State Gymnastics Meet 2014

We spent the weekend in Greenbay.  Liv qualified to compete in the state meet for gymnastics and won the All-Around Grand Championship for her age group.  It was a fun, long weekend.  

Friday night we drove up after school.  Liv competed first thing Saturday morning, since she is in one of the younger age divisions.  She had a great meet, with her best all around score.  

Here are a few pictures before the meet and during warm ups.

Here are Liv's scores.  

Floor Routine (9.300 First Place):

Bar Routine (9.475 First Place):

Beam Routine (9.325 First Place):

I don't have a video of her vault (9.150 Seventh Place) because we couldn't actually see it from where we were sitting.

Here is a video at the end with Liv being announced as the 2014 State Gymnastics All Around Champion for her age!

As a team, they took 4th place in State of Wisconsin.  

The event was held at the Shopko Center, which is right across from Lambeau field.  We ate lunch at Lambeau field on Saturday and walked around the Pro Shop. 

The kids also had fun playing in the hotel pool with all their friends.  Ethan and Cole LOVED being surrounded by all the cute little gymnasts.  

It was a great weekend and we are so proud of Liv and all her hard work.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had company this weekend for Thanksgiving.  Shawn's mom and dad flew in Tuesday evening and we had a great time with them.  The boys had fun playing chess with Grandpa, and Liv and Grandma played a few other games.

Ethan became so confident in his chess abilities over this weekend, that at school yesterday he challenged one of his friends.  He didn't realize until after, but this friend is in the Chess club at school and took 3rd in the school competition.  Ethan didn't win that round :) but he continues to play and have fun.

We decided to head out for Thanksgiving Dinner.  We went to Maggiano's for the all-you-can eat dinner.  It was delicious and we came home with a fridge full of wonderful leftovers.

We set up our Christmas tree and went to the store and bought our annual christmas ornaments.

Shawn: Pepe Le Pew (from Looney Tunes)

Jenn:  Baloo and Mowgli (from the Jungle Book)

Ethan: Gore (49ers player)

Cole: Aaron Rogers (Packers QB)

Liv: Christmas Pinball game

We spent some time over the weekend at SkyZone to burn off some energy.

 Here is Liv and her friend Isa.

Liv figured out that she could do several back handsprings in a row at Sky Zone.  She spent most of her time doing that.  I warned her to slow down and take a break so she wouldn't get sick, but she refused to listen.  She came home later and spent the rest of the day throwing up :)

 Shawn and I went to Cole' school today and watched him participate in the Wax Museum.  He dressed up as a famous person and gave a report.  Cole chose Elvis Presley and did a great job.

The last thing we did this week was start our daily Christmas Advent Wreath.  This is a new thing this year where we will light a candle and read a scripture every night until Christmas Eve about the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

There is an old man who comes every day to the place where Liv takes gymnastics.  His name is Grandpa Pete.  His granddaughter used to take gymnastics there and he would come to watch her, but she has since quit.  He is retired and bored most of the day.  He found that he enjoyed watching the girls practice.  So he still comes every day.  He brings popsicles in the summer for the girls after practice and boxes of candy bars in the winter.  The girls love him.  He comes to their meets and he has a notebook where he keeps track of the girls progress.  At first I thought it was a little creepy, but as I have gotten to know him I actually think its really sweet.  

There is a boy in Cole's school class named Jeremiah.  He has cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair.  He is nonverbal and uses visual cards to help communicate.  Cole started talking about Jeremiah shortly after the first day of class.  Cole has such a soft heart and is truly concerned about him.  His teacher told me at parent teacher conference how amazingly helpful Cole is with Jeremiah.  He is always trying to help him and on one occasion when his aid wasn't paying attention, Cole was able to step in and help Jeremiah when he was becoming agitated and very frustrated.  

So proud of Cole and his big heart !

Update

We've had some mean, cold weather the past few weeks.  In fact, we actually got our first shovel worthy snowfall.  It happened to be on a day when Shawn was gone for 24 hours, which left the kids and I to shovel off our HUGE driveway, with only one shovel.  It was long and painful.  The kids tried to help, but they mostly spent time shoveling shapes and patterns in the snow :(  Shawn came home and bought a snow blower the next day...that made me really happy!

The boys are still loving their winter soccer leagues, and indoor futsal trainings with their teams.  They are true boys and spend lots of time talking and playing aggressive (and at times even a little dirty).  I find myself constantly telling them they need to play nice or I won't let them play.  Shawn is the worst, he actually encourages the rough aggressive play on the field.  He's crazy!

I went with Ethan last Sunday to his Priesthood Preview.  He turns 12 in May and will receive the Priesthood.  I started to cry during the opening song when we sang, "we are as the armies of Helaman".  It touched me that he was getting so grown up and would soon be receiving the power of God and be part of His army.

We had Parent Teacher Conferences this week also.  The kids all did great.  I love all their teachers and they are so wonderful and loving with my kids.  

Last Saturday I received a text from a dear friend.  She told me that her husband had been in a car accident and was killed.  It was shocking to say the least.  My friend is 12 weeks pregnant with their first child.  I went to the funeral this past week at a local Presbyterian church.  It was beautiful and amazing.  My heart is broken for my sweet friend.  I cried all the way home.  It reminded me how precious life is and that I am so glad I know we will get to see our loved ones again.

In our down time we are enjoying watching the Packers have an amazing season. 

Shawn and I headed to the Chicago Temple the other day after the kids left for school.  It was a beautiful session.  After we headed to BurgerFi, at the recommendation of our friends, and it was amazing.  Huge onion rings, amazing burgers, and a key lime custard.  We will definitely do that again.

My boys are either fighting or best friends.  This was a best friend moment so I had to take a picture :)

Liv had her last gymnastics meet as a Level 3 this past weekend.  She did amazing.  She has two weeks left to practice and prepare for the State Meet.  I am so proud of her and all her hard work.

All American Concert

Tonight we went to Cole's 4th grade concert.  It was the "All American" concert and they sang different songs from around the world.

Here is Cole looking handsome!

Cole even got to participate in an Irish Jig.  See video below....

And, at the end they did a Conga line.  Cole got to be in one of the lines in the audience, and on the other side of the auditorium Ethan and Liv joined in with the Conga.  You can see them for a quick second if you watch closely.  

It was a great concert.  It wasn't too long and they kids sang fun songs and had a great time!

Birthday

We celebrated Shawn's birthday today.  It was a busy day with lots of running around.  We opened gifts in the morning and then sent the kids off to school.  I went with Shawn to work this morning for a few hours.  I sat in the waiting room and read a book until he was done.   After he finished working we did some shopping and went out to lunch.  We spent the evening running the kids around to gymnastics and soccer and then finished with a Red Velvet Cake for dessert.

For Shawn's birthday this year he got some new work clothes, a list from Liv with the 10 things she loves about him, and a painting.

One of the things we quickly learned when we moved in our new house is that we didn't have any art to hang on our bare walls.  So we started looking around, trying to find something that actually means something to us.  There is a lot of amazing art, but we wanted it to be meaningful to us.  

We got this art of the place we were married, The Salt Lake Temple, a few weeks ago for above our fireplace.  We love it!

Years ago Shawn saw a painting, it's called The Doctor by Sir Luke Fildes.  For some reason this painting really touched Shawn.  The artist was commissioned to do a painting for a family and they wanted him to choose the topic.  The artist had an experience previously when one of his children was sick and eventually died.  During this experience he was so touched by the compassion of the Doctor who helped their family through this time and that is what he wanted to paint.  

The picture shows a doctor in deep thought looking at a sick child.  Shawn say's this reminds him of what he does each day.  He sits by the bedside of small helpless babies and worries and thinks about what he could do to help them.  In the back corner of the picture is the mother with her head down on a desk in grief, and the father standing behind her trying to be strong, but with worry in his eye.  It's a beautiful and very meaningful picture for Shawn and I.  So I knew that I wanted to get it for him for his birthday.  The problem is that this painting was done in 1890, and prints were not in current circulation.  I was able to find a company that would hire an artist to recreate this oil painting.  I ordered it in the largest size we could and when it arrived I took it to get frames.  It's beautiful and Shawn loved it.  

I can't wait to hang it up in his office!

We survived this past weekend in Madison at Liv's meet.  She did wonderful and got her best all around score yet.  She had a lot of fun hanging out with her gymnastics team at the hotel.  Cole and Ethan did their best do tease all the girls.  

You can see them hanging around with the girls in the pool :)

Ethan accidentally ordered his first coffee this week.  It was funny, he ordered a caramel drink, thinking it would be a hot chocolate with caramel.  But it was loaded with coffee, so we had to send it back.  He was really embarrassed after he realized what he ordered.  It was funny.

Cole is a feisty little soccer player on his indoor team.  I have parents (most that I don't even know) stop me all the time and ask if I am Cole's mom.  They all tell me how much they love watching him play.  He's crazy!

November 7th

We tested out our backyard fire pit this past weekend.
It worked perfectly and the kids had a blast.

It's November and it's getting cold.  We even had snow on the ground Halloween morning.

The temps are in the low 40s, but my boys continue to dress like it is summer every morning.  Here they are getting on the bus in shorts.  The bus picks them up at the bottom of our driveway.  It's awesome!

We are heading out of town this weekend for a gymnastics meet.  Since soccer is over for the outdoor season we reserved a hotel and the whole family is going.  We thought it would be fun to make it a family weekend.  We will probably go see a movie, go out to dinner, do a little swimming and whatever else we can find to do in between all the gymnastic events.