Makayla's Team Banquet

Makayla had her first team banquet this year for Paula's School of Baton. She was so excited. It was a very emotional banquet for me of course. 10 graduating seniors will be leaving us. I have known most of these since they started more than 10 years ago. Enjoy some of the pictures below.

Here are the 10 graduating seniors with Paula and I. What a great bunch of girls we have.
Kelsey and I at her last PSOB banquet. I started teaching her private lessons when she was about 7 years old. Now she has grown into a beautiful young lady. She will be attending Purdue University in the fall to major in elementary education and will be twirling for the Boilermakers. Keep an eye out for her on TV. She will be competing at Nationals in July for Majorette Queen of America (highest title in baton) where she got runner-up last year. I will be cheering her on and working her hard this summer :) I will miss her so much!!!

This is Brittany Detz, another student who I have known for so many years. She to is graduating and will be attending Clemson University and twirling for the marching band. She will competing at Nationals in July as well for the same title as Kelsey. I will miss her too very much in the fall as she is so special and such a fun loving girl to be around. I will too be working her butt off this summer preparing her for Nationals. Good luck to you both!!

So here is my princess. Makayla and Kloey enjoying their team banquet together. They just love each other and love hanging out, dancing and having sleepovers! ALREADY!!!!

Miss Makayla and her team trophy for this year. Hopefully next year she will be moving to the Tiny Tot team! She is so excited!

Whale Watch to Boston

On May 14th, Matthew and I left for his 5th grade class trip to Boston for a whale watch! Here is Matthew early morning on Wednesday with some of his friends. It is a LONG trip to Boston with a bus full of 5th graders, but they were overall well behaved.
This was the first night at the hotel. They gave the kids a lecture about whales. Matthew with his classmates.
The day of the whale watch. Our hotel was gorgeous and right along the coast. Matthew and I after breakfast.

Here are some of Matthew's closest buddies. Bryce, Matt Yoder, Matthew and Payton. They were so excited!
Here is my roommate for the few days in Boston, and my closest friend for years, Tara! We had such a great time together with our boys.
Matthew, Payton, Ryan, and Connor on the boat heading out of Boston to see some whales!

Here is Boston, it was a gorgeous city. A little overcast that day but still a neat place to see.
And, WE SAW WHALES!! It was an awesome whale watch. The whales had just come up from the south and are very hungry so they did a lot of eating, which meant they stayed in the same area. The whales were very friendly and loved swimming underneath our boat and stopping to eat 3feet from the boat. We could have touched them. It was the greatest experience for the kids to see the whales that big in person.
Here is one of the whales with its mouth open eating fish. This is not a zoom, it was this close to our boat, we could see the inside of its mouth.

After the whale watch, we had time to spend in Boston for dinner and shopping. Here are the kids for dinner.
And the mom's having a drink or two!
Finally on our last day we stopped at Plymouth Plantation. This was the neatest thing. It was an exact replica of the plantation the pilgrams created when they came off the Mayflower. It was real life size with characters portraying the pilgrams. What a neat place to see, especially if you are into history.

Richmond 08

To begin our trip to Richmond, Matt decided to make a barstool racer. I wasn't to keen on the idea at first, but needless to say it turned out to be the hit of the race. EVERYONE we tailgated with loved them and now some of our friends want to make them too! Here is Matt enjoying his racer, REDNECK STYLE!!!
Here we are the day of the race tailgating! These are the girls showing off the shirts we made this year. The saying was "I don't blame you....(front) I'd want to do me too! (back) These were also a hit to others. They were such a hit that some guy wanted mine to take home to his wife, so I gave mine up!!!

And here are men in their shirts! Boobies Make Me Smile! I won't say more than that.
Here we are at the race. Getting ready for the National Anthem and the Blue Angels appearance.

Here is a picture of Kurt Busch's car when he wrecked in turn 3, right in front of us. That was pretty awesome, as the best part of the race for fans are the wrecks!!!

And the end to a good race! MOST of us were still able to smile, but NOT all :)

Next year Richmond 09!!!!

The Patient!

Well, I am sure you are all wondering what has been going on with us and why you haven't seen anything new. First week of May we were at the Race and had a great time. (Pictures are to come soon). Last week, I was on a 3 day field trip with Matthew to Boston for a whale watch. We had such a great time and it was awesome. We were able to see lots of whales, and probably could of touched them at the side of the boat that was how close they were, maybe 3ft!!! (Pictures to come as well soon)
Biggest news is, Matt made it through his surgery on Friday. He is trying to hang in there but is miserable. The surgery itself went fine, now its the healing. Matt is to be on crutches for 2 weeks. He is having a fair amount of pain right now. He is pretty much on the chair all day, occasionally tries to get up the steps but has to slide on his butt up and down. He had his first rehab appointment yesterday and made it through but it wasn't fun. He was pretty sore last night but acutally wanted to ride along to Kmart, I think he just needed to get out of the house!!! We all know Matt isn't into shopping. I think he is on the right track, but it will be a tough few weeks for him. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers that he has the strength to keep going and the patience to deal with it all. He is doing good so far, but he loves to hear from you all, so any calls and visits are great!!
Thanks to all who have made dinners for us and stopped by to see Matt. We really appreciate all of your love and support. The meals have made it easier for me to get the kids where they have to be, and keep watch on Matt. We love you all very much!
I promise to post some pics soon! Enjoy your memorial day weekend :)

Matthew Visits WVU!!!

Matthew was able to travel to West Virgina on April 19th for the Blue & Gold game. He went with his buddies Tim and Amanda McAdoo and had a wonderful time. Here are some pictures Matthew took throughout the day. He is so proud to be a WVU Mountaineer fan :)

Matthew and his buddy Tim enjoying the game. Tim was able to find Matthew a matching hat just like his!

Amanda and Matthew! We love you Amanda and congrats on finishing your first year at WVU!

Matthew was able to meet some of the WVU football players. Here he is getting his hat signed! He wasn't able to meet his favorites but maybe next time :)

Spring Has Arrived~

Spring has finally arrived and the kids are out to play. Here are a few pictures of the kids getting ready to enjoy their summer.

Here is Matt and the kids enjoying time on the swing set. Yes, Cami is joining them to. Matt has taught her how to climb the ladder and slide down the slide!

This is Mason pretending to hunt in our mulch bed. He attempted to climb that tree to pretend it was a tree stand but mommy didn't like that idea. So.....Daddy made him a tree stand in the big tree!! He climbs up a ladder and sits on his camo chair in the tree hunting his deer!!!!!!!!

Makayla's Regional Competition

Makayla had her Regional baton competition this past weekend. She did a great job again. She placed 3rd in modeling and 4th in her marching. Way to go!

Makayla looking so beautiful. She had a great time playing with her buddy Anna who competes in her same age division.

They are such good buddies that they even wanted to get matching outfits :)