We are thankful for...

Family, Friends, and other people's kids:)
It was a long drive to Iowa (without any crazy weather-thankfully), but it was well worth it. We got to hang out with family, friends, and have some awesome Iowa food:)
John got to meet Caleb for the first time, and had a lot of fun with him.

He even tried to teach him to play the xylophone.

Caleb was busy eating or being tired a lot, but he was really happy in the morning, or when he was by Grandpa or Grandma:)




We also visited some of my close friends. I got to see Sarah and Dan's baby Rebecca for the first time. (but she was sleeping when we took this picture)

On Saturday we got to visit Sharla, Andy and Aiden. Sharla's kitchen has awesome bright colors!

Aiden was a little shy at first, but after a while he really warmed up to John, and was giggling like crazy. I didn't capture the funniest moments, but here they are having fun doing "super baby".



Thank you to Mom and Dad for the fun shopping trips (even at 6am), the tours of the town, the awesome food (especially the leftovers), and the good times hanging out.

The dreaded school pictures...

have always been a problem for me. When I was in 3rd grade I chopped 6 inches off my hair and got a perm- the day before pictures. I was a friz-head:) I couldn't find a picture of that...but I did find a picture of puffy-bangs Angie.

In fact, being in my 6th year teaching, every year when it is picture day I usually have forgotten and look pretty thrown together. Then of course I hide my staff ID card away so I don't have to look a the picture every day.
But...there are those breif few times when my picture actually looks pretty decent. For example, 2nd grade (at least I think it was 2nd grade) I had gotten a new sweater with rainbow colors, and I knew I looked pretty in it. So pretty that I knew my teacher was going to ask me if I got a new sweater. She did, and I said yes!


And now this year...I rememberd to do my hair for pictures. Yipee...I can leave my staff ID card on my desk for the world to see.

and...since I had a picture...I decided to try this website out to be funny.

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

I don't think any of them look like me.
This one was fun too...
%1

Back from state...

At our hotel this morning...we saw an older man with a white beard in the elevator, then another man with a white beard in the hallway, and another round man with a white beard walking into the lobby. Louanne, the teacher with me said..."there must be a santa convention" jokingly. About 10 min later in the lobby, 3 more guys with white beards walled in...and when I walked by the conference room I saw a sign that said "Welcome to Santa School!". Ha!

So my VB team going to state was monumentus because it was the first time the school has ever been to state in volleyball. Of the 8 teams going to state we had the # 7 seed. We played pretty well, but the other teams were significantly bigger (physically) than us, and it was a level of play that was hard to match. There was a nice article in the paper about us going to state, and it quoted me a bunch.
Here are some pictures from state:





Also, The fun stuff was a blast- care packages, evening devotions, watching 5 courts at once with fans all around, and leftover snacks:)


And now...I need to clean the house and get to all the other things I haven't done for 3 1/2 months:)

On to state!

My volleyball team (the H.S. one that I coach) mad an impressive appearance on Friday and has now qualified for STATE! I am excited for them. I am now realizing there are like a million things to do before we leave on Thursday. The state tournament will be in Denver, so it won't be too far. Here is a picture of the team, and the plaque we won (without the names on it)


All these "state" memories are reminding me of high school- and how much fun we had. The fans and the players! (Anyone from my high school who is reading this knows what I am talking about.)

Also, Colorado is beautiful this time of year. There is snow in the MTs. and most of the ski resorts are opening. This is the view from our driveway.