What January Looked Like

We didn't travel over Christmas break,

but I wanted a vacation from cooking.

We ate at Mi Pueblo one night.

LOVE their vegetable tamales SOOOO much.

It was a Monday night and B was in charge of the 

FHE treat. We decided to order churros. Yummy yum yum.

While my dad was in town, he encouraged me to print

out more photos to add to his side of the family tree.

So glad he did. We were able to fill in lots of blanks.

Love adding faces to the names.

Our temple is closing for a year and a half.

We snuck in one last visit before it closed.

And it was snowy!

Naomi got baptized!

And I got to speak at her baptism.

So excited for her.

Had Elders McFadden and Miller over for dinner.

Played 5 Second Rule for FHE.

Fun new game we got from Gigi and Grandpa.

One afternoon I got to watch Whitney in action 

as she taught the preschoolers. She is so good!

One of Whit's Christmas presents was

tickets to School of Rock in Charlotte.

Shelley had said that the company girls might be doing a workshop

the weekend it was in town, so I had to get tickets on a weeknight.

We felt so rebellious being out until midnight on a school night!

It was a fun show.

The kid musician/actors were very impressive.

Whit also had her first choir concert of the year at school.

Their choir is small!

But they are good!

They did one number with the high school chorus and

it was PHENOMENAL.

She had a duet during one of the songs.

She sounded amazing.

Post-concert froyo

One Friday night, we didn't have anything planned,

so decided to head downtown to show the kids

the Boxcar Arcade.

We had a GREAT time playing old-school arcade games.

They rocked Pole Position,

taking four of the top six spots!

Whitney randomly made us meringues one

Sunday afternoon.

She got the recipe from her Harry Potter cookbook.

They were good, tasted like homemade marshmallows,

but crunchy.

Andrew had to work on MLK day,

but the kids and I were free.

We picked up Emily in Salisbury and 

headed down to Concord Mills for the day.

We visited Sea Life aquarium.

It was just OK,

 too pricey for what you got.

Also stopped at Dave and Buster's so I could do some coin pushing. :)

January was full of SPELLING BEE PREP.

Andrew and I worked with Caroline

almost every night to learn as many words

as we could from this study list.

And it paid off!

She won her school spelling bee!

Her words:  Oval, bicycle, superb, diagram,

valuables, balloonist, testament, practically, bulletin,

affirmation (misspoke), vegetation (misspelled), 

segregation, and grandiose.

Woo hoo!

Celebratory froyo.

Again. :)

SNOW DAYS!!

We had a pretty big snowstorm in January,

enough to cancel school and seminary for three days.

Made for some fun lightsaber duels,

sledding, and snowball fights.

Wyatt's birthday is Jan 21.

In honor of him, lots of our friends and 

family members are doing acts of service

to kids on that day and sharing publicly

to help uplift Ang and Forrest and their family

in what would otherwise be a very hard day.

We found out that the non-profit that I volunteer with

ran out of grant money to help provide groceries to

newly-arrived refugee families.

We decided to help supplement their groceries.

The kids helped me shop.

The 21st was on Sunday.

After church, we delivered our goods to

one refugee family I had never met.

We were also able to deliver some things to the N family,

a family from the Congo that I've been tutoring in English.

We stayed at their house for a while and all of us

practiced English together.

It was a great day and I was happy my family could

meet this awesome family I've been telling them about

for the last couple of months.


Our other project in honor of Wyatt was for a friend's grandson.
Baby Davis was diagnosed with brain cancer.
I worked with lots of wonderful women in the tennis community,
who contributed generously to this collection of gift cards.
I put it together in this fun bouquet to deliver to Davis' parents.

Love it when Whitney fills our house with piano music.

THE PUNDERDOME!!!

This game was one of Andrew's Christmas gifts.

The kids roll their eyes when we play,

but it is seriously hilarious.

We are so bad at it, that it makes us belly laugh.

I love it.

One of MY Christmas presents from Drew was a

chance to go indoor skydiving!

They have a center in Raeford, NC,

about two hours south of here.

Andrew took the day off work and we had SUCH a great time.

This video shows me at the beginning,

then my instructor (Manny) doing crazy tricks,

then the Army Golden Knights practicing formations.

It was so much fun.

And harder than it looks.

Afterward, we stopped in Pinehurst to explore.

We ended up in a little museum,

learning some of the history of the area.

I loved this mustache tea cup.

Gotta keep that 'stache clean!

Then we walked around the historic village.

It was a beautiful day.

And we got terribly lost.

But we didn't even mind.

We loved spending the day together!

Felt like a little getaway,

even if we didn't stay the night.

(I later found out rooms at this inn are $800+/night,

good thing we can make it a day trip!)

B and Emily at a church dance--

they dressed up like characters from Grease.

My daffodils have emerged!

Andrew got to take a super quick work trip to NYC.

He braved the cold to visit Times Square for a bit.

Church basketball has started!

Both kids are playing and we have fun watching them.

We FINALLY finished our other Harry Potter puzzle.

It was HARD!

Wow, I thought January was usually a boring month.

Not this year!

We had a lot going on!