JESS IS AWESOME!

Jess has spent the last 6 weeks at Shaw Air Force Base completing Airman Leadership School. The point of the school is to train the Airman who qualify for Staff Sergeant how to lead and inspire those that they will be over. Jess' graduation was last night and he received the most prestigious award of the night--the "John L. Levitow Award." It's recipient is determined by their displayed leadership ability, their grades, and over-all "freaken awesome-ness" (I might have made that last one up). I was sooooooooooo excited when they called his name. Jess "knew" he wasn't going to get it because he felt he did poorly on one of the important tests and wasn't expecting it at all. It was so beautiful to watch his face when they called his name! Anyway--it was a beautiful moment and I have an AMAZING husband!!!!

Easter was fun, we went to a Easter egg hunt for the city on Thursday and the boys had about a bazillion eggs to pick from. LOTS OF EGGS. They loved it! We actually celebrated Easter on Saturday for a couple of reasons but one is because Jess had to leave after church on Sunday to go back to Shaw. So Friday night, we had The Easter Bunny call our house and have Kade answer the phone. He said he'd be stopping by our house one day earlier so to go to bed quick. Kade got in bed so fast!

Jumping Fire!

Just a little something the kids like to do....Just kidding, nobody worry--it was all supervised and had a purpose...some of our best friends out here, are our neighbors the Mozifarri's. They're both Persian and this Thursday is their New Years. So...one of the cultural traditions is to jump fire on Tuesday night in preparation for Ash Wednesday (correct me if I'm wrong Sarah) to rid yourself of the bad of the last year and get the fires energy-for a healthy new year. (it's different then the real Ash Wednesday--but that is the literal translation of the Persian term). Then that same night is their Halloween sort of; but apparently they eat healthy, with nuts and dried fruits being handed out! Awesome! Anyway--they invited us to do it with them and it was lots of fun. The kids loved it! (when will they ever get the chance again---Awesome!) So here is some of the fun:

>

Happy St. Patty's Day

"A real leprechaun? AWESOME"
"Gr-een, o-meal"
Kade's been looking forward to St. Patricks Day since last year when we sorta forgot about it. So this year we did it right. Luke loves oatmeal, so for breakfast--while they were cleaning up their room, I made green oatmeal. It was so cute, cause Kade was so excited that a leprechaun snuck in and turned our breakfast green. (So when does it not feel like lying...it was so cute to see how excited he was though.) So he wore as much green as he could and we had a great day! exactly why we paint outside! It was adorable yesterday morning because we went to a park that has a track around a playground. Often when I made my way around, I'd be joined by Luke or Kade--running with me (which is when I realized that Kade really is faster then me!) or jogging (I love watching Luke run!) or riding their bikes along side. It was adorable. Anyway--the day was great and we even decorated our Easter Eggs and paint with friends outside. I hope every ones St. Patty's Day was as awesome! my canvas



Do your ears point up?
Do you have a lot of luck?
For gold do you dig?
Can you dance an Irish Jig?
If you answered yes,
You're a leprechaun I guess.
Do your ears point up?

So, I have been "tagged" by my sister Nikki to tell to write some of the words from the nearest book I'm reading...so here goes:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next five sentences.
5. Tag five people.

So just so y'all know, the book I'm currently reading is "Porter Rockwell--A biography". (also--for those of you who don't know--he was Joseph Smiths friend and bodyguard.) I heard a song that said Porter was a "modern-day Samson" and I had no idea that Joseph Smith told Porter not to cut his hair, and to live faithfully, and that his enemies would have no power over him, that they would not be able to take his life. I told Mom and Dad Winn--and apparently lots of people knew that..soo, I decided to do some research. Porter Rockwell was mostly illiterate so nearly all the book is taken from others accounts. Anyway, it's super interesting. And now, here are the sentences:

"To the nearly deserted streets of Nauvoo, Porter finally returned. While walking down a lonely road he quietly reminisced on his former friendship with the Prophet, and chanced to come upon his son, Joseph Smith, III, a 13-year-old lad.
Young Joseph mentions in his memoirs, "I saw him coming down the street, and I ran across our yard, climbed the fence , and jumped down on the other side close by him, greeting him and extending my hand. He shook it warmly, put an arm affectionately across my shoulders, and said, with much emotion, 'Oh, Joseph, Joseph! they have killed the only friend I have ever had!'"

So ya--that was a sad part, and really--lots of the book is about how hard his life must have been, but it's documented really well and has helped me learn a lot about that time.

Okay...Thanks Nikki. love ya!

Getting back into the swing of things...

So I realized that I don't have any new pictures since we got back from Utah, so to make up for it I added two of my favorite commercials for your viewing fulfillment. (if your new to this blogging stuff.. (mom, he he) Just pause the music on the side until your done watching.)We'll start this off with one of my favorite videos:



We're getting back into the groove of Georgia and loving the weather. Just a few nights ago I watched a lightening storm that lit up our house for close to an hour--it was awesome--and the thunder is so loud...I love storms!

Jess is at Shaw Air Force Base Sunday nights thru Friday and we get him on the weekends. We've been managing but missing him like crazy. Luke sees the car home all the time and get's so excited and says, "Daddy home Daddy home". It's so sad to have to remind him over and over again that it's us that's home with the car--Daddy will be home later this week. But the weekends are sooooo great!

Here's one of my favorite commercials ever--it makes me laugh everytime (Emily, Melodie, Nik and Chris plus more have seen this lots of times cause really--I just think it's so funny!) Wait...now there's way too much build up--go into it thinking--regular commercial--there--that's better. Here it is:




Oh, oh, by the way--Jess recieved the VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR AWARD for his Squadron here at Fort Gordon and we are soooooooooooooo proud of him (he's super modest about it but he works so hard and is just...just awesome. So Congrats baby! And sorry--I had to put it on the blog!)

Also, another shoutout for my little brother Scott-He was in a bouldering (rock climbing) competition last week and is just awesome! I saw the pictures and he's so good! Anyway--good job!

Oh, and Luke is officially in a big boy bed now--the crib is down and the bunk bed is up--it's so cute! He has the Superman bed on the bottom and Kade braves it in the Spiderman bed up top. As some of you know, Kade occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night screaming that he has to go to the bathroom but he's not awake enough to figure out how to do that--just enough to scream...so that's a little more interesting getting him from the top, but what else could you want in the middle of a peaceful night--some excitment!

They love how easy it is to make the bottom bunk a fort/ a spaceship/ a time machine...anything really. They're so cute together. The other day Kade told me that Luke wasn't his brother anymore, he was his buddy. Now he knows that he can be both and loves that!

Last week Kade gave a talk in primary on the Brother of Jared. He told Grandma and Grandpa Adams all of it on the phone but Grandma Winn wanted to see it so...here it is for anyone who wants to join her. It was a bit of a struggle to do it (what with Luke crying and my amazing camera work...)but it's beautiful in it's raw form I'm sure!