Temple Trip

The baptistry at the temple is always booked out months in advance for weekend times and school nights don't work for us because of work and extracurricular and gymnastics.  So we decided to book an early morning time during the week, which there were plenty of, and have the kids go late to school.  This was Annmarie's first time doing baptisms at the temple.  She was so tiny compared to the others who were there.  It was great that Travis was able to do the baptizing.  We went out to breakfast at a restaurant in Murphy called The South afterward.

January Stuff

I love it when people send me pictures of my kids that I wouldn't be able to get myself. I got this picture of Travis working from someone at work.  It's great to have photographic evidence of them doing something that takes up a lot of their time.  Travis has been working hard to get his cooking raise, but he's not there yet!

For the 25th, John and Allison came down to Texas and we all got together for a dinner to celebrate what would have been Jordan's 50th birthday.  Aaron cooked and it was delicious!  We shared memories of Jordan and learned some new things about the shenanigans that he and John used to get into when they were kids.  It was a nice evening.

I bought Jonah a pair of cowboy boots.  He was going to a stake dance with a western theme and has been wanting a pair.  

 

Matilda the Musical

Eliza was in yet another musical at Wylie High School.  This time, she was in the musical Matilda.  She was in the ensemble and did not have a speaking part or any solos.  There was a lot less required of her this year.  I did take the family to see it and we enjoyed it.  She did well with her part.  Great job, Eliza!

Athletic Academic Award

This week Travis was recognized by the school board for being selected as a recipient of an Athletic Academic Award due to having kept his grades up and being a student athlete.  I took Jonah and Nathan who were home and available to take.  Corey wasn't able to make it due to being in California, Eliza had rehearsal for the musical and Annmarie was at gymnastics.

 

Bluebonnet Breakfast

One of the things that Groves library has always done is challenge the kids to read the Bluebonnet books for the year. The Bluebonnet award is the highest award in Texas that a book gets and there is a new set of these books every school year. To get the award, the kids have to read at least five of the books. They have to take tests on the books to show that they read them. At the Bluebonnet breakfast, they get to vote on their favorite book, which is a state thing, so their votes are compiled with all the votes from across the state. Nathan read his five books by the first few weeks of the school year and was one of the first few kids to earn the award. We got a new librarian though, and this breakfast was much simpler--it was just donuts and something to drink. When our friend, Charleen Bach, was the librarian, it was a bigger spread with fruit and toast and muffins and other good things, including bluebonnet jelly that she would get from a gift shop in Waco. Nathan only wanted to read the books so he could go to the breakfast, but he was disappointed in the actual breakfast. But I'm still proud of him for reading the books!

 

Texas Prime Meet

Annmarie had her second gymnastics meet.  This was was in Irving at a huge convention center.  She is the only level 7 on her team, so she competes by herself.  This meet, she had a fall on bars, and although she recovered well and kept going, it meant a lower score. Her highest score was floor at 9.05, but she didn't place in any events or even for the All Around.  

One cool thing that happened at this meet though was seeing Coach Mila that used to be one of the owners of Jonah's gym when he was competing.  When she was competing, her name was Ludmila Eschova, but she married Igor Grebenkov and became Mila Grebenkova.  Anyhow, the screen before the meet started was displaying trivia about former gymnasts and one of the trivia questions was about her--she was the answer to the question.  I thought it pretty amazing that the person who was the answer to one of the questions was right there at the meet and I think I was the only person who even noticed.

Model Trains

On Martin Luther King weekend, Westley and Alejandra drove down from Utah to start with some wedding planning and take care of some things with her trailer, which she moved out of over Thanksgiving break and up to Utah to be closer to Westley. While they were here, we went o a train show in Plano with Grandpa and Grandma. They had such cool model trains and it was fun looking at all the different ones.