December 2014

To say the year is flying by would be an understatment! Christmas is just a few weeks away and most of our outside holiday happenings are happening this week and next week. The Holiday market at work is today and I am hoping to sell a lot of items including cheer gloves, hair halos, scarves, record bowls, cake plates and cross necklaces.

Busy, Sick, Busy

It has been a busy, sick, busy time for the last month.

Emily is playing basketball on Saturday's with the Leeton Lions Club. It is instructional time where they work on basic skills. She is having a good time and everyone that was one her team comes on Saturday so it is nice that she can continue those friendships with the girl's at Leeton. Coach Travis is also thinking about pulling the team together again and play in some tournaments in Harrisonville. There should be on this weekend and Emily is excited to play again. If we can get her to stop dribbling with two hands she would be pretty good.

Kayla is working on studying for the Awana Quiz Bowl this weekend. This is the first time for our church to participate and I think everyone is a little nervous and unsure of how things work. I it will be good for her to think quickly on her feet. She only has to answer ten questions, so it won't be too stressful.

So, this weekend we are dividing and conquering with Tim taking Emily north to BB in Harrisonville and I will be taking Kayla south to Republic for Awana. Hoping the weather holds out and it is easy, safe drives for all of us.

The girl's have been sick off and on. Thankfully, it only last a day and then they bounce back.

First Competition of the Year

We now have the first competition of the year under our belts. It is an exciting, long, exhausting weekend. But good none the less.

Kayla did her first solo this year to TROUBLE by Travis Tritt. She did a great job! Every time she does it more of her personality comes through and she steps out of her comfort zone a little more. She received a third place trophy and was happy.

We are use to seeing the girls judge against a standard but this competition didn't do that. So there were a lot of girls walking away with nothing. It was a jolt and honestly just having the 1-3 places doesn't tell you much even for the girls that placed.

Our groups did awesome. All the groups received 2nd place with exception of contemporary that received 1st and Best of Showmanship...awesome!! It is "America" with costumes that are camo.

As soon as we walked in the door this evening, Kayla said I like KC for the weekend but I am so glad to be home, me too!

Last of the holiday break

The girl's have been busy with friends as the last few day's fo the break slip by. Ysterday Emily went to Brianna's house to play and ended up being invited back to spend the night and play all day today.

Yesterday Kayla and Peyton worked on their sceince fair project which is extracting DNA from strawberries. They worked from 9-1:30 and still have more to do. Then Kayla was off to dance practice. Emily M ended up coming home with us to spend the night and hang out with Kayla today.

Christmas decoration are half down but not put away. Not sure when that will happen this week and not sure I am ready to take down the tree anyway.

Today is my first day back at work and I told Tim last night, he really needs to invent something or win the lottery because I did not want to come back to work today.

I am not a fan of snow but we were talking here at work and think in about 3-4 weeks we will be ready for a break, so we will be praying for a 4 foot blizzard about that time. :)

Happy New Year

Well, I haven't blogged in forever. I have thought about it several times but picking back up in the middle of the year seemed odd too, not sure why. So, since it is a new year I have no excuse.

Last night the girl's had friends over for our annual New Year's Eve Party. Kayla had Peyton, Emily M and Abby over and Emily had Rowan over to spend the night. Abby ended up going home at 1:00 and I think the rest stayed up until 3:00 am. However, everyone did make it to church today.

So New Year's Resolutions for the year?

Read the bible is a year
Eat supper at the table
Exercise more and eat better

I'm sure there are others I should have but we will start with these and see how we do.

This week is filled with getting ready for Kayla's first dance competition of the season. This one is early and a tough one, it will be interesting to see how we do.

Christmas and New Year's

Christmas eve was nice and pleasant this year..aka: no snow. We were able to attend the 11:30 service and both girl's stayed awake for the whole thing.

Christmas morning the girl's opened present here at home and were pleased that Santa checked off the list with Emily getting a baby crib, DS and mp3 player. Kayla received an mp3 player, a netbook and legos.

We were then off to Annette's house for the Taylor Christmas. There was plenty of food and good times. Of course the kid's enjoyed swimming in the pool as well.

Sunday we were off to Branson for the Keiser Christmas. We had good times opening presents, shopping and doing Silver Dollar City. It was nice to get away and just hang out. I think that it may just have to become a tradition.

Tonight is New Year's Eve and we decided to let Kayla have a couple of friends over, so Peyton, Kennedy and Courtney C are here spending the night. We figure we might as well start the tradition of letting our house be the safe/fun house so that we know where the girl's are and who they are with as they get older.

2010 has been a good year and 2011 is going to be great!

Thanksgiving and almost Christmas

This year we went to Defiance again for Thanksgiving. I not sure we really go for Thanksgiving but more for the fact that mom and I can go shopping on Black Friday....which this year started on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day.

First mom and I headed to K-mart at 6:00 Thursday morning after throwing the turkey in the oven. We are VERY productive at K-mart including mps players and netbooks....mission accomplished for the most important Christmas gifts.

Then we went home had turkey, decorated, took a nap and at 8:30 that night we headed back out to Toys R Us......the line was unbeleiveable. There were literally thousands of people in line. They let people in until they reached max capacity and then it was one out--one in. We left because we still weren't even close to the entrance at that point.

Wal-mart proved to be productive again....but interesting. Need a DS from there and was able to get a ticket quickley but would have to sit there until 5:00. Well, mom and I sat in amoungst toilet paper for a couple of hours until I heard a lady say that Wal-mart.com had them for the same price. So I called Tim and got him out of bed so that he could buy it online and I could get out of line.  Mission accomplished.

We then headed to Kohl's, Gordman's, Target and Michael's. It was a good thing we packed hot cocoa because it was cold.  But we did very well....we started about 8:30 Thursday night and got home about 7:00 Friday morning...crazy fun!

The girl's have had their Christmas Recital and school programs. They did very well!

Kayla was also asked to dance at the Christmas Card and she did amazingly well, dancing to Walking In a Winter Wonderland.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and we are almost ready. Christmas Day we will headed to Annette's house for the Taylor Christmas and then the next three days we will be in Branson for the Keiser Christmas. It will be different but I think it will be a fun change. Can't wait to go see the lights at Silver Dollar City.