Wow, February was busy! It started out with a visit to the eye doctor with Charlotte and her coming hone with the most adorable magenta pink glasses.
And then there is cheer.... it is sort of taking over our lives. Aliza decided last November that she wanted to try out competition cheer. I agreed that the timing was right and we could make it work. But it has turned into quite the family endeavor. We really couldn't make it work if Carmen wasn't so willing to babysit her little siblings twice a week, while we drive the 40 minutes each way to practice. Carmen makes sure dinner gets taken care of and puts Dallin and Charlotte to bed and gets her homework done all on her own while Aliza and I are gone two nights a week. But it is also so much fun! Here is her team at their last practice before their first competition.
Practicing those stunt pyramids. Alize is the back base spot, so it's always hard to see her in pictures.
Another team gave our team each a Glitter Girls bow to hang on their backpacks as a sweet good luck gift for the competition. Here are both teams together.
The first comp was in Huntington, WV which is 5.5 hours aways. We left right after school on Friday to spend the night because she had to be at the comp at 8am. We practiced and practiced that make-up before we both felt like she looked more like a cheerleader and less like a clown. It's really not a talent I have.
On the way to arena, we had to stop and let David give the kids their "pay phone merit badge". They had never seen one and he taught them how they work. It was pretty comical for us both.
Ready to roll! She is so adorable.
I took video of the actual performance, so this picture at the very end is all I have.
After she performed we had to wait several hours before the awards ceremony. We watched a few more teams and then went to get some lunch.
And we played a lot of BS while waiting for our food.
Dallin was such a trooper to stick this out. I'm sure watching all those girls cheer was not that exciting to a 5 year old boy.
But her team got 2nd place!!! That was super exciting.
The girls insisted on having these insanely overpriced and ginormous bows in order to match Aliza's. As a mom of girls who never let me put anything in their hair before, I caved and spent way too much money. But just look how adorable to all are with their big bows!
David and I took a trip up to the DC Temple before it closes for 2 years. It was sort of a late night trip, but also a treat to go.
And the temple stood like a beacon on a dark foggy night.
We made a trip to Sweet Frogs to celebrate good report cards! Everyone is doing awesome in school.
It has been super duper cold at the bus stop lately. This day I bundled up and waited outside.
Aliza made the leap into official pre-teen by getting braces. They immediately made her look older. We can't wait to see the end result.
Another warm day called for more tree swinging.
On Friday nights Aliza and Carmen have piano lessons, which leaves me with two hours to entertain these two monkeys. This night was just before their birthdays, so I took them to Toys R Us to make a birthday wish list. Oh boy, was that crazy! They pretty much wanted everything and my hand was literally cramping from writing down everything they wanted.
Koda being weird, sitting like a cat on the back of the couch. He really just wanted to be super close to me. He's such a snuggle buddy.
Teaching him young! Dallin wanted to help iron his church shirt before church.
Carmen started volleyball at the beginning of the year and had her first game, which her team won! Hard to get good pictures of volleyball. But we love to go to her games.
I found this picture on my phone of Carmen with her friend Sequoyah on the team bus to their game. Such good friends!
