March 6th - 31st

 In Our Family This Month...

* On March 11th was a big Rugby Jamboree. The girls played 4 games and the boys played 2. The girls won 3/4 and the one they lost was only by 1 Try! They did stellar and both Aubrie and Lexi scored a Try (Aubrie scored twice).  Meridian has started back up a Boys Rugby Team and Nathan switched over from Rocky and we're all thrilled to be part of the Warrior Rugby Family! To help out the team, mom took all of the team photos (for both the girls' and boys' teams). 

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* The long awaited trip to JAPAN arrived! Ben, Seth and Kat boarded a plane on March 1st and headed out on a trip of a lifetime! They made it safely to their AirBnb in Japan 24 hours later. They spent the next 2 weeks sightseeing, going on tours, trying all of the food and even attended a concert of a band they like! The plan is for them to write about their trip on a separate blog entry (and hopefully that will happen!) but if not, here is a collage of some of the pictures they sent me. When they arrived back home it was like Christmas! They had each taken an extra (empty!) suitcase and upon their return, they were filled to the brim with gifts for the family! They were so thoughtful and brought home things each person would really enjoy. Clothes, stuffed animals, chopsticks, anime figures, paintings, ornaments, magnets, ties and even an authentic Rugby jersey were given. What sweet boys we have!

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* A couple of days after the boys returned home from Japan, Ben turned 21! He had already gotten all of his gifts early (mostly $$ for Manga that he wanted to order!) but of course we still had to recognize and celebrate him! Aubrie worked  on a cake for him featuring his favorite Anime character - Power. Issiac, Matthew and Kat all came over for Cake and ice cream and then afterwards they went to Ben's favorite place - Barnes and Noble! Of course he came home with more books! haha

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*We also celebrated Henry's 3rd Birthday on March 25th. Can't hardly believe he's a big three year old! He's BIG into dinosaurs (and dragons!) and so McKendra made a dinosaur/volcano cake and had dinosaur decorations. We went over for cake and ice cream and watch him open his gifts. He was sure cute and didn't know quite what to do when we were all singing to him. We are so lucky to have such a sweet and fun little guy in our family!

* After 18 months, Lexi got her Braces off! Her smile is just radiant and we're very pleased with how well her teeth look. Sadly, Aubrie wasn't able to make her appointment on that same day to get hers off because she had a court meeting to try and get her ticket dismissed from her car accident last month. Thankfully the Prosecuting Attorney accepted her attendance at the Alive at 25 class and dismissed it. Lexi was so excited to be able to eat all the food and NOT have any of it get stuck in her braces! She also got the permanent retainers put on the backsides of her teeth and also a removable retainer to wear at night. Hopefully with both of those working together, her teeth won't shift and she'll keep her new smile!

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Spiritually Speaking... 

* We continue to attend the Temple weekly and making our way through all of our Swiss relatives. It has been been a way for us to feel great peace each week. In fact, we credit many blessing that we've seen to our regular Temple attendance - and maybe the biggest of all being the peace we feel while we are still living without a job.