Kickin' It Old School

Den and I got Summer this "Boom Box" for her iPod. Her choice of music for this video could not have been more perfect if I had picked it myself.

ACES Chorus Holiday Musical

Summer's elementary school chorus presented an adaptation of A Charlie Brown Christmas as their Holiday Musical. Summer entertained us with a solo in Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree. I, of course, forgot my camera. Thankfully, my sweet friend Laurie took some pictures for me. I will add them to the post when I get them.

Christmas Christmas Time Is Here

I'm not going to lie. Christmas this year was a tough one. Between Den not being here and it being so warm, my Christmas spirit was in short supply. That being said, the girlies and I had a wonderful Christmas. We are so blessed to be around so many people that care about us. The girls spent the 24th tracking Santa across the globe, waiting anxiously for his to make his run through Afghanistan. Their sweet, "Merry Christmas Daddy" as they watched Santa fly through the Kabul sky sent me for a few minutes in my room to pull myself together. We attended the Christmas Eve service at church then had a great dinner with our next-door neighbors (forgot my camera). Then it was home to get into jammies, suffer through Mom's mandatory photo session, and listen to Daddy read Twas The Night Before Christmas via Face Time. The girlies put out the cookies and milk for Santa and then nestled all snug in MY bed.

Christmas morning they bounded out bed to find that apparently they had been good this year and Santa had filled the family room with presents. Daddy Face Timed in and we were able to open gifts together as a family. The rest of Christmas Day was spent assembling and playing with all the amazing gifts in our pajamas. (Camera battery died, so I will be taking THOSE pictures throughout the next day or so) Watching the girls attempt to assemble their own "Some Assembly Required" toys was good for quite a few laughs from Mom. Our friend Jill joined us for Christmas dinner, which was nice and then we wound up the day with a game of Life. Unfortunately, thanks to an unrealized issue with my phone, we did not get to talk to all of the friends and family that we wanted to, but that is also something that we will be remedying today.

I hope all of you had as blessed a Christmas as we did. We are greatly looking forward to 2013, which will see our family reunited and off on some wonderful new adventures.

Click here to view these pictures larger

RealKids Christmas Program

This is the elementary-aged kids Christmas program at our church. For those of you who can't make it out, Summer is in the back row on the far right with the bow in her hair.

Peace Be The Journey

My friend Nikki shared this at Bible Study a couple of weeks ago and I keep coming back to it, so I thought I would share it here.

 Peace Within 

May today there be peace within. 

 May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. 

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. 

 May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. 

 May you be confident knowing you are a child of God. 

Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. 

 It is there for each and every one of us.

In Our Sunny Winter Wonderland

Here's a blast from the past! Look for a familiar cute blonde girl around the 38 second mark.

Starry Snowy Southwest Night

I think I have discovered a way to get around the Blogger issues, at least temporarily. After some research, a lot of people have started having the same problem I am and it has to do with a glitch in the way Blogger and Picasa interface. I have been assured that they are working on it.

Tonight we attended DM's Starry Snowy Southwest Night, which is the annual base tree lighting ceremony. They bring in literally tons of snow and these desert kids get to have an evening of snowball fights and snow angels. This year, the children of some of the 900 deployed airmen from DM (including mine) got to help Santa light the Christmas tree. We had a wonderful time playing in the snow and ice skating in 80* temperatures. Summer took a point blank snowball to the eye and may or may not have a shiner in the morning. I tried to take a picture of her, but she was having none of that!

I know they won't be reading this, but I really feel the need to thank USAA, Chick Fil A, In 'N Out Burger, and all the other companies that donated their time and goodies to help make tonight such fun. Oh, and Santa Claus. Musn't forget to thank Santa Claus. Don't want to end up on the naughty list!

Click here to view these pictures larger

WTF?!?!?

Blogger has informed me that I am out of photo storage for Bluebonnets and Haggis. I went into my Picasa storage that is linked to the site and deleted all pics from prior to 2011, but it still says I am out of storage. I am not sure what to do on this one. Hmmmm. I can pay for more storage from Google for $2.99 a month, or I can look elsewhere. I'll let you know when I figure it out. I will be setting up a temporary Shutterfly Share site until I figure out where to go from here.

A Dose of Reality

Pacific Desert Regional Championships

The culmination of our hours and hours spent on the practice field came this weekend with the Pacific Desert Region Cheer Fest, out regional championship competition. 

Our day started VERY a.m. at Sweet Tooshies Bakery where we assembled all the girls to do their hair

The final product

 Once all the hair was done, we piled in all the girls and headed to the University of Arizona's McKale Memorial Center, where this year's competition was being held.

We didn't go on until 11:00, so there was a lot of sitting around, which was nicely broken up with stands dancing! 

Warm-Ups

One last team huddle before heading in to take our place in the line-up

We had one VERY nervous group on girls

Coach Carrie gave out lead-out some last minute instructions, then....

Here we go!

Whew! We survived!

Time for awards. There were 30 different leagues represented at the competition, and most leagues brought several teams. Ours had four teams competing.

2012 Regional Champs!

Oops....

I haven't blogged since October! I blame cheerleading which, up until yesterday, had taken over my life! Stay tuned.

Beyond The 49 Fall Festival

We have been attending a church close to our house here in Tucson, called Real Life Christian Fellowship, and we absolutely love it there. It is a particular blessing after having struggled the last year or so we were in Virginia to find a church that fit. It's a mission-focused church, which speaks to my heart and the kids are thriving in the children's and youth groups, which is an answer to my prayers. Den was able to only attend once before he left, but he left wanting to go back, so that's one in the win column too! This past Sunday, Real Life sponsored a community fall festival, dubbed Beyond the 49 (our zip code is 85749, get it?). Our worship service was conducted outside on the grounds of the festival and then the fun began! 

It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL morning. Sunny and hot without a cloud in the sky

We were blessed to have Clarence Lee, a world renown motivational speaker, deliver his message during the service and again during the festival.

How many men do you know that can use their chest muscles as an impromptu table?

After the service, the festivities kicked off, including this pick-up game

There were your usual festival games

And face painting / glitter tattoos / hair coloring

Summer and Abby showing off their crazy Halloween hair

Paige met up with her friends and then I only caught glimpses of her now and then. LOL

Kona Berry brought their Kona Ice truck out and provided cool treats to everyon

Local BMX stars, The Peraza Brothers put on an awesome show

Right before the girlies and I left, Clarence Lee delivered his message along with a strong-man demonstration that Paige got picked to help with. 

For a man who bench presses over 600 pounds, deadlifting two girls was a breeze

Love Paige's face here

All in all, we entertained our church family and over 700 members of our community. I am never one to push anything on anybody, but if you are in the Tucson area and you are searching for a church home, come check out Real Life. I think you'll be glad you did.

Family Photo Shoot

There are tons of photos of the whole fam that I haven't posted from our family photo shoot, but in the interest of saving time, I am just posting some of my favorites. One of these will most likely be our Christmas card photo this year. Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!

The Only Cowboys That Will Ever See The Playoffs

If we can't be Bulls, we have to be Cowboys! For those of you who have missed my posts from earlier in the season, Summer is now cheering for the Tucson Cowboys. Considering her aspirations to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, it seemed a good fit. 

The Mighty Mite Cowboys came out of their regular season 6 and 1, second in the points behind the undefeated Falcons team (which, I know, not many of you really care, but these boys have played an AWESOME season).

Saturday was our first playoff game and it was an exciting one.

Boys are getting pumped up for their game

My girl, getting her cheer on!

So proud of all of these girls, who have worked so hard this season

 This is my favorite football coach. He is so INTO the game.

Final touchdown to seal the deal. Cowboys win 24-14!

 Notice the rosy cheeks? That's because it's the end of October and still 90*. Gotta love living in the desert!

I know that in previous years, I have posted pics from every single game, but I decided that this year I would just do one big post at the end of the season. We'll see how that works out.