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Here is Emily singing Happy Birthday Jesus!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY DONOVAN!

We celebrated Donovan's 1st birthday this month. I can't believe he has been with us for a year now. He has been such a joy and a blessing. We have so much fun with him and look forward to another great year with him. Here are some pictures of him and his party.

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY SHELBYANNE!!

We celebrated Shelbyanne's 5th birthday today. She has been counting down the days till her party (today) and her actual birthday (tomorrow). I am so excited for her. She starts kindergarten in 1 week. I remember with great fondness my kindergarten teacher, Miss Tucker. I think she was a big influence on me becoming a teacher.

I made Shelbyanne's birthday cake. This was definitely a new cake adventure for me. I used fondant for the first time. She loved it which made the late night and all the hours of labor worth it.

This past week we helped out at Northstar Community Church with their Vacation Bible School. It was a lot of fun. I, Amy, worked with the preschoolers. We had 30+ preschoolers throughout the week. They are precious kids. I was able to be with the girls since they are both in preschool, which was good and challenging at the same time. They loved that I was their teacher, although since I was with them Emily wanted to be in my lap and at my side a lot of the time. She did really well though for a 3 year old. Rob was with the 4th-6th graders. He had a great time with the older kids. It was challenging and fun for him as well. We enjoyed serving with the other leaders and getting to know folks there.

We've had a fun February. The girls have enjoyed getting outside to blow bubbles, draw on the sidewalk with chalk, and ride their bikes. We are looking forward to more warm weather.

Donovan will be 6 months old this weekend. He is almost rolling over, reaching for everything, and definitely ready to start eating food. He is such a happy baby. We are all enjoying him being a part of our family.

Donovan Josiah

Shelbyanne and Emily sporting their bicycle safety gear.

The first warm afternoon we had the girls and daddy ate a picnic lunch and played with water outside.

We took the kids to The Watermelon Patch, an indoor play place for kids. They both were able to climb the climbing wall all by themselves, Emily only needing help getting down.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

We graduated in December from the training we have been in for the last 3 and 1/2 years with New Tribes Mission and are now officially missionaries with NTM. WooHoo! We took some time after graduating to enjoy Christmas at home as a family. We even had Santa visit us at our home. The girls were thrilled. Shelbyanne sat in his lap and told him what she wanted. Emily told him what she wanted, but she did it from Daddy's lap. She warmed up enough to give him a hug before he left.

We have been in transition for the last several weeks. We are now in Alabama visiting with family and friends and working on our partnership development. We will head to Florida in May to do the same. Then we are planning on heading to Tanzania in the beginning months of 2011. Shelbyanne and Emily started preschool at Spanish Fort United Methodist Church Preschool. They are really enjoying it and already starting to make new friends. Although Shelbyanne comments often that she misses her teachers and friends in Missouri.

This is a picture of them before their first day of school.

We hope you all are doing well and having a great week so far.

Here is a short video of Donovan. You can hear the girls in the background. We are all doing well. Donovan is growing and sleeping well. Rob is still trying to get a deer. We hope to be having deer roast or stew or something someday soon. Hope you all are doing well. We love and miss you all.