Day One, 2010-2011

Obligatory first day of school pictures:


Peyton with Mrs. White.


Mackenzie before we left home, and on the way.


It's going to take a few mornings to get used to Peyton's 7:30 start time, and Mackenzie starting an hour and five minutes after that. The morning tornado is spread out over a greater amount of time, does more damage. Mostly concentrated in the kitchen.

Back To School

Where did the summer go? I can't even look back on the blog to find out considering I posted a whopping 6 times. Yesterday we went to Peyton's Open House and met her teachers. She'll be changing classes for the first time and has three teachers.


We got this fun tag to hang on our visor:


It's going to come in handy during dismissal when all 900 students are released at the same time!

Now, off to enjoy our last day of summer vacation and an early bedtime for Peyton's 7:30 (!) start time.

Flash Me Friday - Artwork

My favorite artwork? Anything my girls create! They are getting older and unfortunately they don't bring home nearly the amount they did when they were little (especially Mackenzie being in Junior High) but I still love everything they do!

We don't have much hanging on the walls since we moved in the house (over a year ago, partly because we need to buy some things to hang and partly because Jason does not like to hang things!), but this bulletin board is something I definitely wanted since we went with the stainless refrigerator that I can't cover in rotating artwork (and reminders) anymore.

More Flash Me Friday - Artwork!

Our New Addition

Introducing the newest member of our family, a guinea pig named Gizmo.

Mackenzie's been wanting a hamster or guinea pig for quite a while and Peyton started in this summer. I was the last hold out and we started the hunt. The plan was to wait a bit but a friend on facebook posted he was looking for a new home for Gizmo.

We decided to surprise the girls. That part didn't go quite as planned...Jason got home with him and we were outside looking at him when Peyton came out to put something up in the garage refrigerator. She got a glimpse of the cage and started screaming with excitement. She had to go get her Mackenzie before she could go see him though.

Here is Eddie meeting his new brother, I am certain they should never meet without a cage or door between them!
Very exciting evening at our house tonight. Now if only my pleading eyes worked as well on Jason as the the girls' do so I could get my second dog!

Flash Me Friday - Your Outdoor Space

A fellow CF Mom, Jen, has a weekly linkup "Flash Me Friday", where everyone blogs a certain area of their homes (without picking up). I haven't participated yet - as you can all tell, I've been a bad little blogger. BUT - I just happened to have photos Jason just texted me to go along with this weeks theme of "Your Outdoor Space".

So, it's not all of my outdoor space but the outdoor space that has had the most focus over the past few weeks because Jason has been busy every weekend working on it. A while back we got a great deal on this grill and it's been waiting to be installed. Jason built ALL of this, base, concrete top, masonry, woodwork. I was pretty impressed. He also put in the walkway.

Next big project the girls have requested...TREE HOUSE!

CF Clinic, Annual

Mackenzie had her annual check-up at the ACH CF Clinic and instead of making the trip to Little Rock in one day like we usually do, we decided to go for a few days and have a little fun.

We went down on Sunday so Monday we were able to go to Wild River Country. We were there when they opened and stayed for EIGHT hours.

Fun time! After joining Jason and the girls on the slides, they let me go hang out on the Lazy River while they had fun. What do we need to have to make a Lazy River at our house? After eight hours we left, went to dinner and then I was rewarded with:
Please, The Container Store, come to NWA. I promise we will all spend our money on your products.

Tuesday morning started for Mackenzie with NO food in preparation for her glucose test. 9 am she had her CT scan and then we headed over to the CF Clinic for everything else. We were very excited for a great appointment (Mackenzie normally struggles this time of year). Pulmonary Function Test FEV1 was the best it had been since 2005 at 83%. Glucose test was good. Weight was good. Height was a little too good (she's about a quarter of an inch away from being my height! I have always hoped for my girls to be taller than me so I'm happy for her). Hopefully we'll get the results from the CT scan and the culture soon. They also added Hypertonic Saline to her treatments, she is relieved that she can breathe it during the Vest so it doesn't add more time.
Mackenzie with Dr. Warren!

Father's Day 2010

We had a nice day! We slept in, then Jason's choice for breakfast (bacon, biscuits & gravy, orange juice). Gifts (shirt, shoes, and ear protectors for when he mows - which he joked was the BEST Father's Day gift ever. I had to let him know that they weren't for wearing in the living room during our conversations, ha!). We went to see Toy Story 3 (so great, and sad!) then out for dinner and home for a game of Settlers.

And A Few More

Sunday brought day 2 of recital and I had more of a chance to get some snapshots of the girls and some of their friends (the last blog post has pictures of them on stage during their dances).
Peyton and Mackenzie (looks a lot like this picture from last year!):
Madison & Mackenzie:

Alyssa, Mackenzie & Emily:

Audrey & Peyton:

Ms. Tara & Peyton:

Peyton, Ms. Laine & Mackenzie:

Mackenzie & Emily:

Ashley & Peyton:

Dance Recital 2010

So...I am so far behind on blogging. BUT, I have been going through photos from today's Dress Rehearsal and tonight's Recital and wanted to go ahead and get these loaded. I'll be fine if posts are a little out of order (right?). Lots of pics, little words:

Mackenzie performing to "When Doves Cry":
Mackenzie performing to "Jump":
Peyton performing to "American Woman":
Peyton performing to "The Prayer":
Mackenzie performing to "Closer":
Lunch run:

They also performed a few other dances (I'm sure I've posted pics from those dances below). They did such a wonderful job!

Branson (May 15 & 16)

Peyton's Girl Scout Troop celebrated the end of the year with a road trip to Branson (about two hours away). Mackenzie and I joined in the fun.

First stop was lunch at Landry's followed by a trip to the Titanic museum. It was very interesting. At the beginning of the tour you got a brochure to tell you who you were on the trip and as you toured the museum you could find a mention of yourself and at the end there was a memorial wall so you could find out if you survived or not. My person did not, but both Mackenzie and Peyton's did.

After the Titanic museum, we had time to do a little shopping before heading to the Dixie Stampede. Mackenzie had been there before but it was the first time for Peyton and me. It was pretty fun too. For some reason, that picture didn't get uploaded...After we left we went to Maggie Moos for a little treat (I got myself TCBY - a couple in NWA just won a franchise and will be bringing one back to our area, I can't wait!). Then on to play a little miniature golf.

We were right behind the family in front of us so we had a little photo fun.

On Sunday we did a little more shopping (of course I had to find the new TJMaxx there), followed by lunch at Cantina Laredo at the Branson Landing. We had a great time but were glad to come home to Jason and Eddie.

Braces!

Mackenzie got her braces today - she's been wanting them (! & ?) for as long as I can remember. Before (our last photo of unobstructed pearly whites for the next 18 months):
And, after:

Thanks Dr. Smith & Jamie Afterwards fed her soup and smoothie for lunch then got her to school for Spanish. I think she's pretty cute and I might already be used to seeing her with them on.

Me & My Girls

I love these girls of mine so, so much!

My Little Ballerina

Dance photo time! We only had one this week, we have 6 more next week - it's going to be a busy week of hair and make-up!

April, So Far

Wow! I haven't posted in over a month? What a bad blogger I've been...I guess I'll just try to let you know what we've been doing so far this month. The girls have still been dancing and soccer has started back up for Peyton. Mackenzie decided not to play softball this year.

On April 1st, there was a fundraiser at Peyton's school - the Gator Gallery...each class creates an art project for an auction and students perform in a talent show. Peyton, Molly and Ashley danced.
We had a quiet Easter, there was a wonderful service at church then we came home and gave the girls baskets - mainly movies (The Blind Side and New Moon for Mackenzie and The Princess and the Frog for Peyton, Toy Story 1 and 2 on DVDs to replace our VHS tapes divided between both of them). And yes, that is rice and soy sauce you see in Mackenzie's basket...she gave it up for Lent and wanted it every day. It is her favorite.

Friday was Jason's birthday - he didn't want a cake, but requested Coconut Cream Pie (which I make using a super easy recipe).

Saturday morning we went to the Autism walk. Our wonderful friends - Todd, Tammy and Drake, have forever been very supportive of Mackenzie and the fundraisers we have for the CFF, so we were very excited to have an opportunity to be supportive of them.

Mackenzie's friends, Emily and Abby were there on the "Chandler's Champions" Team for Abby's brother. We have many friends affected by Autism and these families are so amazing!

There was a 5k as part of the event and Peyton wanted to run it, her nice Daddy agreed to run it with her. So...this is the first time they've run since the last 5k, I'm pretty sure they would have benefited from a little running between November and April but they did great! They want to run another in May so maybe they'll start working on getting ready for it.

After the event, Peyton had a soccer game then camping for Girl Scouts and Mackenzie had dance and a sleepover so Jason and I had a date night. There was a CFF fundraiser I wanted to go to but it was more something I'd go to with girlfriends (fashion show) and since it was Jason's birthday weekend we spent some time together instead.

Mackenzie had an appointment last Wednesday with Dr. Warren due to an increased cough - this is always a bad time of year for her (both hospital stays have come right after the Spring - end of June/July is when it all catches up with her). I should talk to him tomorrow to see what her culture shows but she really doesn't have any other symptoms and her cough has gotten better!