A Day at the Park

Jared and I take Monday's off work so we can spend the day together as a family. The weather has been amazing (maybe a little warm for January, but still perfect). We've been taking Sophia to the park and this past Monday we picknicked by the "pond". We've been trying to make her walk more. She can walk fine, but knows she can get places faster when she crawls. So we walked all the way around the pond a couple of times.

She just wants to be close to the ground and play with the dirt and leaves and sticks.

Note to self: look for ants before letting the child roam free.

I picked her up 1.2 seconds after I took this picture. Whoops!

Dada and Sophs
Walkin Walkin Walkin

FCC/FCD Nationals

A few days after Boxing Day I had to pack up and leave Jared and Sophia for six days! I headed to Florida with the Spirtline to compete in the Fellowship of Christian Cheerleaders/Dancers Nationals. It was an amazing experience! The first day our Pom Line took FIRST PLACE in their category of Open Dance and we were also awared the GRAND CHAMPION AWARD! These girls worked so hard after placing second at Regionals here in town. I could not be more proud of them!!

Smash with her trophies


The Pom Line

The next day the cheerleaders competed and we were invited to compete in the Championship the following day. The girls did amazing and ended up placing SECOND in the nation in Large Varsity category!

The last day we went to Isands of Adventure by Universal. If you ever go, make sure to ride SpiderMan3D. Awesomeness!!!

I absolutely love working with these girls and seeing their technique and ability grow every week. They are a great group of girls!

Boxing Day

The day after Christmas is Boxing Day. Quick lesson... Boxing Day dates back to the days of Lords and Ladies and fancy Christmases when servants had to work. The day after Christmas was the servant's special holiday when the home owners would give gifts to their them in "boxes". Kevin says it was usually nuts or something like that. Sweet, huh? We just use it as a day to eat some English food (and chili) and play games with lots of family and friends. It was actually cold out this year!

This is one of the classic Boxing Day games. A Shuvhapnee (Shove a Half Penny) Tournament is held every year. I'm not sure which team won, but I'm sure they'll enlighten us with a comment if it was them. Not a shy group when it comes to victories of any kind!

We also had a mean game of Uno Attacks and I think Jessie won all four games he played. Pure domination.

Christmas

So Christmas was a month ago.... It's been a busy month people!
But we'll start here. Sophia started to understand the whole "take paper off and there's something cool inside" thing. She was a rockstar at opening all of her presents. It was a different kind of Christmas for us not having the Doe's here, but we did get to Skype with them and Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Katherine (Before Casey James was born!). Now onto Boxing Day...

Let the meltdowns begin!

I guess it could be more that I keep putting things on her head, but we've experienced some great meltdowns lately! First with the curlers (which didn't really do much of anything)...

And then with the reindeer antlers. 

She's is just fine being a Doe and has no desire to be a reindeer...

Elf yourself!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Jewell Kalaiah

My bestie, Richelle, finally introduced the world to sweet Baby Jewell Kalaiah! She was born at 11:29 this morning. 7 lbs 12.5 oz. 20 3/4". Mom, Dad and baby are doing well! 

Congratulations! We love you!