First half of March

In the necessity of pressing on with the blog posts....


We have strawberries growing in our backyard.  Or at least we did.  Most of the plants have long since expired, and I admit the tartness of the fruit was too much for me.  But Justin has loved checking them out.

Rodeo Day at school was in March this year.  Thanks to hand-me-downs, we had all but the boots.  That is one purchase Daddy won't let Mommy buy.  I don't fight it.  So we borrowed a pair from Ty Baker's old collection to make the look complete.  We don't wear this look much in the Michaelis' household, but I love me some cowboy!




































Handsome fella

He always wants Roxy and I to take a photo as well, hat in hand.

A few of us celebrated Ashley's birthday at Buffalo Grill.  Ashley does so much for all of us that sometimes I have to twist her arm to return the favor.  Ashley has been a sweet God-sent friend who constantly points me to Christ.

We went to Waco the first weekend of our Spring Break.  The day before our trip Justin got a bought of bronchitis.  Since Daniel was still too young for his shots, Justin had to steer clear for the weekend.  But Derek got to love on the little guy (who as of late is no longer little).

I got to take some photos for Daniel's announcement.

He doesn't look anything like these photos anymore.  Ah, they change so quickly.

Birdie checking out the four loose teeth in Justin's mouth.  I have been nonchalant about the teeth and am not going to push the tooth obsession on my son.  He doesn't wiggle the teeth, so it may be awhile before we lose them.  But the hygienists in the family are anticipating the first gap in the smile before the birthday.

We celebrated Birdie's birthday in typical fashion with a cookie cake.

Elise and Aaron were able to run over for the feast.  It was a quick 24 hours in Waco, but fun nonetheless.

The first Monday of Spring Break we were supposed to take Jaylen, our Yellowstone Academy boy we are shepherding, bowling and out to lunch.  He last minute had to reschedule for Wednesday, so we grabbed the Wilsons and took them bowling instead.

Justin was on strike central.

He got two in a row. 

We really love to bowl.

Which is a good thing since we turned around and did it again two days later.   This time with our first outing with Jaylen. 

We had asked for a boy close to Justin's age so we could do similar activities.  Jaylen is a year older and has the best manners!  Never heard so many "Yes, ma'am" from a 5 year old in a three hour period.

It was such a joy watching how excited how Justin was to spend time with Jaylen.  And Jaylen seemed equally excited to be with us.

There was one awkward moment when we were driving to the bowling alley and "Actions Speak Louder", one of our favorite songs about poverty in Sudan came on.  Justin, in innocent excitement, looked at Jaylen and told him that this song was for him.  He said it was about kids that were poor and ate junk food.

Crickets chirping. 

After I was able to move my tongue I reconciled the damage.  Luckily, I don't think everyone caught on, and later we talked with Justin as to why that could hurt people's feelings.  He didn't know...now we do!

As part of the shepherding program they suggest spending time with your child once a month.  We have a list with over 10 things we want to do with Jaylen to spread them out over the next year.  So many things to introduce into his life, like a park.  He said no one has ever taken him to a park.

We grabbed some McDonald's per Jaylen's request and took it to our house.  Jaylen was running from one thing to the next.  At one point he asked if we had any games.  I pointed to all the board games, then realized he wanted video games.  I told him no, we aren't that family.  He was rightly disappointed, as his older brother plays games at his shepherd's house.

There in that moment I was questioning if we were too strict with the video games and if we should have them around for him to play.  Then I laughed at my reasoning.

We were in the car on the ride back to Jaylen's house to return him back to his family.  I asked Jaylen what his favorite things of the day were.  He thought a moment, and then told me he liked playing the piano.  And he also liked singing Jesus Loves Me in the car. 

Tears came to my eyes at the simplicity of his answers.  So I guess no video games isn't so bad after all.

Go shepherd a Yellowstone child.  It's so rewarding, on both ends.