Semester Awards

Last Friday (or was it the Friday before that?) Cade's school held their semester awards ceremony right after mass. Each student got to pick which award their teacher would recognize them for out of the ones they earned during the fall semester. Cade chose his math honor to be the one that Mrs. Myers recognized him for. He was pretty proud of this one as math is his favorite subject these days.

Can't believe how big these kids are getting! There are only two new kids in this class that didn't start with him in kindergarten. It's also fun to watch everybody's 'accordion' growth. You know, up then out, then up again and out again. Crazy how even though they're all different, they're all basically alike. Just hope they figure this out on their own when they're still young and start going through all those tricky adolescent years.

M'nastics!

Lydia started gymnastics, or in Lydia speak, "m'nastics!" a couple weeks ago and absolutely loves it. I took about 100 photos on this particular day because 1) I could, 2) I wanted to and 3) Rusty was off for President's Day and Lydia wanted him to be with her this time so I was free to snap away. We are both blown away by how much she enjoys it and the level of competency she has achieved in just the 4 weeks that she's had classes. Of course the proud mamma in me is going to say that, but seriously. It's like she's taken the class before or something. Which is a good thing because for now it seems like we have bypassed that whole getting used to the class stage when you wonder whether or not your kid was ready for something like this because you spend the majority of your time chasing after them trying to get them refocused on the task at hand. So, here are the photos of Lydia enjoying m'nastics with Rusty.

Warming up with a race to give the wall a high five.

Hoppin' like a kangaroo.

Bear walk.

'Good bear walk, Daddy!'

Lunges. Don't you just love her little posed fingers? :D

'Smell your toes!'

Lovely pike.

Taking her stretching seriously.

Tabletop!

Focusing on the coach's instructions.

The obstacle course is her second favorite part of class.

So graceful and poised.

Great dismount!

Cartwheels! Can you believe it?

Loving the bar.

'I'm hanging Daddy!'

Heading to her favorite part of class.

The big trampoline!

It's always hard to get her off of this.

Getting the stamp on her hand at the end of class might be her second favorite part as well. Whatever it is, it's genius on the part of the coaches. There really is nothing much else that will get these little cuties off of the trampoline or out of the foam pit.

Y'all Ready for This?

Aaannd...cue the catchy, collegiate-type intro music. Yeah. That's exactly how it happened at the first basketball game of Cade's that I got to attend last Saturday. Complete with a decorated tunnel-type thing for the players and coaches to run through while a guy introduced them over the p.a. one by one. I was cracking up. It was like a mini-NBA pre-game show. The only thing missing was the smoke machine and scantily clad dancers/cheerleaders for the crowd (read: males) to ogle at. This is a church league, after all. Oh and the big jumbo tron to post the players picture and stats. But who knows? Maybe that's on their wish list for next year. This was a big change from last year when there wasn't so much as a 'Let's get it on!' Just the opening prayer. Which still was part of the pre-game festivities, but I was still reeling from the whole NBA-esque intro to even realize it was time to bow my head. Oops.

'And Caaaaade Deeeeennnnnis, from Toooooooopeeeeeeeeeeka, KAAAAANSAAAAAAAS!'
He really didn't say that. But he could of. How could you know anyway?
It was more like, 'Cade Dennis!' Then, 'Riley Champney!' And so on...

And then, 'Ruuuuuuustyyyy Dennis, Dennis, Dennis, Dennis...'
No, really, just 'Coach Rusty Dennis.' I think.

Part of the starting line up, strutting their stuff at mid-court.
Cue the peppy, fight song-type music.

Sizing up the competition.

Game on!

Taking it up the court.

Coach Rusty, doing his 'thang.'
Or some crazy dance move. I don't know. It's a toss up.

Lydia brought her A game.

'Where's my Lydia?'
'Here I am!'

'AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! Rat tail/mullet alert!!!'

And you thought I was kidding.

Good game, boys.

New Year, New Look

I've decided since it's been nearly 2 years since I started this blog that maybe it was time for a change of scenery. I'm trying this new look out for a while and seeing if it grows on me. Not sure if I'm sold on it or not. I'm still pretty fond of the old one. I probably couldn't find it now if I tried anyway, so it's probably a done deal by now. Can't decide if the new background is too distracting or not. Your thoughts?

At long last...the holiday pictures

We started off the holiday season with some caroling with Cade's cub scout pack at a few nursing homes.

The crazy Christmas party at Cade's school.
Get a load of those walls. It's like that all the time!

Lydia enjoyed getting to have all the big kid snacks at the party as well.

Training to be a Jedi at a friend's birthday party.
Much he learned. Strong the force was with this one.

Shining bright at a Christmas get together.

Spreading a little Christmas cheer.

Present time!

Yep. That's The Edge, sitting right in the living room at our Christmas get together!
Even better than the real thing...
(you're singing it now, too, aren't you?)

Marshmallows for the marshmallow shooter. Pretty sure we left more than half of them under and in all their couches.

Lydia was giving him all kinds of hints and tricks on how to get a better score.

'Ooohhhhmmmmm.'
Let the Christmas present opening begin!

'It's George the Monkey, Mommy!!!!'

Dry erase markers. You have NO IDEA how much he digs these.
No idea.

Santa's gifts for the kids.

Cade's eagle eyes spotted the stuffed stockings immediately.

More evidence that Santa was here.
Note the hodge-podge assortment of Christmas-themed items left for
Santa's perusal. Not exactly sure how the fake thumb qualified.

'Santa left presents, Daddy! Did he leave you a hat?'

WU pom poms. Just like the ones I had. I can't tell you how excited I was
for her to open these!

'Go KU!'

'Piggy bank for coins!'

Ooohh yeah!

I tell you, I nearly shed a tear.
{sniff}

'Zhu Zhu pets!!!!!'

Yes, those are the decorations from Lydia's birthday party. She was adamant that they stay up. Really. When they finally came down (and yes, they are down now), she was NOT happy.

ANOTHER Christmas!

'Why, yes. As a matter of fact, I DO walk around the house everyday in my princess apron. Don't you?'

MORE Christmas!!

Cool tunes!

Opening the very last of the Christmas presents.

We left Topeka the Wednesday before Christmas to avoid the predicted snow fall that had all the weatherman in the area abuzz. Salina got just an inch or so compared to what awaited us back here in T-town. We couldn't believe the amount of snow that was still on the main streets in town and could only imagine what our neighborhood streets look liked. Our doubts were confirmed the moment we turned into Knollwood. I don't think I've ever seen so much snow since I moved to Topeka more than 15 years ago! We got stuck in our own driveway, people. We couldn't even get up to our house. With a car nearly bulging at the seams with presents, food and personal belongings thrown haphazardly into the car where ever it would fit. Not a good situation. It was dark, cold and none of us were wearing boots. Cade didn't even have socks on! What a great parenting moment that was for me. {eye roll} Rusty managed to get the car unstuck and shoveled a single shovel wide path to our front door. Rusty must have made thirty trips from the bottom of our driveway to our front door unpacking all the stuff we had. It was a crazy sight. Rusty would bring a load up to the front door. I would take it so he wouldn't track in snow, then I would hand it to Cade to take somewhere down the hall so we wouldn't block ourselves out with all the stuff. Sheesh! I'm tired all over again just re-telling it.

This was the snow drift by the front door that welcomed us home.

Can you see that? It looked like the Banzai Pipeline made its way to completely landlocked, middle America in December.

And this. I don't know how this happened. It looks like a quilt made out of snow.
Must have been caused by the wind blowing the snow over it, I guess. Just weird how it looked.

This puppy was frozen solid. It could hold Cade without him so much as leaving but a footprint in it.

I had to post this one. It's shows just how far Rusty was only willing to shovel the night before in order to get the car out of the street. And much of that snow is still here with us today, on January 19.