Photos, dances, meets and a new job! Whew!

I am way behind on current events, so this is a jumbled post!

We had family photos taken last weekend by my friend, Kris, and I couldn't be happier! I feel kind of responsible for pushing her into doing this as more than just a hobby because we were her first family photo shoot last June. :) We are truly not a photogenic group and struggle with natural smiles, etc., so these are even that much more amazing.

Last weekend before we had a photos taken, Kinley had her first performance with her new dance company. It was so dang cute! It was a disco number that was a full 3 minutes long and she really knew her stuff. They performed on a stage in old town Louisville (which reminds me of a mini Aspen or Vail) while a big farmer's market was going on. So fun! And, the best part was that their costumes were just bright shirts from home and black pants. They looked great! Kris took these awesome photos, too.

Boogie on down!

Here is a link to the video of the performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQUNaGBPD9o

On Thursday, I found out that I got a new job!! It was something I had interviewed for in June and took this long to come to fruition. I will be transferring within Children's Hospital to the North Campus, which is 15 minutes from my house. No more one hour commute and nearly falling asleep at the wheel each morning on my drive home. I have some mixed emotions--I will really miss my cardiac kiddos, but I'm looking forward to learning so much more. The North Campus is an emergency room/urgent care facility as well as a short-stay inpatient unit. It's where I've taken my own kids for staples in Cooper's head, a baseball to the eye and when Kaiya had her asthma attack. So excited!!

Then, rounding out the week was Kaiya's 3rd gym meet of the season. She continues to improve and was one step closer to qualifying for state (missed it by only 0.5). She looked so confident, but still had her troubles on beam. She got her first 9.0 on any event last night (bars) and ended up winning the event plus her team also won and she still placed 5th in the all-around! We got to go out to dinner after the meet with her fans, Brandon and Erika, so that was a real bonus, too. Doug stayed home with the other two kids so that Cooper could be in the homecoming float as a 7th grade representative for his school. He had a blast. It's probably a good thing I wasn't at the homecoming game with them last night because sources tell me Cooper was walking around at the game with his friends, one of whom he claims is his girlfriend. Yikes!!

5th place All-Around!

1st place Level 5 team trophy!

When we are not running around doing activities, I feel like my other part-time job is that of a tutor! Kaiya and Kinley both got selected to be in a gifted and talented program at school, which just means more difficult homework. Between algebra, etc. for Cooper and the girls, I feel like we are stretched so thin, yet I couldn't be more proud of my kids.