Abby's 1st competition of the season!!!!

Though a little later this year, Abby had her first competition of the season this weekend. We are very proud of how hard she has worked so far and it payed off today. She started a little slow, had a terrible first vault, but didn't let it bother her and had a great second vault. From there she just continued to improve. The overall results were: 4th Vault, 3rd Bars, 1st Beam, 1st Floor, and 1st All-Around (which earned her a nice big trophy!) Here are the videos to go with the results. (as a side note- I did miss the very beginning of her beam routine because I forgot it was my job to video tape!) Abby's team also won 1st place for their level. This is a first for her team as last year they were last most of the season. Everybody did really well today. Thanks for your support and cheering us on! (and yes, Abby's fire has been lit- she is eaten up with gymnastics right now!)
Beam- 9.0, 1st place


Due to technical difficulties this is the only video I can get posted, will try posting the others soon!

Adobe Lightroom- Fun with Editing!!!

Ok, so Brian let me purchase some new photo editing software that has been lots of fun to play with. These are pictures taken at my mom's house this week. (don't know why Claire is kissing everybody- then again do we EVER know why 2 year olds do what they do?????)






Nice to see my Aunt still gets told what to do by her mother!! (it runs deep in my family)

Fun with Family

My Grandma and my Aunt LaRee and Uncle LaVern are in town from Minnesota. My oldest brother threw a little get together at his house today so we got some fun pictures of my family. My mom and her sisters wanted a picture of "the girls", we managed to get 2 good shots and a bunch of shots with each telling the other what to do. (FYI- if you want to know what I will look like in my 60', 70's, and if I make it 90's this is it!!!!) My grandmother is 97 in this picture. Love you Grandma.


The other highlight is that Uncle LaVern LOVES to play cards, and so does Isabelle. They found each other perfect company for a large portion of the afternoon.

Happy Birthday Brian!!!

There are so many things we love about you, Brian! I love that you have been such a loving, caring husband. The kids love that you have been such a caring and supportive father. We love your silliness!! We cherish each day we get with you and are thankful that you have made us your priority. May God bless you greatly today, your birthday! We love you!

Birthday celebration pictures..

Lots of cake,cupcakes, and smores (yes, not a typical birthday dessert, but still yummy)...but most exciting.....getting ears pierced! (and she didn't cry!)

Happy Birthday Abby- 8 years has gone fast!!

We are so thankful for Abby. God has done such a wonderful work in her life and we continue to see evidences of Him changing her heart. She is still a determined girl, but is learning to couple that with serving and caring for others. We love you very much Abby and are proud of the young lady you are becoming. For fun here is a little walk down memory lane- will have birthday pictures to post later- including her ears getting pierced!! (pictures go from this year down to her 2nd birthday.)

this past spring

7th birthday

6th birthday

5th birthday

4th birthday

3rd birthday

2nd birthday

Tinkerbell....the dog, not the fairy

While my parent's were gone for the week to Minnesota, they decided we needed to babysit for them for a change. So we had their dog Tinkerbell for a week. The kids had great fun with her and she was a good dog, but NO THIS DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE GETTING A DOG!!! (at least not yet.)

Pictures from the flood...

Yes, I know this is old news, but I ran across these pictures on my camera and thought you might be interested to see just how much water we had. (Notice in the bottom picture the water is at our sidewalk and at the foundation of our neighbor's house.

Attn: Blog Guru's...Help me fix my blog.....

Ok, not sure what it happening with our blog- some of you say our pictures are really small and hard to see, some of you say that the pictures are all smooshed together, and others say it looks just fine. On our computer it looks fine. So, for all you blog geniuses out there- help me out- is the problem on my end and how do I fix it????????

Random pictures of my friend's baby Brooklyn

Brian has been gone this weekend to Texas to perform a wedding (and no he did NOT drop the rings this time!). While he was away my friend Sarah came over with her little girl Brooklyn. So instead of remodeling a room I decided to take pictures instead. These are a few of my favorites.