Sleepover

Lorelle had a sleepover guest last night. We love it when Avery is able to come over and spend time at our house. Since Lorelle is in school and the girls don't get to spend as much time together as they did last year, I don't have to plan alot of activities because they'll just entertain themselves. Last night they were Cheerleaders.

Lorelle was a DCC (Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader)

Avery whooped it up for Marshall University! Needless to say it was very loud in the house.

After a YUMMY dinner of roasted chicken, potatoes, stuffing and greenbeans we all settled in for the movie 'Horton Hears A Who'. It was very cute. I hadn't seen it before. The kids were tired enough by the end of the movie it wasn't long til they were crashed.

This morning consisted of baths and breakfasts.

And then we decided to make some Christmas cookies - some more YUMMY stuff! All in all I think we've had a successful sleepover.

Buda Winterfest Parade/Performance

Lorelle is taking a dance class in Buda, a town just north of us. She is in a tap, ballet and gymnastics combo class and she just LOVES it. And besides being a little biased - she honestly is one of the best in her class! :-)

This Winterfest performance was the second they've had. Lorelle was able to do 2 dances because she started out in a Friday night class where they learned a ballet dance to "Where Are You Christmas" by Faith Hill from The Grinch.

Then we moved her to a Thursday night class recently and she learned "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". But first, she was able to take part of the parade. While I was standing with her at the trailer/float, they told us since they didn't have alot of people on the floats, Tyler and I could ride along. So Tyler was very excited that he got to be a part of it. So we made sure to wave at Clint (though he didn't see us cause he was on the wrong side) and at MawMaw and Pawpaw. And we were very excited that Sheila showed up for the dance performance even though Avery wasn't with her. And of course to end the morning, we couldn't help but stop and say hi to Santa and Mrs. Claus! :-) Mrs. Claus was very very neat and very into her part! :-)

Christmas Decorating

So last year I kinda dropped the ball a little on decorating for Christmas. I think I got the tree out about 2 days before Christmas. So this year I knew I needed to get on the ball. So I was able to get the tree out the first week of December this year - YAY!!! I ended up doing it while Lorelle was at school, but she was alright with it because she's been hoping that when she got home from school the house would be decorated. So Tyler helped me and then Lorelle got to do a couple of things once she did get home.

Summer's Coming

Summer's coming back to Texas! The other day it was in the 90s so the kids decided they wanted to play in the sprinkler. Lorelle has just been waiting for when she could wear her new bathing suit that the Easter Bunny got her. Lorelle loves getting wet in the sprinkler. Tyler pretty much avoids the water, but loved wearing his new Lightning McQueen shorts and his McQueen crocs.

Wild Things

I LOVE baby birds! I remember living in Missouri (ages 6-9), walking home from school one day and finding a bird nest with Robin eggs. I thought they were sooo cool. And then in Virginia we had a couple of baby birds that I kept an eye on until they hatched. Same thing in California and my folks house here in Texas. Well last year, a momma bird (I believe she is a Sparrow) decided to build a next on our back porch next to the porch light. At first I didn't know what the heck was going on. I had opened the door one night either to let Titan out or in, I had stepped on the back porch and something almost dive bombed my head. That was when I first saw the nest. The next morning I went out and climbed the ladder that was outside and peaked in, sure enough...baby eggs. I told Clint and Lorelle about 'em. And made sure to always very carefully go outside and to try to not disturb Momma. When you walk outside she flies away very quickly, but never too far. Usually to rest in the tree that is sticking out of our concrete back porch, a patio chair or the closest tree across the yard. It was only right before the babies hatched that she got used to me enough to stay in the nest and not fly away. But I try to respect her and go outside as little as possible if I know she is there.

Titan also got used to her. He would bark at other birds that tried to come close to the porch. It's amazing what animals will do for each other. I did not think after Momma had her babies last year and when they flew the nest that it would ever be used again. Now, I don't know that it is the same Momma - but it's the same kind of bird with the exact same patterns so in my mind it's Momma. I was so excited to see her back this year. And this year I got pictures!!! I don't know how I didn't manage to get any last year.

Also while I was out taking pictures, I noticed a "rock" sitting on top of a patio chair...turns out it wasn't...it was a cute little toad! Mister Lizard was out on the rain gutter too, but by the time I got around the getting his picture apparently I'd taken too long to acknowledge him so he left.

But here are my wild things! Including the WILDEST of them all!!!!

The Best Family

Can I just say that I have the best family EVER!!! I have LOVED getting to hang out with my family lately. We have had a bunch of fun!

Mini Me turns into Mini DCC

She's only 5 years old and already her dreams are coming true! A couple years ago Lorelle began watching Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team with me. She LOVED it! She knew the girls by name and would try to copy the dances and everytime we drive through Dallas she wants to stop and see them. Well on March 28th, she became one...well for a day anyway! My sister (wonderful woman that she is) informed me of a DCC Clinic and performance with the San Antonio Rampage (minor league hockey). After looking into it I decided to go ahead and sign Lorelle up and invited Logan to join us. I was bummed that both Lorelle's friend AVery and her cousin Mckayla were too young because I think all would've enjoyed it. So the Friday night before the kids and I headed down to San Antonio to spend the night. We had to be at the clinic at 8:15 and there was NO WAY I was going to get up early enough to make that 1 hour drive in the AM. I figured everyone would enjoy it more if we played friday night (the kids in the room with toys, the adults with the Settlers/Seafarers of Catan) and then only had a 15 minute drive in the morning. The girls were soooo adorable and so excited. Unfortunately my sister was not able to join us due to other commitments. But she told me to take ALOT of pictures. Not wanting to disappoint, when Casey pulled the pictures off my camera after the clinic there were like 160. And that was AFTER I'd deleted the really bad/fuzzy ones. For the performance in the evening at the game, my parents and Tyler joined us. (There I only took like 80 pictures!)

The cheerleaders were so good with the kids. Many times I caught Logan and Lorelle just gazing adoringly up at them.

During the registration while they were getting all the kids in their groups, Lorelle's group played Duck, Duck, Goose. Poor Miss Lorelle fell. Well, I shouldn't really say "poor" because then she got to sit in the middle cuddled up with a cheerleader! Meanwhile, Logan was schmoozing with another cheerleader.

The girls were so cute learning their dance. Lorelle pretty much got every move, but she didn't make 'em in time to the beat. (It was a litle fast for their age) But they sure were trying! The hard part was as a parent, I had to sit behind glass windows so alot of the pictures are a bit fuzzy.

After the clinic the parents were able to come out and take pictures. The girls got t-shirts for the performance and the cheerleaders signed the back of 'em. So I got a bunch of individual pictures. They were also provided with an 8x10 glossy with autographs of the Performance Group. The girls were so cute at the actual performance. First, look in the picture above. All the other children are facing the parents. Notice Lorelle and Logan - they're not facing us. It took a second to set 'em straight.

There were 2 cheerleaders posted, one on each corner. Leave it to our girls to look at the one furthest away for directions! I video taped the performance with my digital camera and even got a little wave during the performance. Again, since it was a hockey game and we wer in the stands, we were sitting behind plexiglass so the pictures aren't perfectly clear. But we were sitting in the first row. The poor girls were so exhausted by the start of the hockey game. Both laid their heads down during the first period, I know for sure that Lorelle even took a little nap. I on the other hand did not.

You might be surprised to know this, but I LOVE being at live hockey games!!! Don't care for 'em on tv, but love 'em live! There so much excitement. Tyler got real into it also. I think he liked all the movement and sounds. And to top it off, The Rampage won!!!! Before the start, I didn't know how long we would stay with the little kids...well, us adults made 'em suck it up when they were ready to leave! We were having too much fun. We were 5 rows away from the ice and right next to the Rampage penalty box - perfect seats. And to get to our seats, you had to go through the "Spurs and Saddles Club" area...which is FANCY for a stadium! Mom and I were joking that this experience has ruined any other games that we might go to where we are in the carpeted area with private bathrooms! haha All in all we had a FABULOUS time! And Lorelle tells me everyday (and most people she sees) that when she grows up she is going to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader!