Recital and some new moves!

Kaiya is not a huge fan of the piano, but she doesn't hate it. Thus, we have encouraged her to keep with it for a while longer. I love having music in our home and now Kinley has started lessons, so the competition has begun for who remembers to practice without being reminded (hey, whatever gets them to remember!)

Here is a little clip of Kaiya's recent recital. It's all Christmas music because they do a recital after the holidays (everyone is too busy before, I guess). She loves playing on the $10,000 piano at the studio!

I've also included a couple of clips of new moves Kaiya just learned in the gym. She loves this time of year when there are no competitions and it's just fun time to learn new stuff.

Stay tuned for another post soon . . Coop and Kinley both have basketball going on right now and both have one thing in common--their dad is their coach. Doug has no life right now with coaching both teams, but they are having so much fun!

Happy 14th, Coop!

I know it's such a cliche, but I really and truly can't believe how fast times goes and that I have a 14-year-old.  I have these frames for their school pictures that has 13 openings for photos from K-12.  As I put in Cooper's most recent photo, I looked at that frame with only 4 open slots and had a mini meltdown.  In just 7 short months, he will be in high school!  What???

He had a great birthday weekend.  We got to celebrate with extended family on the 6th and he thoroughly enjoyed being there with both of my brothers.  Bennett left back for Tulsa the next morning, so saying goodbye that night was horrible.  I hate seeing my kids cry.  It was so great to have Bennett home for so long this time.  

The next night, Cooper had a bunch of friends over for pizza, games and whatever else boys do.  I left, so I can't fill in a lot of details, but Doug says they had a great time.  He has a great group of friends and I'm especially grateful that he refuses to get involved in any bickering between them.  He just chooses to be friends with all of them.  

Sunday night was just a family night (although he did have one special friend over, who happens to be a girl, but who also now happens to be ancient history) and so he really got to stretch his birthday out over the whole weekend.  

I really just love this kid.  We have our normal teenage battles, but he is a great kid at his core.  We spend a lot of time just talking like adults about very adult stuff.  He thinks a lot about what he wants to do in the future and is very focused on school.  We just turned in his application for the honors program at the new high school that opens this fall and I'm proud of him for wanting to do this.  I'm mostly proud because he doesn't fall to peer pressure and chooses to be his own person.  I love going to his school and hearing all the teachers talk about what a great person he is--helping a kid who recently got diagnosed with diabetes, helping kids resolve fights during peer counseling, juggling sports and school, and just wanting to be a good person. 

 He gets so mad at me when I get all emotional on his birthday, but his scary start to life is as fresh in my mind as if it were yesterday.  It forever changed me and I know there is something within him that knows he is lucky to be here with us and that he plans to make the most of his life.  

Couldn't ask for better role models for my son!

Looking so old

Still loves shoes and hats

The whole gang

A few of the gang