1st Dance Competition

We had allot of fun at Nikki's dance competion. Lucky for us we did not have to be there until 8am. So I woke up at 5 to get myself ready before I had to get Nikki ready. I think James was more excited about what the day was to bring than Nikki was. He was bouncing off the walls and kept asking her if she was excited and she would say yes then James would comment on how excited he was. It was funny I was laughing at them being silly. The competition was in Olathe so we had to leave home around 7 and of course we naturally barely made it out the door on time. I think next time I better give ourselves more time to get out the door. But then maybe we will be better organized by then. Nikki and all the other girls did an amazing job. I was not able to go to practice the Sunday before and the teacher said she was kinda worried because the girls seemed to be all over the place with thier dance. But she was very surprised at the competion the girls all danced wonderful and even remembered their steps without any prompting from the teacher which gave us extra points from the judges. We are so proud of all of them. The girls did end up placing. I can't remember what they called it though. I will have to find out and post more on that later. After the competion every thing seemed kinda crazy with everyone running around so we just took some of our pictures here at home afterwards. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that the song she danced to was called cooties.

Nikki I want you to know that I think you were amazing and I am so proud of how you danced. It is so much fun to watch you grow in dance every year. Mom, Dad and CJ all love you so much. Keep up the good work. We love you. xoxoxoxo

Green Belt

Congratulations CJ! We are all so very proud of you. Not only did you pass your testing you skipped a belt. You always seem to amaze us.

Yes you heard right. CJ of course started as a white belt. The Sensa (spelling?) had combined the white and yellow belt curriculum together in his classes since they are similar. I was not aware of this so when they passed out belts I was sceptical as to whether he was ready for a green belt. James on the other hand is a parent helper so he knew they were combining the curriculum for both belts but he didn't realize they were going to skip a belt by doing this. We were so excited when they passed the belt over to CJ. It was really cool. Young Champions of America always has a Fall tournament and a Spring Tournament and we skipped the one in the fall due to James thinking that CJ was not ready to do tournaments. But after seeing him perform for us I told him that we were not going to skip the spring tournament if at all possible. He definitely knows his stuff and I guess mom and dad have to step back a little and let him grow up as much as we may hate this. I came to a realization as I was watching him perform for us, that we try to shelter him too much and that he is ready for more than we give him credit for. I am just so proud of his accomplishments.

Nichole...

I realized today that I have been posting allot about Conrad lately so today I am going to give this post to Nikki. She is our emotional child but she also has the largest heart ever. I remember when she first started kindergarten her teacher told us at the first conference that all the parents were wondering who this girl was, because their kids were always going home telling them what a great friend she was. And I am very proud to say she is friends with everyone, even the bullies that she protects others from. Yes, she will stand her ground for anyone. Now in the first grade we get the same praises from her new teacher that she is very thoughtful and considerate of others. It makes me feel all warm inside to know that she sees everyone as equals. On another note she is also teaching mom and dad about recycling. She would recycle everything and we (James and I) are learning to not be so lazy about it. We now recycle our cans and paper. Nikki mentioned the other day that we need to start recycling our plastics also. So now I need to get a tub for plastics. I know that she's right. Along with trying to save the planet she is also involved in many activities which keep dad and I hopping around. Her first love would have to be dance. She dances Hip Hop, Ballet, Tap and Jazz. She about breaks us in shoes alone. lol.:) We tried soccer ( too much running) and pre-T-ball (which was ok) but she liked dance the best. This is her 3rd year of dance and her first year on the competition team. So far she loves it even though it is a little more work. She has practice 2.5 hours on Fridays and 3 hours on Saturdays. She was kinda bummed tonight though because the 5 star production that she was going to be in next weekend got cancelled due to them deciding they were not going to have any groups only solos so now she is going to have to wait till the end of the month. This year she will be going a total of 7 competitions including the nationals in Branson. Most of the time she will be dancing in KC, Overland Park, and Olathe. We are all very excited about this. She is also in Girl Scouts which is every other week and they also do allot of great things with the kids. And last but not least she is taking piano lessons but that recital we are excited to say is only once a year. Zzzzzz. Nichole is a wonderful child and loves to please everyone. We very seldom have to get on to her and if we do it's generally because she loves to eat with her fingers which really grosses me out. I don't think I will ever understand. As you can hopefully tell she is a completely wonderful child and I feel so blessed to have her in our life. Nikki we I hope you know how much your dad and I love you. You are the rays of sunshine that warm our hearts every day. xoxo

No No Words

Well if you haven't figured it out yet our son is quite the pill. Last night as we were getting ready for bed CJ was running around upstairs and I was swapping the laundry out (our laundry is upstairs) when CJ starts rhyming words which I didn't think anything of. The next thing I know he says I twisted the knob (he was talking about the doorknob) and it f "ing" "issed" me off .(geez! wonder where he heard that dad!!). I immediately looked at him and asked what he just said and this is how that went:

Mom: what did you just say?
CJ: nothing
Mom: yes you did. Tell me what you just said
CJ: You didn't hear me.
Mom: Yes I did.
CJ: No you didn't I said it quiet

There was more to this conversation but I never did get him to tell me what he had said so I had to get his dad involved and after a long conversation he finally told his dad through many tears what he had said. It's not that I wanted him to repeat what he had said lord knows the first time was bad enough. I just wanted him to realize how bad those words were and have a conversation with him about that. He did say he was sorry for saying those words and his dad said he was sorry for saying those words to whenever that was. James does not cuss very often so whenever it was that he said it CJ heard and never forgot. It was so sad to hear such big words come out of such a little mouth I was completely shocked and I think CJ was to when he realized that mommy heard him.:) OH the things we don't realize were teaching our kids.
On another note Nikki had picture retakes today since she was sick when they took the pictures the first time. I finally have a scanner so when we get them I will post the pics. She is also going to be going to her first dance competition next Saturday and she is really excited about that.
We are also really glad that school has started back up. Well at least the kids are. I would keep them home forever if I could.
I suppose these are the moments in life that we will laugh and cherish the most as the kids get older. I suppose no ones perfect.
Oh yeah! CJ tested last week in karate for his next belt we will find out next Tuesday if he passed. So stay posted.

Breakfast, Peaches and Dinner

Today was an awesome day. It gave me hope and maybe or hopefully an insight of what is to come for the new year.:) For those of you that don't know CJ was born with CDH and has never eaten by mouth at least nothing that would amount to anything. He lately well I guess for some time (a few months) has been just chewing and spitting, which is really gross at the dinner table but never discouraged. For Christmas we got the kids some chore charts that lists their chores and how much money they earn per chore per day as well as penalties that would reduce their allowance. The kids were really excited about earning money that they could spend however they wanted to spend it. We also included several special family activities that they would be able to choose at the end of the week of their choice if they did not have to use any penalties (movies,games,favorite dinner that they would get to help cook etc...). We also told them that on the last weekend of every month we would take them to Toys R Us to spend their money. Well your probably wondering what this has to do with peaches or even meals! Well one of the chores CJ has is to swallow 3 bites of food a day which is quite a task for him. In doing this he will earn 25cents per day. WOW. It is working he forgets that he only has to take 3 bites and has been taking around 5. Now mind you these are bite sizes of solid foods that you might give a 9 month old baby. They are very very tiny bites but it is so exciting to finally see him swallowing something. Well today he asked me for some peaches so I cut up a slice and he ate the whole thing in about 10 minutes. Then asked for more. So I cut up another slice. And he ate that one also and asked for yet another slice. I couldn't believe it I was so excited I couldn't get to the kitchen fast enough. I asked him if he would like me to cut the pieces a little bigger and he said yes. So I nervously cut them a little larger. I guess the size would be about 1/4 of a dime so still very small. I was so proud of him. And he was so proud of himself for eating it. He ate all those pieces in about a 30 minute period without gaging or spitting. Then to finish off my day he ate 3 kernels of corn and 2 bites of a Penni noodle. YEH!!!!! Oh yeah! at breakfast he also ate 2 kix cereal balls. This is the most he has ever eaten at one time or even in a day or week or even month. He usually would just lick or chew and spit or sometimes he would just start retching at the sight or smell of the food and occasionally sip liquids so this was an absolutely huge huge day for Cj. I am so proud of him. It made me cry to see him working so hard to eat, he wants to so bad. He always asks for food and I make sure he always gets the food he asks for but he has never actually eaten what was given to him.

CJ I can't wait to see where you go next in your life and what challenges you are going to conquer on the way. I am so proud of you. I know that you will be eating soon and we will one day remove the mickey. I will always be here supporting you in whatever way you need. I am so happy that you are never afraid to voice your opinion and tell me what you want I think that at age 4 this is pretty great. Although a very ornery boy you steal my heart every day.xoxo

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!