This week

• Our friends Morgan and Jon FINALLY had their baby, almost 2 weeks after their due date! Morgan is seriously one of the toughest women I know - not only did she go 13 days past her due date with no complaining, but then she labored and birthed her baby girl naturally! Their baby, Shilah, is adorable of course. We are so happy for them!


• We flew into Dallas earlier this week for a quick overnight to receive an award Adam got at work.


• We went to the rodeo yesterday! We got to see one of Adam's bosses compete in a cutting event, and along the way we got a huge dose of Texas culture! Pictures to come...


• Samuel is trying to decide between flag football and baseball for his spring sport.


• Samuel's basketball team is doing awesome. It's because of the superior coaching, I'm sure. :)


• In keeping with our 2010 plans, we got out the calendar with the boys and put a camping weekend on the schedule. We decided on the Lost Pines, an area of Texas with lots of history and lots of scenery. We are all so excited!


• The refrigerator in our house broke. We have a second, smaller fridge (that we definitely used for overflow) in our party kitchen. Now the bigger, broken fridge is out and the smaller fridge is our main fridge. We can fit about 2 1/2 days worth of food in there, and I am now officially obligated to grocery shop every few days.


• We seem to be eating more lately. And it's not just the boys. This morning, for breakfast, Matea ate two bowls of cereal, 1 piece of Ezekiel bread and 3 eggs. Then she went around the table and finished off the scraps of food left by her brothers. The girl is tiny! I don't know where she puts it.


• Speaking of food, the other day we had decided to go out to eat for dinner, and Samuel requested either pizza or Ethiopian food. That made us laugh.


• Matea's favorite joke lately is calling herself a boy. She thinks she is so funny when she does this, and it's so cute.


• Another glimpse of the female chromosome surfacing in Matea: a few nights ago I got out a box of clothes to go through we had received from a friend. Matea wanted to put some of them on, so I helped her change clothes a few times. After each outfit change she would say, "Daddnn. Daddnn." (This is how she says "daddy.") Then she would hurry over to where Adam was and wait, swaying her shoulders back and forth and just waiting for him to notice her and tell her how pretty she was. It was so funny. Oftentimes when she does stuff like this Adam and I just look at each other and know that we're both thinking the same thing: She is innately a girl. No one taught her this.


• Elijah picked up a Boxcar Children book on the bookshelf and got sucked in. It brings back memories of a time when Samuel was entrenched in Boxcar books for awhile. :)


• The weather has been cold for too long, and we are tired of being inside. I am longing for summer. Please remind me of that when it's been over 100 days of 100+ temperatures like last year.