all the January photos...

I was going to try to organize this into a few posts, but I'm of to Austin early in the morning and just need to go ahead and dump what I have...

I thought the girls looks cute on decades day a couple of weeks ago. Sara refused the leg warmers to complete her 80's look, but Emma was all about her poodle skirt. I had a little extra time that morning before a meeting, so we stopped for donuts!

 Sara took a field trip to her middle school to tour and hear the band, choir, and orchestra. All 6th graders need to choose a fine arts class. I was rooting for choir, but Sara decided on orchestra after getting this hands-on experience!

I told her if she's willing to put in the practice time, we'll support her doing orchestra. I'm excited to see how this develops!

 And ... she's been begging me forever to let her get her nails done. She upped the ante by giving all the reasons in front of my mom over Christmas, and of course Grandma sympathized with her. Over MLK weekend, we finally went for it. We had a fun time together, and she was thrilled with her sparkly new nails!

 Also over MLK, Emma tackled another dessert from her new recipe book. This time it was cake pops ... these were a little more complicated with lots of steps. We started by making our own cake mix.

 Then we made the icing, formed the pops, dipped and decorated.

 We only had a few roll off their sticks! 

 The family pictures we had taken over the winter break at my parents' house were finally ready - they turned out so great! Here are a couple of them ...

 I finally ordered prints from MPix instead of Shutterfly, and was so glad I did. Great quality, and not really that much more money!

 The professional photos from Sara's January competition also were made available. I love these couple of shots of her. Next competition is just about two weeks away!

 

 I love when the girls' teachers post random pics. This was game day, and Emma taught her friends how to play Hi Ho Cherrio!

 We spent last weekend at a soccer tournament. Emma played SO hard and she is SO tough. She walked away from game #1 with these cleat marks across her leg. They are less red now, but quite bruised.

 Love this little team! Emma was recently approached by another academy coach who asked her to come to practice and guest play in a game with his team. We tried it out, and while I was impressed, she's adamant that she's not ready to leave this team. I can't get to the bottom of why, but I'm going with her gut feel on this.

 After one tough loss and fighting back hard to win the next two games, the girls made it to the championship game on Sunday. They lost in the end, but walking away with 2nd place medals is nothing to be upset about!

 Between games on both Saturday and Sunday, we had the opportunity to go eat and hang out with the team. Building community is such a great added bonus of the girls' participation in their sports.

 Also this weekend, Sara spent the night with a friend and they decided to stay up all night on Saturday. Unwise. Sara went to bed at 4:00 on Sunday afternoon, got up around 8:00 to have a bowl of cereal, and then went back to bed. She's still exhausted. Lesson learned, I hope.

I'm off to Austin in the morning for session four of my principals institute, then I'll be back in time for February!

whirlwind!

The past week was just as busy as I knew it would be! Three nights in a row of soccer, an extra cheer practice, not to mention two ortho appointments (one planned and one emergency for a broken retainer) and just trying to get back into our routine ... I was the first one in bed Friday night! 

I mentioned in the last post that Emma was making Steve a pie for his birthday. It was a cookies and cream ice cream pie, and it turned out great! She made her own crust of crushed oreos.

Here's the final product (after we'd enjoyed some, obviously).

We celebrated Steve's birthday first at Emma's game, then with a quick family dinner at Taverna Rossa. Great pic of my three favorites.

 Would you believe that, on Friday evening, it was hot, humid, and we were dealing with tornado warnings - only to wake up to snow on Saturday morning?! Only in North Texas. We had big, heavy flakes falling. We loved watching it, even though not much stuck and it didn't last long. 

After cheer practice on Saturday, Sara and I had haircuts, and then we met up with the Brittains for dinner to celebrate Steve and Pam's birthday. We had a good time catching up! This morning, we were up and off to Sara's cheer competition. 

 This year, her gym has two large teams competing as opposed to last year's one team. It's exciting to see them growing! Sara is on the junior team this year, due to age. Most of the girls she competed with last year are old and are on the senior team, so Sara and a couple of others are the veterans on her team. She's been a great leader for them, and they performed as close to perfectly as could have been expected today in their first competition together! During some down time, Sara enjoyed "Cheers" on netflix. She's gotten hooked on it and it cracks me up. She claims to enjoy the dry humor.

Both teams from Sara's gym took first place in their divisions. What a great way to start competition season! I'm so thankful for great coaches who make the girls work hard and who also focus on building confidence and character.

We couldn't leave Denton without stopping at Buc-ee's. I'm just so proud of this girl - her drive, her dedication, and her work ethic. We had the best day together!

 The thing about cheer competitions is that they literally last all. day. long. Too much for Steve and Emma, so they hit up Dave & Buster's. 

 Of course Emma won a million tickets and brought home all sorts of treasures. Love this crazy kid!

Now it's football, a fire in the fireplace, and a little wine before we call it a night and a new week!

Back to Reality

What a great break we had! As we prepare to get back to the regular grind, Christmas feels like such a long time ago now. We enjoyed Christmas Eve with the Brittains with our traditional spread of finger foods, presents, and "A Christmas Story" on repeat. We headed back across town in time to set out treats for Santa and head to bed.

I did a terrible job of taking pictures on Christmas. Besides this one, the only other one I took was of the girls looking for the pickle in the tree - and it's basically two backsides. This one shows evidence of a successful morning!

 We headed Up North on the 27th. It was a great day to fly - the airport was so quiet and we ended up with extra time after getting through security, so we settled in at Friday's for a little pre-party.

 We arrived in MN and headed straight to Melissa and Adam's to meet baby Cal! Again, I didn't do a great job taking pictures ... there are still many floating out there between my parents and sister.

 Sara did such a great job with Calloway, taking care of him except for when he needed diaper changes.

 When we first arrived, the weather was no good. We got lots of freezing rain throughout the day Saturday, which made for terrible roads and non-playable outdoor conditions. Luckily it gave us plenty of time to watch the Cyclones play their bowl game - even though the results were less than stellar. Later in the afternoon when the roads were better, we headed to Lifetime for some indoor swimming and sliding instead.

 We ended the night at Copper Pint for good food, drinks, and, of course, pull tabs!

 Sunday morning we took family-of-nine pictures (our xmas present to G & G), which was followed by an open house for Melissa, Adam, and Cal. Definitely a full day! It was Emma's idea to have people put their books and gifts for Cal in this old crib that belonged to G Lou. Really sweet.

 Sara was an amazing shower hostess, and ended up falling sleep mid party after all her hard work!

 Monday we finally got snow - LOTS of it! The girls were thrilled!

 We headed to a nearby hill to sled and had a blast!

 We spent NYE at Melissa and Adam's and they cooked an amazing meal for us. It was a fun, laid back celebration. Sara assumed this position for much of it.

 Emma helped Auntie in the kitchen.

 Cheers!

 And Steve and Adam did the dishes!

 Another decade with this beautiful girl!

 On New Years Day we headed to Buck Hill for tubing and lunch in the chalet. The girls had a great time tubing, of course, and also watching the skiers. Maybe next year we'll give skiing a try!

 I love that they got to enjoy so much snow and a true MN winter! Always fills my bucket to be Up North and reconnect with family and friends.

We ended break with our DFW Cyclones at Cooper's and then the TCU basketball game last night. What a heartbreaker - lost by a basket in overtime. Ugh! Of course we still had a great time and loved seeing our favorite team.

Today I went to work for a while to get my head back in the game and prepare to welcome back my teachers tomorrow. The girls still have one day of break, but soccer, cheer, etc. are back on normal schedules tomorrow. We enjoyed some football this afternoon (especially that Vikings win!), and Emma was back in the kitchen preparing the crust for Steve's birthday pie. It's always hard to transition out of a break, but I'm ready for our routine. We'll fall back into our reality and this week, like all the others, will fly by!

Young Chef

Our Christmas and New Year celebrations were awesome - highlight, of course, was going to MN to meet baby Calloway. I have so many pictures to sort through, so I'll get to that post later. We got home from MN yesterday evening, and today has been a whirlwind of getting things back in order: dentist appointments (no cavities), xmas returns/exchanges, grocery story (three times), LOTS of laundry, and ... baking!

 Emma received two cookbooks from my sister for Christmas, and as soon as we were home last night, she started tabbing recipes. Just a few looked good...

I already had plans for what to make for dinner, so Emma picked a dessert to make today - which really is perfectly up her alley anyway. She chose mini muffin in doughnut holes! She was in charge of mixing all of the ingredients, and told me the best method for stirring is "under then over".

These doughnut holes were a multi-step process. After baking, she dipped them in butter and then in cinnamon-sugar. She concentrated so hard!

 Finally, the taste-test. These little treats received two-thumbs up from the chef (and her assistant)!

I'm excited for Emma to experiment with some more recipes ... she'll have fun and hopefully widen her palate! Teriyaki chicken and sesame noodles are next on her agenda. Stay tuned!