Straddle Spits!

New Year and already goals are being achieved! Shauna has been working on doing a straddle split for some time now. At dance class this last week she was finally declared all the way down into a straddle split! She was awarded a trophy for her achievement! Her teacher said " It is much harder for a girl with as long of legs as Shauna to get to a full straddle split", she was quite pleased! Ouch.... it looks so painful to me.

Painting the House

I woke up this morning determined to start the new year differently. So I looked at Randy and said lets paint the house! Some how I talked him into it. These walls are white and VERY dirty. Not all entirely my fault because I swear the home builder dilutes the paint with a lot of water. So we painted and when we got the 3rd and final color on the wall, Randy started to make fun of my choice in colors. He said" I know what you were thinking about when you dreamed up these colors. Chocolate and Carmel." Then Donovan piped in yea and mint or a blue dish to put the candy into! They had a great laugh. Now I seem hungry all the time. I wonder if it is the colors on the wall? Oh! Well. I love the new colors it's a whole lot better than the white dirty ones!

Rockin Christmas Spirit

Our good friends the Matthews are so kind to us. They really help out our family. Sandra has been picking up Shauna for me from dance lessons , since I can't be in two places at once and I travel with Donovan for swim everyday. So today Shauna went to their home and they were making gingerbread houses as a family and they were so kind to include Shauna. It was really nice because Shauna was feeling a little left out the night Audrey made hers. So here it is Shauna's masterpiece in front of our Christmas tree at home. Now for sure the Christmas spirit is so strong that it's Rockin'.

Tumble Maddness

While Donovan is swimming the girls take a kid exercises class. They do different things everyday. They have so much fun and have meet so many nice kids. The instructor is pregnant but is full of life. Today they set up an obstacle course for them to do. They first had to go across a balance beam, then jump up and down ten times, do a cartwheel down a foam wedge, jump up while twisting in the air over small hurtles, then 10 times each do toe touches, sit ups, jumping jacks, push ups then windmills. It was exhausting just looking at them.

Rowdy Swimming

Today instead of a normal swim practice Donovan's team had a swim clinic with the 3- Time Olympic Gold Medalist ROWDY GAINES! He gave all kinds of tips for the free-style stroke. He got in the water and showed them what to do and swam with the kids. He even brought 8x10 poster of him winning at the Olympics in 1980. Then signed them for all the kids. Donovan's Say's," Go Donovan! Rowdy Gaines". How cool is that! In case you recognize the name and still think you heard it more recently it is because you have. He was the commentator in Beijing for swimming.

The Christmas Spirit

The youth in our ward had a wonderful gingerbread house making night. Well....Donovan enjoyed more of the destroying then the making and didn't have one to show for all the time he spent supposedly working on one. However they let Audrey make one. It was sure sweet of them. So we put her in front of our Christmas tree at home and took a picture of her masterpiece. Ahh... the smell of sugar and frosting sure helps get you into the Christmas spirit.

4th Grade Christmas Program

Shauna is into everything it seems like and the crazy part is she is good at it all. Today all the 4th and 5th graders preformed for each other what they had learned in music class. It was held in the morning in the multi-purpose room. Lucky me I was able to sneak in the back and film Shauna's Class. Wouldn't you know Shauna had a mini solo however the girl in front of her who had a solo before Shauna didn't know where Shauna was standing and so Shauna missed out on her peers hearing half of her solo. But the part that was heard was absolutely beautiful. Of course I will always think that I'm the proud mom!