Sweet Treats

The girls (Gramma, Leila and me) had a great time this morning decorating sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. Gramma did all the hard work last night and arrived this morning with LOTS of naked sugar cookies. Leila insisted on wearing her chef hat and really got into the act. What a fun morning....especially since it ended with a taste test!

The "cookie boss"...

How many M&Ms fit on one cookie?

Notice L's tongue!

Happy Valentine's Day!

National Board Certified!

After a year of writing essays, documenting instruction, video-taping lessons, reflecting on his teaching and passing an assessment, Chris is a National Board Certified Teacher! Yahoo!!!! Last Monday, he was recognized at the school board meeting. Each of the recipients were given flowers, had their pictures taken for posting in the school district's central office and given a fancy new name badge (no, Chris is not LDS although he looks it in this picture). Chris is now certified to teach in any state across the country! Wow! Great work, Babe!!!

Chris and the superintendent, Dr. Apostle.

Congrats from the school board members.

Leila's favorite part of the night was Daddy's flower...

We are so proud of you!

Oh, and did I mention that he gets a bonus! Yeah!

Mackenzie's Mountaintop Birthday!

Leila's friend, Mackenzie, turned 3 this last week. All Kenzie wanted was a birthday with snow, so we were invited to Paradise, Mt. Rainier for a Saturday of fun in the snow. It could not have been a more BEAUTIFUL day! The sun was shining and the road to the mountain was clear. Leila played in last year's snow in our yard, but didn't go sledding much since all we had was a kiddie swimming pool that didn't slide too well (although we sure tried!).

She was very excited...until we got to the top of the sled run. Oh my! I was worried that maybe we had made the trek for 10 minutes of tears and a return trip home. She was having a melt down! Being the sensitive parents that we are, I loaded her on the sled with Chris and gave them a shove. The first run she got snow in her face, which made things worse. After 2 more runs she figured out that she could throw snowballs at the people waiting at the bottom. This delighted her! She LOVED it! Whew!

Dad and Leila - after she got the hang of it!

Grammy and Leila...going down sideways.

The birthday girl - Mackenzie!

Snowball in hand....headed for Mommy at the bottom.

Eventually, Leila wanted to try it all by "ME-self!".

Tossing snowballs at Grammy.

Lunch break! We ate our lunches in the new visitor center and then enjoyed some of Kenzie's b-day cake. Watch out! Those benches are slippery!!

A little more snow before heading home. The air was colder after lunch and the sun went away.

I think we can say that Leila enjoyed herself!!! It was a great Saturday. We all slept wonderfully that night!