Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim Come to Visit

Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim came to visit the first weekend in March.  We had such a great time with them!  We know what a long drive it is and are very thankful when people take the time to come see us. 

Shortly after they arrived, we went to dinner at Tyler's Taproom.  It's one of Richard's new favorite restaurants in Apex.  They have good food and good beer and both reasonably priced!  There were some antics occurring at the table before our food arrived.  I LOVE that they give the kids Wikki Stixx before their food arrives.  They create and make all sorts of things......including mustaches!!  :)  Our dinner was delicious and our time spent with two of our faves was even better.  When we got home it was almost bedtime.  We had an early Saturday on the way!

Aunt Kathy and Karcie

Uncle Jim and Kamdyn

These two were busy being silly with the mustaches!

I think the mustaches fell off their faces!!

Then this little girl had to get in on the action!

Her mustaches were always upside down!

Yep, we were there, too!!

We had to be up pretty early the next day because Kamdyn's last basketball game was at 9:00.  The team had to be there at 8:30.  Whew!!  That's early!!  We made it though and with plenty of time to spare.  Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim were great for entertaining Karcie throughout the game.  Their team won and Kamdyn scored a couple of times, I believe!  She also played her best game.  It was too bad that the season was ending because the girls were just starting to really get the concepts and skills.  Oh well!  We will have to wait until next year!  After the game, they had their end-of-season celebration at McDonald's (see next post).   Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim were troopers.  They went right along with us and waited while the girls ate and socialized.  It was fun!!

Uncle Jim was trying to get Karcie's attention with "Kitty."  Aunt Kathy bought "Kitty" for Karcie the night before at the Hobby Store that was next to the restaurant where we ate. 

Loving Aunt Kathy!

I love this photo after the game!!

After the end-of-season celebration, we left to go to the lake.  We wanted Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim to see the lake house while they were close.  Luckily, the weather was pretty good that weekend, too.  (EXCEPT for the muddy ground after all of the snow and rain we had.)  Luckily, I told them to bring old shoes just in case.

We enjoyed a golf cart ride to show them around.  We sat by the fire until it go too cold.  We had a dance party in the living room.  Even Richard was dancing!!  We had a delicious dinner and then it was almost bedtime.  

I. Love. This. One.

Hopefully one day soon, our speakers won't be sitting in the floor.

Dancing with Aunt Kathy!

Daddy was grilling on the deck in the background!

 We hated for Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim to leave on Sunday.  It was a long drive for them, but we hope they enjoyed their time with us as much as we enjoyed being with them.  We can't wait until next time!!  Please come back when it's REALLY warm!!  We love you both!!

Final Basketball Game and Celebration

We were sad to see this basketball season come to an end.  We really enjoyed it way more than what we anticipated.  Richard loved coaching and is excited about coaching next year.  He and Chad have kind of decided that Richard will be the head coach for the next age level and Chad will be the assistant.  Chad will keep coaching the younger girls. Chad will have daughters on both teams.  Chad and Richard definitely made a great coaching duo!!

The girls won their last game.  It was close for a while....kind of a nail biter.  But, then, our team finally got up by several points and we could relax.   Kamdyn played her best game.  She scored a couple of baskets and really was starting to get aggressive on defense.  I hope she continues to love it like her Dad and I do.

  We finished third.  I thought that was pretty good considering that only one player on our team had ever played organized basketball before.

When the game was over, Coach Chad gave the girls their medals and I took some team photos.  Then, we made our way to McDonald's for the end-of-season celebration.  McDonald's sponsored our team.  I contacted the franchise owner and he was happy to feed our team and coaches after our last game.  The girls had fun socializing and signing each other's jersey.  It was a great season and we can't wait for next year!!

Warming up before the game!

Legs that go for days!!

Sweet girl waiting her turn!

Practicing some drills before the game.

Coach Chad was coaching them up just before the buzzer.

Now they are all paying attention!

Coach Richard with the starting five....matching them up with girls on the other team.

Here we go!!

I love this action shot!!  There is a lot going on in this photo!!

Coach Chad was so patient with these girls!!

Coach Richard with his favorite player...the rest of the team must have been playing or getting some water!

After the game pep talk!!

Team Photo!!  Go McDonald's!!

Silly Faces!!  I love that Richard and Chad have the exact same silly face!!  ;)

So proud of this little angel!  She worked so hard to do everything that we taught her to do.  She improved so much in a short season.  

Our K girls with Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim!!

Coach Richard with his favorite girl!!

We love our little #11!!

Waiting on their food at McDonald's

Coach Richard decided to join this table!

Sweet girls!

Coach Chad signing jerseys!

Then the girls had an assembly line going with sharpies!

They had the best time!!

Twin Day at School

The girls had twin day at school a few weeks ago!  They have these matching/coordinating dresses that we monogrammed for them.  Kamdyn's is TOO small, but she insisted that I pull it out for the special occasion.  They did look pretty cute, I have to say! So glad that Kamdyn has such a sweet friend who lives a few doors down.

I made them stand on the front porch and it was freezing that morning!

Sweet little smiles!

And then the crazy faces!!

Tiny Dancer Karcie

I love watching Karcie through the window at dance.....especially when she doesn't realize that I'm watching.  They are working on their Spring recital dance.  They are dancing to the song from American Tale, "Somewhere Out There."  It is the sweetest little song and perfect for these little tiny ballerinas.  I can't wait for the show in May!

Look at her pizza feet....perfect first position!

They were pretending to be animals here.

Baking with Daddy

Let's just start this post off by saying that I had a bad chocolate chip cookie baking experience while we were snowed in.  I tried baking with whole wheat flour and the cookies were YUCK!!  I baked three pans full and only one pan was edible....no idea why.  Two pans stucks completely even though the pans were sprayed.  The "good" pan were only good for a couple minutes out of the over.  After they sat for a while, they were hard as rocks.  I was on a mini BIG tirade over those stupid cookies!

I say all of that to say this.....

Richard decided to try his own version of chocolate chip cookies with whole wheat flour and some regular white flour.  His were better, but they still weren't very good.  Some of his were burnt and his still had the problem of being VERY hard after sitting for a few minutes.  I don't know what the problem is, but I suggest sticking with plain ole' white flour if you want to eat  good cookies.  Otherwise, save your time and energy.

Kamdyn is really in to cooking here lately.  We have given her several tasks that she completes all by herself depending on the meal that we are having.  She was assisting Richard in measuring the ingredients for the cookies.  She's an optimist.  She didn't think that cookies were THAT bad.  Perhaps it's because she was helping make them.  ;)  Needless to say, I think our family will be sticking to the slice and bake cookies.  They are so much easier and taste a million times better.  Forget the fact that they are completely bad for you!!

When Richard cooks he spreads out ALL over the kitchen.

All surfaces are covered!!  The little sous chef is happy as can be to be helping!!

Helping to spoon the cookie dough on to the pan.

Before they cooked!!

These are the yucky burnt ones that were leftover!!

30 in less than 35 Days!

Jazzercise is forever coming up with challenges for us....to encourage us to go more frequently.  I go five days a week normally anyway and rarely go on the weekends.  But this challenge forced me to go on the weekends and sometimes twice in one day.  It was a good one!!  30 classes in 35 days is A LOT!!  I think I finished in exactly 30 days which was good.  We won this cute little tank for completing the challenge.

I'm with one of my favorite instructors, Leslie, and another Jazzerciser, Joan, who finished the same time as me!

I'm loving the tank to wear over my Jazzercise clothes before/after class.

This and That

Keeping up with this blog is quite interesting!!  I love having everything documented in one place, but finding the time to sit down and actually document seems to get harder and harder.  Anyway.....I'm going to attempt to catch up!

Karcie received an PRECIOUS Clemson dress in the mail from Jillian a few weeks ago.  She had to put it on as soon as we opened it.  Never-mind the fact that it was 30 degrees outside!  Strong willed and determined do not even begin to describe this girl.  Thanks, Baby J!  We will take good care of it and will pass it back so that you can wear it in a couple of year.  

The banana?!?!?! I came home from running an errand one afternoon.  Karcie was at home with Richard. I had given her a banana before I left.  This is where I found the banana.  Apparently Campbell came over to see if Karcie wanted to play.  Campbell was WAY more important than the banana.  She left the banana and took off with Campbell.  Whatever, Karcie!

We are still working on the task of learning all of our letters.  I am proud to say that we are almost there.  Here Karcie is playing on Starfall on our baby laptop.  I was so surprised at how quickly she picked up on using the little mouse pad.  Weird that she can figure that out in seconds, but we don't know the letter "Y!"  Seems like one of those "I will learn what I want to learn" things if you ask me!  ;)   Look at that sweet little face!  Love her to pieces!!