Twas the week before Christmas

So, here I am waiting for sneaky children to fall asleep on Christmas Eve and I thought that would be a good time to update the blog before we head off on our cruise!

It has been a crazy, busy week, but a super fun one. I had to squeeze in a few shifts before Christmas and the kids were really good to let me get a nap in here and there.

Here is a recap of our week . . .

--Kinley lost her other front tooth, so she looks super cute. She also graced us with some artwork again . . . if you look closely, it reads, "The yelow spots are pee putls." Apparently, she was trying to figure out how to color the snow and white crayon doesn't show up on white paper, so yellow pee puddles was the next best option.

All she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth (but a gold coin from the Tooth Fairy will suffice)

The lovely artwork

--Spent tons of time with Uncle Bennett. Having him sleepover is the best! He was even a soccer mom for a night so Doug and I could join my dad, Brandon & Erika at the famous Ship Tavern at the Brown Palace in Denver with some relatives.

Can't get enough of him!

--Got a visit from Santa on the firetruck as he rode through our neighborhood. Coop wanted to know why Santa had B.O. Gross!!

B.O. Santa - please leave deodorant out for him this year instead of cookies!

--Hosted our extended family party at our house. We did a charity gift exchange, which was pretty cool. We drew names and then made a donation to a charity on behalf of that person and then explained why we chose that charity. Within our own family, we also did a service exchange. It has been really special putting more meaning in Christmas this year.

Decorating the tree!

--Went to a baby shower for a friend with a bunch of my old gymnastics buddies. There is something so magical about holding a brand new baby. So fun to catch up with old friends. We have been pretty good about getting together once a quarter this last year.

--Got to spend a day with Lori and her girls. My kids always giggle so hard when we see them. We decorated cookies, played some Wii, had lunch and opened gifts. We almost had tears, but since we have a trip planned together this spring, it wasn't too horrible saying goodbye.

Decorating cookies with Jordan and Kylie

Silly girls!!

Sugar!!

A blessed friendship

Teaching Kinley Jacob's ladder

--Caught up on some scrapbooking at a friend's house. What a nice little getaway for an evening with friends!!

--Went to a movie and to my dad's for Christmas Eve dinner. He told a story about having lunch at Wendy's last week that brought it all home. He was eating a late lunch and a very dirty, grungy man sat down near him. He was missing most of his teeth and appeared to be homeless. My dad looked up just as this man glanced toward another couple sitting in the restaurant and mouthed the words, "Thank you" to this couple whom had obviously just bought him lunch. I get choked up just putting the story in writing.

Aunt Erika's yummy cookies!

Happy Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve PJ's

The good, the bad & the oowie

Cooper had quite the week . . . .

The good - he got a hand-written thank you note from one of his teachers sent to our home for no other reason than to just say thank you for being a fabulous kid. Made his day and I know it made mine.

The bad - he snooped through my computer and found my online receipts for Christmas presents and effectively ruined the only real gift he is getting. He felt so bad that he didn't sleep at all and came and confessed the next day with tears in his eyes. Grrrrr!!!!

The oowie - he got braces on his upper teeth on Thursday. He did great for the first day, but now the inside of his mouth is pretty torn up. We are hoping it's feeling normal when we leave on our cruise in 2 weeks!!!!

Can't believe this kid is going to be a teenager in a few weeks!!!

Level 5 State Meet 2010

Well, it's finally over! Kaiya had her level 5 state meet this weekend and she went out with a bang! She had one fall on beam (which is where she had to start the meet), but had a banner day after that. She had her best floor routine of the season and her second best bar routine ever. After a few tears on beam, she and her coach sat down and actually buried her beam score at the bottom of her gym bag to symbolize it being over and moving on. I'm so proud of her for doing just that!

She just missed getting on the podium on bars, but the competition was amazing today and I had to remind her that this was the cream of the crop at today's meet. She had her whole cheering section there and even had a friend of mine from work come support her. How cool is that? Her coach also pulled me over at the end of the meet and told me that she was so proud of Kaiya--not just for today, but for really having the perseverance to never give up this season. She definitely had a few lessons on developing mental toughness! Her poor coach had to be there the entire weekend because of the 5 girls that made it to state, at least one girl ended up in all 5 sessions! Sure wish they didn't group them by age--Kaiya was not fond of competing by herself without all her teammates!

She is officially a level 6 and says she can't wait to get into the gym to start working on new stuff--a back flip on floor and off the bars. At least my butt gets a 4 month hiatus from the bleachers! :)

Ready to go before the sun was even up!

The fancy 'do' that she begged for

Just arrived at the gym--still not totally awake!

Getting introduced all by her lonesome

Getting her medal!

Danae is the best coach ever!

With teammate Evelyn as we were leaving and she was beginning

Thanksgiving week wrap-up

I'm not sure if I love this video or if it just makes my butt tired thinking about how long I sat there to watch these 3 minutes. A good friend took these videos at Kaiya's last meet and compiled them into one video.

Her big state meet is this weekend. She had a little team party get-together last night and it was so fun to see all the girls gearing up for the weekend. I love her teammates and how close they've become. She is making friends for life and they are all such neat girls with great families!

I can't figure out how to paste the video itself into blogger, but here is the link:

http://www.flipshare.com/ViewReshare.aspx?i=a5e3e2aa-fe8f-499b-981f-12eca568c547&s=33706211&emt=&emt=2e1ec646-2c76-438a-8083-6cd7fb65ee6c

I also had to share a couple of pictures from our last few days in Utah, a couple of which came from the Utah vs. Utah State basketball game we went to with most of Doug's brothers and sisters. That has to be one of the best college atmospheres anywhere and it was so fun to see Utah State beat Utah! I had to come home a day early to work, but Doug and the kids got to stay for Grandma's birthday party and had a blast. We really had an amazing week and the kids all cried as they left. Saying goodbye to their cousins is never easy. :(

Go, Aggies!!

Lots of present helpers!

Luckily, they got to come home and spend time with Uncle Bennett! We spent all day on Saturday with him--bowling, playing some Wii, dinner and lots of time just for hugs. Can't wait to see him again in a week and this time, he's home for a month (minus the one week, of course, that we go on our cruise!!).

Wouldn't let him out of their sight!

What a great week!!

Snowed in!

Doug, Cooper and Kinley left on Friday right after school and headed for Utah for Thanksgiving and it's a good thing they did! It started snowing on Saturday and really hasn't quit yet. Parts of I-80 across Wyoming have been closed off and on and the biggest storm is on its way tonight!

Kaiya had her last meet before the big state meet on Saturday night and then flew to Utah early Sunday morning. I think we were both wondering, initially, if we should have just skipped the meet and headed to Utah with the rest of the family, but she quickly changed her mind after the very first event of the meet. This girl is like a new kid--no more nerves and just so much confidence! She started on beam and got her first 9.0 ever on that dumb piece of equipment! I've never seen her so happy. The rest of the meet followed suit and she had a season best of an 8.7 on floor, an 8.40 on vault and another 9.0 on bars. Her all-around score was a whopping 35.10--good enough for 7th place overall. So, now not only has she qualified for the state meet, but she has scored high enough to move up to Level 6!

Best meet ever--holding their team trophy!

We got to the airport by 6:30 on Sunday only to find out that our flight was delayed for an hour, so we both caught a quick cat nap on each other. Since being in Utah, it has been nonstop action of cousins, 4 wheeler rides, more cousins, sled rides behind the 4 wheeler and a trip up to Utah State's campus to check things out. I called the head gymnastics coach at Utah State (he was an assistant when I was there) and he was so excited to have us come up and watch practice. Kinley and Kaiya were both wide-eyed as I've ever seen them. The gymnasts were so nice and came up to introduce themselves. So fun! Then, we went down to the brand new athletic facilities and my best bud Lori gave them a full tour since she is the head physical therapist at this facility. Coop and Doug got to see the new football locker rooms and meeting facilities and Hall of Fame.

Checking out the USU gym practice

Because of the nasty weather, I am not going to try to fly home until Thursday (Lori and her family aren't even going to attempt the drive now) and will just work Thanksgiving night. Whew! Until then, we have lots more time to play with cousins and go hang out with Lori and her kids. Wohoo!!

Sled rides behind the 4-wheeler

Smoked 12 turkeys with dad, Grandpa and the uncles!

Hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving!!

A ginormous birthday weekend

I think Kaiya will remember her 10th birthday if for no other reason, it feels like it just keeps going! The weekend started with her birthday party at our house and ended tonight with getting to request what I made for dinner and getting presents from us.

I only let my kids have an actual birthday party every other year (I know, I'm mean) and this was Kaiya's year. We were going to have her party at Michael's (craft store), but they were busy with holiday crafts until late in the afternoon. So, we just took their list of party craft ideas and found one we wanted and got all the stuff to do at our house. It really turned out great and I was amazed at how into the craft these girls were. It was quite a mix of girls--her two besties from the gym, a handful of school friends and church friends and her buddy from Greeley that she's know since she was a baby. They each painted and decorated a wooden first letter of their name, played Just Dance on the Wii, ate pizza and a cookie pie and just giggled like girls. Kaiya hugged me after they all left and said it was her best birthday ever and almost had tears in her eyes. Made my day! After her friends left, we had a little spa night in which I helped her shave her legs for the first time and did a "green treatment" on her hair to remove the green stripes that continue to plague her blonde locks (from copper in our pipes).

Ready to party

Not a cake fan, so she requested a giant chocolate chip cookie

Hard at work on her craft

The whole gang

Fancy new leo from Sara

Thanks, Josi!

Have known each other since they were 5 months old!

A giant monkey for the Monkey girl

Showing off their finished products

She had a meet on Sunday (which is thankfully her only Sunday meet) and it was down to crunch time with only two meets left to qualify. I had my doubts as soon as we walked into the gym and I saw that the two most evil judges in the state were there. Both of them have been around forever (seriously . . . they both judged in my club and college meets 20 years ago!) and both have a reputation for being nasty. In fact, my college coach Ray once threw his shoe at the judge who was on floor! The other one is referred to as "Picky Vicky". So, I wasn't too optimistic.

The meet started kind of rough--the group before our girls were all tiny little robots and they were getting amazing scores. But, as soon as our group started, it was obvious that they preferred the tiny tikes. Kaiya did a good floor routine, but only got a 7.75. She needed a 33.0 in the all-around to qualify, which is an 8.25 average. Not a good start!

Then, she went to vault and completely screwed up her run into her first vault and barely made it over. Oops!! Luckily, they take the highest of the two vault scores and she nailed the second one for an 8.50--her highest of the year.

Off to bars, which is her best event by far, and she did a great routine and scored an 8.75. It all came down to beam and Picky Vicky. Ugh!!! She has worked so hard on beam during the last month because she has had such a rough time on beam in past meets. I think she probably did a hundred routines in the last two weeks.

My parents were both there and we all looked like we might throw up before her beam routine. I can't believe I'm putting them through this drama twice! I had to actually leave and go stand somewhere else to watch. As as added incentive to stay on the beam, they announced at the beginning that every girl who stuck beam got a cute pink and black bag that said "I stuck beam!"

And that she did--she stuck beam! We had all done the math and knew she needed an 7.95 to qualify. I later found out that Kaiya knew what she needed as well--she had done the math on a little notepad in her bag. Well, she did it! She got an 8.55 and we had some tears all around.

Gymnastics is a stupid, subjective sport sometimes, but she worked so hard toward this goal and it is neat to see her achieve it, especially since she was a Level 4 last year and was able to qualify in her first year as a Level 5.

After the meet, we went to Old Chicago to celebrate her birthday with family and she got spoiled again. What's so funny, though, is despite all these amazing gifts she got, she would tell you her favorite is probably the giant stuffed monkey she got from her gym buddy. Guess she's not totally grown up yet. :)

To round out her big weekend that just keeps going, she had a music concert at school on Monday night and tonight was just us. I took treats to her school class today and she got her presents from us and then we enjoyed a fairly low key night. Sure love this young lady--she is growing up so fast and I'm so proud of who she is becoming. She is going to give me a run for my money in the coming years, but she is a good kid and we love this blondie!!

New luggage from Papa

Guess we will all be listening to her iTunes now

The fan club

So spoiled

Key lime pie--her absolute fav!

iPods rule!

The pressure cooker, state qualifying beam routine!

Cute cat

Miss Kinley had another dance performance this weekend in Boulder. They did two dances--the Shining Star disco number that I've posted before and their new one from the musical CATS. They did a really good job and the girls loved dressing up as cats with makeup and all.

The stage where they performed was actually inside the Boulder Public Library and it was a great venue. They had dancers from all over the area performing all day.

Kinley is moving to a new dance studio starting today (and this should be the last move!). I have really loved her instructors at Mountain because they are so positive and she really had fun, which is the most important thing to me at this age. She also loved getting to do some gymnastics in her combo class like her big sis. One of the biggest problems was that the classes she should have been taking all started too early for us to get her there in time, which meant either being late or pulling her out of school early. It was nice having her at the same place as Kaiya, but the time frames didn't overlap as much as we had hoped, so it still meant multiple trips to Lafayette and back. That, coupled with the fact that Mountain was still trying to build their dance program made it tough. So, Kinley is moving to a closer studio in Longmont--the same one that she did the workshop a few weeks ago and loved. She is such an easy-going kid that as long as she gets to dance (and be with her buddy, Maddie), she is happy!

Two cute cats!

Here is her CATS performance and a fun one from her workshop a few weeks ago. I was having problems getting them to load--if they don't work now, I give up!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great night, but I think I'm a little sad that my kids are getting older. Coop didn't even want to dress up (although from the amount of teenagers I saw out there, maybe he's not too old . . sheez!), so he and I stayed home and handed out the loot. After a while, he got jealous of all the goodies and put on something and headed out for one street and then we went to visit friends.

The girls seriously LOVE Halloween and usually start planning their costumes in July. Kinley wanted to be a cowgirl and Kaiya decided on Judy Jetson, which is funny because no one even knows who she is anymore. I thought Kinley was going to bust and I had to restrain her from trick-or-treating at 4:30.

The toothless cowgirl

The other pics are from their parties at school (although my dear husband forgot the camera at the breakfast party in Kinley's class since I had to be at a work meeting that morning), a birthday party for Kinley's best buddy at school, and from our pumpkin carving night at home . We roasted the best pumpkin seeds this year . . brown sugar, cinnamon, coarse salt, and butter. Yum!! And, I'm pretty proud of our Rockies pumpkin. Kaiya did the logo completely by herself and Doug carved it.

So happy to finally ride a horse . . . OK, a pony

Kinley's best buds at school

Pretty proud of our Rockies pumpkin!

Until next year . . . . .