Old Dog New Tricks

Ok so she's young but she's learning new stuff.
In the first video, she's at the very back doing a roundoff-backhandspring-back tuck.


Messing around on the beam at open gym.


Not quite landing the front tuck but she usually does.. you get the general idea.

I love Pablo

You know what's so great about the Backyardigans? (Besides Pablo's razor-sharp wit..) I love that three of them can be Tarzan at the same time so when Maya says, "I want to be Tarzan" at her little sister.... I can reply, "But look! There are 3 of them. We can ALL be Tarzan."
Thank you Backyardigans. Crisis over.

Gymnastics Fashion Show

Behold the wonder that is my mother, the seamstress.

Poetry Revisted

When I was at Texas Tech University I took a creative writing class. My sister Sarah, my friend Christine and I came up with some beauties for the poetry units. I so wish that I could find my files of poetry which were composed by a trio of crazy young ladies hopped up on easy cheese and redi whip. Alas, I was too much in a hurry to marry a certain Scottish Lad (see post below) to keep such items. So, for your viewing pleasure, (and mostly Sarah's benefit) - I will post a rewritten poem with some original content mixed in.

The Ballad of Creative Poetry

The prof wants us to write a verse.

To me this seems to be a curse.

What do I write? I don't quite know..

I'd love to write like E.A. Poe.

Instead I write of precious things;

My mother's books, my sister's rings,

A brother who is far from home,

A sleepless night, a shoddy poem.

Eleven Years

I'm pretty sure I'd marry this guy again. It's been 11 years and as Morgan says.. we

"still haven't killed each other".

Hard to believe that in 11 years we went from two silly young people
to

then

and finally

Amazing. And we still haven't killed each other.

My Continuing Endeavor to turn away my wrath...

My husband picked me up this little beauty from the Deseret Bookstore on Saturday after I had complained about my out of control temper with the little ones. I'm not a violent woman but I am an emotional one and a goal of mine is to control my temper with the kiddos. It might not seem like a big deal to most people but I went three days without so much as raising my voice to my kids. I felt pretty good about that. I had a little setback today but I'm determined to get back with it and make it a habit. This book has some good strategies.

Stardust

Am I the last one to see this!? Incredible. What an amazing movie. I highly recommend it.

We're back baby

Oh yes.. it's that time of year again.. the time when all of you soccer haters get irritated by my blog. Great game tonight. It looks like a promising season for Dallas. The score was FCD 0 LA 0 but that's so much better than last year.... the play looked so much better and the players were connecting better. I can't wait for the season to start. We bought half season tickets this year and I am looking forward to it!

Too much computer time...

88 words

Speed test

Luckiest kids in the world

I have always said that my kids are so blessed to have two sets of grandparents who adore them. For example, they are so incredibly supportive of Morgan's sport. My mother has sewed several leotards at a fraction of what the commercial ones cost. The amazing thing is that Morgan loves these leotards so much more. She has a unique leotard that fits amazingly well and they are one of a kind. When she was here a few weeks ago we purchased fabric for at least 4 leos and the cost to me was only 26$! One leotard usually costs 35+ dollars. Thanks mom! (We'll be doing an online fashion show soon.)

Both sets of grandparents have attended a meet and always want to see videos. Nathan's parents generously helped out with the cost of Morgan's competition wear. Between their help and the reselling of her previous gym's wear we are able to break even. We are so appreciative!

Yesterday I was surprised to find a box from FTD on the doorstep. I thought I had the most incredible hubby to remember our anniversary early! I was surprised to find that Grandpa and Grandma Erickson had sent flowers to Morgan to congratulate her on her meet this weekend. She was so touched. We are blessed.

Melody goes to the hair salon

An Extensive Update

For those of you not following our gymnastics drama the past month, here is an update. We spent the first week in February gym shopping due to a disagreement at Morgan's then current gym. We still have great feelings towards them and wish them well but Morgan and her parents collectively decided that she needed to move on. Surprisingly the best fit for her was a gym located closer to home and she started training there.

The staff there has worked well with her and decided that she fit in best with their group that was training for level 6 in the fall. Morgan competed level 4 this past year and was thrilled to be moving up to 5! The new plan, formulated by the gym's owner, was to train Morgan on level 4 and place her in a meet which the gym was hosting in early March. The purpose of this meet was to get her the qualifying score required to move up to level 6 in the fall. The required score is an all around of 31.00.

Her competition was yesterday. There were a very small group of girls so Morgan was excited that she might even get a medal or two if she tried really hard but I reassured her that her main goal was to get a qualifying score and with only 4 weeks of training she had plenty to be proud of.

Imagine my surprise when she took home 2 golds, 2 silvers and a gold in the all around. Her score was a 35.55. I couldn't believe it. I'll post her bar and beam routine since they are on the flip video and recorded the best. I didn't get a good video of her floor routine (user malfunctions!) and the vault is on the big video camera so I'll try to cattle prod that out of Nathan later.

Even God loves Soccer

Look who they put on the NBC news website for Dallas...

It's Maya!! (scroll down)

Edited... they've taken the link down now but it was fun while it lasted~!

What? No Preschool?????!!!

But it was worth it. Even to a couple of Northern born parents, it was worth it.



Elementary started 2 hours late so Morgan got to play too..


After much convincing, Melody put on tights with her dress and donned boots (instead of her sandals) and went to join in the fun.