Had to look for an old picture of McKenna for her Christmas choir concert.....so fun to go through those!

What is it about pigtails?!!  Love this little goose!  This was a year that she and I tried to make all the ornaments for the tree....coffee filter angels, pine cone ornaments, and cut out snowflakes :)

Can Almost See Your Breath

Vapor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOH6qYTOo0c

I scored "Tis The Season Of You Knowing Every Song On The Radio" :)

I'll take that....let the belting of Christmas Carols begin!!

.....and maybe a little....snow, snow, snow :)

Here's the quiz if you want to try it....

http://www.zimbio.com/trivia/MRlxwr6kQmW/How+Well+Know+Lyrics+Classic+Christmas+Songs

Spent part of the afternoon collecting cans for Color Guard....my van smells pretty funky :P.....but these girls collected 5 shopping carts full of  cans and earned over $100 for new Color Guard silks (and rifles, they hope)....their goal is $300, so they are making progress.

McKenna had a fun afternoon hanging out with her friend, Josiah, at Grandpa and Grandma Foster's house....enjoying dinner and a movie with them.

.....and the rest of us enjoyed a wonderful meal with our friends, The Dawsons. We are definitely embarking on some interesting years of allowing our girls intentional and healthy opportunities to get to know special friends. :P

While we were in Indy for Thanksgiving we got to tour IDES.  It is kind-of like Samaritan's Purse, but on a little smaller scale.  My mom recently took a job with them and assists with donor relations....making sure all the donors are thanked for their contributions....so I guess my mom's job is totally THANKSGIVING...haha!

Checking out some of the storage buildings they create....they make all these panels for this large shed and when there is a disaster, they send these panels with all the supplies to put them together quickly.  It is amazing how much relief it can be for a family to know they have a safe place to put their personal belongings while they start to rebuild their lives.

They also have groups come in to pack dehydrated foods to be shipped out in bulk when there is a need.

Kenna is showing some the the food they pack....it smelled like the dehydrated soups you can buy.  They always like to work with a local church wherever they are sending supplies, storage units, food, or money so they can make sure that the gospel is being shared in the process of giving aid.  My mom loves working with IDES and has been so impressed that every dollar goes to the mission and ministry efforts.    

Thanksgiving #2 was today at the Foster's house :) Enjoying games, food and football....I made the crunchy Buckeyes....you know, because Michigan was supposed to CRUNCH Ohio....but....well, at least the Buckeyes were delicious.  We needed comfort food :)

Mastermind....this was one of my favorite games as a kid....it is funny when you see your kids playing the games you loved :)

Fred, before he started training Vannah.....she got to carve the turkey today and did very well!

The punch line

Stephen and Vannah helped grandma pick the meat from the bones after dinner and Stephen put the turkey cavity onto his arm....he thought it looked like the transformers, but it kind-of looked like his hand had gotten caught in the garbage disposal....and then Savannah decided to fist bump him...haha!

Yes, we are a weird family :P

The battle for the biggest portion of the wishbone....Stephen won this year :)

I am full....GOD IS GOOD!

Because Thankfulness Unifies

I read through a brief history of Thanksgiving today....from the pilgrims through our wars as a nation and the times different Presidents or Congresses have issued proclamations about it or set a date to observe it and what has been stated....speeches delivered.  It is pretty inspiring stuff!

It seems our country's leaders have consistently acknowledged that the barometer of our thankfulness...and I will add....thankfulness to God....has shown our nation's ability to be and stay unified during and after very trying times as well as in times of peace and plenty.  I think that is a good thing to consider right now while our nation is reeling after the election and needs unification.  Lord, help us unite in our Thanksgiving and stir our hearts to give you the honor and adoration you deserve for the abundance our generation has always enjoyed. 

Cleft For Me

My pastor punctuated his sermon on Sunday with this quote from Elisabeth Elliot and I have been repeating it in my mind for two days.....kind-of like the Pizza Pie - Amore song....songs, quotes, ideas....they get stuck in my mind and mashed together many times :)  Oh well.....anyway, this quote means a lot to me as I think about thankfulness and contentment.  As God continues to teach me lessons in patience....in love....in faithfulness....in hope.....He consistently turns me toward Himself as being the source of it all.  Yes, I am blessed by so many other things through friends and loved ones, but He shows me His constant love....that He is with me through it all.

Constant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu0h-NM0_Ck

Pizza Pie....that's AMORE!

I have been humming that song ever since I posted my last post...haha!

We enjoyed some Klavon's stuffed pizza tonight after we watched a couple of McKenna's friends from youth group cheer and play basketball tonight.  We are also celebrating a couple things for Brad today....he was officially notified that he has been elected to the Parma Western School Board.....AND (drumroll, please) he accepted a new position working with Burden's Funeral Home. 

I was attempting to get a picture of Brad during dinner and Caleb photobombed it right after losing his tooth....hilarious....he still has the napkin hanging from his mouth...haha!

"When The Moon Hits Your Eye....

....like a big piece o' pie....."

So, we had a pie fellowship at church tonight and suddenly Vannah is "talking" to a boy :)

Watch out for that "big piece o' pie" or "pizza pie"!  I told Brad there may be another boy we will be getting to know and he said, "uhhhh, more, eh?"  Yes, I am weird tonight...haha!

That's Amore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69O4PXzAQ5Y

Here I Am To Worship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx936NVJC5M

We were making our Christmas lists today for sharing with family, made our first batch of Oreo Truffles for a dessert fellowship at church tomorrow, and put up our Christmas tree this weekend.  Because we were working on our lists, I thought of the Gift of the Magi story.....so I read it tonight.  I love this story!  I am really not sure why some of the words are red, but I am assuming they are the words I have never heard of before :)

THE GIFT OF THE MAGI

by O. Henry

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty- seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for themendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James Dillingham Young."

The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.

On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.

Where she stopped the sign read: "Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie."

"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della.

"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at the looks of it."

Down rippled the brown cascade.

"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.

"Give it to me quick," said Della.

Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present.

She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends--a mammoth task.

Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.

"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty- seven cents?"

At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.

Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: "Please God, make him think I am still pretty."

The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.

Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.

Della wriggled off the table and went for him.

"Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It'll grow out again--you won't mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say `Merry Christmas!' Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice-- what a beautiful, nice gift I've got for you."

"You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.

"Cut it off and sold it," said Della. "Don't you like me just as well, anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?"

Jim looked about the room curiously.

"You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy.

"You needn't look for it," said Della. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?"

Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.

Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.

"Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first."

White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

For there lay The Combs--the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.

But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!"

And them Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!"

Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.

"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it."

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on."

The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

Enjoyed a Dunkin Donuts date with Kassi this morning before we went shopping for a birthday present for one of her friends :)  It is a rare treat to have one-on-one time with my girls.

Without A Doubt

When I arrived home today Karly gave me a card she had made....it says, "Mom and Dad.....I love what you give me for Christmas.  Thank you for being my Mom....Thank you for being my Dad!"  I said, "Karly, we haven't even started shopping for Christmas presents yet....how do you know you will like them?"  She said, "I always like what you get me"  :)

Mom....I think this was one of God's hugs :)

I think we all could fill a few burdens in the blank..."God is bigger than _____________________"

It is wonderful to have a blessed assurance that this is absolutely true!

Joyful Friday!

Let's keep praying.....loving......and praying.

We had a great time with the Billington side of our family this weekend.  My brother, Josh, his wife, Karen, and their kids, Brayden and Brenna came up.... along with my parents.... from Noblesville and Carmel, IN to see Brad perform in Fiddler On The Roof, have our family Thanksgiving, and celebrate my dad's birthday!  We had a good visit, but were just sad that my mom wasn't feeling well during that time.  It is fun to watch these cousins grow up :)

We are proud of Savannah for completing her CNA training at the Jackson College Career Center!  Now she has to register to take the state test for her license.  She has always wanted to pursue a career in the medical field, so I think this has been a wonderful beginning toward her pursuits!

So thankful for these two helpers tonight!  We are getting ready for weekend company....daddy is at his show, Vannah is working, Kenna and Kassi have a youth group event....so these two are helping to clean while I make food for the weekend...couldn't do it without them!!  They are vacuuming, but they still look happy :)

"Courage is contagious.  Every time we choose courage, we make everyone around us a little better and the world a little braver.  And our world could stand to be a little kinder and braver." 

 ~Brene Brown~

I am thankful for the courage of all the men and women who are and have served in the 

U.S. Armed Forces!  But you know what....there are some people from near Zwolle, Holland that I love as well.....I don't know if I will ever meet them or if they are even alive, but they bravely tried to help my grandfather when his plane was shot down and there are sweet young men in a Boy Scout group there in that town that tend a small memorial with the names of the men from my grandpa's crew and they work to this day to honor them.  It is hard to explain how happy that makes me that they would care so deeply for these men.

BRINKER.  He's mine :)

In Other Words...

....and a happy Friday to you!

Grassroots Change

I'm thinking whoever called them political "parties" did not really understand a party! :P  We can all talk about how green the grass is on the other side...but,

I Facebook messaged Donald Trump today...he's not too busy yet, right?! (Have you ever tried to contact a famous person?....When I was an Admissions Rep at Olivet Nazarene University I tried to recruit Prince William and received a letter back from the palace :)....and I have emailed with Forrest Fenn) anyway, I thought maybe some of the things I have learned about immigration may be slightly useful to President Elect Trump. :P  I encouraged him to consider "building a bridge" in addition to the wall. 

Grant us, then, the grace for giving

With a spirit large and free,

That our life and all our living

We may consecrate to Thee.  - Murray

I sat down at my computer after getting some dinner going and there was a bag of Doritos next to it.  I reached in the bag thinking I would have a couple as a dinner appetizer and it was completely empty and strangely void of all crumbs too.  I said, "WOW, this Dorito bag is sooo clean it is almost like someone licked all the crumbs out of it!"  About a minute later I saw Karly peering around the corner from the family room with a huge grin on her face......she said, "You just said one thing that was true!" and then she started cracking up :P

I know I can post a verse like this after an election and people can claim this is easy for those who voted for the elected candidate, but not for those who did not......so could it even be posted by someone who did not?  Yes, it can because the Word of God trumps any election and it is true regardless of an outcome.  Both evil kings and righteous kings have been given their authority by God and all things....even decisions of those in authority....work together for good to those who love God.

So, the truth is our president was elected or established by God for this time.

Regarding the matter of his heart and whether he will lead our nation in a direction of righteousness and growth is the matter of prayer.  Proverbs 21:1 states, "The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water" the beauty in this truth is that hearts can be changed, routes can be altered, God can bring the light of understanding into darkness, and purify and cleanse hearts turning them toward righteousness.

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.  

~Habakkuk 3:17-18~

Be Still My Soul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq59iE3MhXM

Have You Ever Seen The Floor Of The Oval Office Without A Rug?

A Good Devotional....

“Won’t heaven be boring?” a friend once asked me. “I mean, I like music, but a never-ending worship service?” He was struggling with Revelation 4, where God sits on a heavenly throne at the center of the biggest worship event you’ve ever seen. Verse 8 says the adulation never stops: “Holy, holy, holy” plays on repeat. Great and true—but for all eternity? Couldn’t the heavenly DJ find a few other records to spin?

Fortunately, I assured my friend, I think Revelation is pointing to a much greater reality. We can quickly reclaim the passage’s main point by looking at its central symbol: the throne. The throne shows up 10 times in Revelation 4, which is a major clue that says, “Pay attention because this is important.”

What’s This Throne All About?

Kings rule from their thrones, and God is doing just that. Think of it as the “divine command center” for the universe. If we go back to the Old Testament, we see that God’s throne is a prominent symbol—and it’s not so much about where we go when we die as it is about God’s rule over our world today. Let’s take a look.

First, God rules from His throne over the earth in the biblical story. David declares, “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all” (Psalms 103:19). Mountains and lions, oceans and orangutans, deserts and giraffes—their Creator lays claim to them all.

At the time Revelation was written, the Roman Empire had conquered the known world. (The Americas across the ocean, plus much of Africa and Asia beyond the Sahara Desert and the Ural and Himalayan mountains were yet to be encountered.) Their maps were of the Mediterranean world—and Rome ruled every square inch of it. But Revelation challenges Rome’s claim to global domination by looking to a higher throne: God is rightful ruler of the earth.

It’s not so much about where we go when we die as it is about God’s rule over our world today. 

Second, God rules not only over the places of the earth, but over its people as well. Jeremiah worships God enthroned as “King of the nations” (Jeremiah 10:7), and the psalmist declares, “God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne” (Psalms 47:8). By the time Revelation was written, Rome had conquered and assimilated the nations into its mighty empire, and Caesar thought he was rightful ruler of them all. But Revelation says otherwise. So whether we’re Maasai, Burmese, Italian, Iraqi, Chinese, Brazilian, American, or Canadian—the Creator is our rightful king.

Third, God’s throne speaks not only to the reality of His kingdom but to the character of that kingdom as well. God is a “Mighty King, lover of justice” (Psalms 99:4 NLT). Those in danger look up to His throne because He “performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed” (Psalms 103:6). Indeed, the psalmist declares, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne, lovingkindness and truth go before You” (Psalms 89:14).

Authority often gets abused in our world. Headlines are filled with stories of bad parents, corrupt executives, and power-hungry leaders. Many who have authority don’t use it well. Yet our hope is not only that God reigns, but also how God reigns. He is a good king, and His kingdom is good news for our world.

Better Things To Come

Those who are in trouble can lift their eyes to God’s throne for help. When Israel was threatened with destruction, she looked to Him and declared, “Are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You” (2 Chronicles 20:6). When things get crazy in our world and things like ISIS and Ebola fill us with heartache and grief, we can cry out to God as we strive to embody His justice and mercy in the world. God’s throne reminds us He is still in control and will let things go only so far. Better still, He is coming to redeem His world.

This should be a cause for joy. Throughout the Psalms, God’s throne is intimately tied to worship. One psalmist looks up to God’s throne and rejoices, “Sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is King of all the earth” (Psalms 47:6-7). Another is inspired to declare, “Bless the Lord, all you works of His, in all places of His dominion; bless the Lord, O my soul” (Psalms 103:22).

In all of this, we see that God’s throne is more than a promise for the future; it’s the bold proclamation that our Lord reigns today. Like the raindrops falling from the sky, God’s heavenly reign is coming toward earth to fill the land with His justice and mercy.

God’s reign lays claim upon our world. He declares in Isaiah, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool” (Isaiah 66:1). We are called to enter His kingdom, to place our lives at His feet, beneath His loving rule, and affirm, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains” (Psalms 24:1).

This is hope for our world. Jesus calls us to pray to our heavenly Father, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Our hope is for God’s kingdom to break in here and now, today. Though evil may haunt our world, the day is coming when it will no longer. Revelation doesn’t end in chapter four but in chapters 21 and 22, when God’s heavenly throne comes down to earth—a picture of His kingdom finally arriving in fullness. And that should thrill the heart of every believer.

God’s throne is at the center of His glorious city, where Jesus reigns. At long last, our hope will be fulfilled: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them” (Revelation 21:3).

Pumpkin Spice For President? Who's With Me?

Our pastor was criticizing Pumpkin Spice everything on Sunday....Then, later he asked the congregation to shout out some definitions of joy and a guy shouted out, "Pumpkin Spice"! Haha!  Then my mind was wandering and I was thinking about how popular this spice is and how if it was on the ballot tomorrow it may even be more popular than our presidential candidates....I am not actually going to write in Pumpkin Spice....it was just a weird random thought :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FlZlzdxBzI

The Cause Of Christ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rgm1R69fVc

I got to attend two cheer banquets today for two of my lovely daughters....Vannah and Kenna.  I am very proud of them for their achievements and hard work to challenge themselves to excel and for their team-player attitudes...I think that is always one of my favorite things to hear about is that the coaches could depend on my girls and count on them to be positive voices on the team and awesome helpers.

Vannah won a few awards for keeping her grades up, improving her flexibility, and her hard work as a rookie this year on the Varsity team.

All the middle school cheerleaders get a certificate for participating, but Kenna won the coach's lifesaver award....which means that she is very dependable and her coach said she is the diplomat on the team and can tactfully resolve differences among the girls.  

I love the memories they are making while they learn to be good friends and work hard to accomplish something significant together.