This past weekend, we had the opportunity to participate in instructional line dancing. Yes, line dancing! It was a first for us, but we had so much fun!

We have this wonderful ministry at Hickory Church called, the Health Advocates. This amazing ministry supports the physical health of the church. From blood pressure screenings to weight watchers to first aid and CPR training, this team works to offer the congregation opportunities to get and stay healthy.

​One of the things they hope to do this year is to encourage and inspire a healthy active lifestyle! This Sunday, they sponsored the first in a series of dance classes created to get people moving while having a great time together. So we gathered for a couple hours of line dancing!

Oh. What. Fun.

A dance instructor came in and jumped right into teaching us how to line dance. And let me tell you, IT WASN'T EASY!! It's clear that I (Jay) have no dancing ability. Amy and Breya, however, did a great job. And so did the rest of the dancers who joined us!

But regardless of the dancing ability, it really was a very fun activity! And to enjoy it with our church family, well...we're looking forward to the next dance class!

Take a few minutes and watch this little highlight video with some pictures and video clips.
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So...Line Dancing. We're not going on tour anytime soon, but boy, we had some good fun!

Thank's to our Health Advocates Ministry Team for their creative outreach activity. We're looking forward to our next class!

​- the higham family

The first couple of weeks of 2017 have been absolutely crazy busy. Basketball, church activities, work schedules...it's all kept us moving at lightspeed. But we finally made a point to get the camera out and start vlogging again!

We have tried to vlog over the last couple of weekends, taking the camera out and getting some video, but we never finished out a weekend. That left us with two weekends of vlogs that have beginnings without endings. So we were determined to make sure we complete this weekends vlog. In fact, we might have two parts to this weekends vlog.

This weekends vlog is a little longer than usual because we want to get some video of both Nate and Aiden playing basketball. So please take a few minutes to watch this part of the weekend vlog!

Thanks for watching.

As always, we would like to invite you to subscribe to our YouTube channel. And don't forget to follow us on social media!

​- the higham family

Monday night we got to celebrate a special moment for our family. The elementary school honors students who demonstrate the "word of the month." Each month a word is selected for the month. Teachers then keep their eyes open for students who display the characteristics of that word.

The word for December was Caring. Keeping with the season of caring, teachers were looking for students who demonstrated acts of caring among their peers. Teacher nominates one student from their class. Then the teachers choose one student from each grade.

Breya was named December's Student of the Month for the second grade.
At the school board meeting, the students from each grade were honored in front of the board, parents and community members who were attending the meeting.

We are so very proud of Breya.
Sweet and caring; she takes after her mama.
It's fun to see Breya caring for her classmates the way she cares for her brothers and friends.

Congratulations, Breya!
We are so proud of you and who God is shaping you to be.
Keep being sweet and caring.

- the higham family -

It's been a little more than two and a half years since the decision to get serious about creating a family blog. If you are a regular reader/follower of TheHighamFamily.com, you know that when we set out to do this, our desire and hope was to not only share our family adventures and experiences as we raise our family but to offer resources, tools and encouragement to all families.

While we've done our best to juggle a very busy family/ministry life, the blog and vlog, it's been a bit of a challenge. There have been weeks where it was too much to try and get a blog posted. Though we wanted to give both the blog and the vlog our attention had to remain fixed on what we were doing with the family. After all, we've send from the very beginning, our family comes first.

But the feedback we receive from our followers is always very encouraging. This past Christmas, while hosting the Christmas Door Challenge, we were touched by how many friends from our community talked with us about the doors, telling us they voted and were cheering on the kids. Those moments are special, and remind us that you are out there, and we appreciate that.

As 2017 rolls in, we've taken the first couple of weeks to evaluate the blog and ask God what he wants us to do. We want to continue, but we want to make sure it's still something we feel God is leading us to do. So as we come to the end of January, I think it's safe to say that we're going to keep this going!

However, as we go forward into 2017, we are doing so with a realistic approach. We plan to keep our family at the forefront of all we do, so when life gets a little busy, we might not post as frequently. But as much as we can, we hope to share as what we're doing and what God is teaching us. We are also continuing with the Life in the Higham House vlog. So look for new vlog posts coming to our YouTube channel in the next week or so. While we're still not ready to start a daily vlog, we do plan to share more during the week.

Finally...

​We always hoped that the blog would be a place where families could find resources, tools, life-hacks, encouragement, and ideas. At the end of the 2016, we began making some changes to the blog by adding a few new pages that focused on specific topics. You'll see those topics below. Over the course of 2017, we will develop and grow these topic pages with resources that we create, activities that we've done, life-hacks we use, and projects we're working on in the Higham House. We hope that these topic pages become a helpful tool for you.

So where do we go from here?

Well, we move forward, and embrace the new year! New content, new vlogs, new activities, and new resources are coming your way!

Thank you, for all your support! We really do appreciate all the encouraging words. 

​- the higham family