Fun with cousins

 Jodi/girls came over this past weekend, while Mark helped Ryan w/project. We had a science project of our own going on:)

A little fun w/chalk:)

UIL Contest

I love chaperoning these orchestra trips!

Blessing

We are so thankful for the basketball goal that a friend "gifted" to us.....Thank you, Allison!  This provides hours of fun and exercise for our whole family!

Areawide Youth Fellowship UTPB Park

Two of my good friends, Terrie and Renae. 6th and Jackson hosted the Teen Areawide Fellowship this evening at UTPB Park. Beautiful weather - low 80s.

Jake's two best buddies from church, Brandon (Brian and Kim's son - sophomore) and Colin (Whitney's son - junior).

Shawn, our preacher; Doug, our youth minister; Brian, our song leader; Troy, another teen parent; and Lane! We are so blessed with a wonderful group of church friends.

Question - Cher mentioned making the photos bigger...I clicked individually on the top two and enlarged them, but could not get that option to appear on the next two. Any thoughts?

Happy Early Birthday to Luke!

We had a wonderful family weekend - ate all our meals at home while playing dominoes and spades. We will really miss Luke on Wednesday when he turns 19!

This and That- Nienstadts

 Going to Princess Ball (Father/Daughter Dance) at our church last week.

 Playing with lizards- it's on her purse, on her hip.

 Faith is "walking" hers.  We let them go before they became too trained!

 Valentine Party at lunch with kids they take Art/Music class with on Tuesdays.

 I love this holiday, and the sweet card/trading they do.

 Every so often, it's Art show time, and they get to take home their projects.  Self portraits (you can see the pic. of themselves they looked at).

 The teachers took the clay pieces and for each family (alot have brothers/sisters) in different classes, they nailed the pieced together on a board, then even put a piece on the back to hang it from- I love it!

This is Faith's weaving project she's still working on.

Youth and Government State Conference

Last weekend we attend the Y and G State Conference in Austin.  M and M had a blast and did a great job presenting their bills.

 We were glad that Linda got to come watch them present in committee.

Mallory was in the House, and Mason was in the Senate.  Both of their bills passed in their chamber, so it needed to be sponsored in the other chamber to be presented.  It was so cool that they got to sponsor each other's bills.  Mal sat in the back of the Senate while Mason presented hers.  He would confer with her from time to time.  It was so amusing when he would go back to the mic and say,"I just spoke to the bill author..."  They are never allowed to say another delegate's name - much less say "I just talked to my sister." To give you an idea of how nice it was for their bills to make it to general assembly, the House only presented about 6 bills and the Senate presented about 8. 

 They always have fun at the banquet.