January

Look out - our big guy is getting permit practice behind the wheel! 

The girls and I took advantage of the super cool MLK library in downtown DC and opted for a change of scenery on our homeschool day

His last photo as a 15-year-old!

Happy Birthday, Rooke!  We made time for birthday breakfast cronoughts and Grammy Deb's breakfast casserole before the birthday boy headed off to school

Happy 16th birthday, Rooke!  

Bridgette had a game before Rooke's game later that evening - 4 out of 5 Paynes loves basketball season!

Rooke's birthday game. . . I honestly don't remember if Bridgette or Rooke won their games, but it was a fun day of sports nonetheless, and always great when extra cheerleaders come to the game!

Rooke shares a birthday with one of our good friends, so I brought balloons for them to the basketball game.  Bridgette convinced me not to completely embarrass Rooke by bringing them inside the gym, so I tied the balloons to the car - ha!  And in a twin birthday gesture, Philip gifted Rooke a Costco size box of his favorite cereal!

The birthday celebrations continued with Rooke's pick for dinner: Panda Express.  Meat pie happened on a different night when I had more time to cook.

I got to take this cool crew to a Wizards game (thank you VetTix!) 

Big Daddy came for a visit!  He timed his trip to see the most basketball games possible in the amount of days he could stay.  Unfortunately, weather caused 4 out of the 6 games to be canceled.  Boo!!  Thankfully, Big Daddy is chill and flexible and easy to have around, so we still enjoyed getting to hang out, even if it wasn't in the basketball gym.

Sunday morning breakfast with Ryan

Gretchen and friends heading off to a dance hosted by the homeschool co-op we attend

More basketball with more friends!

I jumped on the chance to be a chaperone for Rooke's class field trip to the Kennedy Center to hear the National Symphony Orchestra perform - yes, thank you!  The guys granted me a quick photo before we got to hear Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 - amazing!!

December

The month of December was a full month for us - lots of holiday fun festivities!  Unfortunately, sickness slowly worked its way through our house, so for most of the month at least one of us was sick, but we pressed on.

I took my piano students to play their Christmas songs at a local nursing home, which happened to be the home where my Gramma lived.  Though Gretchen isn't technically my student, she joined the program and played beautifully.  Bridgette also played her violin.

Gretchen got a few Christmas gifts for these sweet sisters whom she has been a mother's helper for over the last few years.

I scored free tickets from VetTix to see Pentatonix!!  Gretchen and I took our friends and had a great night in Baltimore

Our church held a Christmas service on Friday evening at the local legion building (pray for us to find a permanent building!).  I helped coordinate music for the service.  Several teens played prelude music, the children sang together, a string ensemble accompanied Joy to the World, and an adult vocal ensemble sang as well.  It was a very musical service!

The next day, we hosted a going away open house for John and Leia.  John has been our pastor since CBC started and he left to go pastor another church in Tennessee.  It's been a hard loss on multiple levels, least of which is their friendship.

Gretchen was asked to share about how Pastor John has been an encouragement during his final service at CBC.

Leia led some of the youth girls in a Sunday School discussion group

We spent the morning with the Joseph family, enjoying breakfast and one last visit together.  Then a few hours later, we boarded a plane to spend the rest of the month with family in Oklahoma!

Headed to Tulsa . . . .

We had a belated celebratory dinner for Kevin and Deborah, who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in October!!

We also celebrated a special birthday: Gretchen turned 14!!  Deborah treated her to a manicure, we went shopping, I made her dinner of choice, and Braum's provided the perfect birthday treat.

Three generations of Paynes!

Merry Christmas Eve!  Thank you, Grammy Deb, for carrying on the pajama tradition for so many years!

Merry Christmas from The Paynes

On Christmas Day, we drove down to Norman to spend the rest of our time with more family.

Rooke towers over most, especially Kaye K!

Dear Nana with 4 of her 5 grandchildren - what a blessing she is!

For the first time since we all started having kids, the family was all together and we left the cousins home alone for an adult night out!! =)

Mom and Dad planned some great family activities for our week together . . .

Top Golf, sports at the gym, bowling, an OU basketball game, family talent show, laser tag, and plenty of games and food - it was a memorable week for the 17 of us to be together!

 

Tana hosted a lovely tea with the nieces