God Made Me ...

If this isn't the cutest Preschooler ever...

She just completed her 2 year of Preschool and couldn't be more excited to be going to the 5 day class next year.

Here she is singing "God Made Me" .

It's a family favorite.

Pure love and joy when I look at these pictures.


Love you to the moon and back GiGi. ♥ ♥ ♥




Courtney

Oh what a night ...

What an interesting life I sometimes lead !

 PTO mom, by day and concert going, celebrity meet-er by night.


New kid on the block Matt Netherson.

I do believe you have made 2 new fans.  You have an amazing voice, and your body is not to bad either!

You really rocked the crowed and made for a great opening act! ♥ ♥

Most of you know, my sister lives in Los Angelos California, or what I always refer to as La La Land.  I am not usually  star struck, not easily impressed, but last night I had one of greatest nights of my life.

My sister actually knows and has hung out with Kelly Clarkson.  So, when Kelly went on her stronger tour, my sister hooked us up with some tickets.  4 to be exact, with backstage passes.


So last night after a full day of PTO activities.  Big PTO activities, activities that roughly brought in $22,000, My mom, myself, my sister's best friend and her mom, got in the car and drove 2+ hours to attend the STRONGER Tour!


I wasn't sure what a PTO, president should even wear to a concert.


My backstage pass.


How awesome are these seats?



Yep, star struck!




But by far the coolest part of the night ...



She even told me I look like my sister, and our manor-isms are the same!

Thanks, Kelly for an awesome concert,  YOU ROCKED IT!




♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

You are so down to earth and super nice.  You made us feel so comfortable and treated us like the celebrity.
Yept, one of the best nights ever.

Thank you for signing a poster for each of my girls, and including their name on it!


You just made me the coolest mom on the block!

Courtney

divisionals 2012

The 2012 short course swim season is coming to end.  D1 had her last chance swim meet over the weekend.  My neighbor let me borrow her amazing canon rebel camera.  Wow did I get some amazing pictures from this weekend.  All these photos were shot from the spectator gallery, and I swear some of them are so crisp and clear you can see the water drops coming off her finger tips.  It was as if I was on deck snapping the photos.

I took over 300 pictures in 3 days.  I am only going to show you my favorites from the 200 IM because she dropped time, came in 2nd place, and made the state cut.



For all you non swimmers, the IM is where you swim down and back 50yards of each stroke.  Starting with the butterfly, then the backstroke, followed by breaststroke and then the free.  This is becoming one of Gabby's best races.  The fly and the breast are difficult strokes and they are her 2 best.

Check out the water on that backstroke flip turn, pure power.


The other girl is the leader.  Gabby is under water.  Look how close the race is.  About one arm length between first and second place.


Gaining ground, they will still both have to swim the breast and the free.


This is the view of the natatorium from the opposite end.  It is a 50 meter pool, which makes it an indoor olympic size.  The officals are standing on the bulk head which is 25 yards away from the starting block.


One of Gabby's coaches and now a good family friend.  We recently went to Disney World with them for vacation.  We love coach Shelley and her daughter Brooklyn is quickly becoming one of Gabby's best friends.


The end results of the 200 IM.


So proud of her.  2nd place!  She left it all in the pool.  She dropped about 2 seconds and achieved another individual state time.

The goal for divisionals this year was to just make the medal stand.  Last year she was so close coming into 9th place.  It is so great to watch them set goals all year long, work hard and then achieve it at the end.


Did I mention how much I ♥ swimming!

The state championship is in 2 weeks.  I am so proud/excited.


Courtney

HeartSmart 2012

Look who won high point over the weekend?! Two meets in a row.  She is one proud peacock!
Knocking 10 seconds off in a 50 yd race is crazy, and posting her first time & win in a 200IM.  A great way to end her short course season.   








 Gabby came in 3rd place and earned one more state time.  Her season will end in 3 weeks.  This weekend she will swim in Ft. Wayne at Divisional. We are hopeful she will drop time in the 200 IM and the 50 Breast so she can advance to State on  March 17th in Indy.  Gabby already has 2 individual state cuts and will swim 2 relays.  She is one of 3 individuals to advance to the state championship on the swim team this season.  


We are so proud of the girls.  


And little Miss Gia, what a trouper, 3 long days and 5 swim session, thank goodness for the IPad!

My view on the other hand was a little different.

This mamma worked on the computer almost the whole weekend.  It was stressful!  It was a great up close view of the pool, but wow I am quite sure I added about 15 grey hairs to my head.




We are heading to divisionals this weekend and then State in 2 weeks!  


The swim season is coming to an end, :( .... but on the upside, it must mean spring is almost here.  


Have a great week! 




Courtney

Pintrest ♥

My newest love is Pintrest....Warning if you do not pin, do not start. I know that sounds crazy. I mean My first sentence is about how much I love it, and then sentence number two says do not do it. Crazy, I know....

Why not start? Because it is highly addictive, you will get lost for hours, pinning all these wonderful, lovely ideas.

The whole concept is seeing something you like and pinning the idea on a big virtual pin board.  I have been pinning recipe ideas, craft ideas, hair ideas, and so on.

I finally took the the time a few weeks back to actually try one of the projects I pinned.  I basically took my boring old looking knife block and spruced it up.

Here is the finished project.

I love it...Makes my knives look so much better.


Recently I found the cutest idea for home made valentines.  The kids and I had fun making them, thank you pinterest.

Courtney

and the winner is .....

Bella boo, won her first high point award for swimming on Sunday! Oh was I so proud, that girl is turning into quite the swimmer.

Lots of big, important meets coming up in the next month. HeartSmart, Divisionals and State. Then the short course season is done until the end of April when long course season will begin. I am so excited for that, cause D3 is trying out for the team. We have been practicing and working so hard to swim 25yards.

This swim mom has even starting to practice.  I have been getting up at 4:50am, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to swim at the pool from 5:30-6:30am.  I decided that if my kids can work that hard so can I.  My goal is to be able to swim the open water mile at a lake this summer.  I told D1 I would swim it beside her, so now I have to whip my rear end into shape so that I can actual accomplish this task.

Swim a thon 2012

My little fish have been swim their hearts out. Today we completed the 2012 swim a thon.

2 full hours are the requirements. Each group is asked to try to swim 200 laps in 2 hours time. It comes out to a tad over 3 miles.

Last year Gabby hit 200 laps with about 4 minutes to spare and Bella swam 122.

All I can say is wow, what a difference 1 year can make. Today I am proud to report Gabby hit 200 in a record breaking 1 hr 29 minutes and my 7 year old Bella 192 laps in 2 hours.

This momma is so proud!

Happy Birthday Mrs. Jonas, you are missed, you are loved....

An oldie but a goody.... HERE  ...  originally posted in 2009,  today is her birthday ... today, I miss her ... today I thought I would honor her memory and retell the story.

 Kay, 2nd from the left.


"To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die." - Clyde Campbell


Courtney

volleyball

This is sucking all my time.

My 8 week coaching job.

I am on the final week.

It's been fun, but we are 7-9, which is making it not so fun.

On the brighter side, my paycheck is paying for a little fun....

Disney!

So, everyday, I say, I can do this, I can do this, 1 more week is all I have.

I hear Disney is lovely the week before Thanksgiving....I can hardly wait to find out for myself.

Pre School . . . Summer is now over . . . Booo :(

Today this sweet thing started her school year!

Her mornings will now be spent, painting, reading, coloring and making friends.

I will miss my little helper, but am looking forward to my free 2.5 hours each day.

With a classroom like this, how can you not ♥ school?

So now I am off to give my free time back to the elementary school....

Free time????  It really is overrated ....

Courtney

Weekend of Celebrating...

Guess who turned 7yrs old this weekend?

If you guessed D2, you were correct.

7 years ago Saturday, 9:05am to be exact,  this monkey forever changed our life.

This child, amazes me daily with her spunk, energy, and wit.  She keeps this family on it's toes, always trying to out smart us.  I love her with all my heart and soul!!

This year, we changed her room up for her birthday.

My mom bought her the chair and painted and decorated the dresser in the background.  It used to be my sister's, but a fresh coat of paint and wow, a great gift.

I made a chocolate 2 layered cake with special blue frosting in the middle.


On Friday, Gia and I went to Bella's class for her birthday celebration party.  She was excited, because it was the first party of the school year for her class.  This is right after they sang Happy Birthday to her.

Bella wanted cupcakes for her treat, so Gia and I made some funfetti flowers.  They were yellow cake with sprinkles inside.  I put m&m's on top and Gia sprinkled them up to make them all pretty.



On Saturday, the midwest had record highs, of 98 degrees.  It was a great day for the Roaring River water slide.  Gia's friend Chelsea had a birthday party, and her parents rented this bad boy.

 25ft high, 49ft long.

 It was a great addition to Bella's day of fun.  In this video the sky was starting to change.  We could tell a storm was coming, but it was still a good 90 degrees.


Bella was the first one down, followed by a random boy then Gabby and Gia in the background trying to get my attention.


On this same day, we also had 3 inch hail balls, a leaves storm, high winds and a temp. drop of over 30 degrees.  Only in the Midwest can you have all 4 seasons in a 30 minute time frame.

The leave storm was actually quite beautiful so much so that I am including a short video of it.  It was as the temps were changing.  The wind picked up and boom, then the storm came.  Since then it has only been it the low 60's.



On Monday, we took the family to visit new baby Roman.  He is 2 weeks old, and is so precious.  Roman's daddy is Kevin, who is Jared's oldest friend.  If you've been following the blog awhile, you might remember that wedding.


How did you spend your Labor Day weekend?  Ours was jamed packed as usual..and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Tune in later this week....D3 starts preschool....guess summer is offically over, all the children are in school now, and Labor Day has come and gone... BOOO ... I never got to wear my white jeans....

Courtney