My new tennis pro, Carlie!

Carlie started tennis lessons last week! She's been begging me to sign her up since she was in kindergarten and her school had a few instructors come to show the kids how to play one day. That was 2 years ago and she hasn't let up. She kept telling me "PLEASE put me in tennis lessons! I'm really good!". I finally gave in. I found a college student that plays on the local university's teams. Her name is Simona and she is from Bulgaria. The sad part is that she will be going back home in about a month when school lets out for the summer. She will be back in August but Carlie will have 3 months without any lessons :( Simona is very patient with Carlie and is very complimentary. She told me that she started playing tennis when she was 6 and that it took her 3 months to even be able to hit the ball. She was very impressed with the fact that Carlie was not only able to hit the ball, but she was able to run up to the ball and hit it, dribble the ball into the air on the racket, dribble the ball onto the ground with the racket, and she was able to do many other fun exercises that they practiced. Simona told me that Carlie holds the racket very naturally and doesn't have to keep being reminded to hold it properly. She seemed genuinely impressed with how quickly Carlie was learning the game! Carlie was just beaming with excitement and couldn't keep the smile off of her face. She's never been into soccer or tumbling/gymnastics near as much as this. Hopefully she will stay enthused with it!

Beginning of practice: Miss Simona first showing Carlie how to hold the racket

Hitting the balls back and forth over the net!

Shake, Rattle, and Roll!

We have been having TONS of earthquakes lately. There was a 4.7 magnitude at 11pm last night. The epicenter was about 15 miles north east from my house! I was asleep and never felt anything but just about everyone else I've spoken with felt it. I think my dog, Cooper, felt it because he woke up and started barking around that same time. They said it's the biggest earthquake Arkansas has had since 1969. Luckily, there were no reports of major damage or injuries! We were also under a tornado watch and had some bad storms rolling through the state. I woke up around 3am and there was a tornado warning one county over from me. We also had tornado weather this past Friday afternoon and are expecting more this coming up Friday. There has definitely been some weird things going on in Arkansas lately!

From a child's eyes

I was just going through my camera and came across a few very interesting pictures that I don't remember taking. I'm not sure who the culprit on all of them were but I have a good guess at a few of them! This is just a few of the ones I found today, I had already deleted some bofore I had the idea to make them into a blog post!

This is a view of the back of my head from the back seat...
Carlie's hand, probably taken the same time of the previous photo...

Wonder who took this one???
Maybe the same person that took this one???

Sorry to all of the people who have a foot phobia (Me included) but this one just cracked me up! These are Rick's feet!

More feet! (These are Jacelyn's tootsies)

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Where I live, we usually get one, MAYBE two good snow days every winter. We difine a good snow day as a day that it snows and sticks to the ground, whether it's 1 inch or 3 inches. This winter we have had this happen 4 or 5 times already and about 4 other days where we've had snow fall but nothing that stuck. They are calling for a HUGE snow storm to come rolling in on Tuesday night into Wednesday and we are expected to get 8 INCHES! WHAT IS THAT??? This is just rediculous to us! Most people are sick and tired of it, NOT ME! I love love love snow and winter weather (as long as our power doesn't go out) Jacelyn definitely gets it from me. Carlie is so over the snow and doesn't even want to play in it anymore. Thankfully most of the snow days has started on a Thursday or Friday and then cleared out by school on Monday so they have only had maybe 3 snow days. This past Friday they closed the school at noon and then they had a 2 hour delay today. Here are some pictures from the snow day this past Friday. I'll post more after our blizzard Wednesday!!!

Here is Jacelyn and Mia playing in the snow.

This is what Carlie did the whole time. She was watching "Let's Make a Deal" and eating cookies-n-cream kisses!

Reminiscing...

I just went back through all of my posts since starting this blog. I laughed and I cried. I'm so so so happy that I started it, even though I don't post that often anymore. My girls have grown up so much. This blog has gone through potty training, family sicknesses, babies being born, temper tantrums, hilarious kid isms, birthday's, holidays, family vacations, and so much more. I'm really going to make an effort to post more from now on, even if no one but myself reads it. I started this blog more for myself to be able to look back on one day. I recommend all 2 of you that read this to look back through the last few years of your own blog and reminisce a little. It will make your heart smile!

First Cheer Competition 12/11/10

Here is the first cheer competition. Again, Jacelyn is on the far left. Her coach told her that the mascot would come out during the awards assembly. She didn't know what the awards assembly was so she thought he was going to come out during their peformance. She is terrified of people dressed up as mascots, which is the reason she was turned around looking at the curtain the whole time! LOL.

CAC Tiny Performance 2

I uploaded this last night from my phone and it wouldn't let me put any text on it.

This is the cheer competition from January 16th. It was only their 2nd competition and there was so much improvement from the last one on December 11th. We were all so proud of how well they did. I was especially proud of Jacelyn since she is the youngest of the group and has only been doing tumbling for about 8-9 months and cheer for 5 months! We were also very shocked that none of them seemed nervous about performing for a huge crowd. I will try to post a comparison video later.

FYI: Jacelyn is the one on the far left and the second one to do a cartwheel.