Megan's Chorus Concert

 Megan had her first chorus concert of the year in January!  She was required to wear black bottoms and a white top and black shoes :)  She looked great and they did a great job!  They sang 4 songs and did a warm up for us to show us how they normally warm up their bodies and their voices in class each day.  It was so fun to see what a normal "class" looks like!

 Me and Megan

 Jack and Kylie in her cheering section :)

The whole 6th grade chorus

 Another shot of it :)

 Megan on the 2nd row from the top on the end

And Megan and Daddy after the concert - we stopped to pick up Blizzards for them for treats!

Our 14th Anniversary!!!

We celebrated our 14th Anniversary on January 22nd!!!  

We knew it was going to be a crazy week because of lots of different activities, so we had planned on going out to dinner on the 23rd and having Grammy and Grandad watch the kiddos for us.  Because of snow, school was cancelled all week and all of our activities on the 22nd were cancelled!  Dan got home from work at a reasonable time (5:30pm) and we had a yummy dinner as a family and watched a show!  It was a great night!  We went to dinner the next night to Outback - and enjoyed some yummy ribs and prime rib!

 The Date in Leesburg :)

 Our kiddos spent the day before whispering and organizing a present for us - which was really very sweet to hear.  There were some hushed conversations and meetings upstairs and some "I need to get my wallet"'s.  They presented us with this nice package that night :)

 Our Family

 Dan waiting to open it

 It contained $17ish so we can go see Saving Mr. Banks, a movie we've been excited about since it came out on December 20th.  I'm not sure it's actually in the movie theater anymore...but we've tried and tried again to go see it and something always comes up.  We'll see if we can go.  It was super sweet of them to think of us - actually they thought they had given us $22ish so we could buy tickets and a snack, but they had miscalculated the money...yay for being back in USD! ;)

 The front of our cards to each other

 And me and my Anniversary Tweeter!!!

Winter Storms

 We've had lots of winter storms this year and we've been sooooo happy about it!  We've loved the days off, the cold weather that has been a big change from 5 years of hot weather and the opportunity to go sledding and play in the snow!

 Pretty lights in the snow

 Snow bunnies 

 Kylie and Katie on the way home from school just as snow was starting!

Jack catching snow flakes on his tongue

 Snow Angel

 Sledding on the hill with friends

 My frosty Tweeter

Fun snow in his beard :)  He took a cigar out and smoked it while the kids went sledding!

 Our friends gave us packs of "Melted Snowmen" to enjoy on our snow days!  They had a pack of cocoa mix, mini marshmallows, sprinkles, chocolate chips and a candy cane to stir it with!  It was a hit!

 Jack

Megan

Acapella Workshop

Megan and her friend Megan participated in an Acapella Workshop the other weekend!  It was put on by the county for middle and high schoolers and they signed up for it in November, knowing that it would take place in January.  They received a packet of 3 songs along with the sheet music for them - in her part (Tenor) and had the month of December to learn it.  Then they arrived at the school at 8:30am and practiced until 4pm and then performed a concert for the parents!  They did 2 songs with just the girls - The Climb by Miley Cyrus and Africa by Toto.  Then they joined the boys and sang Anything You Can do I can Do Better from Annie Get your Gun.  It was awesome and we loved the whole thing!  It was a lot of practice and hard work learning her part, but she did a great job!  Mom Mom and Pappy gave her some pointers on it and came to cheer her on!

 Girls and Boys together - lots of kids participated!

Pretty Tenors dressed in yellow!

 Mom Mom, Megan and Pappy

Me and my Acapella Moopert

And a video of them singing Africa!!!

Basketball

 Jack and Kylie are playing basketball for the first time ever!  It's been fun to watch them learn a new sport - and make new friends.  We've enjoyed cheering them on and having family come to cheer them on, too!

Jack's first practice.

Kylie's first practice

Dribbling the ball for the first time :)

 

Trying on her cool uniform after her first practice!

Miss Kylie crying with Grammy.  She had been thrilled to play her first game - and we know now from previous experience that she is all talk leading up to something and then bursts into tears!  She started crying 10 steps from the door of the gym at her first basketball practice.  Then at her first game, she was with her team outside the gym listening to the coah and I told Dan, "Uh oh, she looks like she's going to puke!"  She held off another second and then burst into tears and ran over to me.  She cried for a minute or so and then I told her to wipe her tears, she would do a great job.  Grammy and Grandad got there at that point and I told them that she had just been crying.  Kylie came over to see Grammy and cried some more - but her coach was super smart, encouraged her and then wisely made her the line leader to lead her team into the gym!  I don't know what his background is - but he's been great about her crying - not giving in, but getting her going again - exactly what she has needed!

 Here she is leading her team in!

 And taking a knee before the first game!

 She had a couple of breakaways the first game!  I could only stay for the 1st quarter because Megan had a concert going, but it was fun to see her out there.  She did great with the breakaways and took a shot, but they didn't go in.  Grammy texted me after the game to say that she had scored 3 baskets!  We couldn't believe it!  And they were apparently crazy overhand chucks that amazingly went in!  Way to go Kylie!

I missed the first 2 quarters of Jack's first game, but he did a great job, too!  He didn't score any baskets the first game, but played hard and got the hang of it!  It's fun to watch him play!

 The second game Kylie played against her good friend Michaela!  They have been worried for the last month that they would have to play each other!  That afternoon before the game, she prayed at lunch, "Dear God, if I have to verse Michaela, please let us both be good sports and not be frustrated with each other."  Which is such a funny comment because neither of them strike me as competitive :)  After her prayer, I looked up who she was playing and, sure enough, it was Michaela's team!  Kylie guarded her younger sister for the first 2 quarters and Michaela for the last one!  Kylie scored 3 baskets and Michaela scored 3 or 4!  It was so fun to cheer them both on!

Trying to get a rebound

 

For Jack's second game, the kid who was their highest scorer in the first game was absent - and Jack had made the comment of "What are we going to do without him?" at practice.  Well, Jack stepped up in the place and scored 4 baskets in his game - of those 12 points!  Way to go Jack!

Taking a break and cheering on his buddies!

New Year's Eve

We couldn't decide what to do for New Year's Eve and finally decided on inviting Grammy and Grandad over for dinner!  I made lasagna and we had a fun dinner and played some games - we busted out Kylie's new Trivial Pursuit Game!  I couldn't believe how much Megan, Jack and Kylie knew!  

 This was a picture of Jack serving up a diet coke to Grandad :)

Megan

Jack

Kylie

Snuggling Grammy on the couch

Me and my Tweeter

 Grammy and Grandad left around 10pm.  The kids wanted to stay up to see the New Year - but at 10:20pm, Kylie finally gave in and went to sleep in my bed.  

The big kids made it until midnight (barely), but Dan fell asleep around 10:45pm and we woke him up to say Happy New Year!

 The next day, we went to see Frozen and LOVED it!!!  Now we own the soundtrack and know all the words!