October/November 2020

Let't not even talk about how late this post is.  Just pretend it's not mid December. 

Poor Abigail inherited a tiny mouth from both Nathan and me.  Way back in January she got expanders on top and bottom.  We crank then once a week to help expand the pallet in her mouth.  She is making great progress.  Then in October she got 8 braces put on her top front teeth.  They make her look WAY to grown up.

                                     

We had to get creative this year for Halloween because we were very hesitant about trick-or-treating.  Of course we already had our idea for our family themed costume....we'll just save it for next year.  Nathan and I made up scavenger hunt clues that led the girls to their buckets of candy.  Then we ordered take out for dinner and ate while watching Nightmare Before Christmas. All in all a fun day!  Our church also put on a fair in their parking lot with games, rides, and fair food.  Everything was social distanced, hand sanitizer everywhere, and everyone wore masks.  So much fun!

We had to do Thanksgiving differently this year too.  We spent the afternoon with my parents and sister like usual.  But we spent almost the entire time outside and we wore masks except when we were eating.  Thankfully we had beautiful weather so it was really nice.  We put every household at their own separate table for dinner.  We were very thankful for time together even though it looked different.

November/December 2019

Hannah won 3rd place at the Dallas Solo piano competition.  So proud of all her hard work.  She is learning so many great life skills in addition to music.  

The 4th graders at school did a Veteran's Day program.  Their music teacher did a fabulous job putting this together and all the kids worked really hard.  

We had a great Thanksgiving break...love that we are out of school the whole week. We mostly hung out at home, but Nathan did take one extra day off work and we went to the Ft Worth Zoo.  It was a little chilly, but not miserable.  All in all a super fun day.

Our choir and orchestra Christmas concert was really really good.  Both girls sang in the children's choir and they sang in a smaller select ensemble as well.  Hannah was also asked to memorize and recite the Luke 2 Christmas story as an introduction to one of the songs.  She did a AMAZING job! So proud of her. (photo credit Tuyen Le)

2nd Grade also did a school program this year.  It was winter/holiday themed. Abigail's favorite song was "Mr Grinch."  It was super cute and the kids (and music teacher) worked really hard to put it all together.

Hannah is super excited to have finally hit double digits, but mommy is STRUGGLING!  Swear she was just born yesterday.  Her birthday pictures turned out super cute though!

We had a nice low-key Christmas.  We enjoyed lots of yummy food, Christmas sing-along, and opened presents.  The weather wasn't Christmasy but 70 degrees instead.  My dad got the girls a remote control car so they took it up to the school parking lot to play for a while.  All in all it was a great day.

I'll leave you with the 6th Annual edition of jammie pictures in front of the Christmas tree.

November 2018

Hannah participated in a piano competition at the beginning of the month.  This was a unique contest in that everyone who entered in her division played the exact same piece.  Hannah worked really hard, learned a lot, and ended up winning 4th place.  So proud of all her hard work.

I also got to go on another field trip with Hannah's class.  There is a retired electric train car in the middle of downtown Plano.  They give tours of the car and there is a small museum behind it as well.  3rd grade has been studying life in early America so it fit in with their curriculum nicely.  This train car and museum are located at a park our family has visited several times, but we've never gone inside.  It was fun to get the tour and kids also got to picnic lunch and play at the park for a few minutes.  It was a really fun field trip!

One of the girls good friends from school got a part in a play at a local theater.  The play was Phantom Toll Booth which was one of Nathan's favorite books as a kid so he joined us for the show. It was so fun to see sweet Ava perform.  She did a great job and clearly LOVES the stage.

LOVE having the entire week of Thanksgiving off of school.  We typically stay in town, but we always try to squeeze in some family fun.  Monday we went to the Heard Museum.  Daddy technically still have to work (from home) that day, but we was able take a break a join us.  Dinosaurs Live was the featured exhibit.  It was chilly outside, but sunny.  We had lots of fun!

Friday we headed to the Perot Museum.  We went back in January and only saw about half the exhibits.  It did not disappoint we had lots of fun!  I think our favorite parts were the human body and the engineering section.

At the end of the summer Nathan and I had the privilege of praying with both girls as they put their trust in Jesus!!  When children make this decision our church has them go through a little class and then meet with the children's minister to make sure they fully understand the decision they have made.  Once those things are done you can then get baptized.  It was such and awesome morning watching BOTH Hannah and Abigail proclaim their faith in front of the church.  And I LOVE LOVE that they got to do it together!  I posted the videos to FB so I'll just share a few photos here. (photo credit Jack Hess)

November 2017

Feels like I just posted, but another month has gone by.   Sometimes I wish time would just stand still....then other days it can't go fast enough.  Here's to trying to enjoy and find the good in each moment.

The kids choir at church had their program this month.  The kids did a fantastic job and put in lots of really hard work.  Nathan and I are loving being upstairs with the big kids this year.  Nathan has also enjoyed his "job" as tech crew.  He gets to run sound and power point words.  Just point him in the direction of technology and he is happy.  =)

Hannah wanted to audition for a solo again.  She really seems to enjoy performing of all kinds.  She did a great job.  Both girls picked dance as their elective class this semester.  They had fun!  There were over 100 kids singing....that's LOTS of kids hearing about Jesus!! All these photos were taking by our church photographer.  Photo credit: Jack Hess

Hannah had a piano festival one Saturday as well.  She did a great job and received the highest rating.  So proud of all her hard work.  She has learned so much in the last 2 years!

There's a different group of kindergarten teacher at school this year than there was 2 years ago.  Almost all of them were at the school but in a different grade level.  There was lots of movement within the school this year.  Anyway, with new teachers comes new activities.  They brought back the Thanksgiving Friendship Feast.  I was selfishly hoping they would invite parents and then they asked for volunteers to set up and serve.  I happily volunteered.  The kids were so cute in their Indian hats!

The girls had the whole Thanksgiving week off school.  The vacation was really nice and we tried to do a balance of free time playing at home and special fun activities.  LOTS of Lego playing, we made a fort (under the coffee table), colored, and played outside Thanksgiving day with my dad.  We also went to see the movie Coco.  It was really really good and actually made Nathan and Hannah cry.  Our other big family fun activity was Six Flags Holiday in the Park.  I think that's my favorite time to visit...first of all it's not melting hot, and I LOVE the pretty lights and Christmas music.