FBLA Districts for Oliver AND Evelyn!

We are in FBLA competition season now and the District Event took place this week at Washburn University in Topeka.  This was Oliver's final Districts and Evelyn's first! I can't believe she is old enough to be competing at FBLA already.  We got super-lucky with her suit as Syd had just gifted us a bunch of clothes, including her Homecoming suit from when she was a candidate.  It just so happened to fit my 7th grader perfectly.  As it turned out, temperatures were below zero that day so she ended up wearing a wear of my black pants with the blazer instead of the skirt.  And we woke up extra-early to get her hair curled.  She looked so beautiful! I mean, PROFESSIONAL.

 

The bus was leaving at 6:40, so these kids were out the door by 6:30.  Violet doesn't usually wake up that early, but she could tell there was stuff happening and she didn't want to miss out!  She insisted on getting right in the middle of the picture.

Ready to go attack the day! (Why does Evelyn look like she's in high school?!? Ughh.)

I asked both kids to send me pics during the day, and this was the solitary picture I received.  So Evelyn wins the gold star.

Thankfully the weekly newsletters from the school had a few more pics for me.  Here's Evie with her Middle School chapter.

And here is my big senior with some of his high school friends.

Both Dwyer kids competed well at Districts, placing in all of their events. This is not new territory for Oliver, so we weren't surprised at how well he did. Evelyn was pretty nervous, though, so we were excited that she even got 3rd in one of her events!  Now we start our preparation for State!

Snow Days

 The past two winters the kids have ended up having snow days on the first week back from Christmas break.  This year they got one full week in before the snow hit.  And it wasn't nearly as much snow as we've had in the past; the problem was really the bitterly cold temperatures that accompanied the snow. On the morning of negative 15 degrees, nearly all schools were cancelled.  It's crazy how the cold can cancel snow, but it can't keep kids from playing in it!  I had to work that Monday, but Oliver was a GREAT big brother and kept the girls entertained all day.  They started out by getting breakfast at Homestead in Baldwin. Their faces crack me up. 

Then they took Violet sledding down the slight hill in our backyard. There was a good video, but you'll have to take my word on it.  Violet was having the time of her life.

Then they went out to Pork Chop to check out the snowy vista.

Evelyn and Oliver did some exploring in their old "hotel" (aka brush pile) the boys created when they were younger. I think they found some of their rooms were still intact!

It was a cold, snowy day, but they certainly made the most of it!

Oliver finished his day by helping Grandpa Denny with a tractor that was the victim of frozen oil and wouldn't start (or something like that).

Ok, I'm over the frigid temperatures at this point. Bring on spring!

JM&ME on MLK Day

 As usual, the kids' first day out of school for 2026 was MLK Day, and this is always a great excuse for a Just Me & My Evie Day!  On the recommendation of some work friends, we headed to North Kansas City to start our day at The Rabbit Hole. This children's book-themed museum was so much more than I was expecting! We started in the "Fox's Den" where there was plenty to see and plenty of books to read.

Here's the overall map of the Rabbit Hole -- so many areas to discover and explore!

Good Night Moon was Calvin's absolute favorite when he was little. I couldn't believe how much I felt like I was truly IN the pages of the book! 

Even the bathrooms held surprises!

Evelyn's favorite book, hands-down, was Everybody Needs a Rock.  Ok, so maybe it wasn't her absolute favorite, but I thought it was fun!

We joined up with Madeline and Frances in their respective displays.

There were SO many books to remember and discover here! I took way too many pictures, but will refrain from sharing them all.  Here are just a few more.

We had a GREAT morning at the Rabbit Hole! I'd love to go back and see the new displays they are currently building.

At this point, we'd worked up a good appetite and Evelyn chose Olive Garden for lunch.  It took awhile to get our salad and breadsticks, but they were worth the wait.  And we took plenty of yummy leftovers home with us.

Evelyn's other requests for the day were to go to Trader Joe's and Plato's Closet, two stores her friends talk about all the time that we've never visited.  Trader Joe's was up first and it was CRAZY TOWN on this MLK Day!  There were people everywhere.  We were successful in finding the coveted hand cream, Takis, and Everything Seasoning we'd come for.

We also had success at Plato's Closet with Evie finding some Lululemon leggings she'd been wanting.  I found a couple of nice polos for Oliver as well.  We thought our JM&ME Day was completed at this point, until Evie eyed a Swig near Plato's Closet. I'd never heard of this soda shop before, but she had and was excited to try it out.  The line in the drive-through was seriously 20-cars deep, but we decided it would be a perfect capstone for our day. Thankfully they had a worker taking orders in the drive-through, so it went pretty fast.  Evelyn decided on the "Hula Girl" and I got the "Pink Bahama", both were delicious options!

What a fun day spent with my sweet girl! I'm so thankful for this one-on-one time I get to have with her.

Epiphany: Arise, Shine; for your Light has Come!

The eastern sages saw from far 
And followed on His guiding star;
And led by light, to light they trod 
And by their gifts confessed their God. LSB 399 v.2

We celebrated Epiphany this year in a couple of different ways. We continued our tradition (started last year) of "chalking our door" for the coming year. Russ led us in a simple liturgy, blessing our house in the coming year as Calvin and Evelyn used chalk to write "20 + C + M + B + 26" to hang over our door.  The letters CMB have historically been thought to represent the traditional names of the wise men (Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar), but they also stand for "Christus Mansionem Benedicat" which means Christ Bless this Home.

I love seeing this blessing every time I walk in our house! 

Because we don't typically have midweek services outside of Advent and Lent, our church celebrated the Feast of Epiphany on Sunday.

As a bonus, we were able to attend Risen Savior Lutheran in Basehor on the Day of Epiphany.  I was excited that the kids were still out of school for Christmas break so we could attend as a family.  They have two services on Feast days, and we attended the morning service since Oliver had a basketball game that night.  It was a beautiful service and I'm so glad we were able to go!

Their Christmas decorations were beautiful, as was the entire church.  The pastor gave one of the poinsettias to Violet before we left.

I love the season of Epiphany, when we read about the wise men and hear once again how Jesus came for ALL people, the Jews as well as the Gentiles.  Thanks be to God for this gift!

So bring Him incense, gold, and myrrh; Come, peasant, king, to own Him.
The King of kings salvation brings; Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
Raise, raise the song on high, The virgin sings her lullaby;
Joy, joy, for Christ is born, The babe, the son of Mary!

New Years 2026

 

We spent New Year's Eve in the same way we have the past several years, by taking Mom and Dad to church with us.  Pastor Wehling was on vacation, so Pastor Harries preached for us. He reminded us that the future is always in God's hands and He is always trustworthy!  After church, we came home for a relaxing night.  Mom brought some of her German cookies and Gluhwein from her recent travels. Yummy!

Violet stuck with Dr. Pepper as her beverage of choice.

The boys had found other places to ring in the New Year, so it was just the girls and grandparents at our house.

As we always seem to do on NYE, we had fun with Snapchat filters.

Violet especially loved this one of Kitty.

And I especially loved this one, how it makes our house look like a Norman Rockwell painting!

Time for the countdown!

2026, here we come!

Russ always makes Violet laugh. Kitty wasn't so sure about this New Year's kiss.

Cheers to the New Year!

Now this is a better New Year's kiss!

When I got home from work on New Year's Day, we pulled our goals out of our stockings and got to work writing some good ones for 2026.

It's fun to look back at the previous year's goals to see how many were achieved.  It's even more fun to look back at the goals from >10 years ago to see how adorable they are.  I love that we have these goals tucked in our stockings to remember each year.

Our Family Goals from 2025 were almost completely successful! We have about a month left to finish reading the Bible all the way through as a family (again).

I'm so thankful to bring in another year with these beautiful humans.  While I'm sad thinking that this is the year my Oliver will leave the nest, I'm also overcome with thankfulness at the blessing he is and the blessing all of my children are. I'm going to continue being intentional about enjoying every second I'm given with them.

This was our closing hymn at church on New Year's Eve and it is a great message as we begin 2026.

We are rich, for He was poor; is not this a wonder?

Therefore praise God evermore here on earth and yonder.

Christ, our Lord and Savior dear, be thou ever near us.

Grant us now a glad new year. Amen, Jesus, hear us. LSB 390