Saturday, October 4, 2014

Chattanooga Classic

We just got back from another gymnastic meet.  Olivia is cool as a cucumber at these meets and has a blast.  I'm a nervous wreck and feel like I'm going to throw up the entire time!  She did so good.  Luckily, the girls are separated by age at competitions.  There were 11 girls in her age group.  She got 1st place on vault, 2nd on beam, 2nd on bars, 2nd on floor, and 2nd all around!  Talk about proud:
























Standing at the top of the podium with her vault medal:

















A few more from the meet:


































You also got a trophy if you placed in the top 3 all around.  She was also very excited, because this meet was hosted by her old gym in Chattanooga.  So, she got to see Sadie!
























Her team also got 2nd place (this is just part of the team)!

















Paige was her usual outgoing, loud self.  Meets are pretty loud, so I don't think she bothered anyone (much):

















Of course I have the video:

















Her scores were better overall and would have been higher, except for her landing on bars and jumping off the beam.  The beam is a timed event and they've been working on staying on time.  However, she heard the timer go off right as she was getting ready to dismount (indicating that she went over) and immediately jumped off.  Which means she got a deduction for going over AND for "falling" off the beam.  And still managed to score an 8.225!  We were so stinking proud of her.

Trying hard to not turn this into a gymnastic blog, ha!  I had minor surgery last week and we've had 3 sets of grandparents come help out (thanks again!).  They got to experience the crazy toddler known as Paige:
























She can be so much fun, but she is literally into everything and a huge handful.  Grocery shopping is a nightmare.  One minute she's stuffing samples in her mouth (she refuses to sit in the appropriate part of the cart):
























The next she has a Spiderman balloon in a headlock:
























Even the cat is relieved when it's naptime:
























Thank goodness this kitten turned out to be pretty laid back:







 

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Living La Vida Loca

We are settling into life in Franklin and loving it so far!  Franklin is a good size city, with a great downtown area and a newer area with the mall (Cool Springs).  We had a garage sale recently and cleared out enough to get somewhat settled into our new house.  Plus, we had most of the inside painted (we don't have to paint it ourselves, yay!). 
I am starting a contract job interviewing foster parents, so Paige started a Mother's Day Out program one day a week:


 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
She did pretty well!  A few tears at first, but calmed down quickly.  It hopefully stays this way! 
Olivia had her 6 year well visit.  Check this out:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
She's come a long way!  She is still loving Peach:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Not too sure how much Peach is loving her new life, ha!  Paige still wants to do everything Olivia does:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
After church last week:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Olivia's Social Studies test:
 


 
I love trying to decipher her work!





 
 



Monday, September 1, 2014

New house and lost teeth

We are finally starting to make some progress with unpacking.  Our new (to us) house is smaller than our house in Dayton, so we are tossing stuff left and right!  We are in a subdivision with an HOA (again) that has garage sales twice a year.  There's a Facebook page, so I posted a question asking when the next one is, because we have lots of stuff to sell.  The president responded, saying the date hasn't been set and they need someone to head up the organization of the sale.  Do you see where this is heading?  I somehow found myself chair of the twice a year subdivision garage sales for the foreseeable future.  The good news?  I get to pick the dates!

I wasn't kidding about having boxes up to our ears:

 
 


















Unloading the truck:

















The girls are excited about the new house:

















Especially the amount of kids that live in this neighborhood.  Lots of friends nearby!

Olivia has had a very loose tooth for a few weeks.  She was afraid to just pull it and we weren't pressuring her to (yuck).  Her permanent tooth was pushing it out pretty fast, though.  Paige and I went to eat lunch with her at school last Wednesday and this is what we found:
























They make a big deal about losing teeth at school.  She got to go see the nurse, get a special treasure box to put her tooth in, and a sticker.  Very proud of all the fanfare of losing a tooth at school.  She laid the box out for the tooth fairy (we hadn't unpacked her tooth fairy pillow yet!).  The tooth fairy left her a nice note that explained she leaves $5 for the first tooth and $1 for the rest.  Olivia woke up to the note and money, then looked at her empty treasure box and burst into tears.  Apparently, she didn't understand that the tooth fairy actually takes the tooth.  Mommy fail.  So, we left a nice note asking for the tooth back, which the tooth fairy happily complied.  Crisis averted.  She said she would keep one, then leave one, keep one, then leave one.  Ha!

A few pictures from her competition:
























So cute (this isn't the whole team):

















A little nervous in line up (next to last):

















Warming up:

















Getting ready for vault:

















She can't wait until the next one!

Paige is keeping us on our toes.  Michael watched them this morning while I was getting ready and he commented that Paige is like a wrecking ball.  Pretty good analogy for her.  She is adamant about doing everything the way Olivia does.  Case in point:
























She refuses to ride in the buggy.  She either has to walk (incredibly slowly, as she stops to examine EVERYTHING) or ride on the end.  Trying to get her to do otherwise results in a massive tantrum. 

My favorite video of Paige right now- asking for more popcorn:

















And to add to the craziness, Peach will be joining our family:
























We had talked about possibly getting a kitten.  To Olivia, that meant we were getting a kitten.  Paige lost Olivia's prized tooth one day on our way to pick her up from school (we finally found it in her car seat).  Olivia was not happy, so I told her we would go look at the cats at the animal shelter to distract her.  I also wanted to make sure Paige wasn't allergic.  Well, surprise, surprise, we fell in love with this little kitten.  She's 3 months old and was very calm and gentle as Olivia carried her around.  She didn't even mind when Paige pulled her tail.  She just snuggled up and purred.  Then we were told that the shelter was doing an adoption program this summer.  If they adopt out 800 pets, they will receive a huge grant.  They were only 25 away and someone had covered all the fees for the 800 pets.  It was a sign!  I sent Michael a text and he responded with "Don't get a cat that sheds."  I took that as "yes" and signed the papers.  We pick her up tomorrow!

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Competition Video

We are up to our ears in boxes (literally), but I wanted to post Olivia's competition video.  She did great and had so much fun!  I missed getting her vault on video.  She's on beam first, then bars, and floor.  All the girls do the same routines, so you'll hear the floor music on all her events.  She scored 8.6 on beam and floor, and 7.8 on vault and bars.  Pretty good for her first meet!

























Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Farewell, Dayton

The movers were at our house in Dayton for 2 days last week, packing and loading.  Michael took time off work to be there and the girls and I drove in the weekend before to sort through some things.  Michael and I were caught off guard by the sadness we felt packing up that house.  It's not a secret that Dayton has not been our favorite place to live.  We had a beautiful house with great neighbors and made some good friends, but we prefer being closer to a big city.  However, we made many memories in that house and it's always sad to say good-bye to friends!  Olivia kept looking at us like we were crazy, saying we could always come visit.  I tried to explain that we most likely would never be in that house again, but she insisted that the new owners would let us come visit.  Ha!  She spent the entire time playing with Sadie and Lexi.



















Check out these pictures of Paige in our bathroom mirror- 6 weeks:
























And almost 20 months:
























She enjoyed wearing my wedding veil:
























Currently, all of our belongings are loaded on a semi, parked somewhere.  Delivery date is set for next Tuesday (the 26th) and we are supposed to close on our new house Friday!  So excited to finally get settled.

I'll leave you with some Paige funnies.  Remember her love of shoes?  She discovered some heels at Target and HAD to try them on:
























Then proceeded to walk quite a ways in them:

















Another pair of shoes she got attached to one day:
























She and Olivia spilled a box of rice one day:
























Note the clutter in the background.  I cannot adequately express how grateful we are to be moving out of this apartment!

Paige also has a sweet side:

















Olivia is still loving school, although the drive there and back is wearing her out (me and Paige, too!):
























Her first gymnastics meet is Saturday and she is so excited!  Don't worry, I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures and videos, ha!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Sweet 6 year old

Today is Olivia's 6th birthday and she is SO excited.  It is also her first day of 1st grade:
























Funny story... we had decided to homeschool this year.  In fact, all the curriculum I planned to purchase (and spent many hours researching) is still in my cart on Amazon.  We weren't sure we would find a house in time for her to start school and we didn't want her to change schools a month or two into the year.  However, our house in Dayton went under contract and we managed to snag a house in Franklin (LOVE Franklin, quaint town south of Nashville).  We put a contract on the house July 27th.  Olivia had already mentioned not having any friends if we homeschool, so when we found a house, she asked "Can I go to school, now?"  Ha!  So much for my plans.  Luckily, we are allowed to bring her to school until we move into the house (scheduled for August 26th).  Unfortunately, it takes us about an hour to get there in the morning, since we have to drive right through rush hour traffic.  Oh, well.  She seemed to like it!

We traveled to the tri-cities to celebrate her birthday last weekend.  Her first party was at Mamaw and Papaw's:


















Aunt Kristie got her a slip and slide:
























Paige was excited about the slip and slide:
























Brett and Rachel were kind enough to let us use their house for her 2nd party!

































A party isn't complete without some dress up clothes:

















Presents!

















Thank you to everyone that helped her celebrate!

She had half a day of school today, so when Paige and I picked her up, we took her to Build -a - Bear and for a pedicure (her choice):















































Daddy met us at Rainforest Café when he got off work.  When we were in Houston in March we ate at a Rainforest Café.  Olivia noticed that if you eat there on your birthday, you get a cupcake and the servers sing to you.  She didn't forget!

















And her 6 year old questions:


20 Birthday Questions
Olivia, Age 6
2014

1. What is your favorite color? Blue and red
2. What is your favorite toy? Dress up clothes

3. What is your favorite fruit? strawberries

4. What is your favorite tv show?  Jake and the Neverland Pirates

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Ham and cheese roll up
6. What is your favorite outfit?  I like them all

7. What is your favorite game?  CandyLand

8. What is your favorite snack?  Granola bar

9.  What is your favorite animal?  giraffe
10. What is your favorite song?  Jesus Loves Me

11. What is your favorite book?  The fat cat sat on the mat (Reader from Kindergarten)

 12. Who is your best friend?  Sadie and Lexi
13. What is your favorite cereal?  Mini Wheats

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride my bike

15. What is your favorite drink?  Apple juice
16. What is your favorite holiday?  Halloween

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  Pink bunny
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  Pancakes

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  Rainforest Cafe

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?   A gymnast