Trip to Ohio.......

The past two weekends have been crazy with baton for Makayla. Two weekends ago we were at a local competition. Kelsey was home from Purdue on spring break and was able to compete. Below is a great picture of Makayla and Kelsey. Don't they just look fabulous!!!!!! This past weekend, Makayla and I headed out to Ohio for a competition. Another road trip with PSOB!!! It was of course a lot of fun as trips with Paula usually are. I had the pleasure of driving this time, and I got stuck with a van full of girls! They were great and they came in handy helping out with Makayla while I was driving. Below are the girls (Morgan, Makayla, Amanda, and Kylie) watching and singing to High School Musical. I am not sure if it was 2 or 3 as we watched both of those movies at least 3 times or more thorughout the trip.
Makayla already to model!!

At the end of a long day, she just couldn't stay up to see what her award would be.....

It turned out to be great! She won her age division "Lake Erie Starlet 4-6." Below she is being crowned by Hunter. She did a great job and was happy to win another banner. Daddy made her a shelf for her room and all of her trophies, since she needs it already. How many more years of trophies..........

Anna and Makayla (best friends) FINALLY won a banner together at the same time. It always seems that they win at different contests and never together but this weekend they did it together. Great job girls!!

Well we left for home immediately following the competiton on Saturday. This is about 10pm watching HSM 2 or 3 again!

And this is about 1:30am still driving....... Makayla kept waking up saying she was hot. That explains the unbuttoned shirt, hahahahaha

And this is about 2:15am on Rt 283. I was really struggling to make it home but thanks to the girls for singing and keeping me awake, we made it home safely. Thanks for a great trip girls! Good luck at Regionals coming up in a few weeks.

I will keep you posted on the rest of the family. For now, we are crazy busy running around from practice to practice, etc.... I don't have any current pics of the others but will start to work on that soon. Matthew has started soccer, so pictures of his games will follow. He is VERY ready for school to be over. It has been a stressful year for both him (and me) adjusting to the life of a middle schooler. As for Mason, he is still going with the flow. He loves Kindergarten, and is ready for baseball to start. Matt is not real busy at work but hoping it will pick up soon. He is ready for fishing to start, and I am ready for summer!!!!!!!!!!!

I will keep in touch, have a great rest of the week everyone!

Great News......

Well I am..........going to be an Aunt again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH, I am so excited. Michael and Christy just found out, so we have a while to wait until the next Madara baby arrives! She is due around November 15th, maybe she will have it a week early on Mason's birthday :) Congrats to you both and to Bode who will be a big brother.

In other news, not much going on with us. I haven't blogged lately because I haven't had much to report. Still busy as always. Matthew started spring soccer practice last night, so that will be running now 2 days a week. Mason is signed up for T-ball again and thinks he wants to do swim team. We will see about that! Makayla is still doing her baton thing, competition this weekend. As for Matt and I we just do all of the running. Matt is ready for the fishing season to begin and I am just ready for school to be out, and summer to be here!!!!!

I will keep in touch with you all, if anything new comes up! Have a great weekend :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY.........

Happy 1st Birthday Bode!!! You are so special and that smile of yours just melts my heart!

We love you :)

Uncle Matt, Aunt Jamie, and your cousins- Matthew, Mason, Makayla

Exciting News......

This evening was very exciting at our house. Mason was playing with Daddy, and as he was walking up the steps he said "my tooth" and ran to the bathroom. Here he lost his upper front tooth. Of course we were excited because we thought it was the loose one that was way crooked for quite sometime. Needless to say it was the tooth beside it! So 20 minutes later, guess what?????? The crooked one came out!!! Yes with a little help from Mason wiggling it and Daddy doing some tugging, it popped out!!! Now he has NO FRONT TEETH!!! To cute and such exciting news of Mason's that we had to share some photos :)

Nice Weekend

This weekend was very nice. On Friday we went for our evening supper to Gimmie's with my parents. Then I decided to try Giant for my grocery shopping this week. I have been trying to follow the latest guidelines of shopping cheap and with coupons, making meals based on what's on sale, etc... so I thought I would give Giant a try. I am a die hard Darrenkamps shopper, however I do have to say it was much cheaper and I really liked Giant. I will probably be going back there this week. Takes time to plan suppers around what's on sale and cutting coupons but hey, any amount of money saved is well worth it! Saturday I got up and headed to the studio to teach for a few hours. Once done, I cleaned my house with the help of my children. We then headed for a nice dinner at Damon's. We met one of my patients from years ago who has became a great friend. I met Shannon when she came to be a part of my study back in 04. I was able to help her and her husband get pregnant with Ellie who is a few months younger than Makayla. They just had a little boy Cayden, who we haven't been able to meet yet until now. We don't get to see them much because they live pretty far away, but once or twice a year we try to make sure we meet up. Dinner was great, the kids were well behaved and it was a great night. Today we headed to Sunday School and then church service, came home put on some sweats and chilled the rest of the day. I took the time to clean out my messy closet of junk at my house. Since our house is so old, there is limited closest in the house so we seem to have made a junk closet which was in need of a cleaning. With the help of my mom, I was then able to go through all my pictures I have printed of the kids and put them in date order to start scrapbooking again. I have thousands of pictures to do. I stopped at Matthew age 6 so I have lots to do but at least I am organized and ready to get started again! Now I just have to find the time :) Watching the race with Matt and getting very sleepy. Ready for bed and a busy Monday at work! Great weekend, hope you all had a good one.
FYI: Wasn't able to post the video of Matt in the tree stand, can't rotate it! Sorry :(

Valentine Mountain Weekend

This weekend we were able to head to Potter County with friends for a fun weekend. We left on Friday around dinner and stayed until Monday. Pretty uneventful trip up except for Matt breaking the back window in his truck. He hit a bump and his 4-wheeler hit the window and shattered the whole thing. Needless to say it was Friday the 13th so something was bound to go wrong. Once we arrived we settled in and hit the sack, at least the ladies did. The men on the other hand stayed up until all hours.

Matt and Brandon on Sat am collecting fire wood for the fireplace. The guys (Brandon, Matt B, and Matt) heading out to work on hanging Matt's new homemade tree stand. Us ladies, we enjoyed the warm indoors watching movies till they returned.
It was starting to snow and the guys wanted to get us out of the house so we went for a 4-wheeler ride. Devon and Brandon below all bundle and ready to go!

Matt and Ani

On Sunday we decided to not stay in the house for the day. Us girls went along with the guys to finalize the hanging of the tree stand. We parked the 4-wheelers and hiked into the woods where Matt will be hunting in the fall. Needless to say there was about a foot of snow in some places. Devon had some trouble walking in the woods, and couldn't figure out how to stay on her feet.

The guys doing the tree stand.....

while we sat and watched!!!!!

Matt in the tree! Video to come of the final project.

Our guys!

After finishing the tree stand hanging, we wanted to take our friends over to BigFoot's place. This was built years ago in the middle of the woods. It is a popular site in Potter County and once you arrive you have to sign the book saying you were there! Matt and I at BigFoot!

After a very long 4-wheeler ride on Sunday, we came home to relax. Ani cooked us a wonderful dinner and then we were planning on playing some games and just hanging out. Needless to say from the cold wind and weather and the long ride, none of us made it very long that night! We all crashed on the couches!

It was a great weekend and I thank our friends for a great time. I especially want to thank my mom for watching our children. We can't thank you and dad enough and we love you!!!

Our Valentine Princess......

What a great weekend we had. Sat night we spent it at Michael and Christy's Bar Party. I was able to sit and catch up with old friends, which was great. Michael and Christy have done such a nice job on their house,

looks good guys :)

Sunday Makayla and I had competition.... and she won her 1st baton title. She is now "Valentine Princess Special Beginner 4-6"!!! Yeah Makayla :) She got 3 firsts and 1 second out of 5 girls in her division. She had such a good day and is so excited to wear and show everyone her first banner!!!!!!!

Here she is getting her banner and trophy from Brooke. Brooke (Petite Majorette Princess of America) and our Valentine Sweetheart!

All of our winners from yesterday with our reigning queens Hunter and Brooke!

Here she is.....so excited!

Showing Daddy her banner and all her trophies from yesterday!

WAY TO GO MAKAYLA!