Fall pics~ Decision time!

Last week I had some updated pictures of the girl's made by a friend from high school who does photography. She did an amazing job the last time she took pictures for us and this time she even surpassed herself in her amazingness. I am so, so pleased with her work. We lucked out in that the weather was perfect, cool and sunny, and even better...all three girls cooperated wonderfully. Now I have the daunting task of picking which ones to get and which ones to use for Christmas cards!:)

Someone help me decide pleasssse!

 

I'd like to do one large canvas of the three of them. Which one do you like?

 

I have been SO bad...

I have been SO bad..... I haven't blogged in forever and ever.

But in my defense.... we have been very busy since our return from Key West.

The usual...work, work, cheer, cheer, and added to the mix Hailey auditioned and was casted in a role in the Tar River Players production of A Christmas Carol. So in addition to school, tumbling, cheer... we add rehearsals to the mix.

I'm getting a little off subject here, but just this morning I was thinking about Hailey and her over achieverness (I'm aware that's not a word, but I'm known to make up descriptive words every now and then).

Just the other day she brought her report card home....straight A's yet again. She has never had a 'B' on a report card before. I kinda dread it for her if, and probably when, she ever does. She takes everything so seriously. She is the only 5th grader I know that stays up the night before tests studying until 10pm...because she wants to. Sometimes I'm going to bed and peak in at her. She's sitting at her desk studying away like a high schooler or college student would.

She flies on a senior level competitive cheer squad... and takes it very seriously.  Practices at home all the time, and then at the gym with her team for several hours a week.

And then she comes to me and begs to audition for a role in a local perfoming group's Christmas performance. And after she makes a very good case for why she should be allowed to audition, a great experience and all that... I relent, thinking it's only a couple of months and then it's done...if  she even gets a role.

I secretly doubted she would.

They had two nights of auditions and the night she went it was packed with people trying out. She went in and grabbed a script and came back out to the car where I was waiting with Bella and Kat. She ran through the lines a couple of times and, I have to admit, I was impressed.

And then I started to worry....uh oh....she might just get a role in this.

And two days later, when the cast list was emailed out.....she did. So we are juggling that right now too.

And while I love that my child is so driven in life ( her pediatrician assured me she would be based on her head strong nature as a baby...haha), I realize that, with this child, I will have to moderate how much she takes on. I have assurred her that after this production runs in December....it's cheer and school only for her!

On another note, Mary Kathryn has started a cheer team at the same gym and loves it. I love seeing her little personality develop. While she is a hard worker, she is also more laid back than Hailey...so far.

And Bella is still Bella....fun loving, high spirited, head strong (uh oh), and sweet as can be.

Now....for what I promised a month ago.....pictures from Key West. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

XOXO,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer is over at our house- Back to school time!

I can not even believe that I have a 10 and 7 seven year old. It's probably a good thing I started having babies right away because at 31 years old it is hard enough to keep up with our grueling schedule. I can't even imagine if I had waited!

If you can't tell from the picture above-- these two were super excited this morning. It was like Christmas Eve all over again last night. They were in bed by 8:45pm, but I have no idea what time they finally fell asleep. Luckily, the first day of school went off without a hitch. They came home so happy and with lots of stories about how much they love their teachers and new friends.

I think we were all happy for school to be back in! If ever there was a family that thrived on routine, it is this family. And the school year keeps us on a tight schedule. When you add school, allstar cheer practice, tumbling practice, dance, and gymnastics, dedication time, homework,--Oh yeah, and work-- there is not much room for sitting around being bored! And when you do get a day of relaxation-- it is appreciated that much more!

But then again, when I see the girl's gymnastics team's dedication and hardwork pay off, it renews my determination to do whatever it takes to allow my kids to follow their dreams. They may never go to an olympics or be the best there is, but they will have been given every opportunity to be the best that they can be. As parents we encourage, support and sacrifice so that they can live up to their potential.

Honestly, sometimes the running around can wear on me, but then after a few weeks of break from it, we are all ready for the daily grind again. ( the girls, of course, are always ready to go,go, go!)

And before I forget,  this summer I began teaching them basic french. After much research, I found an easy curriculum and followed it through the first session. I was really pleased with the results. In fact, they are now able to read and understand the below conversation.

Marie: Je m’appelle Marie.

Chérie: And my name is Chérie.

Marie: I am a little girl and Chérie is mon petit chaton.

Chérie: Marie, what is un petit chaton?

Marie: Chérie, you are un petit chaton. Un petit chaton is a little kitten.

Chérie: Merci Marie.

Marie: De rien. It was nothing.

The program had an audio that went along with it so they were able to hear correct pronunciation. I hope to continue this some when school starts--if we can fit it in. With that being said....Do you know what I look forward to most about school starting???

It means we are much closer to Fall and I am SO ready for cooler weather, pumpkins, leaves changing and.....you guessed it. STARBUCKS PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES!!

Happy Monday!!

Happy Monday Morning!! Glad to be off today. Thank you to myself for such an awesome work schedule;)
Flipping through my iphone I noticed that I am again behind on sharing pictures. I really think scrolling through a person's phone album gives the best story of their everyday life. Luckily, I take lots of iphone pics!:)

Kat and I pre birthday party festivities one Saturday

My husband and I with flower girl Bella at a friends wedding reception

Hailey and I out to eat at Friday's

Kat riding somewhere in the car. I just noticed she is not wearing her seatbelt properly. Hmmm, we will have to have a talk about that. Daddy might write me a ticket!;)

Bella riding in a birthday present from grandparents

Bella's new robe fetish. This one belongs to Kat

We wear lots of costumes all throughout the day at our house. And every now and then Bella will get the mop and broom and try to "clean up". Sorry for the blurry quality but it was too cute not to post.

Wearing her new birthday suit from Aunt Crystal while working Uncle Chris' iphone better than any adult ever thought about doing. Seriously, the child is an iphone expert

Best walk thru baby gate EVER. Thank you Grandma!

Self portrait by Bella

A little bit of this and a little bit of that;)

As usual, I am always playing catch up on my blog. I think if I get a few posts in a month then I'm doing good! A couple of weeks ago we took off with the girls for Myrtle Beach for the week. We have fabulous family friends that let us stay at their place right on the ocean. It was so nice to be able to walk out our door and right onto the beach. The location was wonderful with lots of other children, an ocean side restaraunt that had a live band every night and fireworks over the water that we could watch right from our porch. This week was all about the girls (My husband and I have our own little vacation coming soon;). We filled it with lots boogy boarding, pooltime, walks on the boardwalk, ice cream, shopping, you name it! This is our second visit this year but the first one was packed full of cheer competition stuff so we made sure to do all the things we didn't get to do last time!

And just for fun here is a video of Bella dancing on the beach. She is quite a dancer in my humble opinion;)

Well, all good things must come to an end and after our week was over we headed back to home and work. Unfortunately, Michael was scheduled to work July 4th (along with every other holiday this year, I think). So the girls and I spent it together. We started out, as we do with all holidays big and small, learning about the history of the holiday. Why we celebrate it. I think it is so important and a vital part of my job as a parent, not to allow my children to grow up thinking important holidays are only about cookouts, presents, food, ect. So while we did have fun celebrating we also had a good time learning all about why we were celebrating!

Next on the agenda to celebrate is Bella's 2nd Birthday July 17th! And with that comes her 2 year update. If you'd like to look back over her life I have month by month updates of Bella's first year and then every 6 months during her 2nd year. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!:)

~Our week told by my iphone~

I think considering my iphone and I are very tight, nothing would tell the story of our life better than the photos stored on it. So without furthur ado, here are the little snippets from this past week... Lots of outdoor play time















Yummy beer can chicken on the grill. Words can not even describe how moist and delicious this was.






Little Miss Priss at Hailey's end of year awards program



Hailey with her Principal's List trophy. This means she had straight A's the entire year. So far she has gotten this award both years that she has been recieving letter grades. We are so proud of her! Mary Kathryn has not yet started recieving letter grades but we were particularly proud of her award for getting top AR points. These points are accrued after completing a book and successfully passing a test about the book. Mary Kathryn has moved on to reading chapter books and that has helped her to accrue lots of points. We are super proud of how well she reads and most of all of how much she loves to read! Something else Mary Kathryn loves to do is dancing. She takes both ballet and jazz and practices constantly. Her passion is ballet and she literally dances from room to room. She spends an enormous amount of home time up in her room practicing and making up dances. I am seriously considering installing and barre and mirror in her room. She would LOVE it!

And last but not least are the hydrangeas that I cut from the bushes around our house. There is nothing quite like hydrangeas, ice tea, and cheese straws on a summer day in the south:)