Good times

CHEERS!

Martinelli's toast

We had reason to celebrate in our house this week. Andrew got a promotion at work! Congrats to him. His new title: Regional Human Resources Manager, Greensboro and Latin America. As he said, "Try fitting that on a business card." His manager and VP started talking with him about this possibility just before Christmas. They wanted to know if he was interested and willing to take on more responsibility. It would involve some travel, which he had not done much in the past. The percentage of time away from home was negotiated. Andrew and I thought and prayed about it. We feel like it was the right thing for him to do. So, he accepted the position and it was just made official this week. I'm so proud of him. He is a hard worker, but not a workaholic. Hope this travelling things works ok for our family. It's supposed to be about 25% of the time.

After work on Thursday, Brandon had basketball practice. We got take our from our favorite Mexican restaurant and had a rich, yummy chocolate cake to celebrate. Very fun.

We got these balloons and put together
a cheesy little gift basket for him, too.
Very fun.

In other fun things, Brandon got the cranium game called Hullabaloo for Christmas from my parents. Have you played that game? It is so much fun. It's perfect for a 5-year-old and 2-year-old to play together. I even enjoy playing with them.

Here's Brandon doing a funky dance
after winning one of the rounds.

And, finally, as predicted by one or more of Andrew's siblings, we bought the game Singstar for ourselves. I couldn't resist! We have had a blast with it. I've turned it to one of our nightly rituals for now. Andrew and I usually sing 3 or 4 songs before we go to bed every night. The bad thing is, Andrew's better than me! I thought I was the singer in the family. Not according to this game. He's better than me on probably 75% of the songs.

It's so cute to listen to the kids sing along. Reading is an important part of the game, so Whitney can only do one song--Blur's Song 2--Woo hoo! We heard her in bed the other night singing, "It's not my problem. It's not my prob-lemmmm." Cracked us up.

Here she is rocking out!

We had friends over on Friday night to play with us. It was so much fun. They have a party mode we hadn't tried in Utah called "pass the mic" that's several rounds long. You divide into 2 teams and get points for each round. The girls won this time. Yippee!

In not-so-fun news, winter had finally arrived in Carolina. We had our first snow storm of the season. I thought it was pretty impressive. There was probably about an inch of accumulation around. Of course it didn't stay for long. Most of it was melted by the same afternoon.

Not quite enough to build a snow man.

Here's wishing we had a garage. :)

The temperature stayed above freezing the whole time, so the schools stayed open. Brandon was very disappointed.

Potty training is going terribly. Whitney is all of a sudden afraid of the toilet. We might have to take a week off and try again later. Brandon's been having all smiley faces at school, which is wonderful, but on Friday his bus driver called Andrew out and told him that B's been terrible on the bus, never listens to her, very loud, always changing seats. I guess there will always be something with him.

We had a very good day at church. The kids have been doing great during Sacrament meeting. I rarely have to leave the chapel, which is wonderful. Brandon loves primary. Whitney loves nursery. Makes the rest of church a breeze. (Yes, I'm knocking on wood right now.)