Melina's Gymnastics Winter Wiggle

Melina begged and begged to take gymnastics and we finally caved.  She has been taking for almost a year now and she LOVES it.  We are really glad she begged us into it because she is so good and she works really hard and loves it so much.  Above are a few pics of her on the balance beam with her coach, Yelina, who is from Russia and is very strict with the girls but also is a great coach.  My Mom went to watch her one day at practice and texts me 'what is this a Russian concentration camp!'.  She was witnessing all the pushups pullups and other exercises they do at class along with climbing the 20' rope (I about had a heartattack the first time I saw Melina climb it...I just knew she was going to fall and break a bone).

Floor exercise...it was such a cute routine and Melina worked so hard to get it just right.

The vault and the uneven bars...they don't do too much with these yet at her level but she loves the bars.

They all got a medal at the end and Melina, as usual, was scared to death to get up in front of everyone.  Thankfully I remembered to buy her flowers this time.

She will kill me for putting this one on here.  She tries so hard to get every move just right but when she concentrates she opens her mouth very wide and sticks her tongue out (I'm going to blame this one on Rick).  I think it is cute but she is very self conscience about it and has tried so hard to stop but when she is really into what she is doing she can't help it :)

Christmas Vacation in NC

Rick and I decided to spend the majority of our Christmas money on a vacation...instead of toys that our kids would be giving to Goodwill within 6 months.  We found a great cabin in Franklin, NC and booked the week of Christmas.  We were so excited as were the kids...they quickly agreed to less presents in exchange for a place in the mountains for a week.

Here is the cabin we found.  It is so cute and just the right size for our family.  It was fairly new and had everything you needed already there.

We got lucky and it snowed the day before we got there...so there was lots of snow on the ground when we arrived.  The kids were so excited.  The first thing they did getting out of the truck was to have a snowball fight (Rick actually started that...shocking).

Everyday we hiked the paved path to the top of the mountain where our cabin was.  It took us about 30-40 minutes.  Thankfully we borrowed this carrier for Savannah but Neil was able to hike it himself and the girls did great too...most of the time (sometimes Melina need a piggyback ride).

The view from the top was amazing.  It was so quiet and peaceful (when the kids weren't yelling and running around wild).  It was cold the whole week but we managed to find enough warm clothing to bring for the trip.

Here is a waterfall that we went to.  You had to go down some concrete stairs and follow a pathway to get there.  Which was fine except it was all covered with ice.  We had a few falls along the way but managed to make it.  It was beautiful.  My sister Adrienne went with us on vacation...it was nice having an extra set of adult hands there.

Here is a view from our porch one night.  We ate out one night but we usually ate at the cabin.  There was a walmart and grocery store within 5 minutes of the cabin so that was very nice.  We watched lots of Christmas movies and played games.  Neil keeps asking when we are going back to 'our' cabin.  I had to explain to him, more than once, that it isn't our cabin...unfortunately.

We also went to the Smokey Mtn. National Park one day.  Since it was the week of Christmas most things were closed down...including the scenic drive through the mountains (because of all the snowfall).  So, we just looked around some.  The most fun was a beautiful river we found and we hiked along beside if for a while.  The kids threw rocks in and it was just fun to be together and not have anywhere to be.

Christmas morning was fun.  We surprised the kids with Band Hero...which we are shockingly horrible at.  They didn't get as many things as they normally do...but we had convinced them they were getting next to nothing so they were all plesantly surprised on Christmas morning at the things we did get them (I learned that trick from my parents...we fell for it every year).

Here is a pic of my kids with my Dad and Stepmom, Janice.  We went to see them on the way to the cabin and spent the night.  The kids love seeing them and we enjoyed the visit.

Savannah's First Birthday!

Here is the birthday girl...loving the cake for sure!  Her birthday was actually December 17th...that shows you how far behind I am on my blogging!

Savannah shares a birthday with my Mom, so I made two cakes...one for each birthday girl.  Mom got Savannah this puppy which I think she may be scared of.

Sisters and cousin...always willing to help finish off the cake.

Brother in the middle and more cousins...the three are trouble.

Here is Savannah before the 'digging into the cake' part.  As you can see, I went cheap and made her a little cake (my girls' weren't too happy about that).  Savannah liked it just the same.

Thanksgiving at Annette's house

I haven't blogged in forever!!...so now I'm going to try and catch up a bit.

We spent Thanksgiving at Annette's house in Georgia.  She has a big place and is able to fit everyone...which is always the problem when we all get together.

One of the kids favorite thing to do at Aunt Nettie's house is climb the trees...she lives on 4 acres in the country so we just let them go out and play all day....nice.

The adults were together...the older kids together...and the younger kids together...and everyone was happy!  We had some great food too.  Mom's squash casserole is always a hit and we had some really good deserts this time.

kids just love my Dad...who is really just a kid in a big body!

Ahhh....the old family game of kickball.  I'm trying to remember who got hit in the face this time. We had so much fun playing kickball.  The kids have a blast and we adults got a little too competitive, as usual.  It was great.

Ok, I had really good intentions of taking a good pic of all the kids outside all clean and dressed up...obviously that did not happen.  So, here is a pic of all our dirty, smelly kids at the end of the weekend.

The top pic is me, Rick, and Savannah (who didn't know what to think about all these people).  The bottom pic is Mary's man Travis (who we all love and think fits great in the family) and Neil.  Travis is Neil's new BFF...I think Travis wrestled with Neil once and then Neil wouldn't leave him alone.