February

Great start to February celebrating my mom's birthday.  

There isn't anything she loves more than just spending time with her kids.  

She is just so easy to please and such a happy person.  

We celebrated Valentines Day with our favorite crew.  

We were locked in an apartment and had an hour to solve a series of clues in order to escape.

I am pretty sure I would still be locked inside if I was on my own.  

Thanks to smart friends, we "Escaped the Room." 

Summer's choir had the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall.  

Well, I have to say it was quite memorable.
Summer had to leave the stage to throw up. 

Poor thing went on to throw up on our carriage ride through Central Park too.

My girl's latest obsession is the musical Hamilton and they got tickets to see it for Christmas.

I love that they are really interested in the American Revolution now.  Some of the songs

quote George Washington and the other founding fathers verbatim.   

Summer asked Ben Udall to the Sadie Hawkin dance. 

It has been changed to a semi-formal dance due to some misbehavior from the students

a couple of years ago at the dance.  No more casual, matching t-shirts -kind of thing.  Sad.

However, I did like the Black and White theme.

 We had a casual lakeside dinner thanks to Nana and Jack allowing us to use their back yard.  

Cheers to Italian sodas prepared by Meg and Ike.

Captain Jack took them on a sunset cruise before dinner.
I could hear some of his classic joke material as they pulled out of the harbor.
He said they were a pretty tough crowd.  Crickets.

 These two cool cats have started restoring an old bronco...with a lot of help and supervision 

from Tom's buddy, T.K. McNeil (who owns a body shop and restores all things mechanical).  All of Tom's dreams have started coming true since T.K. moved into our neighborhood.  

He now has his own car sensei and matching coveralls with Ike.  

 You think you know your husband and then a car mechanic side of him pops out 

around the 20 year mark.  He knows how to keep things exciting and fresh.

Just a couple of years ago, he could barely reach the pedals. 

 I would be really sad that he is growing up at light speed, 

but he just keeps getting more and more fun.

This little furry beast has bewitched us all.  He keeps me company on my errands.

My girls auditioned for the high school's musical, Oklahoma.

Meg is Kate and Summer is playing the lead, Laurie.  

I love that they are in it together before Summer graduates.

We are all looking forward to the performances in April.

Cole is loving his Brazilian people and serving as a missionary.  

In February, he had to say goodbye

to Botucatu and is now headed to a bigger city, Piracicaba. 

He will miss the cool breezes that come through that city at night. 

Add caption

January

Meg wasn't so sure she wanted to get her license.   

  Going through this driving thing with both of my girls has made me realize that not everyone is ready to jump in and drive a car or I am not the world's greatest driving instructor. 

I think it may be a little of both.  

What finally helped Summer and Meg was signing them up for 8 hours of driving lessons.  

Christmas came a little late to Brazil, but it came.  

I love how he laid out every single item for us to see.  

I  had a flash back of when he was little and used to lay out all his 

little animal figurines in a row and then just proudly look at them with a big smile.  

I am glad that he thinks to take photos of these details of his mission apartment.
It provides me with a little window into his life.  

His desk

I finished his thirds mission book this month.  Just one more to go.

He will return on August 2.

Fritz senses when school is out and the kids will be walking in the door. 

He's quite bored with the lady of the house by 3:15 p.m. 

I can't believe these girls are graduating soon.  

Summer is waiting to hear if she will be accepted to BYU.  

She is a great student and has always put in the hard work.

She is hoping to attend in the Fall, along with Cole.

Another great missionary farewell.  

Max Pothier is going to serve in Tawain just like his dad, Dave.

I remember spending Thanksgiving with the Pothiers, in Virginia,

 when we were all young newly-weds

and Shawni shared with us that she was pregnant with her first, Max.  

Basketball is in full swing. Ike is so fun to watch when he isn't too hard on himself.

He has been working on letting little mistakes slide off.

Ike plays center at 5'9".  He has grown 2 inches in 3 months.

I can't keep enough food in this kid.