Christmas 2010

Here are pictures from around the tree, our visit with Santa, and our four celebrations!

My surprise party!

Thank you so much to all of my friends and family that made this possible! You guys are awesome! The pictures are from Betsy (of course)!

USAG Level 2/3 State Gymnastics Championships!

We traveled down on Friday night to get ready for the State Meet! As you can tell by the pictures we had a lot of family fun! Gracie did not have her best meet, she said she was actually nervous this time (which is a first). Despite her dips in scores on the beam and floor, she brought home 2nd place on the bars and 6th all around! Now she is just ready to move on to level 3!

The Gators, Dudley Farm, and Gymnastics!

On Friday night we stopped in and visited with the "The Gators" in Gville, and after a nice visit we hopped on the road to head to Lake Mary. On the way we stopped in Newberry, FL to visit Dudley Farm State Park, a working farm that dates back before the Civil War. They were making cane syrup that day, which was really cool. Once we arrived in Lake Mary the kids had to swim in the heated pool, and we were joined shortly by other team members. Sunday morning it was competition mode! The level 2's rocked Lake Mary bringing home first place! Gracie did her personal best on the beam and the bars.

The North Florida Fair

On Monday night we went to the fair on "carload" night with the Cardozas. Only $55 for all of us! There was so much to do we couldn't fit it all in during the 4.5 hours we were there!

Veteran's Day Parade

I have heard that for a community the size of Wakulla we have the most parades, and I believe it (thanks to Cory Cardoza for that fact). The kids and I (Wes was working)braved the cold to go out and salute Veteran's for their service at our local Veteran's Day Parade. Of course the kids thought it was awesome, because their Halloween candy was replenished!

Trick or Treat 2010

It was really cute to see Wyatt enjoy trick-or-treating this year. He was running to each house, he knew exactly what to do and he didn't need much help. We had a vampire, a zombie doctor, and a skeleton this year to trick or treat with. The Cardoza's and the Rutledge's have the perfect neighborhood to trick or treat in, so Tina invited us all over for chili dogs, chips, dip, cookies, boo cups, and lava cake! We were stuffed, but still managed to down a little candy too.

Gracie's 3rd competition at Trousdell Gym in Tallahassee!

So gymnastics is an awesome sport, but let me tell you never know what will happen and it's so subjective. However our princess continues to shine! Gracie's first event was the beam (her least favorite) and she was first to go! Her forward roll was great and then plop she slid off of the beam and then stumbled getting back on to the beam, so that counted as two falls. I felt so bad for her, she started crying when she was finished (she did hold it together to finish her routine). Her last practice before the competition went so well that one of her coaches had scored like a 9.2 or 9.3 on the beam, oh well, maybe next time! Luckily things got better from there on out. She scored a 9.250 on the floor bringing on home third place, a 9.025 on the uneven bars to win 4th place, and a 9.0 on the vault to bring home 7th place. All four events added together gave her 8th all around. After the competition we met up with some of the team at Barnaby's for some pizza!

Bengal Football Ends!

Last weekend wrapped up tackle football for Zac this season. Zac played a lot of Offensive line, but also played nose guard and safety. He had great coaches and he really seemed to enjoy it. Victor's Restuarant sponsored our team, so we had our end of the season party there.

Gracie's fieldtrip to the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge

Last week I was able to chaperone Gracie's fieldtrip. It seems like tradition that every year the first graders get to visit the refuge when the butterflies are migrating south. The kids were split into two groups, while one group walked along a path and learned about the butterflies habits and migrations another group played a game and learned what obstacles the butterflies experience when migrating. After that it was time for lunch, so we drove down to Picnic Pond and enjoyed the nice fall weather.

The Starlight Invite

On Friday night we headed over to Gainesville to spend time with Jason, Betsy, Wil, and Elsie. Unfortunately I didn't taken any pictures. We filled up on tacos, talked, and watched Ghost Busters. The next morning Betsy and I went for a 3.5 miles jog! Around lunch on Saturday we traveled to Jacksonville for Gracie's 2nd competition. Gracie improved in three of the four events, we are so proud! Her beam score actually went down a little (despite not falling off this time), but from what we understand the judges were judging more along the lines of what we will see at the state competition. We are using this experience as a positive one, because now we know what needs to be worked on. The competition was a lot more stiff, but Gracie rose to the occasion bringing home 3rd place on the vault, 4th on the bars, 6th on her floor routine, and 6th all around. After the occasion we met up with a quite a few teammates at Steak-n-Shake (kids eat free on the weekend). Zac was able to hang out with Hunter and Fisher, I really don't think they watched the competition at all.

Wyatt turns 2!

On 10-10-10 Wyatt turned 2 years old! We already had our house decorated for Halloween so we decided to have a Halloween birthday party! We were blessed to have our family and the Cardoza family (mine as well be family) join us for the celebration. We had spider cake, mummy dogs, ghost cookies, monster munch, candied apples, and sandwiches for our mid-afternoon snack. It was great to catch up with family that we haven't seen in a while. Wyatt received clothes, books, and a few cool trucks to play with.

Gracie's first gymnastics competition!

We are so proud of Gracie! She won 1st place on the bars, 2nd place all around, 2nd place on the floor, 3rd place on the vault, and 4th on the beam. Had she not fallen off of the beam she would have won 1st place all around (.5 of a point automatically taken off at her level and age). We are very proud! She's awesome! Gracie's team won 2nd place. Aunt Stacy, Courtney, Alex, and Papa came to cheer her on. Afterwards Papa treated us to Sonny's, yum!

Zac's first tackle football jamboree

Saturday morning was a long morning at the Rec Park: 8:30 to weigh in, 9:30 a game, and 11:30 another game. Zac had a pretty good jamboree, his team won one and lost one. He played safety and offensive lineman. He seems to really enjoy it so far!

War Eagle Football

After Zac's practice we headed over to the high school for the first home game of the season. The War Eagles crushed East Gadsden 48 to 12! (something like that...:) )

Zac's 9th Birthday!

The celebration started the day before Zac's birthday when Pa-pa came over and brought us pizza. On Zac's birthday I took cupcakes for his class, but there was no celebration that night due to gymnastics and football practice. We decided to have a small party this year, so on Sunday afternoon we had the Cardozas, the Rentz family, and Aunt Stacy over for burgers and smores. The boys spent the night with us, and they were all well behaved.

First day of school!

Wow, the last couple of weeks have been a whirl wind! I went back to work on August 5th and the kiddos started on August 12th. This year is busy already. Wyatt started daycare for the first time, we have Gracie's competitions around the corner, Zac will be playing tackle football for the first time, Wes started his new morning shift, and I am now a part-time dean and I teach 3 periods.