High School Winter Concert

The high school concert tonight was wonderful!

The choir sang first.

Annah did a beautiful job with the violin solo on one of my favorite songs...

VIDEO: Danny Boy

I love this piece.

VIDEO: I Am Not Yours

It had been a year since the Vocal Jazz Ensemble performed at school, and it is a very different group now.  They've been practicing 2-4 times a week before school.  You have to really love singing to do it at 7:40 in the morning, but it shows.  This group really knocked the audience's socks off tonight!

VIDEO: Their first song was Embraceable You.

VIDEO: I'll Be There

Annah is singing alto in this group this year, and really enjoyed getting to sing all the suspensions in these pieces.  

VIDEO: Voice Dance is an incredibly difficult piece, but it was so fun for them to work on and perform, and fun to watch/hear them conquer it!

Very, very proud of these young singers!!!

Although their marching band season ended only about 4 weeks ago, the HS concert band performed 5 great pieces tonight.

VIDEO: Our Director


VIDEO: Nettleton





VIDEO: Fum, Fum, Fum!



VIDEO: I only recorded the last couple minutes of Sleigh Ride, because I wanted to catch Addie happily playing the whipcrack, and Jalen playing the horse whinny with a horse mask on.


VIDEO: This is the first time the band played an encore, and the audience loved it.  It is the theme from Game of Thrones.  Annah plays a clarinet solo at the very end.

It was a great concert for all the ensembles!

Addie played the school alma mater for the choir, and wanted a picture with me after the concert.  I don't know what I will do when she graduates in the spring.

I love sharing these concerts with my kiddos!

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Everybody loves Uncle Jeremy! Bryce was happy to see him when we walked into church this morning.

He said to me, "You're wearing chapstick! It's pink!"  I asked him if he wanted a great big kiss, and he said, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

After church and lunch and some packing, we went to the visitation for my dear friend Amy's dad, Don.  It was like a reunion, seeing friends and neighbors and church family from my childhood as we walked in. And it was also a beautiful reminder of why we shouldn't spend too much time being sad for those who have gone to heaven.  There were so many pictures of happy moments in Don's life, and he had been sick for 2 1/2 years...I couldn't help but let my happiness for his heavenly healing push away most of the sadness for him being gone from here.  He left a lot of beautiful memories for his family, and a great legacy of truly living life with Jesus.

Our kids stayed with Trav's kids, and when we got back to the house it was time to go.

We stopped at Grandpa's butcher shop on the way home to get a Christmas ham.  It was a wonderful holiday weekend.  I treasure every moment and wish it could last longer.

McEowen Thanksgiving in Michigan

Today we went to Michigan!  We divided up, and the girls went with Travis and Erin and their kids in their van.  Jeremy drove Caeden, me, Mom and Dad in Mom's car.  It was a pretty quick trip--only a little over 2 hours.

Aunt Marcia and Uncle Mark hosted us at their house, and most of us had never been up to visit them.  We enjoyed seeing their home.

Dad noticed this collage of pictures of Grandpa McEowen's time in the service.

Aidan took all the kids for wagon rides around the forest, and they sang at the top of their voices!

We had a great time, and it was too short.

Although...we were pretty tuckered out for the ride home.

But not too tired for ice cream!

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Portraits of the Kids

My parents have been asking for new portraits of the kids.  Apparently I haven't taken new ones for 4 years?!  I doubt it's been that long, but a couple weekends ago we squeezed out a little bit of time on a gorgeous fall Saturday afternoon/evening to take a few hurried shots.

I think this one is my favorite of Sylvia.

Sometimes she doesn't hide the sass!

And she has a goofy side too.

Annah got the golden hour time slot.  But I don't know enough about how to use my camera to do a great job with it.

This guy doesn't like the pressure of pictures.  He's still pretty cute though.

He always yawns when I'm taking pictures of him, but tries to smile through it.

My boy.

By the time I was ready for all 3 of them at the same time, the sun was rapidly setting.  I focusing mostly on avoiding glare on their glasses and didn't even notice the face Annah was making.

Uh...???

Here they are doing their Chandler smiles (FRIENDS fans will know what I mean, or here's a clip.)

It is a little easier than when he was a toddler.  I think?


They do have nice faces.

Here's a good one.

But this is my favorite.  It's a real, true, current representation of these kids.

They are pretty great.

The girls were both wearing shrug sweaters I made them, and wanted pics together.

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