The Sugar Fast Ladies & Valentine's Day

At the beginning of the year, our friend Erika invited a group of ladies ot participate in a 40 day Sugar Fast to focus on eliminating things that draw us away from God and to devote the time to bible study and prayer.  It was an amazing experience, and such a wonderful opportunity to look at areas of life that we are distracted with.  Amy did not focus so much on sugar, as that hasn't been a "go to" instead of God but instead she fasted from her kindle (which is a constant distraction) and spent the time commuting in the car in prayer and listening to the daily thoughts from the book instead of doing Marco Polo etc. All the ladies agreed that we were sad to see the experience end, so we have started our next book together "Risen!"  At the end of the Sugar Fast book, we had a potluck dinner at Reiner's - which Addison in particular thinks is about the most fun place on this earth as their subdivision is under construction so there are dirt piles and there isn't a lot of traffic so the kids can play at will on the road.  Pure delight!

Thanks for the amazing experience Erika!

In a line ready to race down the driveway!

The closest that the kids will ever get to a cat while they live at home, as Amy and Zachary are allergic to them!

Playing in a dirt pile!

Our church hosted a Valentine's Day evening, which is always fun to go to.  We went with Jennifer (thanks for inviting us!) and it was lots of fun.

Getting our caraciture done

The church had a really neat church service experience where they simulated Jesus' entry with the donkey into Jerusalem.  The kids had on old time outfits and got to lead the way shouting "Hosanna, Jesus is Coming!"  It was a really neat way to bring it alive!

In a stroke of "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" Karis managed to get free tickets to see Tampa Bay play Edmonton Oilers.  He was super excited to see Connor McDavid, young phenom in the NHL but in a terrible stroke of luck, Connor hurt himself 2 days before the game and wasn't playing -- so Karis didn't actually get to see him play.  He took the boys and Blake, and Jeff and Aunt Ev (who also had tickets) drove down with him so it was a nice visit and a good memory, but not quite as exciting as he'd hoped!

Random pictures: 

Proof that sometimes they play together - Kaleb and Zach playing basketball!

Addison and Sadie riding around in the green motorized car

London and Addison sharing secrets together!

So sweet these two - like sisters!