The twins are sick!

I just call these two twins because they are so much alike in so many ways.  Today, they are both sick, just puking all night and day.  I'm tired of cleaning up puke...

A heart of gold!

Oma has not been doing so well lately and Skylar has a special place in her heart for Oma.  So, Skylar went over to visit with her for a while.  This is how I found her and Oma talking when I went  to pick Skylar up!

Midwestern weekend

Me, being so excited to get to some great swimming, forgot my camera.  Also, I get way too excited cheering to be able to take pictures anyway.  Fortunately, my friends took pictures for me.  Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to get those pictures yet!  I will get them as soon as I can:)  Skylar swam another awesome 400IM.  She dropped another 15 seconds!!  It is just crazy to drop 33 seconds in one weeks time.  I could not be more proud.  James also swam excellent.  He dropped 2 seconds in his 100 back, and 2 seconds in his 50 free.  His 50 back was about the same as before.  Our whole team swam great.  I was so proud of our little Seahawk team holding their own with the big bad Omaha teams!

James' spring musical

The theme for the musical was a PJ party, with the songs being different bedtime stories.

 James has the Vikings pillow.

 Here, James is the black dog (I don't remember the story).

 It was a very nice show and James was so proud of being the dog!

A Girl's Weekend!

Skylar has had a rough year this year with her swimming.  She has been working so hard, but not dropping any time in her meets.  So, I thought I would take her to one last swim meet.  I wanted to end on a fun note, so I made it just the two of us to make a girl's weekend out of it. We started with getting our nails painted.

 

Then we went out to lunch at the Olive Garden, her favorite restaurant.

 

She just had one event on Friday night, the 400IM (100 of each stroke).  We knew it was a long shot to make it to Midwestern's because she had to drop 14 seconds to qualify, but it was also her best shot.

Finishing up warm-ups.

 Getting ready behind the blocks..

 Take your marks...

 100 fly

 100 back

100 breast

 100 free

 Exhausted!

But ecstatic, because she blew it out of the water and dropped 17 1/2 seconds to qualify for Midwestern's!!!!!!!

 One extremely happy Midwestern (state) qualifier!!!

 She had more events over the weekend, but none quite as good as that 400 IM!  But to celebrate, we went shopping!!!

 Skylar's loot:)

Her mama might of been a little proud of her swimmer and went a touch overboard!

Feburary 21-24

I have been very down lately because of my surgery, JT being gone since about Christmas, Skylar and James' room situation, and just general stuff of taking care of 5 kids.  JT decided that I needed to get away, so when we got invited by his parents to go to the Daytona 500 for the weekend, he jumped at the chance. Here is the view from our hotel room.  Just the view of the ocean is a tonic for me!

  

 Gen and I spent the morning shopping and then met up with the rest of the crew for day 1 of racing.  It was a little chilly and rainy, so I couldn't go play in the ocean:(  But that night we went down the boardwalk and had a fun time.  Everyone (but me--I hate, hate these kinds of rides) went on the Space Shot...

 Then we did some go-cart racing, where two of our crew (Matt and Johnny-Katie's brother) got kicked off the track for "crashing."

 The next day was a very long day.  I got food poisoning and was sick all day and the race was started on time, but then delayed SIX hours due to rain.  Finally, at 8:30 at night, the race was on again...

I'm a little sad I didn't get to play in the ocean, but it was still nice to get away for a little bit.

Only in Iowa!

 Only in Iowa will you find the streets lined with snow piles and the boys playing outside without their shirts on!  (It was 66 degrees today:))

Parade of Bands

 The music program in Sioux Center is really growing into a top program in the state.  They are doing very well in their state competitions.  So, to show off their skills, the music department put on a show of all of the bands, 5th, 6th, 7/8th, and high school.  It was really great to see the growth of the students as they advance in the program.  I was amazed (me being very UNmusical)!

Go Skylar!

Best Friend Brothers!

Everyone gets an electronic device and they are best friends!!!  It does melt my heart just a little to see them choose to be by each other!