XC Regionals

Last Saturday Taylor went to the Regional Cross Country meet. So far this season the team has been doing great! They took 1st place at all three league meets and then were the Champions of the TRI Valley Conference. Tay has been going in and out of the 7th spot on Varsity all season and recently got her Letter by running a time under 22:30 for a 5k (3.1 miles)! At the last official meet she beat the one girl she had to get to become the official 7th runner on the Varsity team allowing her to go to Regionals on Saturday, which was super exciting!! At Regionals the top 3 teams qualify for States so it was really important to do well. All week the team got special treats to try and get them pumped up for the meet! They even went as far as to change their uniforms so during the race their biggest competition St. Louis, wouldnt recognize them and know to run by them. They all stepped off the bus in Carson City wearing matching warm-up suits, carrying shepherd duffle bags, and wearing some pretty sweet masquerade masks wtih blue and gold feathers =) The race itself wasn't really that great though due the fact that it was very windy and freezing (Taylor's feet were frozen when she changed into her spikes before the race and didn't begin to unthaw until after she was done running!), and its not one of the favorite courses, but she beat two of the girls who were usually ahead of her. The team finished 3rd (even though they had 4 girls not feeling well) qualify them for the State meet! Taylor had a time of 22:17 which is only 4 seconds away from being her Personal Best and placed 39th out of 103 girls! Unfortunatly I was in Washington so I missed the meet but i will be back in time for State! Here are some pictures i had Kevin take for me....

Tay's First Cross Meet in High School!

Tay had her first cross country meet of the season last Tuesday. Her knee hurts right now, so her coach told her to only run a partial race and drop out. Since it was in the middle of the 2nd day of CMU classes, and she wasn't planning on finishing the race, I didn't go to the meet. Bad decision...She DID finish the race, she ran the 3.1 mile course in 24:09, she came in 7th on her team of 30+ high school girls (which would qualify her for the varsity team if it was a normal meet vs. pre-season), and finished at 36 out of 103, earning her a medal. Her FIRST high school race, and I didn't go! 50 lashes for me! Here are some links that go to the school photographer's website.
http://www.veesphotos.smugmug.com/sports/cross-country
It was the Chip Hills Invitational and you can see a photo of Taylor on page 3 and page 4. Also, if you find the photo of the start of the race (with all the girls running in a group), look in the center of the photo at the legs. Taylor has a black band around her knee. Just follow her leg upwards to see her!

Updates!!!!

So I have a new work camera (probably very temporary) and we had to try it out. Taylor sacrificed and offered to do a little modeling gig (here are 3 of about 40). She has since offered to model anytime I need her. I also snagged a few of Walker. Here's one...more to come.

Promo Postcard

Hey look at this promotional postcard that I made for use all around Michigan! I keep tellin you, we have a model on our hands! For my sistas spending lots of time with little ones, I'll soon be looking for some "at home" ideas to do with children and for some great pictures for our quarterly provider magazine. Get you camera's out and start writing down your ideas (we'll pay)!

Happy Birthday Bryce!

Have a great day!

Walker is a Drummer

Our friend Jenny, who is a Senior in High School, says that Walker is setting himself up to be a chick magnet. He has announced that he will be playing basketball next year, and he is taking drum lessons (you know how your knees would go shaky in your teens for a basketball playing drummer...right?). Kevin helped him learn to drum to one of the worship songs at church, and on Easter Sunday, they did a special. Here is a short clip of them practicing just before church. He was pretty darn amazing, I must say! While Kevin made two mistakes during the song, Walker made NONE!

Willow Turns 3!!!

Happy Birthday Princess Willow! We love you and can't wait to hug you again! Enjoy the day and don't get too crazy!! Love CeCe, Uncle Kevin, Tay, and Walker

Happy Birthday Taylor

Today is Dailey's birthday party, but Taylor has informed me that she was grossly neglected in the blogs on her birthday (the 16th). Everyone says Happy Birthday in the blogs, right? Since the Left Handed Righties had a broken computer and the Connecticut Shaws were in the hospital birthing a baby, those of us left are taking the heat for this neglect (The Coconut Telegraph, Double Nesters, and yours truly). If that's you, you better starting thinking about how you're (we're) going to make it up to her...

Facebook Friend

Somebody tell Bryce and Jason that I just became friends with Scott Fortner on Facebook!!!

Hairspray

I went to Walmart the other day to buy some Hairspray. It was the kind they use at my salon (Big Sexy Hair), so it cost $17.00. Unfortunately I made the mistake of bringing Taylor with me. She decided that she also needed hairspray and she would not even consider the $1.99 Aqua Net that I had to use in High School. As a compromise, she found the "Bed Head" version for about $ 13.00. Can you imagine Kevin seeing a receipt that has both a $ 17.00 AND $ 13.00 bottle of hairspray on it????

In the end, I also compromised and bought two bottles of the $13.00 Bed Head Hairspray instead of my original choice. I did however have to check out twice so that Kevin would not see a receipt with both bottles on it. When he did see the receipt, you should have heard him freak when he saw $13.00 for hairspray. I tried to pretend that that total was for both bottles and that did not even come close to satisfying him. Can you imagine what he would say if he knew that I bought 2 bottles for $13.00 each!!!????

Painted Nails

Shortly after arriving to our house, Willow asked if she could "climb up high" (meaning go upstairs). She disappeared for awhile and came back as proud as could be to show us what she did "All by Herself!" She found CC's new nailpolish! After we ran upstairs to check out the damage, we were pretty impressed to find only a few spots on the table. The nailpolish was upright and the top was screwed back on!

Saturday in Gatlinburg

Friday Night in Gatlinburg

Decorating for Christmas

I'm not doing much. Since I left the Christmas tree in the game room up all year, we decided that the game room tree would be our official Christmas tree. I only decorated 3 other things, this mirror, the mantel, and the kitchen bay window. Before I hung this "JOY" piece, I washed the mirror, where there had been a perfect small handprint from Amya's visit. Taylor noticed right away that Amya's handprint was gone and she was sad.

We haven't set Kevin's village up for several years (since he took down our rail that overlooked the kitchen from upstairs. This year, I set up the village in the bay window behind the kitchen sink.

Oh, I guess that Kevin also hung some lights up outside.

Washington DC

I just got back from Washington DC and the NAEYC Conference! Below, you will find one of my new favorite quotes.

I had to visit Julia Child's kitchen in the Smithsonian, for Taylor.

The Smithsonian Castle

The Washington Monument

I think that this one might be the Korean War Memorial, but I can't remember!

From inside the Lincoln Memorial. I went with Margaret, Jackie, and Stephanie.

The Washington Monument in the background as we walked along the Vietnam Memorial.

North side of the White House

Random Tree!