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!!