New Toys

We are back home after spending the days since Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  As always, we had a great time.  We got to see family, eat our weight in desserts, and play with our new toys....


Everett got to play with the new guitar his Grandpa got him....

And Meggan and Amelia got to play with our new nephew, Reed....

Merry Christmas

Today was another great Christmas in our house.  That said, for the first time in history, we took zero pictures.  We tried this weird thing where we just opened presents, had fun, and enjoyed each other's company.  Luckily, I did sneak a few shots of the most beautiful choir girl at church during the Christmas Eve service.


She's the small one in the red dress...

 The highlight of Everett's day was when she got put up on the big screen singing one of the songs.  Also slightly pictured over her left shoulder is the most beautiful choir woman at church, Meggan.

Sweet Sweet Music

Amelia got to perform in her first orchestra concert last week.  As her dad, I feel like I can make the very unbiased assessment that she was the best musician on the stage.  If I weren't her dad, I think I'd probably say they all sounded great and I can only assume Amelia was a part of that greatness.

Trip Pt. 2

We're finally settling back into our normal routines after our trip to the big apple.  The kids should be perfectly back on schedule just in time to go on Winter Break.  Speaking of our trip, here are a few more highlights...


We got to toast marshmallows in the middle of the city...

 We got to visit FAO Schwarz to pick out an early Christmas present...

Ev even found time to hang out with an old friend of his from Night at the Museum...

No Place Like Home

We have returned home from our trip to New York City.  The kids survived miles and miles of walking.  I survived flying in a plane.  Meggan survived dealing with the three of us and 9 million of our closest friends.  I'll post more about the trip over the next few days.  For now, I'm just happy to be back in my own bed...


The view from my seat on the plane...

 The view from our hotel room on the 28th floor...

On A Jet Plane

It was very hard to break the news to her that she wasn't coming with us on our trip to New York City....

For those of you that know me, you probably can guess how many times I offered to stay home with her instead of getting on an airplane...All.the.times.

To The Hole

My man just kicked off another hoops season.  I'm not going to hold my breath, but I'm hoping he gets his first dunk this year.

Who Shot Him?

When we saw this display the other day, Everett, who loves all Christmas decorations, said "look, for $14.99 we can get bullet-wound Santa".  While hilarious to me, I do wonder where his little mind goes sometimes....

There Are No Bad Questions

We've been sitting around the Christmas tree each night and talking about Advent.   Amelia had some deep questions regarding how we know the strength of God's grace,  how we know if we sin too much, and what we expect to happen when Christ returns.  Everett, however, had questions related to Christ, but not at all what we were discussing.  His big question tonight, and he asked it as earnestly and seriously as he could, was "If God talks to you in a burning bush, which is burning with Holy fire and not regular fire, and you touch the bush, will you get burned?  You might because it is still fire.  But you also might not because the bush doesn't get burned. I don't know.". 

Goalie Moves

Everett got to play in his first ever Futsal game this weekend.  As part of that game, he also had his first opportunity to play goalie.  While he didn't have to defend any shots, I haven't seen a goalie with better moves....