Youth Cue

 

Amelia once again traveled to Baylor University in Waco, TX to attend Youth Cue with her church choir.  Their they meet up with hundreds of other youth church choirs to give a grand concert on hymns and songs they have been working on all year.  They perform with the Baylor University Orchestra and it is breathtaking.  

Amelia is at her very happiest among her choir buddies.  

Goofing off before the big concert.

I was so happy I was able to travel to Texas this year and hear Amelia perform live, it is such a joy to watch your child do something that brings them so much joy.

Josh and Amelia :) 

These super sweet friends with their AMAZING director, Dr. Michaelle.

Amelia was also chosen to perform a song with the Honor Choir as an Alto.  

These young adults from our church did such a wonderful job of worshiping God and it was such a pleasure to be a part of it.  

Amazing job Amelia Grace!

Mardi Gras Season

 

Mardi Gras season is a fun time down on the coast!

We celebrated with the Ocean Springs parade and collected all sorts of beads, stuffed animals and other useless junk!

 

Luke bought this with his own money at the parade.  

It was a smart move, he got beads and loot showered upon him when he flashed the flag.

 

Yay!  Look who was off of work :)

 

Hope and Addie :)

 

Josh and Amelia with little sis.

 

We also went to a night parade, one can never get enough parades during Mardi Gras.

Luke and his buddies brought out Luke's flag again.

 

Alden and Addie, best buddies.

 

Our best buddies, Heidi and Chad. 

Happy Mardi Gras!

Basketball Season!

 

Winter Basketball season was amazing!!

It was the first year Ocean Springs had enough girls to play an ALL GIRL league!

Addison really improved on all of her basketball skills this season, having played with all boys in previous years, she arose as a leader, ball handler and master stealer :)

 

Alden and Addie, the dynamic duo.

SHUT DOWN DEFENSE THESE TWO.

No one could get by them.  They would trap and steal, over and over and over.

 

Determination.

AND, she dribbles down the court on a fast break with her right hand AND her left hand!

 

Speed demon, off on another fast break.

Steal number 182.

 

Ashton, Anna and Easton have been on multiple basketball teams with Addison and came to cheer her on!  So sweet :)

 

Our neighbor, Chad St. Amant, and I coached the girls this year.  

It was so fun, we really made so much progress considering we only had two girls (our daughters) who had played before.  

So to go from the first practice, when they did not know the difference between offense and defense, what it meant to travel or double dribble, etc. to the end of the season where they knew how to rebound, throw an inbound play, and each tell me they LOVE basketball, was remarkable! 

I love basketball so, so, so much and I want more girls to love it and play it so for my girls to tell me that, was so special.

 

Addison and all her high school friends that came to watch her play.

Lucky #2!

 

My favorite player.

I'm a tough coach (says Addie).  I would agree, Chad was too, but we taught the girls a lot of basketball and every time my girls see me out and about in Ocean Springs, they run up and hug me so it couldn't have been too bad.  We only made them run suicides sometimes :) 

And we may have, ahem, raised our voice a few times about them not listening...we also jumped higher, cheered louder, and high fived harder than anyone when they made a shot, got a rebound, or for some of them, just went and stood in the right spot :)

 

And after it was all said and done...guess which team won the most regular season games!

So proud of these girls!