My Dancing Princess!

Everyone that knows me knows that I absolutely love and adore my nieces and nephews. I love being an aunt (TT) and can't believe how blessed I have been by these little people. Being a mom is amazing, but loving your siblings childen like your own is so special. Not only do you see your sister or brother being parents, which is cool, but seeing people made from them is awesome.

Because I don't have any little girls and Rachel doesn't let me dress her up anymore (weird, huh?) I have adopted my nieces (Emma, Ally, and Lilly) as my personal princess projects (see Bippity Boppity Boutique blog post). I have very girly nieces and I am fortunate that they put up with me. When Emma was born, she was the first girl born in our family since my sister was born and I had a basket of dress up clothes and accessories ready for her before she was even walking.

Ally is the dancer in the family and she had her first dance recital in December. I can't even tell you how cute it was. My sister had let me take her to dance class a couple of times, but you don't get the full affect until you see her all dressed in her outfit and on a stage.

This dance recital was quite the production. My sister had to stand in line and purchase tickets. It packed an entire high school auditoriam. When she started, I went from crying because I was so proud to be her TT and she was so beautiful to crying because she made me laugh so hard. To see a 3 year old do her version of the dance her instructor taught her was hilarious. She did a dance to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and she did an amazing job. After the recital, I had to present her with a bouquet of flowers as each dancer should have. She was not really sure why I was giving her flowers, then mommy and daddy gave her flowers, then her godparents gave her flowers. She was like "ok, thanks" and didn't know what to do with them.

Please enjoy these photos of my dancing queen. I am so proud to be her TT.

What a difference a year can make!

A year ago today, we were starting our week long cruise to the the Carribbean!

Today, we are sitting in the house wrapping presents, putting up decorations, and preparing for the holidays while a blizzard is surrounding us outside.

It was 85 degrees then, and today it is 13 degrees outside. Brrrr!

Oddly enough though, I am pleased and quite content.

Rachel and Mason have been gone for about 2 weeks with their mom and they came home this morning. It is nice to have them home and I finally feel complete with our whole family at home, like I can start the holiday season now with them here. The Broncos were away today, so I had my husband at home too. That doesn't happen on Sunday's very often. I have beef stew in the crockpot and the Christmas tree lights are on.

As my niece would say, I am happy! :)

Proud Parents!

Brady decided to go out for basketball at school this year. He will play on the 5th/6th Grade JV Team. It is a team mostly made up of 6th graders, but the 5th graders have the opportunity to play a couple of games and learn from the older kids. The 5th graders don't get to travel with the team for away games unless it is their game to play (they each get to play in atleast 4 games).

Well, Brady was pulled out of class yesterday by the Coach and asked if he would want to play with the 6th graders and be on the travelling team. He is soo excited! The best part is that his very good friend, Corey was asked too. They are the only two 5th graders that were asked, so it is a big deal. We are so proud of him. They got their uniforms, he is #40, and he played his first game tonight.

Unfortunately, they lost their first game, 26 - 32, but they did a great job and Brady got to play for awhile. He did a good job and had a couple shots on net, but no big points for him... yet! I know he will be great, he is very passionate about it and is working very hard.

Brian is really excited too, I've never known him to like basketball very much, but I tell you what, he is loving this new sport. We had a great time at the game tonight, and are looking forward to many more with some wins hopefully. I may need to visit Dr. Chad more often, those benches are painful. Maybe Santa will bring us some of those dorky, parent, folding bench chairs we can carry with us to all of the games. I'm also going to get a new "Basketball Mom" shirt to replace my "Soccer Mom" shirt for a few months.

Anyway, Brady's basketball schedule is posted on the top, right corner of the blog. I will keep you all updated with his new found sport. That's it for now...

The finale to "Birthday Week" for Brady

Well Brady's actual Birthday was spent with him still laying around recuperating from the flu, so luckily we had already scheduled his Birthday party for the Saturday after. We had a family/friend Birthday Party at the local skating center, it was a lot of fun. I can't show any pictures with them skating because it's too dark in there, so you'll have to settle for cake cutting and present opening.

This is my cute nephew Sam, he is too young to skate but they had a stroller that he could sit in and his daddy pushed him around on it, he had SO much fun. How happy is he?

Here is another look at my excellent cake decorating abilities, ha-ha! Poor kids, they have a dorky mom that makes their cakes instead of buying them.

We are thankful for....the Broncos?

Every year when we get our Broncos tickets, we let each of the kids pick the games that they want to go to before we invite anyone else. B chose the Thanksgiving game this year and got a little surprise from his Uncle Sam - he got to go on the field before the game. We didn't tell him so he would be surprised when they got there. Brian just gave him his pass and they headed down to the field. I sent Brian the camera and made him promise to take pictures, well he didn't need to because B must have taken about 150 pictures. When they got home, I had to look at them all.

This is probably the first year that B has actually wanted to go to the Bronco game. Rachel and Mason have been going since they were little and always beg to go, they never pass up and opportunity, but B will usually pick a game and end up giving it to his brother or his sister. He is really into this year though, he has been waiting for his game to come and even been excited. So the field pass was a nice surprise. Thank you Uncle Sam.

B with Brian and my cousin Brian who works on the field. He played catch with B on the field. Pretty cool, huh?

Ummm, yeah this is a picture of Josh McDaniels that they had to take for me! :) Well, actually I think Brian may have a man crush on him too, so maybe it wasn't for me???

Happy Birthday Brady!

Happy 11th Birthday Brady!

I'm sorry that you spent the day sick. I hope that you keep feeling better so that you can have a good birthday party on Saturday.

11 years ago today was the best day of my life, my love for you continues to grow each and every day. You are a wonderful son and you make me proud for so many reasons. Continue to grow into the smart, handsome, and kind young man that I know you are going to be.

I love you and hope that you have a great 11th Birthday! XXOO - Mom

H1N1...is all that it is cracked up to be!

Well, the Strong Household has been hit by those initials that we have all been dreading, Brady is the first, and I'm going out on a limb to say, hopefully the last victim in our family to get H1N1.

It started early last Wednesday; he woke up with a high fever, body aches, sore throat, and a severe headache. We called the doctor's office as soon as they opened and he was tested - yes indeed, a casualty of H1N1 he is.

We have had an interesting week to say the least, we have good optimistic moments just to be knocked back down with a reminder that this is not your normal 24-hour flu. We have had him quarantined in our bedroom to keep him away from Rachel and Mason as much as we could. We have had many sleepless nights and plenty of worry.

He has been able to fight the fever taking motrin faithfully, however the headache and body aches are a lot to bear for a kiddo fighting this nasty stuff. Now... he has a giant fever blister on his lip from the high fevers that has now split so it looks like someone has punched him in the face.

Trying to force fluids down him has been one of the biggest struggles, he doesn't feel like eating or drinking. I'm not as concerned about the eating as I am the drinking. I am practically bribing him to drink. He keeps saying "Mom, I don't think this is the flu anymore, I think I have something else now". No, babe it is still the flu, just the worst flu you have ever had.

So, keep us in your thoughts, we are still fighting this thing. He missed school 3 days last week, and unless he wakes up and is miraculously cured, I don't see him going to school tomorrow or Tuesday. I see a looonnnggg Thanksgiving break in his future.

There are many yucky things with this stuff, but the worse thing right now is that tomorrow is his Birthday. I am so sad that he will be sick for his 11th Birthday. He will be hanging out at home instead of taking treats to school to celebrate with his friends. Thankfully, his actual Birthday party isn't scheduled until next weekend so... wishful thinking for a recovery by then.