2 days til Ethiopia!!!!

HELLO! We leave for Ethiopia in TWO DAYS!!!! 

Cannot believe it is here!!!!

The packing thing is completely overwhelming me though....  So I'm sitting by the pool instead! 

Seriously. 

I just wanted to document this ohsospecial time we had last week.  

Just Amazing.

One of our elders at our church asked our family to come to the weekly elders meeting so that they could pray over our family... 

Which I guess means you are doing something really good, or really bad, or in our case.... In desperate need of prayers for this whole big shebang!  

Because seriously HE does not call the equipped.... He equips the called (let's hope so anyway!)

So.... We had such a sweet time of the elders in our church praying over us. Possibly a little overwhelming too!  

We walked in that room and holy moly- who knew how many men / woman were in there?????

 Kinda crazy overwhelming.

One of the greatest things about it was that.... 

I had a list of things that I would have liked specifically prayed for, if they had asked.  

They didn't.  

But do you know.... 

That every single prayer request that I would have asked for, 

was covered by these men of God.  

It reminded me that God knows just what we need.

We are so blessed! 

And we cannot wait to meet our newest little blessing!!!!

And it would be super great if we would pass court while we are over there so that we can show you --- SERIOUSLY--- the most precious little boy on the planet! 

I promise.

Banquet 2012

I promise.

This is the last cheer post..... for this season!

We had the girls cheer banquet on last Sunday night

at the Diamond Club at the ballpark.

super fun!

The girls get to get all dressed up...

and it's a big to do!

There are pictures and all kinds of awards...

This year was super fun!

It was Halle Caroline's 2nd year

and Ellison's 1st year in cheer.

It was fun.

It was hard.

trying, frustrating, successful, amazing...

all rolled into one.

We started out the year...

with Halle Caroline on level 2

and Ellison on level 3.

which means...

little sister was on a higher level than big sister.

ouch.

and ellison was on the same team with big sister's VBFF!

OUCH!

The owners of the gym that they go to, are PRECIOUS.

They tell the girls and the parents how much they pray over the decisions of the teams

many times before they are set.

So, although when the teams came out last May...

there were tears and frustration and questions...

We knew that God had a plan.

That each girl was on that team for a reason.

So while Ellison's team won

"THE (NCA) national championship"...

Halle Caroline's team won 2 other national championships (ACA and Athletic!)

both teams were amazing!

In addition...

In January, Halle Caroline was asked to cross compete on another team,

to help them out when that team lost a member.

This made her double her practice time at the gym for a good 3ish months.

but it is a huge honor (no pun intended... her 2nd team was named HONOR) to be asked to do this.

We were extremely extremely proud of the job she did on both teams.

When it came down to it...

and the year is over...

the big picture is shown...

Halle Caroline and her VBFF, Chandler

both won the 

"Go XTREME AWARD"

THE C5P AWARD

This award is for character, commitment, class, Christ-like, something else that starts with a C

It is voted on my their teammates

and quite an honor to receive

Both Halle Caroline and Chandler
also got
"Outstanding Leader"
on each of their teams
as decided by the coaches

Ellison got "outstanding flyer"!

It was such a fun and memorable night!
The girls had a blast getting all gussied up
and getting to see each other out of shorts/tshirt/ponytail!

 Such a fun night!
We are so very thankful for Spirit Xtreme!

San Antonio competition

Still playing catch up here on the blog...
In my last post, I said that we have been really busy packing...
that was a total lie.
I haven't packed a single thing for Ethiopia.
What I have done is....
a whole lot of worrying about
what my girls are going to wear on their lower half of their bodies.
seriously.
it is a major problem.
In fact...
I was so worked up about it on Saturday...
then,
I had to go leave and fly and trip...
I am sure Derek was never so glad in all his life that I was leaving to go fly.
I know,
you wouldn't think it would be that much of a problem..
yet... it is!
And also -
please tell me...
WHAT IN THE WORLD DO YOU WEAR
THE FIRST TIME YOU EVER MEET YOUR NEW SON?!?!
because really...
these are pics that you will look at for a lifetime.
I know....
totally shallow...
but I don't want to look back...
and think really? what was I thinking?
although,
there is 99.98% chance that my hair will be in a ponytail.

back to the catch up...
A few weeks ago,

we went to San Antonio for 

the girls last cheer competition of the season.

I was not super excited about it,

but it ended up being so much fun!

It was a family affair!

I know...

the make up is so toddler and tiara-ish

I recognize that.

 even the brothers went

and had a lot more fun that they were expecting!

hello...

tons of girls everywhere!

 Halle Caroline front and center,

getting ready to do her thing!

with her team "Trust"

 "Courage" girls

getting ready to watch the other teams

fun at the hotel!

even Gram Pam came to watch!

Ellison's team
She's on the top left

ellison, chandler, and halle caroline with coach/owner of the gym, melissa!

I others have tons of cute photos from instagram...

and I've been sitting here for the better part of 30 minutes trying to figure out how to copy them...

but I guess instagram doesn't allow that?!?

I will have to wait until my kids are home to help!

Anyway- a fun time was had by all in San Antonio!

The big one...

I've been neglectful of the blog..
there have been court dates
and packing
and much excitement going on,
so blogging our lives has been put on the back burner.
However...
there are a few events that I want to document...
so here goes...

This might be a long post...
because you might only win one jacket in your life!

So....

my girls love them some cheer.

L-O-V-E.

LOVE LOVE LOVE

they eat, dream, sleep....

CHEER

well the last weekend in February always brings

NCA Nationals.

the biggest competition of the whole darn year.

they spend hours and hours and hours practicing.

it's intense.

there may be crying

there are injuries

it's emotional

the goal?

to be the best team in the nation

and to get into the 

coveted

"JACKET ROOM"

This jacket room is mysterious

(at least to me! ;) )

The girls compete the same 2 minute 30 second routine on day1 and day 2

nerve wracking.

And then...

let me just set up our week before NCA's

For starters:

Halle Caroline was asked to fill in for a 2nd team.

Which means she is competing on 2 teams.

Which means double the practices.

She also had school cheer tryouts the entire week before.

She went straight from school to the high school for 2 hours of cheer tryouts/clinic

Straight to the cheer gym for practices where she stayed most nights until 9:00pm.

She worked so hard that week

I cannot even describe it.

And then there is Little Ellison...

sweet girl made the switch from competitive gymnastics to cheer this year.

She has done awesome!

Her little team...

is just that....

little.

There are many of them that are young for the team.

They just have a couple girls that puts them in an older division.

One of her coaches described her team to me like this...

Courage (the name of her team)

is like a bumble bee...

scientifically,

the bumble bee should not be able to fly.

It's body is too big for its wings.

but nobody ever told the bumble bee that.

Courage is a young team.

for some of the girls,

it's their 1st year to cheer...

they really for all practical purposes

probably shouldn't win this competition...

but no one EVER TOLD THEM!

and....

THEY WON!

  

 just after winning... "checking in" to get in the jacket room

Ellison's stunt group

 

her VBFF, CJ

  as we were leaving to go get lunch,

we happened to see our "big girls" team..

these girls are amazing...

the top level team at our gym..

so we had to get a pic with some of "Passion" Girls!

So very proud of our girls!!