Brittany's 5th Grade Program

Tonight was Brittany's 5th grade program at her school, and as part of it, she got to be Sacagawea, and also a 50's dancer.  I was so excited, because when she told me about the dance they were learning at school, I told her that if she got to wear a poodle skirt, that I wanted to make it (I just got a new sewing machine for Christmas).  She said to me - 'a what skirt?'.  Needless to say, now she knows what a poodle skirt is.  And then, she proceeded to draw up a 'sketch' of what exactly she wanted her poodle skirt to look like.  (I'm glad SHE had that much faith in my sewing abilities, because I was a little concerned.......  But it turned out great!

As Sacagawea, she's on the far left.

 

Wearing her poodle skirt

After the skirt was finished.  She said that it didn't have as many zigzags as she had on her 'sketch'; but she supposed it would work. :)

one more

so apparently her floor routine won't load.  I'll have to try it again tomorrow.

Brittany's State Gymnastics Meet

So, this past weekend, Brittany had her state gymnastics meet - and now, no more competition til December!  Yay!  Brittany's had a rough year with competition this year, due to her knees.  She was diagnosed with Osgood-Schlatter Disease , .  Basically, that's when the patella tendon pulls away from the tibia bone.  She finished well though, and now she gets some time off to heal up.  I've included her bars, beam, and floor routine.  Her Vault wasn't all that great, so I'm not putting it on here.

I am soo proud of Brittany - she is awesome!

Oy! A new post!

Okay, I'm obviously not a very good blogger . . . . . in case you hadn't noticed - BUT I'm really going to try to do better this year!  I promise. . . . really....
So, a quick recap in case anyone hasn't seen Lyndsey's blog; basically the past year of my life included running, and lots of it (gee thanks lyn :)).  Of course without Lyndsey setting the ridiculous goal of wanting to do a half-marathon last year, I certainly wouldn't have accomplished what I did (actually what WE - Becky, Lyndsey, and Me).  Let me tell you, 13.1 miles is NOT an easy thing to do!  I was so proud of all of us that we accomplished it.  Becky, of course kicked our butts like usual, I came in second, and Lyndsey right behind me.  Maybe that's because of birth order or something, I'm not sure..... 
Also, last year consisted of A LOT of yard work.  Don't get me wrong, I love where we live now, but the yard was not in the best condition it could've been. . . especially for a person who believes in minimal yard work (I definitely would do well in AZ with desert landscaping.)  So, I've included a few before and after pics of our work in the yard.  We still have a lot to do, and I'm hoping I will document with photos better, to show what the finished product will be, because we have great plans for the yard.  I will, slowly but eventually, replace most of my dirt with either concrete or rocks :)
So, without further delay, and in no particular order, I'm going to showcase pics over the past year, which may or may not bear any relevance on anything I've mentioned above.  I'm hoping to get this out of the way, and start fresh for the year.  I'm also going to post more of Britt's videos now that I know how.  Most of them will be practice videos, and therefore not very long, but its amazing what that kid can do!

 Me, Brittany, and Bryan at Grandma Luella's last B-day party.  I kept telling her she needed to stick around because we were going to have a great 100th for her - she told me she hoped we had fun, but she had no intentions of being there!  We miss you Grandma :)

Turkey Trot 2010 - Not NEARLY as nice of weather as in AZ, but we managed - it was around 12* when we started.  It was Brittany's first race, and she did great!  We all did great!!

Our 2010 hike up Timp - I'm not sure what I was doing, doing this a week after running a half-marathon..... wait, yes I do.  Becky was doing it, and I couldn't let her beat me :) 

FINALLY!! Posted pics of the house!  Let me tell you, I think the previous owners picked out every bush/tree/plant they could find that was covered in thorns, because I have been poked, prodded, scraped, and cut by dang near everything I've ripped out of the yard so far!

 Yeah, in the pic below, most of the shrubs are gone on the left (two left, which will be gone come spring), all of the pavers have been moved out back, the crap growing on the right side - all gone.  Ugly tree in the middle...still there.  Found out it would cost too much to have it removed to Lyndsey's house, so it'll just get torn down come spring.  This area will be turned into a concrete courtyard :)

 

 different view of same area - notice the ugly tree.  the horrible shrubs on the left are now gone!

Back yard.  On the left has been our main focus.  Believe it or not, there's retaining walls under all the weeds.  The neighbors behind us were surprised as well, after we uncovered them.  The grass is not in the best condition.

And since I can't find any pics right now of some of the 'after' pics, I'll add them next. And I promise it won't be that long til I do!

testing vlog - video blog

testing, testing. . . . hello? I"m testing my ability to upload videos to the blog :)

Brittany's beam routine from a couple of weeks ago.



Brittany's bar routine from a couple weeks ago.

Happy Birthday to two special people!

So, Happy Birthday wishes are in order! First, to my wonderful daughter Brittany :-). 10. . . 10!! years ago today, this wonderful baby entered my life, and it hasn't been the same since! She was my pride and joy then, and continues to be every day!

Brittany at 1 day old

This is her this morning, with her new 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' book she's been asking/begging for for months!

And one from when we were camping last week - such a beautiful girl!

And, next, my big brother Bryan also has a Birthday today! I'm very fortunate to have such a great big brother! Happy Birthday to Bryan! (not that he'll probably ever see this)

Complete and Utter Randomness

Well, first off, I'm not dead; although from the lack of posting, you may think so :). I always vow I'm going to update the blog; then I get sidetracked and it's always 'the next thing' I'm going to do after. . . . So, I finally got to it! I apologize about the number of pics, but I figured I better get it all in now and be caught up, so here goes:

Me and my girlfriends Tosha and Jennifer at Tosh's Christmas Party

My new scuba mask that Santa brought me!

Brittany and 'Toad'

We took a family trip to Mexico over New Years, and had a fabulous time, even though it was quite chilly!

Brittany and Bryan jumping the waves in the ocean.

Then we buried her in the sand :)

We had wine on Tap! And I thought 'boxed wine' was bad. . .

Us

The swimming pool where we spent most of our time.We go to the ocean, and the only place Brittany wanted to go was the pool?! - We could've went to the local Motel 6 for the weekend! Except when we went snorkeling - she loved that! Took to it like a fish to water, even touching them!

Whitney and Tyson

As most people know, my Grandma Fox recently died, so these are a few pics from the funeral.

My aunts and uncles - Kenny, Kaye, Barbara, Eldwinn, and Jeanine

Mom and Fred, and Aunt Lona - and Brent in the background.

Tyson and Brady - don't they look handsome? I love this picture.

And, now last but not least - my new hobby! Knitting! This is what I've spent my winter doing, is learning to knit. It's something I've been meaning to learn for about 10 years or so, and I finally have gotten around to it (although, to be honest, I can only knit two things - washcloth and slippers.) My Aunt Jeanine used to make us knitted slippers and we all love them, and Aunt Jeanine that eventually she'd quit making them for us, so we really ought to learn how to do it. . . . . Well, now I can! Of course when I made my first slipper and showed Lyndsey, she said 'it's not Aunt Jeanine's slipper'. Well, no, it's not, because I don't know how to make Aunt Jeanine's slippers! I need to sit down with her and learn them. So, below are my projects:

These are so tiny, I had to put them next to a drink coaster to show the exact size. I was almost out of yarn, so I had to make some adjustments, but they turned out way cute!