Dance and Baseball Begin

Maddi had her first competition for the season this past weekend. They did very well and earned high scores and won a lot of great awards. It was a great way to start the season. I can't remember everything they won, but they got the highest score category for all but their hip hop dance. They were in the top 5 for all of their dances. I was able to snap very few pictures and stole some from facebook. This is some of the girls in their large group open dance "My Boyfriend's Back". This was backstage before they danced. They got 3rd place overall for large groups for this. There are several new girls to the studio this year and Maddi is really enjoying hanging out with all of them. Several of them are also in 5th grade and a few are in 4th and 3rd grade.

This was at the awards ceremony for the teen dances. Maddi is in a lyrical dance with the teens and they won 3rd place overall with that dance and best costume award. Another teen dance won first place!

This is Maddi with her favorite big girl, Hannah. She was her buddy a few years ago and Maddi and her are very close. She is a sweet girl and is like a big sister to Maddi.

These are a few of the girls in their small group jazz number "Crazy in Love". They did great with this dance too and won 3rd place overall for small groups.

These are some of Maddi's biggest fans. Cade was even happy to attend because there was a snack table filled with sweets and chips, etc. and even sandwiches for dinner. Food makes that boy happy :)

Maddi with Olivia. Olivia has on their small group lyrical costume for "Firework". That dance looked pretty good, but not the best I've seen it. It still won 5th place overall for small groups.

Another of Maddi's biggest fans! Daddy is one of her biggest fans but he's behind the camera!

This was Sunday night when they announced their studio won a huge trophy for Top Elite Studio. Maddi is right next to the trophy to the right screaming. She was so excited, they all were. It was a busy and tiring weekend, but it was fun to see all their hard work pay off on stage.

Cade somewhat started baseball this weekend too. They had try outs for baseball. They all make a team, but there is a draft to try and keep the teams even skill wise. He was asked to be on the part time travel team too because he did so well at the try outs. It ends up there aren't enough kids willing to committ to make a team for the travel, but it was a nice compliment to be asked to be on it. I believe practice starts at the end of March or beginning of April. Right now we'll enjoy this down time of no sports for Cade man.

Growing Up

Things have been pretty busy around here lately, so not much time for blogging, but I had to put document what Emma's up to. She is still very interested in picking out her own clothes and is very attached to her leotards. She knows when we leave the house she can't wear just a leotard, she has to wear clothes over it, and she wants to pick out what she wears. She usually picks out one of a few dresses. One morning we were going to playgroup and she changed her dress 4 times before finally deciding on this polka dot dress complete with a necklace, bracelet, ring and a puppy clip in her hair. Brett reminds me all the time how lucky I am that she's a girly girl (so was Maddi but without the strong opinions) and not a tomboy. I have to agree, I don't know what I'd do if she didn't like her bows and jewelry, etc. She makes me paint her nails 2 or 3 times a week too. ALL girl!

The most exciting news is that Emalyn now goes tee tee on the POTTY! She has fallen in love with candy and was begging for candy all the time, especially with Valentine's Day and all the candy in the house. I told her no candy unless she went tee tee on the potty. She would say "oh, go tee tee on the potty get a prize, candy!" and I'd say "yes, do you want to go tee tee on the potty?" and she'd immediately say "NO!". She did this for a few weeks, then one night she wanted to sit on the potty and she went potty! That was Tuesday night. I made a really big deal and made a sticker chart and she got candy. As soon as she ate the candy, she wanted to go potty again. She sat on the potty for about 10 minutes hoping she could go again for more candy. She has kept her diaper dry for two days now ever since her first tee tee on the potty. She has pooped in her diaper, but I'm not complaining. Here she is eating her candy after the first time she used the potty.

Her smile tells it all. Very happy and very proud.

Here she is on the potty tonight. Yes, she is wearing her Halloween costume. Yes, she actually wore her costume to they gym tonight...with her polka dot UGG boots. She wouldn't take a nap until I put her bumble bee costume on her. Shortly after she woke up, we had to go to they gym so I could sub a class. She refused to take it off, so she wore it. Cade was very embarassed. I might have been a bit embarassed too! We love you Emalyn, crazy clothes and all, and are so proud of you for being a big girl.

February Fun

Cade turned 9 1/2 Sunday! He spent most of the day at a swim meet then we went for ice cream at our favorite place, Oberweise. He got his usual chocolate peanut butter ice cream. So far 9 has been a great year for him. He did great at his swim meet, but didn't get the times he needed to qualify for regionals. He is less than a second away from qualifying in the 50 back and 50 breast. He did drop .40 seconds on the back but added .50 seconds on the breast. He has a meet this weekend where he will swim those events again and has one last chance to try and qualify for regionals. He's in the 9/10 age group so if he does qualify, that would be a great accomplishment. He would be the only 9 year old from his team to qualify. We got an email last week that he is one of the top swimmers in his age group on his team and more than likely will qualify for a relay team for the state meet. That's so awesome. Problem is that we will be in Michigan for a dance competition that weekend and he's leaning toward going to Michigan rather than the swim meet. I don't blame him. It's an honor that he is doing well enough to qualify for it. He's also playing basketball and is doing really well. Brett is a coach and Cade is listening to him well and they are having a great season together. This is the first year it's actually fun to watch his games because they really know what they're doing. Happy half birthday Bubba!

The whole fam minus me enjoying ice cream. They had it all decorated for Valentine's so it was really cute. Brett has meetings in the city all week and won't be home on Valentine's Day so we celebrated Cade and Vday at the same time. Maddi had dance for several hours Saturday and Sunday and Cade had swimming and basketball so it was nice to take some time to enjoy each other while doing one of our favorite things, eating ice cream. I did some cute things for the kids that I saw on Pinterest for Valentine's Day too.

Somehow Brett always gets the short end of the stick with his ice cream. I think it's because of his kindness and willingness to share. He offered Emalyn a lick of his cone and she took it away. He ended up with hers, which is just a chocolate sprinkle cone without ice cream! She never wants the ice cream, just the cone, but tonight she decided she liked the ice cream too.
That girl is a mess. She had a bad bloody nose at the swim meet. She would push my hands away when I tried to hold a tissue on it and she ended up getting blood all over her. She was wearing one of her favorite dresses and I thought if I showed her it was getting all bloody, she'd let me hold her nose. She also had her favorite leotard under the dress (because she's a nut and insists on a leotard). When she saw the blood, she started freaking "leotard's ok, leotard's ok". What a diva!

The kids were playing Kinect with XBox the other day and they were so cute.

Here is a video of the girls playing the game together. Once again these pics are all from my phone and so is the video, so not so great. Cade was trying to tell me what to do while taking the video, so it's a little noisy!

Three on Thursday

1. Maddi has been into wearing a side pony lately and was very excited to find that Emma has enough hair to rock the side pony now too. Maddi is such a wonderful big sister to Cade and Emma. She can drive me nuts at times with how slow moving she is or absent minded (it's not all her fault, the apple doesn't fall far) but at the end of the day, it's Maddi's sweetness that's the most remembered. I keep hearing horror stories of teen attitudes and I honestly can't imagine Maddi acting that way. But...I am sure she will, at least a little bit, so I'm going to try and enjoy her sweetness as long as it lasts.
She had to write a story about her dream job in her writing class. She wrote about wanting to be a special education teacher. This is what she wrote:
Guess what? My dream job is to be a special education teacher. The reasons why I would be a good teacher are: I am good with kids, I can understand how they feel and it makes me feel happy. Would you like to help kids? I would love to help kids and let them understand things better.
First of all, I am good with kids. I have a younger brother and sister. My parents always count on me to take care of my little sister. I took a class through the park district so I know what to do with kids.
Another reason is, I can understand how they feel. I know how to be very patient with them. I will always try to help them as best as I can. They are as cute as a button when they smile.
Finally, it makes me feel happy when I help kids. I will help them until they believe in themselves. I know that I have made a change in the world when I help kids.
My dream job is to be a special education teacher. You have to be good with kids, understand how they feel and it makes me feel happy. Hmmmm....I wonder when I should start researching about it.

Maddi girl, you will make a wonderful special education teacher one day or whatever you decide to do in your life. You have a special gift and I can't wait to see what you continue to do with it!

2. This is Cade man at about 3:00 a.m. Monday night at the emergency room. He woke up with extreme abdominal pain. It was the lower left side and from some quick internet research, I had a feeling it wasn't his appendix, but he seemed to be in so much pain, that we decided it was best to get him checked out. The ER was packed, but luckily we were seen quickly. Some people were on a 3 hour wait to be seen. Crazy! After an xray and a cat scan, it was determined it was nothing more than constipation that could be treated with Miralax. He has been going regularly but apparently not removing enough. Can't wait to see our medical bill for this. At least everything is ok and there are no real problems. Cade's usually a pretty healthy kid but in the last few weeks, he's had strep threat, swimmers ear and now a trip to the ER. Hopefully he'll be healthy now for a while.

3. And this girl...oh Emalyn. What a mess she is! Some of her favorite things these days include dressing up in princess dresses and other various accessories. Here she is playing ipad with kitty ears, a wedding dress and high heel shoes. She LOVES the ipad and iphone and ipod touch. It's amazing how she finds the games she wants and plays them like she's a big kid.

Here she is this morning wearing what she wore to bed and playing ipad. I love how Bob puppy and Cocoa are watching her play ipad. She slept in a leotard, this pink dress and high heel shoes. She even woke up in the high heel shoes. She's a nut! Thankfully she let me put regular clothes on her when we went to the gym and MOPS this morning. She picked out a zebra dress with matching zebra bow and then her mis matched pink and purple shoes. This girl knows what she wants in life, for sure.
She's found herself in time out a few times lately. She does not like time out and will usually do what's asked of her to avoid time out. Like I'll say "tell Mommy sorry or you go in time out" and she'll say "I don't like time out." Then I'll tell her she has to go in time out if she doesn't say sorry and then she'll think for a second and say "sorry Mommy" or whatever. She's also trying to assert some control and trying to change situations. For example, I said "the pizza's hot" and she said "no pizza not hot, Mommy hot". Oh, the joy of a two year old. Really it's quite comical and we all laugh at her quite often.