Basketball and Band Concerts

In the fall we were so busy with soccer that I was excited for winter to come along to give us a little 'break'. Well we did have about 3 weeks in November where things slowed down but since then it's been crazy again. Right now Haley is playing on a rec basketball team and an indoor soccer team and Jillian is playing on a school basketball team and a rec basketball team. Add school, homework, church and youth group stuff to that and we're pretty busy. Also they both had winter band/chorus concerts in the past week so we've been out of the house every weekday evening for the past two weeks. And some nights we go from one basketball game to a band concert to another game - crazyness I tell ya! But I LOVE being able to go watch my girls do things they enjoy and love seeing them make progress in music and sports. 

I am SO proud of both of them!

First, this was Jillian's band and chorus concert. This is her second year playing the Flute. 

Not too many 5th graders stuck with their instruments from last year so the Intermediate 

Band was quite small. She is in the peachy colored dress.

She is also a part of the 4th and 5th grade Chorus - they sang 3 songs and did such a beautiful job! I wish I could figure out how to add a video on here because they sang Philip Phillips 'Home' and it was AWESOME! She is so tall, here she is standing the back row. She wasn't really miserable like she looks, she just didn't know I was taking pictures from way back in the crowd. 

Here they are singing and doing some hand motions for a really cute song. I absolutely LOVE the music teacher at our school and LOVE the songs she chooses for the kids to sing. 

Now on to some basketball action! Here are some pictures of Haley in action last weekend. She is #6 on the pink team - #6 has been her number for almost every team she's ever been on, it's become her favorite! 

The coaches for her team are all young Navy soldiers {is that the right word to use?}.

 Anyway, they are great, they have a huge passion for working with these girls and many 

times for practices they do crazy-hard military style drills. 

OK, so I'm totally taking this verse out of context, but I was looking at this photo and the verse came to mind, so just having a little fun with it ... 

Then we had some basketball games for Jillian's school team. I think many of these girls have never played before but they are doing a good job and trying really hard to learn the skills. This is our AWESOME principal giving some announcements before the game. 

Our team doesn't have numbers on our shirts - Jilly is the one in red on the right side. 

Sorry some of these are blurry - I was using my 'sports' mode on the camera but sometimes it still doesn't capture a clean shot. She is hustling hard in this pic! 

And again using the verse ... so funny how they get surrounded by the other team. 

And lastly, another band concert. Haley is in her second year with the Clarinet and doing great. 

It's cool to see how much they have improved since last year. The song actually sounded like a cohesive song, not just a mash up of sounds. =) 

She is on the far left - I was sitting way near the back of the auditorium so she and her friends didn't know I was taking their pics. I love seeing the funny moments when they're laughing at something together. 

And at the end they had a little dessert reception, I took a couple cute pics of her and some of her closest school friends. Such a GREAT group of girls! 

And that's what we've been up to lately!

 I have to say, it sure is making January FLY by being so busy like this!