Way to go Jake!

Today Jacob competed against 9 other finalists in the school geography bee- and he won! All of the kids who were there did really well. Some of the questions were very challenging, in fact several of the parents who attended said they couldn't answer all of them. Now he gets to study, then take a written test to see if he gets to go to the Texas state competition with 100 kids. Wow!

Lyndell was kind enough to send us some pictures from the event. (thank you thank you!)

Woohoo!

Samantha made a goal this past semester to try out and make Honor band at school. She came in yesterday and proudly informed me that she made it! I'll try to get her to let me record her sometime. It's really been fun for us as parents to see how far she's come since she started with all those squawks and squeaks just a couple of years ago. We are proud of her efforts!

More Christmas

We also got to go to Dad's for a short visit during the Christmas break.We enjoyed opening presents with them, and visiting. Also,the weather was really nice, so the boys got to shoot, which they love. Look how serious they look with those little bb guns in their hands-

Jake also tried out the 22 again, but Aaron was frustrated about his arms being too short to hold it well. Poor kid.

We also love to sit out in the morning and evening and watch the cardinals come to the bird feeders. I know, how silly. But it really is cool when there are 8-10 males all sitting in one leafless winter tree. I tried to take a few pics, but with the dusk lighting it was tough to get a good shot before the kids made a ruckus and startled them.

We also had some excitement when all the boys went out to burn some brush Dad had cleared from his property line. The wind kicked up and the fire went right up in Will's face. His eyebrows and hair got burned pretty badly, but luckily his skin wasn't burned at all. Amazing! Much to his chagrin, we've had a bit of fun teasing him about his funny new haircut.