Breanna's ensemble at contest

It worked! The first few seconds are waiting for the judge to say it was time to play. (Oops! I was all excited until I realized this is the one that only shows their tuning up. At least it is a video that loaded. I'll try again later for the longer one.)

Breanna's orchestra contest

Breanna went to contest yesterday. She played a solo and played in an ensemble. Her ensemble got gold and will go to state. She played Mozart Concerto #3 in G (a very complicated piece) and got silver. Her violin teacher said it was a high silver. Toward the end, she messed up for a few seconds. We think that is why she wasn't gold. She is relieved to not have to play this piece again since she's been playing it since last summer!

Practicing her solo.

The ensemble: Breanna, Matt, Jenny D, and two other girls I don't know their names.

Close up of Matt and Breanna before they began their piece.

Matt's solo. He got a gold but it was a group II piece so he isn't going to state. He played very well, though.

Tuning up before her solo. Under her elbow is her former private lesson teacher, Lyn. She graduated Breanna to a new teacher this fall. She said Breanna needs someone who can challenge her. She got Breanna started on the Mozart piece and then apologized after we found out she got gold for giving her such a hard piece to go to contest with.

I've been trying to upload the videos of her solo and ensemble but it is not working right now! Any help anyone can give me would be wonderful!

Our small group gets to meet Zion

Our "Breaking Free" small group that Amanda and Mark are a part of was able to meet and hold Zion. Amanda and Mark brought the baby upstairs after our meeting so everyone could meet her. You can tell they were glad to see her!

Zion Grace is here!

She's cute as a button and healthy. Mom had a rough time of it during labor. We are all glad that the baby is finally here and the ordeal is over. She was born on January 2 at 3:20pm. She weighed 7lb 3oz. They came home late afternoon today. Mark and Amanda are very proud parents. Now the journey begins...

Christmas Parties

My wonderful mother-in-law, happy that some of us came to her big meal.

Breanna crocheted her this scarf.

I gave Ron a salsa mix.

Then the day went to the birds. We took lots of bird pictures outside their picture window.

Kyle was so tired, he slept most of the afternoon.

Amber and Matt decided to leave on New Year's Eve because the snow was coming. Grandma B had invited us to come on New Year's Day. Bob's brother, Rollin, and Laura couldn't come because of the snow. Jezra wouldn't get out of bed to come (he had just gotten to bed at 8:30 a.m.). It was only Kyle, Breanna, Bob and me who had come for the lovely meal.



To see our family Christmas and the G Christmas, go to Amber's new blog: http://amberella148.vox.com/. She had a new camera and took pictures. I didn't take many while they were here.