Fun at Quiz Fest 2009!
So, I am inserting a non-Christmas update blog in the mix here because we had such a big weekend! Madeline's quiz team from church had their annual quiz fest, which made for a very rewarding/exhausting weekend!

Here's our Madeline Rose with her two sweet teammates, ready for the first match of the day on Saturday.

Here's a clip that I took of the girls during a match. You'll have to turn the volume up pretty high to hear it, but I actually caught a streak where they all jumped and answered questions correctly!

The night before Madeline and one of her teammates got to quiz together in the 2 on 2 tournament. It was fast paced and fun to watch. They did great and had fun together. Here they are having some lunch together on Saturday.

Timothy had fun at quiz fest too. He watched a couple matches, but they had a game room, and he spent a lot of his day playing with other kiddos, informing me later that he wants an air hockey table for our house now.

The girls won second place in their tournament that afternoon!

Our NMC boys team brought home the first place trophy from their tournament!

Here are two of our NMC teams right after the awards ceremony with their trophies.
The girls were super excited. They all worked so hard, and each one of them contributed so much to the team. Their interactions are sweet to watch as they cheer each other on and strategize together with their coach.
They thought this placing the trophy on the head of their smallest team member was pretty cute...
until she ended up getting knocked on the noggin.....don't worry....no tears, just lots of laughing.
Here is the team with all the moms and dads. We were maybe a little proud of our girls!

This is Jim, who coordinates the quizzing at NMC and also for our whole region. He has done such an amazing job, and his fuel for doing it is his desire to see the kids hide scripture in their hearts. We are so grateful for his ministry. The battery on my camera was starting to go by the end of the day, so my pictures got progressively fuzzier, but here is one last picture of the kiddos on the way home. Do they look just a little bit excited? They slept well last night!

One other achievement worth noting I won't tell you, but show you...the kids and I have been working on this for the past two weeks during the drive to school. =)

Oh, and just because it was so precious, I have to share Timothy's prayer from dinner tonight. He said, " Dear God, thank you for my family and for our food, and thank you for everyone on this globe, even the USA, and even Alaska, and even Mrs. Garland's brother that lives in Hawaii. AMEN!" He's been learning about maps in school, and his prayers have since had more and more geography in them. I love our little turtle!

OK, that's all for now. Thanks for reading, and as always, thanks for your prayers for our family!

-shannon