Frozen

Let's begin with a big Happy Birthday to Matt!!  He is the best dad to our kids, as well as such a supportive and helpful husband and friend.  He is the best, so send him lots of love today!

Happy Birthday, Captain Safety!

We are all feeling a little beaten down by the persistent cold weather lately.  While we have snow, it's too cold to go out and enjoy it!  Temperatures have been well below zero, and wind chills have been even colder.  I was glad to have a change of scenery and spend the weekend in NH with Evie for a dance competition.  It wasn't much warmer there, but it helped break up the winter doldrums!  Evie competed on both Saturday and Sunday, and she finished 4th overall both days.  Her goal had been to get on the podium at least one day, so she was very happy with her results.  There were quite a few other McFadden dancers at the competition weekend, so we had fun hanging out with the other dancers and parents, and we spent Saturday evening in Kittery, Maine doing some shopping and having dinner.  It was a perfect little getaway!

This is the crazy getup we have to wear to go outside right now.  SO. COLD.

Heading out of town

Two very cool snow rainbows on our drive to NH

Getting ready for competition Day 1

McFadden dancers

Day 1 on the podium

Enormous onion rings for dinner!

Day 2 - this is what goes under the wig!

Warming up

Day 2 on the podium

Proud Mama

Evie's friend Kayla, who trained at McFadden when she studied at UVM.  We miss her!

Post-wig hair

Back home Sunday night with all my creatures snuggling in tight!

Meanwhile, at home, the boys kept busy with sports!  Between watching basketball, playing basketball and baseball, taking care of Frankie and helping out with the food shelf at church, they didn't have much time to miss us!

Cheering on the Essex High School team

Warming up with the EMS team

Dinner at Al's - a special treat after an away game!

Helping out with the food shelf donations

Essex Sting game

Snow pup!

This view doesn't get old!  It's stunning in the winter.

Evie hit a big milestone last week (and she's going to kill me for these pictures!) - she finished her Invisalign journey!  She has been diligently wearing her Invisalign for the past year, so she is excited to graduate out of it, and she has a beautiful, straight smile to show for her hard work.  Yahoo!