What's The Best News Around?!?!?!?

Today was an AWESOME day. I kept a secret from all four girls for more than a week and today they were finally let in on it. Can you guess what the secret is??? Maybe these pictures & videos will help you.

Upcoming Surprise

There is a big, HUGE, GINORMOUS, MEGA-AWESOME, surprise happening around here today. I can't wait to see the girls' reactions when they find out. Stay tuned for more information....

Swimming Lessons

On a spur of the moment one day, while at the YMCA, I decided Rebecca needed swim lessons. Although she was a pretty decent swimmer last summer I realized that she hasn't even been in a pool since the outdoor one closed last year. Probably not the best way to start the swimming season. So I signed her up.
I took a guess on which level she was since the descriptions are less than helpful. After the first class I decided that was NOT the class for her. One teacher, eight kids in the 3-5 year old range, all of which were swimming circles around my daughter. The class before on the other hand...no one. So I told the instructor that I was going to pull her back into the earlier class. He reluctantly agreed (probably enjoyed the 1/2 hour off). Although a little boy has since joined her class, her first one during that time slot was just her. I soooo adore private swim lessons for a fraction of the cost! Even now it's practically private since there are just the two of them. You just can't beat it!
Today I discussed the swim test with her and she decided to take it. Their swim test is treading water for one minute in the deep end and then swimming the length of the pool to the shallow end wall. She is still having a bit of trouble with the treading water thing but....she is now the proud owner of a green wristband from the Y!! (Red bands=shallow end, Green bands=deep end) I'm so proud of my girl!!!

It's Prom Time!

Here is Taylor on Saturday with her boyfriend Peter. They were both very understanding of the many pictures taken by both me and his family. They had lots of fun and really enjoyed themselves!
Taylor's friend Micayla came over and helped a whole bunch! She did Taylor's hair and makeup.
(I'm so proud of my thrifty child...the dress was $10 at the thrift shop!!)

St. Timothy Youth Award

Recently, I heard about the St. Timothy award for the first time. Our youth ministry leader contacted me about it. She explained the award to me and then told me she had nominated Taylor. She was calling to let me know that Taylor had won the award. I was tickled for Taylor! We discussed going to the award ceremony and decided to make the whole thing a surprise for Taylor. So I all I told her was we were going to a dinner thing with Mrs. Duncan and Sister Kathleen. She is pretty easy going and didn't ask any questions...which made it pretty easy to keep it a surprise!
We waited until we were at the award dinner sitting around the table chatting before handing her the program (that had the names listed in it!) She was sooooo shocked! She shouldn't be though, she enjoys helping out at the church with all the youth functions so much. She has been a peer minister for the last two years for the confirmation groups. Here is what the brochure said about the St. Timothy award...

St. Timothy Youth Award
Parish leaders may name one young person from their parish for this national award. The St. Timothy Award is the highest recognition from the NFCYM for a diocese to confer to a junior or senior high school youth who lives as a disciple of Christ, sets a positive example for other youth, witnesses to their faith by exhibiting Catholic morals and integrity, demonstrates Gospel values through service to others, and exhibits Christian leadership in parish, school, and/or community settings.

I am so proud of my awesome daughter!

Jaquelyn's Spring Concert

Jaquelyn's school has a terrific new music program that we are very excited about. They just introduced it to the school this year and it has really taken off. I am so glad that Jaquelyn was interested in playing an instrument! She chose the flute and has progressed fairly well...even though getting her to practice regularly sometimes drives me crazy!! (not a very long trip)
They recently had their spring concert and Jaquelyn performed at it. She had a great time and it was fun to see all the different things she has to look forward to as she gets older at her school. Although she goes to a small Christian school, they have a choir, hand bells, drama and band. A pretty good assortment if you ask me! I am so looking forward to Rebecca joining her there next year!

This was obviously before her haircut!



















Jaquelyn and her friend Sierra













































* Disclaimer...I am so far behind on my blogging that I have bloggy items that are more than a week old so I am going to do some catching up this week. So be forewarned that most of these pictures and events in my blog posts this week are from the week before last.

Happy Mother's Day! (and some thrift shop steals!!)

Hello out there in bloggy land to all my fellow mothers. I hope your Mother's day was a great one!
We had a very nice day here. Although it started out early with me taking Taylor to work at the coffee shop, it did give me extra time in the day to get lots of things done. I did get a chance to lay down after Teresa, Jaquelyn & Rebecca brought me breakfast in bed. Teresa made some crumb cake that was really yummy and also made my favorite "breakfast burritos". I snoozed a bit then picked Taylor up from the shop. We kinda skimmed through lunch with everyone having something different then the girls got together and gave me some goodies. They are soooooo precious. Dan had beat them all to the punch with a surprise that came in the mail yesterday...a Mickey Mouse watch like my favorite one that had broken long ago! What an amazing guy!
We watched a movie together that was pretty good and amazingly enough, none of us had ever seen it. (an old made-for-tv movie called "Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain") Dinner was not much since we were not very hungry after the yummy popcorn but then we had strawberry shortcake for dessert!
Now on to the fun day at the thrift shop yesterday! We have a favorite thrift shop that we go to that is about an hour from our house. I know that is a bit of a drive but we usually have other things we need to take care of in the area...such as sleep over pickups, doctors visits, etc. I don't always share my finds with my bloggy friends but sometimes I just get so excited by the amazing deals, I just can't help myself!

Here is my cute skirt from New York & Co....with the tags still on it!




















Some adorable shorts I found for Rebecca...I love, love, love plaid shorts!!
















I have such a weakness for shoes it's hard not to go crazy there but when I saw these Teva's I just HAD to pick them up for Rebecca!















I am always on the lookout for tennis skirts since I play 3-5 times per week and I don't like to have to wear the same ones all the time. The thrift shop helps me have lots of them and still stay in a budget!















And of course I had to save the best for last...I rarely buy things for Rebecca & Jaquelyn to "grow into" because I know there will be plenty of things to buy when they are that age, no need to store for years. However, when I saw this skirt for under $3.00 I just knew I had to buy it. It is a size 8 but the way Rebecca is growing that will only be next year that she'll be wearing it! When we got home I just had to look up how much this skirt would have cost brand new...straight from the Burberry website...$145! For a CHILDS skirt...are you kidding me!?!?!?! I think this wins for best steal!

Big News

Well we had a big day here yesterday. Jaquelyn has been going back and forth on a certain decision and yesterday she went ahead and jumped....
Without further ado here are the before and after shot's of her new do...


Before....









































wait for it....





































wait for it.....










and voila...10 inches to send to Locks Of Love.