2013 in Photos

Happy New Year everyone!!! 

2013 was another great year.  I can't wait to see where 2014 takes us.

Gone Missing

I  did not mean to go missing for over 3 months.  Yikes!!!  Life was so busy at the end of the school year.  I was doing good to keep my head above water.  Then summer was here and I lacked motivation to post.  Now school is already back in.  I really can't believe 3 months has passed.  

Let me catch you up on the last 3 months.

At the end of the school year Harper was in the school's performance of Annie. She played a Star-To-Be which was the perfect part for her.  She put in lots of hours of practice, which definitely paid off. We were so proud of her.

Miller was one of two players on his baseball team picked to be on the All-Star team.  Miller played great.  He even hit an over the fence home run, which made his year.  

He decided to try out for the summer travel team.  He made it, so we spent the summer watching baseball.

Although it was tiring, it was a great way to spend the summer.

Harper went to Girl Scout camp for the first time.  She spent two nights away from home. She would have stayed the whole week if I would have let her.  Miller was fine to be home with us.

We celebrated birthdays.  Miller turned 7.

Harper turned 9.  We celebrated by having a girls night out.  We got pedicures and ate at her favorite restaurant.  It was nice to have some girl time.

Mitch and I escaped to Asheville for a couple of days without children.  We ate, drank, and did a little hiking.  But mostly we ate and drank.  It was a nice break after the busy end of the school year and birthday extravaganzas.

Once we had a free weekend, Mitch and I tackled a little bedroom remodel.  We took down the wood on the ceiling, painted the ceiling and walls, and replaced the curtains with shades.  I still have some finishing touches then I will post some after photos. 

Finally it was time for vacation.  We stopped in Atlanta to go to a Braves game on the way to the beach.

We decided to go to Orange Beach this year.  Check out our view.  It was perfect.

We made it back home just in time to start school.  This was their first full week of school.  

The photo above sums things up really well right now.  Miller being mischievous and Harper yelling at him.

It looks like they are ready to take on this school year.  So how was your summer?

Catching Up on The Kids

Since all I have time to do these days is chase my kids from one activity to the next, I thought it was only appropriate to do a post on what is going on with the kids these days.

Harper is playing softball for the first time this year and she loves it.  She has tried soccer and basketball in the past, but truthfully I don't think she was quite old enough to appreciate a team sport. She is really enjoying being part of the team this time around. I think she is doing really well for her first time on the field. 

Harper's schedule is so jam packed right now.  I have already told her that next year she can't participate in so many activities.  It's just too much for everyone.  Right now this is what she is doing: taekwondo, softball, Awana, Kids Rock marathon training, practicing for her part in the school's performance of Annie, and Brownies.  Luckily chorus just wrapped up so no more 7:30 am practices on Wednesday morning.  So as you can see I need to be better at saying no because she wants to do everything.  It's just so hard when the things she wants to do are so different and benefit her in different ways. 

 She had her mile run at school yesterday.  She finished in 7:29, so she beat her time in the fall by 7 seconds. She was very proud of herself.

Harper is still doing really well in school.  Every time I see her teacher she compliments Harper. She always tells me she is such a joy to have in class.  She is currently reading the first Harry Potter book.  It is fun to see her so into a book.

Miller is playing baseball again this year.  This is his 5th season.  You can really tell that he understands the game now.  He still needs to practice his fielding and catching, but he has improved so much.  This is his last season in this age group.  Next year he will move up, so it will be interesting to see him play with kids that are older.  I think he will do well with the challenge.

Miller's schedule is not out of control.  Thank goodness.  He is also training to run the Kids Rock marathon.  I was really surprised that we were able to talk him into it, but he is excited to run that last mile with a huge audience.

Miller had his mile run at school yesterday too.  He ran his mile in 8:20.  He said he was the first person to finish in his class.  

Miller is doing well in school too.  Homework is a challenge on most days, but I am amazed at how well he does once he is focused on what he is doing.  He is reading really well too.  Reading at bedtime is no longer a battle, which is nice.  

Is it bad that I am already counting down the days until school is out?  I hope I can make it through the next 2 months without losing my mind.  

Spring Break 2013

Yikes.  I can't believe it has almost been a month since I posted anything here.  Life has been busy and I have not had much motivation to blog.

I took last week off of work to spend time with the kids for Spring Break.  We did some stuff locally and then on Thursday and Friday we headed to Chattanooga.  We packed our two days there with all kinds of fun stuff.  I took tons of photos so I will just show you some of my favorites.

We started with a trip to Rock City.  If you are ever in Chattanooga, you must go there.  I can't believe this was my first time.

The kids loved all of the gnomes everywhere.

I think this is the only photo I am in, so I had to include it.

Miller is obviously scared of goblins.

Harper is my little dare devil.

Can you tell Miller is not my dare devil?  He is holding on for dear life.

The kids loved the Fairyland Caverns.

The next stop was Ruby Falls.  It was crowded so we had to wait in line for awhile.  The tour was long and a little boring, but the Falls were amazing.  

We spent the night at the Chattanooga Choo Choo.  We slept in one of the train cars.  It was pretty cool.

On Friday we ventured to the Aquarium.   

Shark Attack!!!!

The jellyfish are always my favorite.

We ended the trip with a Wild Cave tour at Raccoon Mountain.  We crawled and climbed around the cave for about 1.5 hours.  The kids had a blast.  We were covered in mud when we finished.  

What have you guys been up to?

Harper's Room

We are finally pretty much finished with Harper's room.  Mitch still wants to make some shelves above the desk and we need to put up some more artwork, but for the most part her room is done.

I made the curtains for under her bed this weekend. Mitch hung a PVC pipe under the bed to use as a curtain rod.  He also built a desk for her.  She said all that it was missing was a laptop.  

I thought she would use the space under the loft to hang out, but she decided her American Girl dolls wanted to hang out under there instead.

We did manage to get some artwork up over her dresser.

Now we can move onto the next room.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

The kids wanted to make photo valentines again this year.  I showed them several ideas, but they were stuck on the "Rock On" theme with pop rocks attached.

This is very much like Harper's valentine last year. She really wanted to do another one this year, so that's what we did.  She processed hers using picmonkey.  Miller lost interest after the photo shoot, so I processed his for him.  He didn't want any funky colors.

We have been battling the funk at our house this week.  Miller had strep throat over the weekend.  Then Harper starting feeling bad on Monday.  Instead of strep she has the flu.  Ugh.  She had the flu back in December too.  I mean what are the odds of her getting strain A and B?  We all got the flu shot after our bout with the flu in December, but I guess it didn't really help Harper.  Poor thing.  Hopefully the rest of us will dodge this round.

I hope everyone has a healthy Valentine's Day!!!

Sledding

The kids were out of school on Friday because we got a dusting of snow.  I seriously think the school system just wanted to use a snow day because the roads were completely clear.  The snow was gone by mid morning so the kids didn't get to play in it too much.  Then we woke up Saturday to another dusting of snow.  This time we took advantage of it and did some sledding.

The snow was gone again by lunch time, but at least we got to have a little bit of snow fun.  

Fun at the Circus

We went to the Circus a few weeks ago.  Here are some of the photo highlights.

Cousin love....

The elephants never disappoint.

That guy is blindfolded. Crazy, huh?

Ouch!!!

Can you tell we had a great seats?  

Brown Belt

Harper tested for her Brown Belt on Saturday.  She was supposed to test back in December, but she had the flu on the day of the testing.  She was heartbroken that she wasn't able to test. So needless to say, she was ready and well prepared this time around.

It is so fun to watch her.  Sometimes it amazes me how far she has come since she was a white belt. She broke both of these boards on the first try.

There were 19 kids that tested and she was the only one to get an outstanding testing award. I might be a little biased, but she definitely earned it.

I am so proud of you Harper!!