February Weather

Beautiful sunset after dropping the girls off at clogging.

Rain. It's the story of our life these days. So. Much. Rain.  This is the worst our yard has ever flooded.

Some of us can only handle so much time looking at the rain. Eventually you just go out and embrace it.

Finally the rain met colder temperatures and brought snow.  We didn't get any snow here last  year, so the girls were especially excited to play in it and find their new sledding spots at this house.

Riley REALLY wanted to go out and play with the girls. When her paws hit the ground she REALLY wanted to get back inside. We call her "Bullet" when she takes off running like this.

Trampolines are always fun in the snow.

It was a really wet snow, so Macy thought the umbrella would be appropriate.

I chose to stay in my pajamas and snap a few pictures from the porch.  After that I went back inside to tend to the fire.

Picture perfect if you ask me.

This year's snowman was Baby Yoda.

Clogging Championship of America

The final competition of the season was in Knoxville, TN.  The Johnsons came into town the night before we left, and they were so kind to arrange a breakfast get together before we headed out of town.  That was the perfect way to start off our weekend.

Marc's always happy to be back at Rocky Top.

We wandered in the Engineering building and the girls got to see a college classroom.

National Championships here we go! This one has some pretty stiff competition.

Banjo (Traditional Standing Line). This routine was their favorite and they were so sad to see it go.  Somehow they managed to convince Mrs. Marci to use it as a performance routine.

Goosebumps (Contemporary Standing Line). This one is also retiring this year.

PowerTaps Kids is combining with PowerChamps for this next competition season.  They will only be continuing with their Hoedown that they competed as a full team this year. Real Good Feel Good (Traditional Moving Line) will also be retired.

These two girls go way back. I love that they are clogging together now.

The younger two are getting good about preparing for the long days sitting and watching competitions.  She recently learned how to make pom-poms out of yarn.

Great kids.

I LOVE that they have prayer time before performances and competitions.

What an amazing first year of competition.  Kayla had such a great time, and both Macy and Brooke will be on a competition team next year. I look back fondly on my competition marching band time in high school.  The Lassiter Band was, and still is, a nationally ranked marching band.  I love that my girls will be able to have a similar experience to look back on years from now. 

Celebrating Brooke

Double Digits means double the fun with your friends.  She was thrilled to have all of her besties over for her birthday party.

The played hard and did such a great job sharing and taking turns with the Wii.

Things got pretty quiet downstairs around 11.  I had settled them down and turned most of the lights out.  They were quietly finishing up a movie, and I took the food and drinks back upstairs.  Around midnight it was still quiet so I settled off to sleep assuming they had fallen asleep. I was wrong.  I woke up close to 4AM to them being loud downstairs.  Apparently they decided to raid the fridge of the few sodas I had in there and they were pretty wired.  I got them all settled and stayed in the basement until they fell asleep. That took about 10 minutes. I'm not sure when I'll have another spend the night here, but she sure did have a great time celebrating with her friends.

Happy Double Digits, Brooke!

This special girl turns TEN today! The baby of the family is now in double digits.

A few of your favorites:

food - pasta

movie -Zombies 2

TV show -Jessie

sweet treat -chocolate ice-cream and chocolate cupcakes

subject in school -history

8 years old...

9 years old...

10 years old....

Clearly the girl has a favorite food and a favorite restaurant.

For Christmas she got a swing set.  For her birthday she got this large swing that all three can sit on, or she can lay down and enjoy looking up at the sky.

She asks for a chinchilla regularly.  And I regularly tell her no way. I finally gave in and got her a stuffed animal chinchilla for her birthday.  I'm not positive she was amused.

The girls had fun with this pictionary game that you draw using your nose.

Brooke, 

I just can't wrap my brain around how you are already ten years old.  You have been looking forward to this for a long time.  The last few years have been full of so much growth and maturing for you.  You live life to the fullest at full speed.  This year you made the switch from gymnastics to dance, and then ended up adding in clogging.  You have blossomed into a graceful dancer. Your facial expressions and wit are top notch for a fourth grader. I think you would be an amazing actress, but being on stage in the spotlight isn't your favorite thing.  You have grown and stretched me as a parent in so many ways, and at the end of the day you still just want to sit on my lap or cuddle.  I love you Baby Bear, and I'm excited to see this next year unfold for you. 

Love you always and forever, 

Mama