I am slowly making my way through the months lost on the blog. Molly continued bonding with the piggies (not necessarily voluntarily).

We were able to cheer cousin Hannah on in volleyball tournaments when she played in Aurora. The games were fun to watch!

Derek and Peter traveled to Colorado with the WA wrestling team in January. They wrestled Colorado schools, visited colleges (including the Air Force Academy),

hiked and saw the beautiful CO sights,

and toured the Olympic wrestling training facility. Derek met Kyle Snyder, a world-champion wrestler who is also a Christian.

One of the boys made this from a pic.

As long as we’re on the topic of wrestling, I’ll share some more scenes from the season in January. We had some home meets, where I got my baby fix holding the coach’s son.

The night of the Midnight Rumble in Rockford was a significant night in Derek’s life. He got a call from the ROTC officer that he was awarded the four-year scholarship to attend Wheaton College. At the same time, he connected with two future teammates who had already committed to play football at Wheaton and were wrestling at the same tournament.

It didn’t take long for Derek to sign the letter of commitment to Wheaton football. He was confident that God was leading him there.

Meanwhile, he continued wrestling,

always with an eye on the State tournament.

At home, the bathroom project was completed.

And I’m having fun training my mini-me in things like flossing teeth. Jim is quite entertained by this.

We had tons of snow fall in January,

but this did not stop Molly and I from running on the prairie path nearly every day. One day I found a fallen wasp nest and snapped a picture of it.

Not only did we get a lot of snow, but the temperature plummeted.

We hunkered down: people

and dog alike.

Finally, we celebrated Molly’s birthday. She entered the double digits (in human years).