A Very Busy Week...

A quick week in review for those that wonder why sometimes the blog, emails, and phone calls are the last to be addressed.

Monday: Day: Work/ school. Evening: Brooke had Bball practice and Ashley participated in Day 1 of the Mini Cheer Camp at CV High School. Dinner, homework, showers, misc.

Tuesday: Day: Work/ school. Evening: Science projects and laundry!! Dinner, homework, showers, misc.

Wednesday: Day: Work/ school. Evening: Ashley participated in Day 2 of the Mini Cheer camp at CVHS while Dave and I hosted Care Group (6 couples + kids) in our home. Dinner, homework, showers, misc.

Thursday: Day: Appointments to take care of personal business (i.e. nails, cut & color, waxing). At 2:30, Brooke's 4th grade class hosted a "Wax Museum" where each of the kids in the class selected a famous individual to impersonate. In the past few weeks, they read books and studied the lives of these people. Today, they stood behind their desks were they displayed props relating to their character. Each desk had a red button to push that triggered the kids to begin their speech that highlighted their characters life.

Brooke portrayed the life and times of Abraham Lincoln.

Brooke as Abe Lincoln and Courtney as Annie Oakley.

Thursday evening we watched at the Future Cheerleaders of CVHS (Ashley and friends) performed at halftime during the varsity basketball game.

Friday: Work/ School. Evening: Shane picked up the girls for the weekend at the bus stop. Dave was out of town for the past 2 days and traveling home so I took advantage of the free time to enjoy dinner and drinks with some of the ladies from work at Rock City Grill. Before leaving the mall, I stopped by Banana Republic and picked up two pairs of slacks on clearance. One pair was $14.99 (originally $89) and the other for $30.99 (originally $110). I LOVE A GREAT DEAL!!

Saturday: We were at it early again for BBall games and cheerleading with games beginning at 9am.

The Glitters!

SLAM DUNK by "Air Brooke"

The girls went home with Shane so I took advantage of the free time to get a massage then came home and napped while Dave caught up on lost episodes of "Red Eye". Finally, I calculated and submitted our 2008 tax returns after balancing our budget.

Now, it is Sunday morning and time to close so I can get in the shower and get ready for church. Then it will be time to do laundry again, hit the grocery store then pick up the girls. I am sorry that it can be long between posts but as you can read, life with two daughters and two parents working full time can be hectic. We beg your grace.

Time to Relax...

Last weekend The Wilson family invited us to enjoy some down time with them at Becky's parents condo in Pinehurst, Idaho located just West of the Silver Mountain Ski Resort. We joined them Saturday afternoon once the girls had completed their bball and cheerleading commitments. Saturday evening we enjoyed a great Italian dinner and had a fabulous time playing games. Sunday morning after breakfast we walked the girls to a sledding hill nearby. The photo to the left is Dave and Dax with "Tommy" the tomahawk. The girls enjoyed a snack before braving the sledding hill. Once everyone was done playing in the snow we returned to the condo and warmed up with some hot chocolate. Finally, we hung out until Superbowl time where we witness the heartbreak loss of the Cards to the Steelers. By the time we got home it was time to shower and get the girls tucked into bed in order to start our busy week of school (and work). The time away as a family was definately worth the stress of coming home to full laundry hampers and an empty fridge.

Brooke, Courtney, Ashley & Ashlyn gearing up for the sledding hill.

Brooke and Courtney take on the hill

Ashley & Ashlyn get a good run.

More More More More... Upward Cheer

Here are a couple of quick pic's that I took of the girls on picture day.

Below is a video from halftime at the third game. This week "The Glitters" participated in a Mini Cheer Camp hosted by the CV High School Cheerleaders where they learned new cheers, jumps, and rally techniques. They will cheer tonight at the high school bakset ball game.

She shoots... She SCORES!

The girls run through a fog tunnel and their names are announced as they enter the gymnasium.

The referee huddles both teams up to review the rules and lead a prayer for the girls before tip off.

This is Brooke's first basket scored of many this game. In all, she made 8 baskets scoring 16 of the 24 points earned by her team. Talk about an MVP, that is 66%.

Brooke had a great time playing against her friend and neighbor Kyra.

Here is one of the highlights of the game. For a complete recap of the game, reply this clip 8 times. We are so proud of Brooke's performance today and look forward to watching her continue to shine on the court.

Tick Tick Tick... BOOM... Dynamite!

Ashley was excited to cheer for the team that one of her best friends from school plays on.

I am will be posting the halftime cheer performed by Ashley's team, The Glitters, each week so you can witness the progression of their performances. Ashley loves the attention that she and all of the other girls receive from the crowd.

Upward Basketball

Brooke prepared herself to take her first shot of the season. Unfortunately, she didn't make her first basket attempt however she has definitely learned the fundamentals and is working to improve her game.

Brooke dribbled the ball down the court with grace and speed.

Brooke and her teammates did an awesome job in their first game of the season. They played great defense and never gave up.

In the end, her team the Boilermakers were defeated but they are all looking forward with anticipation to taking on their rivals next Saturday.

Upward Cheerleading

Ashley put her best effort in getting the crowd pumped up.

Ashley LOVES the other girls on her cheer squad.

At times the girls struggled a little with what was expected of them during the game. They only met for practice three times prior to the first game and had a three week break between practice and their first game due to the holidays and a cancelled practice. In all, they did a great job and all of the spectators enjoyed watching them perform during the game and halftime show.

Making lemonade out of lemons

As much as I would like to title this post "The Last Hurrah", the girls had yet ANOTHER snow day today and school is cancelled AGAIN tomorrow. The snowfall has finally ceased however immediately following came the rain and warmer temperatures (36-40 degrees) with threats of flooding as the mounds of snow begin to melt. With that, many of the older flat roofed buildings in the area have had leaking issues and over 40 collapses have occurred in the Spokane area. As a precaution, most of the area school districts are choosing to remain closed at the advise of structural engineers until roofs can be cleared of snow that has become quite dense with the rainfall. There have not been any clues at to when the schools will resume but I can certify that my kids are ready to go back. They have been out of school since December 17th and have had their fill of sister together time.

Here is a video taken from our back deck of the girls sledding down the hill just behind our house. If you really listen you can hear Ashley screaming "I don't wanna" but Brooke persisted until the inevitable wipeout. They both got up with big smiles on their faces and marched right back up the hill for more fun.

Zeus joined in the fun as he chased Brooke down the hill for this run.

Finally, this video is of one of the neighbors helping us clear the driveway from the most recent snow storm. You'll notice that in some places the piles are taller than bobcat itself. We are very thankful for the help we received from many of our neighbors in the past few weeks as we dug our way out of the snow. Let's hope that this is it for a little while otherwise I will have to begin homeschooling the girls. Yikes!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We celebrated New Years Eve with friends at a Hawaiian Luau themed dinner party hosted by Dax and Becky Wilson. We enjoyed an awesome meal paired with Mai Tai's mixed to perfection.

Dax and Becky headed up the game committe by teaching the us the finer points of "Would you Rather..."

Paul and Heather took the challenges seriously since Dave had invited them to "bring it" to game night.

I would have posted the photo of Tami and Jared earning thier points by sipping water from a saucer just as a cat would drink its milk for 60 seconds however some of the kindergarten parents at Sunrise Elementary may question CVSDs choice in educators. So here is the happy couple watching Dave complete our challenge to break dance for 60 seconds. Since I was "participating" in that one, I don't have a photo. I am pretty sure however that it will only be a matter of time before a video is posted on someones blog or Facebook page.

Finally, we rung in the New Year wacthing the ball drop in Time Square along with Dick Clark.

Mele Kalikimaka

The girls all took turns dressing in grass skirts and coconut tops and the boys in Hawaiian printed tops.

Dax and Dave took this cute pic with thier little Hawaiian sweeties.

Apparently Ashleys interpretation of Hawaii includes cheerleaders.

Courtney and Brooke were decked out in true Hawaiian fashion.

We all had a great time celebrating with friends. Hears to many more memories to come in 2009. Cheers!