Jackson's First Pinewood Derby

Jackson recently became a Tiger Scout and is having a blast. He has wonderful Tiger Den leaders and the Pack is very well organized. We're so happy we found a good fit for him. Today was Jackson's first Pinewood Derby race. His Pack is the largest in all of Southern Nevada, so due to time constraints he only raced against other Tigers. Out of 20+ Tigers, he placed 4th in the Derby. Way to go Jackson! What makes it even more awesome is that Mom was the one who helped build the Derby car this year. Way to go Mom! There were three heats (three different lanes) and Jackson came in first in all of his heats. His final ranking was determined by race times.

 Playing around between races.

 Just being silly! 

 Heat 1, center lane

 Jackson enjoying the races.

 Heat 2, far left lane.

After the race was over he was awarded his participation certificate. They announced the top 4 racers, but only handed out ribbons for the top 3. We're just happy he was in the top 4. A few days before the race I sat down with Jackson and had a heart to heart talk with him about sportsmanship and that in all likelihood his car would lose. 4th place may not be #1, but we definitely feel like winners today! 

Partial Tour of Our Home

I just realized that I haven't shared pictures of my house. We've had the house decorated since Thanksgiving because we hosted dinner at our house for 30+ people. We still have two more projects that we want to work on (wall in the kitchen and over the desk), but because of Air Force budget cuts we are going to wait until things calm down in a few months.

I also want to replace the rocking chair with a more stylish/retro chair, but we haven't found the right one yet. 

The following pictures are pretty self explanatory. This is the first floor (excluding Howie's room) and our loft area upstairs.  I just put up curtains today in my bedroom and need to take new photos. I cannot make any promises when I will post our bedroom photos.  Hopefully before April.

The first photo starts in our entry, as if you were walking into our home. The laundry, bathroom, and Howie's room are located just left of the stairs, as shown in the 4th photo. 

My baby is 5 years old

I'm nearly half way through the semester and thought I'd update the blog. It turns out Lucas had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. My baby is 5 years old and asks almost daily if it's time to go to kindergarten.

Every birthday morning we all get up early to open presents.

We splurged and had donuts for his breakfast and surprised him with balloons.

I convinced him that we should go out for a special birthday lunch at our favorite local sushi restaurant. 

It was such a beautiful day (Feb 10th) that we went to the park while the rest of America was buried under snow in frigid temperatures. There are definitely perks to living in Las Vegas!

We love the park near our house. It's perfect for so many ages.

The digger is his favorite.

Lucas wanted Burger King for his birthday dinner because the play area has a "really fast slide".

We served mini cupcakes once we got home.

A week later was a day off off school for everyone, so we had a "birthday party", but it was essentially a glorified playdate. Low key, fun, easy. Just the way I like it. The kids played and ate cupcakes. 

There was one more guest, but she hung out with Erin upstairs.