I could upload these videos right onto blogger because they are under 100MB.

This first one is Sammy's bar routine. She fell off twice, but almost everyone did since it's the first meet of the year.

The second is her beam routine. Again, she fell off but still scored very well. She got a fourth place metal for it.

Sammy's floor routine

I have a few more videos from Sunday, but I did this one first. Here is Sammy's level 8 floor routine :)

I can't figure out how to put the actual video here, oh well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3DULFIuvFA

UPDATE on previous post about the kid and gun...

Well, it turns out it was all just a rumor Apparently the kid didn't have a gun or a list. They found him at home, sleeping, because he was suspended for smoking (not cigarettes) in the parking lot the day before.

The kid is in school today

In a small town in New Hampshire today....

...there was a shooting threat at our High School (that my kids are at).

This doesn't happen here!

A very troubled 11th grader came to the school today with a loaded gun, a list of names and a mission. Luckily (thank God) he didn't make it into the school. He was taken into custody before he made it into the building, but the kids inside were still locked in for safety. We don't know all of the details about it, because it just happened this morning, other than everyone is safe and school is going on as usual.It's probably one of the worst things a parent can get is a text from you teenage daughter that says:

"Mom, there is a school shooting threat. Everyone is so scared."

If anyone is familiar with our area (other NH moms) you know that our little vacation town is NOT somewhere you would think this would happen. It just goes to show....it can happen to anyone, anywhere.

It's that time of year again

I LOVE this site. It provides endless hours of creativity in our house :)

http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/index.html?id=7111231

Happy snowflake making!!!

Oh yay!!I found the slideshow I made of our vacation to Disney World in 2007!! If you want to watch it, turn on your speakers :)

Square Dance!!

Hailey's class has been practicing for their annual (this is it's 19th year!) Square Dance. Last Friday was the big day, and let me tell you...these kids are GOOD!! It's amazing how all these kids, which is the whole second and third grade class, followed directions so well all at the same time! My next door neighbor picked Hailey up a really cute costume at a thrift store for us too!

They're back!

Oh boy! Guess we'll never see Hailey again, lol. We have a neighbor who has horses, kindof. They have an amazing field right next to us, literally 20 feet from our front door, and they have two horses for part of the year. Until now, we didn't realize why they were only there sometimes. We have found out that he moves them to a huge pasture in Vermont during the summer so they can graze and live off of grass. They don't ride them, so there is no need to give them any grain/oats. So, they are usually here for the winter and part of the spring but this year they weren't here all spring/summer until the other day!! We woke up one morning (early) and saw them out there. Hailey, still in her PJs, ran right out to greet them :)

They have been here for a few days now and Hailey is ALWAYS out there. The horses like to hang out right next to the fence near our house. Their owners house is quite far away, as you can see in the pictures. The horses are already getting attached to Hailey. Whenever she comes home, she goes right to see them and whenever she leaves the house she goes over to say goodbye to them. Sometimes, they are in the middle of the field and will come running over to her at the fence to say "hi". It's one of the cutest things I've ever seen!

I'm so happy that these horses are here. Recently her best friend got a horse for her birthday. We were there for the event and Hailey wanted to be a part of it. It was great, and Hailey was such a good friend in keeping the secret, but I know deep down that she wishes she had a horse. It's sad for me, a horse lover myself, to not be able to buy her a horse. I cannot wait for the day that we, too, can surprise Hailey with a horse of her own. She would be an amazing horse owner! She already treats these horses next door as her own, it's really great...but a little sad. This is the closest she will get to owning a horse for a long time. It's going to be a sad day when they leave again next spring :(

This is Skye. The friendlier of the two.

They like to hang out right here next to the fence. I think because our house has so much action and people always going in and out.

They are SUPER friendly!!

KISSES!!!!!

This is Abbey. She's not as quick to come greet Hailey, but still very friendly.




This picture was taken from our front porch. The horses are literally 20 feet from our door!!

No house phone :(

I don't know how I feel about it. I just disconnected my house phone this morning. I don't have a job right now (other than waitressing a couple nights a week) so things are tight and I felt that the phone was going to be the first thing to go. We have a cell phone plan that we only use under 200 minutes of the allowed 700 minutes on so we might be okay. It's just going to be a hard thing to get used to.

So, for all you friends and family that read my blog, the ONLY number you can reach me at now is 707-7993.

What I've been up to...

A lot actually. But, it's all been good :) I'm finding it harder and harder to actually sit down and update my blog lately. The kids are keeping me nice and busy! To pick up where I left off...our anniversary night away was fun! It's been so long since Isaiah and I have gone out/away alone. Usually we are both so busy on the weekends "catching up" on household stuff, it was nice to send the kids off and just enjoy ourselves. Actually, just Hailey went away to my friend, Tina's, house. The twins ended up staying home alone for the night :-o That's the first time we have ever let them do that. We did have our neighbors (who we are very good friends with and whom we go on vacation with every year) keep an eye on the house to make sure no parties were held! All was good, no parties or guests. I was still worried! I ended up getting very sick with the stomach bug while we were away though. It was hard to tell if it was something I ate, or that I had "one too many" beers, or if it was really just a bug. I have come to the conclusion that it was a bug since Isaiah and I ate exactly the same thing (we shared) and that I was feeling so much worse than what too much alcohol would make me feel like. I still had a great time though! I didn't get sick until after we had gone out and were in the hotel room for the night. Hailey was in the Sandwich Fair Horse Show, which was really fun! It was her first show ever and she really did quite well for it being her first one. She was in two classes and took home a 3rd and a 5th (out of 9 kids). She really had a great time and it was such a great confidence booster for her and her riding. She tells me that she wants to show all the time now! Here's my little rider:

Hailey and Lily wasting time before they ride.

Warming up.

Almost ready to ride!!!

Lily and Hailey with their "leaders".

Lined up, waiting to enter the ring.

Hailey, concentrating :)

The ribbons! Hailey's friend, Lily, won Champion!

This is one of my favorite photos from the day :)

And a little video
We are so proud of her! I hope she has many, many more wonderful days with horses like this one!

10th Wedding Anniversary!!!!

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary :) Wow, time flies!!! I woke up this morning to flowers and a card left on the kitchen counter...how sweet. What was even sweeter, was what was inside that card!! Isaiah planned a night away for us, without kids obviously, to Old Orchard Beach in Maine. He's never, EVER, done anything like this before. It's usually me that plan these kind of things. And lets just say that "romance" is not one of his strengths :) I was so shocked!! He even figured out the logistics of the kids and their sports, etc. so I wouldn't have to worry about getting them taken care of for the night. What a great guy!! And all I got him was a new wedding band (his broke a couple years ago).

I'm doing some laundry right now so I can pack for the night out and then I'm going to watch our wedding video, like I do every year on this day.... I'm so cheezy!

Back at it

Driving back and forth to gymanstics, that is. Sammy used to be on the gymanstics team at Lakes Region Gymnastics Academy. She started when she was 7, and quickly was invited to the team. She's a "natural" gymanst. She won the State Champion when she was 10 and 11, but quit the next year going into 7th grade. It's a huge commitment and she was finding that she couldn't and didn't want to go to the gym every day for 3 hrs a day, PLUS jr. high, PLUS friends.

Well, now, she has matured and realized that gymanstics is what truly makes her happy. She missed it so much, starting about a year ago. She started back last week, and let me just say that I didn't miss the drive!! It's in Belmont, which is about 40 minutes ONE WAY, from my house. She goes about 3-4 times a week so far...when she's not in soccer. She does soccer also, which is also every day. So far, she's handling this schedule very well. Here's a glimps of what I do every day for her:

2:30 - twins home from school on the bus
3:45 - drive sammy to soccer in meredith
4:00 - back home/ Hailey gets home off bus
(on Hailey's soccer days we all go to meredith at 3:45 )
5:15 - leave to pick sammy up at soccer
5:30 - leave soccer and drive to gym in Belmont
6:10 - arrive in belmont
6:10 - 8:00 - wait around Belmont/Laconia for sammy to be done with gymanstics
8:40 - get home from Belmont...eat dinner, put hailey to bed.

When soccer is over this is how it looks:

2:30 - twins off bus
4:00 - hailey off bus
4:20 - leave for gymanstics in belmont
5:00 - sammy arrives at gymanstics. We turn around and drive all the way back home.
5:40 - arrive home, cook dinner, eat and shower hailey
7:20 - leave to go get sammy in belmont
8:00 - arrive in belmont, get sammy and drive home again
8:40 - home for the night!!

Thank goodness she doesn't do any winter sports this year!! Although, dylan does :( Don't even ask me how I'm going to work that one out. Plus, Hailey has soccer twice a week now, rides on Friday afternoons, and will be doing basketball in the winter!

I have also decided to pursue my long-time desire to begin a career (like I can fit that in, right!!). I start real estate classes at the end of October and I'm really excited about it. It's only once a week, for 10 weeks, at night in Meredith. I can't wait!

I'm Baaaaccckkkk!!

Whew, it's been a busy summer!! I never really had time to sit down at the computer for more than a few minutes to check email, etc. It was good to be so busy (I don't do "nothing" very well) but it's great to now be able to do "nothing". Today was the first day back to school :) I'm going to try and get back to posting a few times a week, with whatever random thoughts I think of and of course pictures! During the summer, we went on our first family vacation in a LONG time. We go camping up in Maine, at Hermit Island every summer. It's so amazing there! The kids just love it!! We go with our neighbors (and lifetime family friends), their daughter (my friend Danielle) who has three boys hailey's age and isaiah's sister and family. We also allowed the twins to bring along friends this year. So, there was a total of 8 of us in one site. Each family has their own site, but we still are together all the time. On our site we had wo of us adults, plus 6 kids! It was so fun though. Of course I have pictures :)

This is us...driving down the highway. I'm sure many heads turned to look us crazy us :) We look like something out of "The Beverly Hillbillies".

This is the view from our campsite. We had an AMAZING site this year. On the very, very top of the island, on the cliffs.

Hailey, jumping off the rocks at high tide at Sandollar Beach.

Sammy (in the middle) with her two friends.

My two silly guys :)

The girls! Hailey and Dana, my niece in starfish cave. There are SO many starfish there!

Isaiah, Hailey and Anna (my sister in law) out on the cliffs. I was too scared to go.

This was the cliff they were on, that I dared not go!

Hailey and Isabelle. Hailey met her the first year we went (4 yrs ago) and they see each other at Hermit Island every year! My absolute favorite picture ever of Hailey!!

Not a very good picture of me at all, but this is Anna (my sister in law), Rose (my neighbor) and me. The night we came home, we went to our neighbors house and had Lobster! We had to come home a day early because of the rain so we made up for it by having a lobster feast.

This was us on the last night. We did exactly this every night. It was great!! Hailey on the beach. One of the few beach days we had.

And of course, I can't forget to post this hilarious video of Isaiah and Sammy having a handstand competition.

It's been a while

It's been a LONG time since I've posted to my blog! Not that my life is that exciting and not that anyone is actually "waiting" to see what's going on :)


I've been busy working 6 nights (waitressing) a week and 5 days a week (at home for my dad) so I haven't had much time to do much of anything, except loose my mind. I can't wait for our family vacation coming up!! NO work for a whole week! YAY! The kids are already super excited to go.

Basically, when I do have the free moment off from work...this is what we've been doing :)

video 2

Video 1

I've got pictures!!!

All you friends and family are going to get sick of seeing pictures :)Hailey had a little end of the year celebration at school yesterday. They had ice cream sundaes and did a little show for us. It was cute! I had some other pictures of her and all her friends too, but I don't want to post pictures of other peoples' kids all over the internet. Here are some I took of just her though.

After the party, we had riding. I was so excited to finally be able to take some good pictures and video of her riding!

I took a LOT more, but I didn't want to bore anyone :)