have much fun this year! And Rachel missed her class party! :( But her teacher was sweet enough to save all the valentines and candy she got and bagged it up for her when she got back :)
One day while Brooke was at a friend's house, we took Caleb and Rachel to Udderly Delicious for Icecream! We love going there, the icecream is the best! I usually get cookies n cream in a waffle cone. They also have the best icecream cakes for birthdays and special events (hint hint Arnold ;)
