We just came back home from Rilyn’s Southwest Regional Pop Warner cheer competition in Dallas. They got 3rd place, and we are so proud of how hard they worked all season long! James is so good at making fun videos and he made a montage video of their cheer routine that you must see!! For the cheer parents watching, we do have the original routine and we will share later! 🙂 Enjoy!
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| getting our 3rd place trophy! |
**Halloween Preview**
For Halloween this year, my girls wanted to be a musketeer from Barbie and the Three Musketeers movie. They will be the pink and blue musketeer and their friend will be the purple musketeer. (Yes, we realize we are missing a green musketeer, but oh well!) 🙂
So I went online to buy a costume. No such luck. I can’t sew, so I was stuck…until I did some digging on google images, and found a lady who made her daughter’s Musketeer boots with colored duct tape! Now that is something I can do! And the rest of the costume, (I made a corset from the duct tape/peltex interfacing too), is put together from odds and ends we already had or I bought! Here is Rilyn, the blue Musketeer!
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Here is Rilyn’s routine! They did great, and got 2nd place out of 4 teams. The top 3 teams advance, so that means they move on to the Southwest Regionals in Dallas in late November!
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| about to warm up! |
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| doing the routine! |
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| at the end…parade of champions! |
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| group shot! |
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| I love how the Falcons are crossed arms hoping to make it to Dallas! |
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| We got 2nd!!! We made it to Dallas!! |
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| running to get the trophy! |
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| they worked so hard for this!! |
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| roses from daddy |
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| tender moment |
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| yep, I’m a cheer mom! |
Last Saturday, Rilyn’s cheerleading/football league had their “homecoming” game. All that means is it’s an excuse for the cheerleaders to wear mums and the parents decorate signs to hang around the field! 🙂 This is Rilyn’s 3rd mum (and she is only 8!). They get more extravagant each year it seems like. I have yet to make one…but I’m sure my time will come!
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During halftime, Rilyn was presented with the Pop Warner Lil’ Scholar award for having a grade average of 99%. She is one smart cookie!
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Rilyn has mastered the cartwheel, which is a big accomplishment for her! Next up? She wants to master the splits!
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What a week! Here is my life in pictures from last Tuesday to this Tuesday! My camera logged in over 1200 pictures this past week, and there is no foreseeable slow down from now until after Ella’s birthday (in January!) Tis the season!
James turned 34 last Tuesday and spent his actual birthday counting money for the cheerleading pictures that I took that evening. What a guy! Love him so much!! My best friend made the yummy Reeses peanut butter cake and I tripled my banana pudding recipe to bring up to his work for all to enjoy!
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Some of the cheerleading pictures I took this week. (I also took 3 football teams.)
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| Rilyn on top! |
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On Saturday, Rilyn cheered at the football game!
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| we won! |
Yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch because the kids had a day off! I will post more later, but here is a sneak peek!
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I have several photo shoots lined up for the next months, so stay tuned for my photography blog to be busy!
James and I had the privilege of attending the national Desiring God conference last weekend in Minneapolis. The theme was Act the Miracle. We got to see and listen to many great Christian authors/speakers including John Piper, Russell Moore, and the author of my favorite children’s Bible, The Jesus Storybook Bible, Read-Aloud Edition: Every Story Whispers His Name
Sally Lloyd-Jones. By the way, she has Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing
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| downtown Minneapolis |
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| John Piper |
My favorite speaker was Sally Lloyd-Jones. (Probably because children’s ministry is where my heart is!) She has a beautiful British accent, and listening to her talk was mesmerizing. She asked us if we were protecting our children from life or EQUIPPING them? We need the darkness to show the light.
I thought about Rilyn, and how I watched her run the track two times at the end of cheer practice last week. I watched her (from my car in the parking lot) cry and gasp for breath on the track. When she got back to the car she went into the “It’s NOT FAIR! I didn’t do anything wrong at practice, it was the other girls who were not listening, and coach made us all run! I couldn’t even breath either it was so hot!”
It was hard to watch Rilyn suffer, but God gave me these words to speak to her at that time, “Rilyn, was it fair for Jesus, who was without sin, to suffer on the cross for all of OUR sins? He didn’t just suffer either, He died for our sins to be forgiven. Running the track because of other’s “sins” doesn’t seem like such a big deal now, does it? I know it’s hard, and it’s not fun to be out of breath. I am sorry, and I will pray for you to endure it well next time it happens. Because it WILL happen again. It might not look like running the track, but it will be something that feels not fair. Next time you are suffering, you can think about how grateful you are that Jesus paid it all for you to be forgiven.”
How do we give them hope? Take the focus off of them, and put it on God. We don’t need a moral code, we need a Rescuer.
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| at the top of the Foshay building |
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| this picture was for Asher-look, your daddy is Spiderman!! |
Rilyn started her 3rd season of cheerleading with the Pop Warner Manor Falcons yesterday!
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| and the bows just keep getting bigger!! |
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| Rilyn on the far left of the picture |
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| gotta cheer LOUD! |
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| I think she has the “loud” part down! |
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Asher has a thing for water in his face…he LOVES it!!
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| I think I’ll stand right here… |
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| so I can get dumped on!!!! |
And just for fun-grandma bought Asher and cousin Caden matching Jake costumes from Jake and the Neverland Pirates show. Cousin Caden’s birthday is coming up, and his party theme is from that show…grandma just couldn’t resist. Personally, I couldn’t even tell if that was a wig Asher was wearing! 😉
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These past two weeks have been all about camp and VBS! During first week of June, my girls went to Pine Cove base camp at our church!
I highly recommend this as a transition for overnight camps. Next summer, I would love to send my girls to Pine Cove overnight week long camp, and I think they would be totally ready for it based on the week they had at base camp! It was 9-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and they loved every minute of it! (Okay, Rilyn did complain about being too sweaty some days!) 🙂 But that is a girly girl for ya!
They had tons of water activities every day!
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| Ella on the far left |
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| Ella in the middle trying to drink the water sprinkles! |
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| Rilyn and her friends! |
They had Bible study in their tents every day!
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| Rilyn in the red |
They got to act silly!
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| Ella |
Listen to silly skits!
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| Ella loving being in the front row! |
They did the Wobble (I totally recommend playing this for the kids, so fun!)
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| The girls LOVE this clean version of the song |
They had worship!
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| Rilyn |
And during the last day, the counselors (which both my girls want to be when they are in college!), presented them with a certificate of character quality!
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| Ella and her counselor |
Ella’s said, “Ella is an outgoing young lady. Her enthusiastic attitude is contagious and inspiring. Her positive outlook is a blessing to those around her.”
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| Rilyn and her counselor |
Rilyn’s said, “Rilyn is selfless, putting others before herself. She is uplifting in what she says and does. Her gracious attitude is a blessing to those around her.”
For Rilyn’s birthday dinner on Sunday, we headed over to Austin Park and Pizza! She got to pick a friend to go with her, and she chose one from school.
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| Rilyn realized she loved rock climbing! She did this wall a couple of times on different
sides. |
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| free fall ride |
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| putt putt! |
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| bumper boats! |
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| tea cups! |
After dinner, we headed over to Sonic for a dessert!
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| 8 sparkler! |
And we gave her our gift from mommy, daddy, and my parents!
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| we wrapped it in an manila envelope and told her it was a birthday card. |
A Kindle Fire! I’m so excited about this present because having to read everyday for 30 minutes has made this momma buying lots of books, and I’m running out of space!
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Rilyn’s 8 year old portrait!
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I left out our go karting experience on purpose, so stay tuned!
the paquettes 