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!

Rockin' around the Christmas tree

Instead of showing you the photos of all of us in our PJs opening gifts on Christmas morning (yawn :>O), we are posting some pictures of the family partying like rock stars on Christmas with The Bradstreets.

We are so thankful for the friendship that has blossomed between the Bradstreets family and ours in the past year. Dave initially met Erik while working in the cardiovascular division of Medtronic then his family adopted us after we moved to Spokane. We have spent the past 2 Thanksgivings and countless occasions breaking bread with this family. They also introduced us to our church home, Valley Real Life, in which Dave and I were baptised in a few weeks ago. When I asked Jennie, Erik's wife, if she was sure that we wouldn't be intruding on family time by crashing their holiday meals she was relieved to say that having us there helps to buffer the extended family stress that comes with holiday get together (hopefully her family doesn't read this post of the blog). But seriously, we are truly thankful for the love and support they have provided to our family over the past year, we have been truly blessed by their friendship.