Aleigh's Dance Competition

Aleigh proudly wearing her 1st place medals!

The girls and their Ballet teacher, Mrs. Cindy

The girls in their "Ease on down the road" costumes (tap)

Aleigh and her Tap teacher

I was uploading photos from El Paso, when I realized I had yet to post about Aleigh's 1st dance competition! She did so great! We were very proud of her! I was so happy that my mom could be there, it was so much more exciting than the Recitals! We were in complete awe over the talent from the other Dance studios in the area! Aleigh's and the girls in her group were the youngest competitors and they were all so cute and so proud to get first place for both numbers that they performed! Even though I don't know that they had any competition for their age group, it doesn't matter! All of us mom's were so excited for our little dancers! They did a great job!!!

After all of that excitement I thought for sure Aleigh would be motivated to continue w/ dance next year, but she is firm on her decision! Aleigh does not want to continue to dance! I am proud of her for still putting all of her heart and soul into practicing and performing! She LOVES karate and wants to add gymnastics next year. AJ wants to take gymnastics as well, so I'm pretty excited because I think they will both love it!

A Nice Visit

Even though we are in El Paso and there is a lot I can write about being here, I wanted to post about our visit with James and Amy! I will post about El Paso when our trip is over and I have pictures to download.

Amy is so great! Even though our visit w/ her was short, we are confident we will see her a lot more! The spark between James and Amy is very evident! One of the neatest things my parents both noticed, right away, about Amy was that she reminded them of my Grandma (my dad's mom). My mom's first impression was "Jim's mom would love her!" Which leads me to believe that she just might have played a part in getting them together! We all really like her! They are scheduled to return from a Scuba Diving trip in Belize today. They will spend this weekend in Peachtree City, and then Amy goes back to Charleston, SC on Sunday, and James returns to Phoenix on Monday. They only have to go about 2 weeks before Amy will be spending a couple of weeks in Phoenix with James. We all wish the best for James and Amy!

Ansley's 1st Birthday Party!!!

Invitation created by my mom!

Today we celebrated Ansley's 1st Birthday!!! We had a GREAT time with family and close friends! Ansley took a good nap before her party so she was in a great mood and loved seeing all of her little friends! April came and brought Casey (15 months old), Patricia came and brought Nye (14 months old), and Tammy came and brough Hayley (13 months old)! It's the first time we have been able to get all of the little girls together since they were all newborns! Malin and her family came, the Killpack family came, Madrina (Robin) came, and of course my parents and brothers were here! It was a great turn out!!! We were sad to miss Robin, Tylor, Drew and Tessa though! Drew and Tessa have been running fevers for the past few days so they weren't able to come today! They were so dissapointed, but when the doctor says to stay home and get well, that's what they did. Here is a shot of everyone singing Happy Birthday to Ansley!

Above: Ansley is watching everyone sing to her in complete amazement! April and sweet little Casey!

Ansley LOVED her pizza and cake! Those are two of her favorite foods so she was happy! Ansley was spoiled with a lot of great gifts and stayed up later than usual tonight so she could play with all of her new toys!

James is here!!! The kids have really enjoyed spending time w/ Uncle James! Ansley has probably taken longer to warm up to James than any other kid I know! She is so funny! She literally stares people down for a while and decides when she feels comfortable with them. Sometimes it takes a few days! As James and my parents were leaving tonight Ansley reached for James for the first time and we were able to get this shot! I made cupcakes, icing and set out sprinkles and candies so that the kids could decorate their own cupcakes! AJ and Will decorated one, some of the adults had fun decorating one, and then Aleigh had a BLAST decorating the rest! Here are the cupcake creations! Below that photo is a photo of the cupcake pops that I made as party favors. The kids helped me paint the little flower pots. We had fun, but I'm not sure I'll make the cupcake pops again! It was quite a task, but I have to admit, I think they turned out pretty cute.

Skroll down to leave a comment. For some reason these photos upload all over the place and it messes up the format!

A lot to look forward to!

This Saturday we will get to a visit, that feels like, we have waited forever for! Uncle James is coming to see us!!! We still aren't sure when he will arrive, but as long as he show's up we don't care what time it is! Aleigh is so full of excitement to see her Uncle James she says "I just can't stand it!!!" Tomorrow is Uncle James' birthday so she is looking forward to calling him tomorrow in Phoenix! We are thrilled that James will be here for Ansley's 1st Birthday party on Sunday! I can't believe she is about to be a year old already! No matter how hard you try to hang on to every moment, time still has a way of flying by way too fast! Since we are heading to El Paso on Ansley's actual birthday, we have decided to celebrate on Sunday. This way both Uncle James and her Madrina (Robin Dumas) can be a part of Ansley's birthday. Robin leaves on the 14th for her second mission trip to Guatemala. That's an amazing trip for her to be able to go over there and work with the children and families who don't have much of anything! I know she was really moved by her first trip, she left the day after Ansley was born...Ansley arrived just in time! :)

We are just having a small group of close friends over for Ansley's party on Sunday and then of course my parents, James, and Bryson! We thought Amy (James' girlfriend) would be here to join us, but it looks like she won't be arriving in Atlanta until next Thursday. We are all anxious to meet her, she seems really great!

I will be sure to blog about our weekend and post pictures, so stay tuned! :)