February

 We started February out with a visit from COUSINS!  My niece, Kailan, had a swimmeet here in Tucson, so Stacie brought Hallie and Taige with her to come visit.  Hallie and Ashlyn are best cousins and it was so exciting for them to get to play and spend some time together. 



It's so fun to get matching jammies at Christmas!



All dressed up for Church!  So beautiful and handsome!

Kailan did awesome at her swimmeet and Isaac and Taige had a fabulous time as well.  We LOVE when family comes to visit!

Carter also had his first Karate tournament in February.  He was one excited and anxious boy!  The day finally came and he did FABULOUS!  

For the first part of the tournament they had to perform a Kata (skill set) to be judged on.  Carter did a sixteen count block and won first place in his division!   

 Next was Carter's favorite - Sparring!  He beat his first couple of competitors pretty easily and made it to the final round.  For the championship, he went up against his best friend, Daniel Chang.  Winnie has all of the good pictures of that - I need to get them!  It was a pretty fierce competition.  They were both going at it as hard as they could.  When time was up, they were tied and had to go into sudden death!  Daniel scored the first point and won.  So close!  It was really fun to watch.

Carter left the tournament with a gold and silver medal. Not bad for his first time! Way to go Carter!

Waiting for his medal to be awarded!

 



Carter and Daniel!

 









Carter and his instructors, Marianne Morrill (left) and Emily Morrill



Valentine's Day is definitely a favorite holiday in our house.  I tell my family I love them everyday, but it's fun to have a special day to go a little above and beyond.

 I made some new decorations for this year. 

 A sucker holder and....

 a love banner made out of all my red fabric scraps.

We spent the day basking in the joy of having each other. :)  It was GREAT!

February in Tucson means rodeo days!  Since we've lived here, we have only enjoyed the days off of

school, without taking advantage of anything else.  This year we got wild and went to a little mini community rodeo in Marana.  The very best part is that the boys got to MUTTON BUST for the first time!  A dream come true! :)  I was SOOO sad that we didn't get any decent pictures, but Isaac and Carter both did it and it was hilarious!  Nothing like riding a sheep around a pen!  Carter lasted longer than Isaac, but Isaac claims it was only because his sheep was really wild and bucking all over the place.  Since I'm not going to post the video, I'll just let ya'll believe that's true! ;)

Who can resist a handsome cowboy at a fence?

Or a boy in green googles?