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| All my loves are off to the Father Daughter Dance this evening. This is one of our favorite Cincinnati traditions. I get dress shopping and all the glamour time before the dance and Tommy gets a night out with these 3 beauties. They eat dinner, get their pictures taken and then dance under a disco ball with Daddy and many of their friends. I am anxiously awaiting their return so I can hear all about it. |
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| After having to cancel three times, due to various sickness (thank you winter), we finally got to have the Bowles Family over Friday night to celebrate Reagan's baptism. We had dinner and cake, she received some precious gifts and we played Disney Cranium. The kids beat the parents. Thankful for the sweet friendship we have with them and that they were eager to help us celebrate Reagan's big day. |
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| We aren't huge football fans at our house, so when Super Bowl rolls around each year, we are always up for a party with good food and friends, but we rarely care about the game. |
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| This year was different. If we have any loyalty to an NFL team it is the Broncos. We went to several games, courtesy of the Coke Suite, when we lived there. Plus, our Gracyn is a native Denver girl, so this is her team. |
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| Needless to say, the game didn't go as we had hoped! But we still had so much fun at the Bowles' house. The girls played, we visited and we ate WAY TOO MUCH yummy food. |
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| Gracyn had the class pet, Rusty the Raccoon, for the weekend. So, she watched the game with him. |
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| We gave up at halftime and came home to put the girls to bed. |
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| Sad day for the Broncos, but at least I had these adorable game-day socks to support them! |
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| Our favorite twins turned 5 a few weeks ago and they had a super big party, that was fun for the whole family!! They rented the ice skating rink, had pizza and cookies and had two very talented face painters. |
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| Gracyn, of course has to have her picture with her eyes crossed. Always. |
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| Gracyn and Tessa, the birthday girl. |
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| Smart Moms stay off the ice skates! I can roller skate with the best, but on the ice, I stick with shoes and stroll around with my girls that way! |
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| Gracyn and the birthday boy Camden. Also known as her boyfriend. These 2 are like a little married couple. They insist they are getting married someday. Gracyn practices what her name will be and plans where they will live. It nearly gives her Daddy a heart attack. I think she chose well and if she sticks with him, we are blessed! :) |
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| Daddy's brave. He wears skates. Even though, he wears a 15 and they never have bigger than a 13. He doesn't let a few cramped toes ruin his fun. |
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| Pretty Girls. |
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| This morning, our sweet Reagan was baptized. That is her cheering section front and center. The Sphire Family and her sisters were right up front. She had several other friends coming, but plans changed when she got a tummy bug and her baptism was moved from Saturday evening to Sunday morning. |
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| There she is waiting with such excitement. The worship team was playing, "This is Amazing Grace", a song we love and sing often. I was praying and praying over her that she would hold tight to her faith and seek God her WHOLE life. |
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| Going in....we are having one of the coldest winters on record ever in Cincinnati and the heater for the pool was broken. They had been filling it with boiling water throughout the morning, but it was COLD. |
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| Done!!! |
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| Reagan's school is huge! I am not sure exact numbers, but they have between about 1500 to 2000 kids in the building. They house all of kindie, first grade and a portion of 2nd grade for the entire district. The numbers seem overwhelming, but they manage it incredibly well. Reagan came home a few weeks ago telling me her teacher talked to her principal about speech for her. The child has been speaking in paragraphs since 18months old, so I had no idea what she could be talking about. Her principal called me a few hours later. Reagan was chosen, out of all the children on her campus, to represent her school at an upcoming school board meeting. They had one student from each of our 5 campuses come to deliver a speech about what leadership means to them and present a gift to the board members to thank them for their leadership. Reagan wrote her own speech and practiced for a few weeks leading up the event. That night, she was amazing! She carried her self with poise and confidence. She spoke clearly into the microphone, while making eye contact with her audience. Then she walked to the board member she had been assigned, thanked him personally, shook his hand and presented him with his gifts all in a crowded room full of adults. We were so proud of her. Here are a few pictures from the evening. Daddy raced in from the airport to be here and brought her flowers. The pictures of the speech were taking during the practice time beforehand, so the conference room was empty. Once the meeting began it was a full house. It was great to see the school board meeting take place and see and hear from the people making decisions for our town. I was so impressed with our districts determination to go above and beyond and provide a great learning experience for all their students. We were honored to play a part in the evening. |
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| Looking back over winter break, most of the pictures were on my phone. This was the kick-off to the season, our annual Christmas party at church for Children's Ministry teachers and helpers. Addison was asked to lead the opening prayer and had no problem jumping on stage in front of 200ish people, grabbing a microphone and praying. |
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| We spent lots of time snuggled by the fire, in warm pj's, playing games. |
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| If the fireplace is on, Maggie is never far away. I love this dog. |
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| We sang Christmas Carols, with Reagan's Daisy Troop at a local retirement home. |
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| There were school parties. 3 on the same day, overlapping times. It was pure chaos. Tommy took a vacation day and we managed to be all 3 places. |
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| We went to an AMAZING Christmas show at a church in downtown Cincinnati. AMAZING!!! Live music, dance, gymnastics, costumes, all telling the Christmas story. Tommy called it Church De Soliel. |
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| They had hot chocolate and cookies before the show. |
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| More jammie playtime....this time with some serious bed head!!! I have mentioned it before, but my kids wake up this way. It is part of my morning routine to work through this each and every day! If you happen to see them out on a Saturday, when there Daddy is in charge, they will look like this from the back. |
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| We made a day trip to Columbus to go to the American Girl store and do some other after Christmas gift card shopping! We discovered an amazing shopping center there, can't wait to go back without the kids. This time I only got to see American Girl, Justice and Barnes and Noble. |
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| This was in Columbus, too!!!! HAPPY MOMMY!!! I would drive the hour and a half there once a week to eat fried chicken if I could! Rumor has it Cane's is coming to Cincy in the next year....I hope they hurry. |
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| Gracyn went to a Pump it Up party with her preschool friends. |
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| We went to Dave and Busters with Camden and Tessa on a super cold day! This was a good substitute for Addison. She had a riding lesson scheduled for that day, but since it was 11 degrees, it got cancelled. |
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| Roller coaster simulator....hilarious! |
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| Our friends had a cousin working there, so we were set up with tokens and tickets!!! They must have played a hundred games each. We were there for hours and everyone came home with a big prize. Hopefully my kids had a great time, because we would never get to play that long if we were paying for it! |
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| Riding lessons in the snow. It had warmed to the 20's here, so we were back in business. My feet are usually so cold by the time we leave the barn that I can barely walk. But, my girl loves it regardless of the temperature, so off we go. |
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| Headbands. |
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| Did I mention it was cold? On this particular day, the wind chill was -30. The first 2 days back to school ended up cancelled because of unsafe temeratures. Miserable!!! |
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| We babysat 6 hermit crabs from the science lab at Addison's school. They were great pets, except for the one time the biggest crab pinched Gracyn and WOULD NOT LET GO. |
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| Miserable temps mean driving to the bus stop. Gracyn climbs up to the front, turns the seat warmers on, puts on my lipstick and acts like she's 15. The fun was had!!! But, after the 2 extra days, we were all ready last week to head back to school, routine and order. |
