Upward Cheer

As our spring activity, the girls decided that they wanted to do upward cheer.  I tried valiantly to get them to sign up for basketball.  But I finally relented to let them do cheer.  Then in a turn of events, they needed help coaching, so I ended up being one of the coaches.  I will pause to let you quit laughing.

It was super fun - for both me and the girls.  Their squad had 16 girls who were in kindergarten and first grade.  We cheered at the upward basketball games each Saturday and had practice once a week as well.

 How cute are my little cheerleaders???

Here they are with their other BFF Ella.

 In action during the game

 Here is Brooke with her BFF Lauren

And how else would you sit and listen after the game??

Here are some pictures of the closing ceremony.  Our group did a cheer by themselves and then all three of the cheerleader groups did a cheer together.  The guest speaker was a lady that can spin, dribble, and juggle basketballs.  She was excellent.  And more exciting - she picked Audrey as her very first volunteer.  Audrey got to spin a ball on her finger.  So super cute!!  And then Audrey won a doorprize!  It was a banner night for the Bear!

Moving On Up...

Literally.  We are moving on up to the north!! 

D found out just before Christmas that he was getting a promotion and transferred to the refinery outside of Chicago.  To say that it was a shock, is putting it mildly.  Honestly he thought that his boss was coming to tell him that his boss was changing jobs, not Darren!

We are excited to have a new opportunity - and D assures me that it is a good job opportunity - in a new part of the country.  But we are extremely sad to leave where we are.  We have made some lifelong friends and love it here. Honestly I am having the most difficulty with the whole move idea.  D is excited about his new job.  The girls are excited about the snow (they clearly have no idea just how much snow and cold there will be!)  I am less excited.  So hard to make a new network of friends.

D and I went up to the Chicago area for our house hunting trip.  Since I am still on the fence about the move, the trip was a bit more stressful than previous house hunting trips.  Apparently I brought some negativity to the trip.  Hmmm.  Nonetheless we did in fact buy a house - which was both of our #1 house.

Here are some pics of the trip:

 As cold as this looks, it actually ended up being colder than this as the week went on!

 Here I am in front of our new house!  Well technically not fully ours until we close at the end of February.  The girls like this picture cause it looks like I am holding up the house.  I like this picture cause you can see my new snow boots and jacket - purchased just prior to coming on the trip!

Here is D in front of the house.  He is also rocking out new boots and jacket.

Here is a picture of the school that the girls will be going to. I was shocked to discover that there is no air conditioner in the school.  What??? The girls are super excited to learn that they will not be wearing uniforms.  I am less excited to learn that fact. Clearly I will need to supplement their regular clothes as they really have limited non uniform outfits and I am not sure I can convince them that it will be cool to wear khakis and blue shirts.  Also interesting is that there are only 3 kindergarten classes at the school.  So the girls should know about 2/3 of the entire kindergarten!

Another fun fact - the school mascot is the FOX - which the girls love as they love What Does The Fox Say.

 

Christmas Vacation - Gatlinburg

Part 3: Cabin in Gatlinburg - For our final part of our Christmas vacation, we spent three nights in a cabin in Gatlinburg.  Our condo was super fun and had an air hockey table, a pool table, a video game with bunch of games from the 80s, and a hot tub!!  This part of our vacation was very chill and relaxing.

 The girls got to open their magic kit and did many shows for us.

 Beautiful Brookie!

 Darren and Brooke holding up the mountain

 Family picture by the mountains

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Family picture by the sign to the nation park - I was so disturbed to find out the Smoky was spelled without an E!

 The girls dancing outside of our cabin- Mountain Splendor

 About to get into the hot tub - a favorite activity for sure!!

 It snowed our last night there - the girls were so excited to see snow!

 Some 2 on 1 air hockey

 The view from our balcony

 It rained one day so we headed to the aquarium

 I would freak out if I saw that coming toward me in the ocean!

 Inside a bubble with some puffer fish

 Audrey as a scuba diver

Love me some jellies!!

Christmas Vacation - Biltmore

Part 2: Biltmore House - After Great Wolf Lodge we headed over to Asheville to see the Biltmore House.  We stayed there for two nights at the Inn at Biltmore.  We did a tour of the House twice - once at night as a candlelight tour and once the next day.  During the day tour we all listened to the audio guide.  The girls were very impressive listening to the whole thing!!  You can't take pictures inside the house so these are all of things we did outside!

 D and I went to the Biltmore Winery for a free wine tasting (free until you purchase vast quantities of the wine!)  This was the biggest tasting we've ever been to - they did 23 wines!

 We had dinner that night at the Stable - a restaurant built into the old stables at the Biltmore

The girls warming up in front of the fire at the Inn

 Me and Brooke on a carriage ride along the grounds of the Biltmore - it was SO COLD!

 Audrey and D on the same carriage ride

 The family with the back of the Biltmore in the background

 D and the girls outside the Biltmore - hard to really appreciate just how big that house is until you try to get the whole house into a picture and still see your family!

 Outside the Biltmore

 Adorable picture of Brookie!!

 This is a picture looking up at the Inn from the area where the winery was

Christmas Vacation - Great Wolf Lodge

Part 1: Great Wolf Lodge - the girls LOVE water slides and it was a super fun winter activity. We were there for two nights and two days of playing in the water park.

The girls love the racer slide

The girls with Violet and some bear after the PJ story time at night

 Our room had bunkbeds in a little cut out part that was complete with a TV - the girls were in heaven!!

Audrey striking a pose in front of the lilypad obstacle

 D showing off his muscles on the obstacle

 The girls got their faces painted - and they both chose Violet

We hit the arcade as a break from the water park

Brookie and the Bear....not Audrey this time!

Actual Christmas

For our actual Christmas this year, we drove to South Carolina to be with Darren's family.  After Christmas, the four of us took a road trip, but that will have to be its own separate post as this will already be super long I am sure!

The girls opened some of their large presents before we left. They got some pogo sticks and a barbie dreamhouse.

Also before we left, we had a visit from Santa!  It was super fun and the girls were very excited to see him.

The cousins in their matching PJs from Aunt Connie.  Sadly this is one of the only pictures that we got of all the kids.  Audrey got a fever soon after this and spent the next day quarantined away.  And the Fergus family decided to leave a few days early as they had a ski trip planned and did not want to have sick kiddos on the trip.

 The loot left by Santa

 Picture before the carnage!

 Mid carnage....

 Post carnage!

 Silly hats for me and the girls Christmas morning

 Brooke charging up her Flutter Fly (or as she calls it her Flutter Flairy)  These were super successful presents - it is so fun to play with and it totally cracks me up to watch them crash to the floor!

The girls got a karaoke machine and were totally rocking out to it!

Here is Brooke with her Flutter Flairy

Sitting down for Christmas dinner

The girls with Lauren and Chris

 Audrey getting some help with her new bow and arrow set

I love games - here is Brooke building her cup tower