Megan and her teammates won Eagles State

Here's Megan and her teammates after they won the Eagles State Level 5 gymnastics meet. Megan stuck her cartwheel on beam and won all-around in her age group. She was thrilled after she stuck that silly cartwheel and jumped into the arms of her wonderful coach Kristy. We would have all needed therapy if she had fallen again! USAG competition starts in the fall (this was sort of a practice league for them). Katie got 2nd in all-around for her age group in Level 3. She was a happy camper, too (though she is always a happy camper even when she messes up!).

Molly with her sisters at her swimming class

Molly is becoming quite the little swimmer. Here she is at her Safe Spl*ash swim class where the water is 90 degrees, but the classes are very expensive. She had to wear a bathing cap, goggles and fins in the class, too. Surprisingly, she would put it all on with no troubles. She's back at classes at the rec center where the water is a little cooler, but no bathing cap and it's way cheaper! Megan and Katie are finishing up their gymnastics meets (state meet this weekend, but they'll still go to practices, 7 hours for Katie and 10.5 for Megan a week) and doing the swim team this summer. Wish I was that active; I just drive them to their practices!

Here's a rare picture of Miss Molly with her hair down!

Fun at Disneyland

We were at Disneyland 12/18-23. My mom came on the 20th from Chicago, as did my sister, Terry, and her family from Arizona: hubby Marc and kiddos, Lucas and Amanda, and their au pair, Asako. They even flew in their first au pair, Kana, from Japan. A great time was had by all! We celebrated Lucas and Amanda's bday (12/15) and Katie's bday (12/20) with Mickey and Minnie and Pat E. Cake on the 22nd.

On Christmas Eve we all drove to Prescott, Arizona to spend Christmas at Terry and Marc's. We had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner at Denny's in Blythe, CA :) on the way to their house!

Molly at "Night School"

Molly and I went to a special night at her preschool three weeks ago. They had all sorts of nighttime activities for the kids.

This first picture is for Lucas and Amanda (Molly's cousins). They wanted to see a picture of Molly's preschool teachers. So, here is Ms. Nikki with Molly making star shaped pancakes . We'll have to take a picture of her other teacher Ms. Yama soon.

Here's Molly playing with the L*te Bright.

Here's Molly and one of her best buddies, Nic, walking up to hear a bedtime story.

Happy Gotcha Day, Miss Molly!

Three years ago today we were in China to get our sweet Molly. Hard to believe it's been three years! We had Chinese food for dinner tonite (Megan says we have to do that every Gotcha Day) and we looked at pictures from our trip.

This picture isn't too clear, but that's Miss. Molly in the tub a few weeks ago. Katie and I soaped up her hair and were able to get it to stick up while Katie took the pic!

In other news, Molly and I went to Megan and Katie's school three times yesterday (R*ck Ridge Elem). In the morning we were there for the "Top of the Rock" awards for kindergarten through 3rd grade. Katie got an award for good citizenship, specifically for being kind, but it was supposed to be for being knowledgeable (not sure which one I'd rather her get...!) as they mixed up her award with another student. Then we went back at noon for Turkey Day lunch. We sat with Katie and her buddies first and then Megan's class had lunch right after that. Molly actually remembered spilling milk on her pants at Turkey Day lunch last year. This year she just spilled milk on the floor!

Then we went back for grades 4 through 6 "Top of the Rock" awards in the afternoon. They give awards for both academics and good behavior for the upper grades. Megan got awards for "Excellence in Academics" and "Excellence in Physical Education". Hard to believe how good she is in P.E.!

Glad Megan and Katie are so good in school....figure Molly will be my payback!

Happy Halloween...Party til the Cows go Home!

It's 77 degrees here today....can't remember a Halloween that was this nice! The morning started out with 20 cows in the open space out back. Jerry called animal control and they said their owner was on his way. Sure enough, a few minutes later, there was the rancher and his border collie rounding up the cows. Thank goodness! They've been out and about lately; must be a hole in a fence somewhere. Hero rolled in cow poop last Sunday; he was covered from head to toe! And, there were cows strolling out in front of our house the other morning. The dogs just go crazy when they see them. Not sure what Hero would do if he came face to face with one, though!

Molly is a puppy this year for Halloween. She was going to be a cowboy on a horse, then a vampire and then she even wanted to be a UPS man. But, we got to return all those costumes because she decided to be the puppy. Megan was a puppy six years ago, and Molly saw that costume hanging in her closet and decided that's what she wanted to be. Megan is Morticia from the Addam's Family and Katie is a whacky witch. Pretty easy this year; usually the girls have more than one costume.

Jerry took the girls to "Boo at the Zoo" last Sunday. Molly had her preschool pumpkin party on Wednesday. The big girls went to "Trick or Treat and Scream Street" at their school last nite with friends from gymnastics while I stayed home with Molly. Jerry said it was pretty lame, but they always have fun with Kaitlyn and Gigi, so glad they went along. Then today we'll take Megan to gymnastics while Katie, Molly and I will go downtown Castle R*ck to "Trick or Treat Street" at the businesses. Then we'll pick up Megan and go trick or treating in the neighborhood. Then we will be done with Halloween...not too bad this year!

Molly is so happy that Halloween is almost over, she's scared by almost everything. She was so excited to see the Christmas tree at the entrance of Wal*mart yesterday!