What January Looked Like

New Year's Eve Party with Michael, Shelley, and their kids.

We had so much fun.

Michael's moving to Arkansas for work this month,

so it was a send-off of sorts. 

Broken-hearted that our friends will be leaving us.

Caroline and Finley had fun at the park flying their drones!

New sofa shopping!

I finally finished this puzzle that is too hard.

I'm getting rid of it so I don't have to do it again next year.

Too bad, because it's so pretty.

Said good-bye to our old sectional.

We bought this thing in 2007 when we moved into this house!

It served us VERY well for twelve years!

Will Palma, a friend from church, got married.

We were happy we could attend his reception 

and even got to dance for a bit.

CLIMBING DIVISIONALS!

Since Caroline finished well in the Regional competition,

she got to participate in Divisionals, which includes the

seven neighboring states. Whoa. Pressure.

There were twenty girls in her age group.

You have to stay in isolation until they call your name.

I think C was back there for 2+ hours.

We lucked out because while Divisionals could have been

held anywhere in the seven states, it was right down in Charlotte,

a super easy drive for us.

On day one she climbed great!

You only climb four routes.

You're given a time limit. (Four minutes...I think?)

And you can try to finish the route as many times as

possible in those four minutes. 

The top 10 climbers get to advance to the second day.

Flashing route 1.

Reading route 2

Starfish on the wall

Such a strong, determined girl.

When the day 1 routes were complete.

Sweet Caroline was sitting pretty in SIXTH PLACE.

Eeek!

So excited for her!

She climbed in the morning, so we had our afternoon free.

We went to Concord Mills mall, shopped and visited the aquarium.

Starfish in a tank. Ha!

The big kids had their own things going on that day.

It was fun to hang out with just Care Bear.

Andrew had church responsibilities that

he needed to get home for.

Caroline and I got a hotel for the night.

Pool time!

The top 10 girls competed in Day 2.

Scores from the previous day were erased.

The top six go on to Nationals.

The routes on day 2 were HARD.

So hard.

There are only three routes.

Again, you are given a time limit and can try as

many times as you want in that time limit.

The holds were just too unfamiliar for her.

She wasn't able to complete any of the route on day 2.

But she worked HARD and I was so proud of her!

She ended up finishing NINTH place in her age group

out of the seven southeast states. Woo hoo!

What an accomplishment.

Baskin Robbins with Piper

Finished our new Harry Potter puzzle

Drew and I continuing to kill it on Space Invaders.

Lunar eclipse.

My camera didn't do it justice,

but it was pretty cool to watch.

Whitney got a contact!

Even though she sees 20/20 when using both eyes together,

one of her eyes is weaker than the other.

Her eye doctor was afraid she wouldn't pass the vision

part of the driver's license test without a contact.

It was a breeze for her to figure out how to put it in.

She doesn't like it, though, and feels like it doesn't

do anything to help her vision. Kind of annoying.

Care Bear's ecosystem project--The Ocean

Wingate University holds a choral conference

every year for 9th and 10th graders.

You have to audition and be accepted.

These three lovely ladies (pictured with their teacher,

Miss Gee) made it in!

We got to spend the weekend down in Wingate, NC with them.

They spent Fri and Sat in rehearsals and then performed

for us on Sat evening. SOOOOO good.

I'm so grateful Whitney has opportunities like

this to improve on and share her talent.

One of my Christmas gifts.

Love it.

We had a random teacher workday in Jan.

I took the kids down to Charlotte.

Stopped at a library.

And an art museum.

And a climbing gym.

B was climbing, too. 

He spent all his time working on the speed wall.

He's so awesome.

Andrew and some of his team members received

a Leadership Excellence award from Avery.

It's a big deal! Super proud of him!

He works so hard and is good at what he does.

The fifth graders spend a day presenting their

ecosystem projects at school.

C did awesome.