Confirmation

Nicholas received the sacrament of Confirmation on March 10th.  He chose a family friend, Jeff Shoeneck to be his sponsor and St. Hubert as his Confirmation saint.  St. Hubert is the patron of hunters and has an interesting story about skipping Mass to hunt and then seeing a stag with a cross between its antlers.  You can ask Nick if your interested in more of the story,

Here he is getting Confirmed.

Lots of Vranas were involved.  Thomas was the sponsor for Caleb Shoeneck (Jeff's son).

Julia sang in the choir.

And Philp served.

Here's our whole family.  (Nope, Julia's not looking but in the rest of them Sam's head is behind Nick.)

Nicholas with his Godparents,

with Grandma Raleen and Grandpa Steve, (with Grandma Susan and Grandpa Mike must be on Grandma's phone.)

with Jeff and Bishop Connelly.  

and with our pastor, Fr. Luke Fleck.  

Here's the whole group from Colon (and Cedar Bluffs).  It's a lot when you Confirm three years worth of kids!

Since Confirmation was on a Tuesday evening and Nicholas was still wrestling most weekends, we had the party a couple weeks later.  Most of the family was able to come and we enjoyed celebrating!

St. Hubert, pray for Nicholas!

State Wrestling

Philip and five made it to State!  We stayed downtown for the first time and we were glad we did because it snowed and the roads were a little iffy.

Joe, Jackson, Sebastian (in the back), Philip and Landon.

Plus Coaches Welsh, Thompson and Chvatal

On the board!

Philip didn't win either of his matches but he wrestled hard and didn't let the other guys get easy wins. He had a great experience and hopefully will use it to be ready again next year!

Fan club- there were more...Steve and Raleen came too, plus some Codrs.

Landon was the only one who ended up medaling.  He made it to the finals and got second so it was fun to watch!

Great season boys!

Sidenote:  Philip may or may not have gotten the unofficial award for most weight gained over the weekend after getting knocked out...somehow he managed to edge out Joe by just a little bit.

Christmas Break Adventure

We hadn't been ice skating in years.  Like Nicholas doesn't remember because he was probably not born, Philip was a toddler type years.  There was a free day at Fremont's rink so we decided to go!

Philip picked it up quickly and had a great time.

Wowie, it made my calves BURN.  But it was fun.

Jeremy enjoyed himself too.

Nick took a little longer but he got the hang of it too.

We skated about an hour before we were totally pooped out.  And by then the kids who are free skate regulars had their legs under them and were starting to cause trouble (nothing big, just messing around and a breakable person like me was going to be the one who ended up with the spectacular fall) so it was a good time to leave.

Presenting

The theme this year is America because they are going to Washington DC for July 4th to march in the 250th anniversary parade.

The show is great as usual.  Nick decided to be a junior high helper and pushed in the Liberty Bell.

Philip was part of a trio on Country Roads and then a trumpet feature later in the song.  They sounded great!

The back side of the Liberty Bell was the M in America.

It's always easier to pick out your football player at the home performance!

Julia and Jack Dart played a piccolo/snare drum duet on Yankee Doodle and crushed it every time!

 They continued their streak of Superior ratings at all four performances!

Then they wrapped up their season at Memorial stadium since the football team was in the Championship game again.  It was a titch thin since most of the football players (who of course couldn't perform at half time) are brass players and the wind was CRAZY. (-4 yard punt crazy!)

It was a fun season!

Homecoming Dance

Not so sad that I will not have to go Homecoming dress shopping again. But Julia and found one that was pretty and fairly modest.

She went with Joe Stava which my sisters found hilarious due to the fact that my high school boyfriend was also named Joe.  My Joe was cuter..just saying Julia!

They split up to do class pictures.  A bunch of the senior girls didn't show so pictures were slow since we waited for them and it was all the alpha girls who normally take charge.  I almost had to pull out my teacher voice...actually I think I did because the boys tried to make one ginormous line.  

Julia's friends were all there and looking beautiful!

Philip went by himself.  We bought him a whole new outfit!

I missed his class pic since the seniors were poking around but he's got moms who really care about pictures in his class so I had one of them send it to me.

Dylan, Nate and Philip make nice stair steps.

Julia loves this pic and I think it's the only one I have of them together.

 They had fun!