February on my Phone

Yet again...some fun stuff from my phone camera to share for February!

Beans having fun with the Hippos at the zoo

Jillian and her friend, Ella, at a Princess Tea Party

Jillian and I enjoyed a carousel ride one afternoon

The girls being silly and doing some kind of fun dancing!

Neal serves in our Church by restocking the pews with all the envelopes and pencils, etc.  This month, the girls and I went up to help!  Meredith was in charge of making sure all of the holes were full of pencils and Jillian was in charge of collecting all the trash.  They did a great job!

After bed one night, we found Jillian asleep on her floor, but inside her pillowcase!

This is sweet Meredith the night before Jump Rope for Heart.  They had been talking about people with "sick hearts" that week at school and we also happened to have a friend whose baby was having surgery on her heart that week, so Meredith was always asking about baby Adelaide and praying for her and her family.  The kids decorated hearts for the gym for JRFH day and she made this one for Adelaide.

Giddyup Cowgirl

Jillian was super excited for cowgirl day at school - she was ready to go all decked out in lots of cuteness!

WAM! David and the Giant

At WAM the kids got to do a fun little program in the Fellowship Hall - there were songs and moves that told the story of David and Goliath.  It was so cute and they had a ton of fun! :)  Bonus - both girls were not only in the same show but they were really close so all my pics had them both in them! 

And A Half Birthday

For some reason, Meredith got really excited about her "And a half" birthday this year - she kept telling us how much longer until it was her "and a half birthday," reminding us constantly!  I got a little worried that she expected it to be something super exciting!  For both girls we did a fun family dinner when they were each 6 months old, but since then, no one has ever celebrated being "and a half" anything!  So, on a whim, I decided to bake her a half cake just for fun!

 I told her I had a surprise, so she had to cover her eyes!

 I think she liked it!  Although, later, she admitted she thought it was a puppy!  She did confirm for me later, that the cake was a really good surprise, though.

 Introducing, my baking assistant, Jillian

 Jillian helped me to decorate it with the turtle and the M and J on the sides

We even found her 6 candle and stuck a single candle in really far "so it looked like 1/2." Now, what have I started????

Run for Hope Half Marathon

The next day was my turn!  I was excited especially because there was a big group of us all doing this race together and for such a great family!  This race was an amazing experience for me overall - there were around 30 people running in one of the 4 races (5K, 10K, half, and full marathon) and lots of us did our long (and even short) training runs together, we had a fun text message string going on throughout the months of training, we had a huge French Toast Breakfast party, and a carb loading dinner the night before the race.  So, I got to know so many of these other runners throughout this time that it just became so much more than just a run.  Then, to top it all off, we ended up raising over $14K - wow.  Such a rewarding thing to do!

 The girls were ready with signs for me!

 When I saw them, I decided to take a quick breather for a hug!

 At the finish line!

Just a portion of the Half Marathoners that morning!

Run for Hope 10K

At the end of last year, our friends, the McDurham's started trying to get a group of runners together to do a little fundraiser for their adoption.  Neal and I were both in!  I signed up for the Cowtown 1/2 Marathon, and Neal (who swore off Half Marathons after San Antonio this fall!) signed on for the 10K.  The races were on back-to-back days, but that meant that we each got to take the girls out to cheer for their running mommy and daddy!  So, first up, we braved the chilly early morning to cheer for Daddy!

 The girls and their signs at around mile 5.5

 We finally saw Daddy! It took him a long time to see us because he was so intent on being done!

 The girls were super proud of their Daddy and his cool medal!

Sock hop

Meredith's school has lots of fun traditions, including an annual Sock Hop!  I made the girls each a skirt and had actually found mine that my Grandma made for me at some point maybe in Elementary school? I know that sounds ridiculous that I could wear it, but I promise that it was let out several times over the years to fit me as I grew!  I had some insider tips that parents dressed up, so we went with it!

Of course, as we arrived, I saw no parents dressed up.  I was starting to feel like an awkward junior high girl!  Luckily, there were a few others of us that dressed the part.  Such a fun night - lots of dancing (to both sock hop-approved music and some more questionable hits from Fergie and the like!), plus snacks, and a hula hooping contest!

Basketball awards

I somehow never really got a picture of Meredith in her Basketball jersey, but here she is with a few of the other girls from the team (there were boys, too, just none here!) This was at their awards dinner - we all got to go have pizza and then she got a trophy!  Who wouldn't be excited about that!

Spirit week

Valentine's Week was "Spirit Week" at Hill - they had mis-match, PJ, twin, camo, and red (for Valentine's Day) dress-up days.

Meredith mis-matching!

And matching!  She, Hannah, and Kenzie, actually decided to be triplets instead of twins!

All my Valentines

To cap off a great Valentine's Day, our whole family of four headed out to dinner and for Frozen Yogurt!  Again, so blessed by all those that I love!

Kindergarten Valentines

After leaving J's party, we headed straight over to help with Meredith's Kindergarten party!  The kids were so excited to pass out their Valentines to each friend!

 Meredith picked out Puppy and Kitty cards because she wanted to make sure the boys and girls would both like them!

Some sweet sister shots from my phone

And on the camera too - Jillian is so lucky that she gets to take part in big sis' stuff and Meredith is so good to her - always asking for her to be included. This mama is blessed!

A Rainbow Valentine

Valentine's Day was full of fun especially since it fell on a school day for both girls.  We started off the celebration with Jillian's Class party

Yummy lunch was a hit!

 The kids played a super sweet game where they matched up "broken hearts" She and her friend Luke were a pair!

 These two are always sweet together!

 Pretty proud of her craft

And even more excited about her cookie!