Pinewood Derby Champion AGAIN!!

Brett won our tri-ward pinewood derby on Friday! For the 3rd year in row he won first place in the pinewood derby! He was so happy! We kept telling him that he's already won twice, it would be okay if he didn't win this year. Patrick and Brett worked on his car all week... they had a lot of fun together. Brett designed the car... they painted it Philadelphia Eagles green and then printed out Eagles logos to put stickers on his car! It looked totally sweet! He was so proud of it and then he won! He came in first in every single race! There was about 25 cars total in the race. Patrick and sons have made a total of 12 derby cars... now he has only 3 to go with Luke! Patrick loves this quality time with his sons... and they truly work on this together and makes it such a memorable experience for each of them... win or not! This year they happen to win! Everyone was asking why Brett was crying after he won... well that is a great question... why was Brett crying... because his mean mom made him put on his Cub Scout shirt (which he absolutely hates to wear) so when he got his award he would look like a Cub Scout! What a rough life!!
If any of you have spare time and are interested in seeing all 200+ pictures from David's memory card. Go to http://photobucket.com/davidsmission ... spare time! HA! HA!! David's camera broke too... he just emailed us yesterday so he is sending it back to us so we can get it repaired because it's still under warranty.

We also missed having pictures of Tanner's first trip to the Temple for baptisms! (Thanks to our broken camera!) It was a great day! Patrick and I were happy to be there with him. It was a special day.

Last week, Patrick & I spent Tuesday at the DC Temple to be there for friends that were sealed! I do have pictures of them (they emailed them to me!) It was a beautiful, special day for us to share it with them. Some of you might recognize the older teenage girl, Jessica, she is one of Ally's best friends and went on several of our family vacations with us! It was great to see her family sealed in the Temple. Many of you know we live 3 hours each way from the DC Temple so going twice in a week is a rare occurrence for us. It was beautiful and wish we could do it more often!

David finally sends us his memory card!!

David had planned to send us his memory card for Christmas but as missionaries do, they got very busy! It was such a joy to get new pictures! Although, we don't know who the people are in them (he just sends his memory card, no description of pictures). We are just thankful for pictures so it's hard to complain! He looks great and very happy! It looks absolutely beautiful in Switzerland. David is now in Germany as of February 5. Last Sunday his branch had 18 people attending. There is a lot of work to do for the missionaries in Germany and Switzerland! We are so thankful David is serving the Lord.

We've been HEART attacked!!

The YW/YM love us... they "heart attacked" our door during Tuesday night's activity! It's nice to be loved!! We love them too!!

It's a new year!

Yes, I think (& hope) I am finally going to try and update our blog more frequently! I have been reading lots of my friends blogs and I love it because it keeps me up to date on what they are doing so I thought maybe I'd try the same. I don't know how great I'll be with pictures but I'll try!! It usually takes me 6 months to download them from the memory card! :-)

Since so far all I have posted is about David receiving his mission call, I guess I'll first update everyone on David or Elder Hodges! He is doing great. He has been on his mission to the Switzerland Zurich Mission for 10 months! WOW! I honestly did not think I would ever say it has gone by quickly but truly it has. It was just David's 20th birthday on February 1st so I've been thinking of him more than usual lately. It's hard to imagine that the little baby I had 20 years ago is on a mission serving the Lord. I miss him terribly but I know he is doing the right thing! Today he is being transferred from Kreuzlingen, Switzerland to Offenburg, Germany! I used Google Earth and have seen his apartment and church building (well, it's not 100% clear but hey... it's better than nothing, right?)! I love google earth! The kids think I'm crazy and say "are you on google earth again?" when I really, really miss David, it is nice to look & see where he is. If any of you have had a son or daughter on a mission, I know you can relate... the rest of you will think I am a little (or a lot) crazy! Anyway... he is now is Germany - in the area where some of my ancestors are from!! He is also senior companion after being in the mission field for only 8 months! Anyway... I will try and post more exciting things next time like: Luke's 100 day of school project... my seminary lesson for tomorrow... or how to properly clean the kitchen floor! Okay so my life it just boring... what can I say??!! :-)