The McPherson Chronicles

Olivia was honored at the last awards ceremony for getting 100 points in AR. 100 points was the goal for the whole year and she finished right after Christmas. I'm so proud of her dedication. She really wanted to get to the goal as quickly as possible. Lucy is right behind her and should get her award next month at the awards ceremony. Now they are working on their First in Math and want to get their math medals next.

Looks like 2017 is going to be quite a year for us! I think I missed posting along the way that Kevin is back in school at Cal Baptist getting his MBA. He started in the Fall and is moving right along through the program. It's one night a week of actual class which isn't bad at all and he manages to get all his reading/writing/studying in without impacting our family time. How he does it I will never know. But I sure am proud of him! As for me, I left my job at CalAtlantic on Friday and start a new job on Monday at Foremost Companies. It's going to be a huge adjustment after 13 years but it's an amazing opportunity that I'm hopeful will be the growth opportunity I was seeking. I will be the Marketing and Lifestyle Manager working on Terramor. The position will be similar in a lot of ways to what I was doing previously but also present a wide range of new skills, broaden my network and be a challenge that I'm really excited about. Kevin and the kids are reall...

Lucky puppy has settled right in and we are totally enjoying life with a puppy. He is getting big already and his paws still look huge so I think he has a ways to go. The girls are getting more used to him and love throwing his toys for him. They are also in charge of feeding him every morning. Andrew is obsessed with the dog. I think he thinks the dog is just for him. When he's playing in the house he has to have the blinds open so he can show the dog his toys, see what Lucky is doing and talk to him. It is super cute! Every day when we leave and come home Andrew runs up to the gate where Lucky greets him with licks and then Andrew does this random singing/dancing routine for/with the dog. It is hilarious and the girls and I crack up every time. Andrew sings "la la la" while twirling in circles with his hands above his head or on his belly. Equally as funny, is that Lucky seems to enjoy this routine and gets so excited he starts leaping/bouncing. I don't even know ...

The night before the girls' winter break was over Olivia came out of her room at bedtime crying. When I asked her what was wrong she said, "I don't want to go back to school tomorrow because I'm going to miss Andrew. I've had so much fun playing with him and I don't want to go back and not get to play with him every day." She burst into full on tears and it was the sweetest most heartbreaking thing. She truly loves her brother and seeing how emotional it made her made me tear up too. I hope she never loses that love for her brother. She truly has the sweetest heart.

Kevin and I both had the whole week between Christmas and New Years off with the kids and we made the most of it squeezing in as much fun as possible. It was such a fun time together! Beautiful day at the park Making pancakes together Snow day in Arrow Bear We came down the mountain and because it was such a nice day we went to the beach!! Beach grump This was the BEST day - snow and beach. We really are lucky to live in SoCal.

Christmas Eve with Nana Christmas Mass Santa must have been hungry! Santa presents Showing Andrew his Hot Wheels track from Santa Singing birds from Santa for Olivia Lucy got her toy cat from Santa Andrew loves his giant Mickey Our best Christmas present Christmas night at Grandma & Grandpa's

I love the school holiday performances! It is one of the cutest things to see all those kids singing, dancing, doing hand motions and just so happy to perform. The girls were selected to introduce and close out the DLI holiday performance this year and they practiced and memorized their parts over and over again. Lucy went first and welcomed everyone in perfect Spanish. Olivia had to wait until the end of the performance to thank everyone for coming and wish them a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Hers was a little trickier to remember by that point but with a little reminder from the teacher she got it all out. So proud of them! This year they sang White Christmas in Spanish, Feliz Navidad and Rocking Around the Christmas Tree.