Way To Go Girls!

It has been an exciting day to say the least. Today was our other cheerleading competition. We left for Bradley-Bourbonnais at 8:30 this morning. I was not feeling well shortly after I woke up but attributed it to nerves. I get really nervous when the girls compete. By the time it was time for the bus to go I was having a lot of stomach pain. I toughed it out for a while then after talking to Martha I got nervous that it was contractions. Since I am just 7 months along, that made me anxious. We were very close to Sara Bush Hospital at this point so the bus wheeled in there and dropped me off. My assistant, Laurin, went on with the bus to take the girls the rest of the way. I had already decided that after the hospital told me everything was fine Martha could pick me up and take me to my competition. After hooking me up to monitors and doing some tests they told me I was not having contractions but I had a urinary tract infection and that often feels like contractions this far along in pregnancy. I was relieved to get that diagnosis; however, still being in pain I could not travel 2 more hours to competition. Jeff came and brought me home. I was not happy about not being able to see the girls perform but I knew I could not tough out the pain. They called me immediately after they were done and told me that they did the routine perfect. I was so excited. Turned out they got 5th place. That advances them to the state competition! I was so happy for them. They have worked so hard and deserved to advance. I was bummed that I couldn't be there but I will get to see them do an awesome job next Friday and Saturday at the state competition. Way to go girls!

Curly Locks

Memal Patchett took these pictures last Sunday and emailed them to me. I had to post them because I thought she looked too cute. I realized that you don't notice how big her hair is sometimes until you see it in a picture. I know nothing about curly hair because mine is board straight. She obviously inherited this trait (along with all her others) from her dad.

What an expression.

Big Helper

On our 3rd snow day, we were a little more productive. Ava loves to help me with the laundry. I hope this continues. She always tries to carry the baskets. It got a little heavy so she was just pushing it by the time I got the camera.
Nana & Poppy came to our house this evening. As always, Poppy is Mr. Fix-It so he was working on the toilet. Ava thought she needed to help. I'm sure her input was very useful.

Playing at the Kirts'

As you probably saw on Martha's blog we spent one of our snow days at the Kirts' house. The kids had fun playing together. I don't know how I ended up with no pictures of Landon but he played with the girls too.

The girls were dancing in their matching pjs.

It's a Give Away

Be sure to go to sarahsplayground1.blogspot before 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning and leave a comment. You could win one of her purses from her sarahsellz.blogspot. Lots of really adorable stuff. Plus if you post it on your blog you get 5 more entries. Even if you don't win how can you not love the thrill of a contest. You do not have to be a blogger to enter.

Happy Early Birthday Memal

We want to wish Memal Patchett a happy early birthday. We enjoyed your visit on Sunday. As you can see Ava really enjoyed the cake.

I think Ava wants to share her juice with you.

Playing in the Snow

We had fun playing in the snow today. It worked out great that we were off school for Martin Luther King Day so we could enjoy this little snow fall. I think it took longer to get bundled up than the amount of time we spent out in the snow. Ava has never played in snow before. She didn't care about it that much either way.

Daddy teaching Ava how to make a snow angel.

Sledding was her favorite part.

She was nice and warm but as you can see her cheeks and nose sure got red.

Not What We Hope For

Things didn't work out like we hoped at competition yesterday. The very difficult stunt sequence fell and then it was kind of hard to get back into the routine. Of course we were disappointed but you just never know. We will give it our all next time and hopefully it will go better. Two more weeks to practice the routine will be very helpful also. Thanks for all the good luck wishes!

Go Big Blue!

It is my most hectic, nerve racking, and maybe most exciting time of year - Cheer Competition Time. Our first competition is this Sunday at Mt. Vernon High School. I am sure some of you have seen the competitions on ESPN. It is the same idea just a smaller scale. We started competing 4 years ago. It started off a little slow but last year we advanced to the State Competition! It was so exciting. There have been very few moments in my life that have been as thrilling as when they announced that we made it to State. I was so happy for my girls. They had worked so hard. If you haven't been very involved in cheerleading you would never guess the 100s of hours and buckets of sweat (and unfortunately tears) that go into a 3 minute routine. So it's that time of year again. I am pretty confident that we will do well but all the stars have to align in order to nail a perfect routine. The slightest mistake could change the entire outcome. Luckily we go to 2 competitions so if this one doesn't go as well as we hope we get to try it again on January 31st at Bradley-Bourbonnais High School. I will keep you posted on how we do.

Happy New Year & Back to Reality

I hope everyone had a Happy New Year. We had a very calm evening. The 3 of us went out to eat and to Wal-Mart. We had a couple of good invites but we didn't want to find a sitter and just felt like relaxing at home. We spent New Year's Day watching all of the bowl games on TV. It is Jeff's favorite day of the year - college football all day long!

School resumes tomorrow. I am usually ready after a long break but we have had so much fun playing with Ava that I am going to miss all of our time at home. She loves playing in her kitchen and with her baby dolls. It is just so much fun to watch her play. I am sure once I get in the groove of school again I will be glad to be back but right now I would take another week or two off. I feel bad saying that for all of you who don't work in the school system. It definitely has some big perks.