The sick meet

Jessie caught the sickness that I had. She missed 2 practices the week of the meet. It was the Spirit of the Flame meet in San Jose. We drove down that day because she didn't have to be there until 5 PM. When we arrived her temperature was 103. I gave her some tylenol. By 5:30 her temperature was about 99 and she seemed ok. The meet started out really well. She did really well on bars and then did "ok" on beam. Then they had a break. I could see her sitting there during break and I could tell she was going down hill. She just looked miserable. The next event was floor. About half way through floor warm ups she went and sat at the edge of the mat. She sat there until it was her turn. When she stood up and took the mat she was white as a ghost and her ears were bright red. She stared out ok and then she missed her handstand forward roll. By the time she rolled over she was behind on her leaps. She did her handstand to bridge and fell on her head and had to kick three times to kick over. So then she totally missed her splits. The tumbling pass is the final thing. She hit her head on her backhandspring. She did her final pose and before she had even walked off the mat broke down in tears. Her coach cuddled her up and held and comforted her. They were'nt going to have her compete in vault but then she started crying that she wanted to finish. She did one warm up and didn't make it over the vault so she skipped her other 2 warmups and when it was her turn the coach stood there in case she didn't make it over and fell back. Amazing enough she completed both her turns pretty well. After she was dismissed she came over to me and just fell into my arms crying. Her temperature was 104. We gave her some advil and rented a hotel and she slept and slept. When she woke up in the morning she was feeling much better.

Bars: 8.35

Beam: 8.025

Floor: 7.1

Vault: 8.4

AA: 31.875

Amazingly she still ended up metaling in bars, vault and all around. She is a trooper. Very proud of her hard work and determination.

Braden and Logan

Braden's friend Logan had a birthday party at Bounce-n-Play. Braden insisted I take a picture of the Monster Truck cake becasue it was SOOO cool!

Braden Photography, Inc.

My handsom little boy is a budding photographer. He LOVES to use my phone to take pictures. He also likes me to take his picture when he thinks he has a pretty cool shirt on or spiked hair. He actually has taken some pretty good ones pictures. Here are a few! Uncle D and Auntie Rhi had better keep an eye out, Braden may want to join their business some day!

Jessie's hairdo

I was so sick that I couldn't even get up and fix my kids hair for school. (I'm telling ya'. I was SICK!) Brookie took this cute picture of Jessie for me. She is fixing her hair for school. She has picks in two different places holding up hair and is holding a piece out of her way with her mouth and is using a straightener to straighten her hair. I wish I had a picture of the finished product. She did a very good job! It looked very straight and even!

Sick Mommy

I really don't get sick very often. I think it has been about 3 years since I've been really sick. But when I DO get sick; I get SICK!!! I felt so awful. The kids made me a little tray of food and brought it to me. Ramen noodles, carrot slices with ranch, a granola bar, and a rice crispy treat. It was so cute...it even had a little flower on it. Such good kids. They were so concerned and caring.

JAMZ Nationals

Another season of cheer finished. Driving down to Vegas Brent and I were talking about how this may be Brookie's last year of cheer unless we figure out some way to keep the club going. But it is soooo much work and I don't want to run a cheer club any longer. It takes too much time away from the rest of the family and I just want to be the supportive mom who drives her daughter and gives her support and tells her how good she is doing. I must be burnt out because I didn't get many cheer pictures. Just family ones. We always stay at Sam's Town when we go to Vegas. It is such a family oriented Casino Hotel (if there is such a thing haha).

Brookie insisted we go back to the competition the last night so she could watch the higher level squads. We sat there for 3 hours until 11 P.M. because Brookie didn't want to leave. She was mesmerized. She kept saying. "That's gonna be me some day. Mom, Dad do you think I could do that? I can't wait to get on a high level team and go to Worlds." This is a picture of Brookie when we finally got back to the hotel that night. Brent said, "I'm glad Brookie has you as a mom because after seeing her tonight and the dream in her eyes, you will make it happen for her. So here's to another year of cheer next year!" And so I'm praying my hardest that somehow I can make it work for her to cheer and me not have to run it... so I can JUST BE THE SUPPORTIVE MOM!

Little Ninjas

Braden is taking Tae Kwon Do. He is enrolled in the Little Ninja program. Brent and I are extremely impressed with this program. It teaches self defense but more than that it teaches discipline and respect. It is run so well. Braden LOVES going and cannot wait for his first graduation.

Mom's Birthday

This year for my birthday Brent gave me a $500 shopping spree! Yep, those are 5 $100 bills in my hands. He told me I had to spend it all on myself. I was so excited. It was super fun shopping around and I only spent $200 of it on my kids. Hehe

My really good friend Jenniffer got some girls together and we all went out to dinner at Chili's. It was so much fun. So these pictures Christy Connelly took. She took the first one and then she said, "Oh wait, I didn't get you in the picture." So then she took the second one and she didn't get the candles in the picture! It was pretty funny. You'll just have to put the two pictures together. I bought some licorice and gum and a cake for us to have a little party with the kids but we never got around to it. The licorice and gum all got eaten and I finally just threw out the cake. Maybe next year. But it was a wonderful 35th birthday!

Jessie lost another tooth

Extra Credit Measurements

Every once in a while Brookie's teacher sends home an extra credit assignment. This was a measurment assignment for Math.

Cheer Hair

Everyone always asks how we get her hair like that. Well you start the night before by putting hair in pony then curling hair with spikes. Kinda like the old pink foam rollers...only they are faster, hold better and don't hurt to sleep on.

And the next morning...you just take them out and there you have it! 1st Place!

And the hair usually lasts for the next day's hairdo :)

Cheer competitions...LOTS of screaming girls!

Brookie and her friend Grace.

Brookie and Coach Chrissy

Daddy/Daughter Dance 2011

This year Brent missed a football coaches clinic in Sacramento to make it to the Father/Daughter Dance. I was impressed because I didn't even give him a hard time about it. I told him he could take the girls on a special date some other time but he said no that he had taken them since Brookie was 3 and it was "their" tradition. Awesome daddy we have here!

Next year Nikki gets to go too! Braden and I can't wait for the Mother/Son Dance in May!