New Driver

It is official. Mackenna has passed her written test and has her Learner's Permit. I don't know if I'm ready for this. Wasn't she just five years old yesterday?!? How could she possibly be ready to drive?!?
As you can see, she is ready whether I am or not...

Our first outing together was driving from the gas station to home. It is trip that is only about 15 minutes long. She did great and I was completely calm (on the outside). However, my insides were like jelly! 

As she was driving and I was sitting in the passenger seat (read: not in control) I was thinking about the airbags in the car, just in case. I was thinking about how squirrels and deer can just run out in front of you. I was wondering if she know about construction zones, pedestrians, and little kids that can just dart out from behind a parked car. All kinds of these scenarios were playing out in my mind...but yet I remained calm. (Did I mention she did great?!?) 

After we pulled into the garage and the car was in park, I began shaking. Oh boy! That was stressful. Come to find out, her calm exterior was masking a stressed out inside, too. She loved driving but she was glad the first drive was over. And, she mentioned that not only was she stressed a little, but she thinks she may have sprouted a gray hair. 

LOL! I love this girl!!!

Celebrations

We have had a fun filled week first celebrating Mother's Day on Sunday and then Matt's birthday on Monday. The girls and I had fun making a non-cake for him. Mackenna suggested we buy an edible arrangement. Instead, we decided we would have fun making it ourselves and we did!!
Check out this awesome "cake." We joked we made him a fruitcake!

Club Volleyball

Mackenna has been playing Club Volleyball since her high school season finished. She has really grown as a player! She plays every point and is not one of the girls who are subbed in or out. We are so proud of her! She absolutely loves volleyball!!!

This past weekend she had a volleyball tournament and the girls played great. Mackenna dives to the floor to save a point and jumps up at the net to block the ball! They fought hard and did not lose one game. They were the CHAMPS!! The best they had finished previous to this was second place.

Check out this group!

They have three more tournaments in the season and then they are finished. It has been so fun to watch her play!

A New Pitcher

Softball news:

In November, Alexa told us she wanted to be a pitcher. Wow! Matt told her she was really going to have to be committed to a lot of extra practice...and she has!

Alexa made her pitching debut at the end of January. She was able to pitch at the bottom of the last inning and faced the last batter. She threw five pitches. The first two were balls, the next two were strikes, and then the batter hit the fifth pitch. The defense behind Alexa fielded the ball and got the girl out. The inning was over. I was a nervous wreck the whole time and then I felt so much pride. The best thing that happened was after she pitched her first strike, she put her mitt in front of her mouth and nose...and smiled! No one else noticed, but I did!! It was so adorable!

It just so happened that a photography company was at that weekend's tournament and took pictures of Alexa pitching. Check these out!

Since that first time, she has pitched many innings and is doing quite well. This past weekend, she pitched her first complete game! We are so proud of her hard work!

One more thing...this past weekend's tournament (she has one almost every weekend), she was amazing at the plate! She had a homerun and had an incredible hit that almost went over the fence! Impressive!!!

"Snow" Days

Here in southeastern Texas ice and snow are pretty rare. We are halfway through our third year here (already!) and we had an expected event. Ice. Since it is so rare, the city does not have the means to melt it with salt like they do "up-north." They also have many elevated highways which apparently freeze nicely and help to bring the city to a standstill. 

I must admit we were pretty excited by the possiblity of not having school. Even when the phone rang at 5:18 am, confirming "no school" for the day, I was pretty happy! We stayed in our pajamas and I made a special breakfast. What made it even better was it was a Friday...a three day weekend! Yahoo!

powdered donuts with chocolate chips

Mackenna went outside and took some photos of the ice. We saw icicles for the first time here!

icicles on the lounger

ice covered Matt's truck

Little did we know, we would have another "snow" day the following Tuesday. (Here it is actually called an "inclement weather" day...ha ha ha!) We actually saw a few miniscule snow flakes flying in the air for about 20 minutes. However, in the morning, we had a little bit of proof. There was snow on the roof!! It is certainly not anything like we were used to at all!!

Snow on our roof!

This has been the coldest winter since we have lived here. I am looking forward to some warmer days soon!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!

Wishing you a wonderful and happy 2014!!

December went by in the blink of an eye. I was busy doing all of the usual December stuff (shopping, baking, decorating, etc.) and was busy volunteering, too. I volunteer at least once a month at the high school's school store. It's a great excuse for me to see Mackenna during her lunchtime, too!! She has a lunch made up mostly of juniors and seniors. She was lucky a few other freshman girls are in the same lunch. They always sit together (just a little group of five) during lunch. On days I come to the school to volunteer, I always bring a baked treat of some sort for the girls. They love to eat cookies and I love to bake them. It works out perfectly!!

In addition to volunteering at the high school, I also volunteer at Alexa's school. I am mentoring/tutoring a kindergartener once a week. She needs extra help in reading so I was eager for the challenge. Also, I am Alexa's room mom. We had a busy month. There was a cute musical the 5th graders performed and I assisted with extra practices and two of the three performances. We celebrated a polar express day where the kids wore their pajamas to school, watched the movie The Polar Express and we (the room moms for each class) served cookies and hot chocolate. We also celebrated the holidays with a holiday party, too! We had a nacho bar (yum!) and played "Minute-to-Win-it" games. A busy month at school but so much fun!

December also brought some holiday guests. I was so happy my brother, Josh, was able to spend a week here from Chicago. It was great to see him again. We hadn't seen him since last Christmas. Also, it was wonderful for my parents to be able to spend two weeks here. We had such a great time having everyone here!