Signing Day

It is with joy and thanksgiving that we announce that Romeo will be making a career change next year. He will be joining the ministry at Arlington Christian School in the capacity of high school principal. I personally am so grateful that he will be able to work in a safe, Christian environment surrounded by like-minded people. What a blessing!



Richard Bomar, long time friend and ACS teacher/coach brought over a hat and shirt for Rome's "signing party". Of course a coach would think of it as the NFL draft.



It's in ink...no going back now!



It's official! Romeo with Chris King, aka-Headmaster :)

Jif Update

For those of you who read my post from Feb. 17, our little friend Elisabeth has made it to the next round! She is now among five finalists who will travel to New York at the end of March to make their creations before judges. If she wins, she will be awarded a $25,000 college scholarship!!! How awesome is that? Thanks to everyone who voted.

New Bikes

The girls spent their birthday money on new bikes and helmets this year. Sophie is on her second bike since January. She crashed her first one while learning to use handle brakes and rendered it useless. The plastic handle brakes were broken to pieces, and the brakes were permanently locked onto the wheels. She wasn't wearing her helmet for that crash, so hopefully she's learned her lesson. Reagan is a little leery of the handle brakes now to say the least, but she's getting more comfortable.

Snow Much Fun

Last Sunday was the most bizarre day. When we left for church it was raining and cold. By the time church let out, everything was blanketed in white, and it was freezing! The kids had a wonderful time playing in it. They didn't build a snowman this year, but instead had a snowball fight with dad and made snow angels. The best part was the little vacation from school on Monday.

Reagan's 10

I cannot believe we have a child in double digits!!! Reagan turned 10 on February 28th. The last ten years she has brought such joy to our lives. With her quiet, gentle spirit, she makes everyone around her feel special. With her quick, dry wit, she keeps her family and friends in stitches. But, you won't catch her entertaining a crowd. That's not her style much like her daddy. We look forward to the amazing things life holds for our studious, self-motivated, brilliant, compassionate, kind hearted Reagan.

The birthday door


Sisterly love - Sophie bought Reagan a hairbrush with a soccer player on it.


Reagan taking a birthday wish while eating her special homemade blueberry coffee cake


Grandma dropped in during breakfast and took the girls out bowling.

Reagan invited two of her buddies who are "sport minded" like her to go to the Thrasher's game. Here they are before we left opening gifts. Reagan instructed them on the colors they had to wear.

No trip to Atlanta is complete without a visit to the Varsity. We ate here before the game.

Whadda ya have???

We got to the CNN Center early so that the girls could participate in the kids' hockey game. They had a BLAST!

Getting tired?

Reagan loved teaching Nikki and Juliana the ins and outs of hockey. Neither of them had ever been to a game before. The girls were ecstatic when the Thrashers won.

And, of course no trip is complete without a visit to Krispy Kreme. Nikki and Jules had never seen the KK conveyor belt.

Two dozen hot ones! Oh yeah! Mimi and Poppy joined us for the fun.

Our girls are growing up too quickly to suit me.

The sugar is kickin in.

Jif Contest

One of Sophie's buddies from school entered a Jif peanut butter recipe contest and is now in the finals. The following is from an email from her mom. Hope you'll take a moment and vote. She's a cutie pie.

Elisabeth (and I) entered a Jif recipe contest and she's been selected as one of 10 semi-finalists! She needs your vote so she can become one of the 5 semi-finalists where we'd get to go to New York City in March and compete for the grand prize of a $25,000 college scholarship fund. No kidding! I don't know if I'm more excited about the chance at a scholarship or a FREE trip to NYC!Vote here or at http://www.jif.com/promos/pbsandwich09/jif_kabob.asp for Elisabeth's Peanut Butter Kabob. You can vote once a day, and it ends Feb. 27th. You enter your email address, but you don't have to sign up for any mailing lists, etc. I read about Jif's Seventh Annual Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest on a blog last October. Elisabeth is basically made out of peanut butter sandwiches, and she loves to help me in the kitchen, (she's even done pretend Food Network shows), so this contest was perfect for her! Jif notified us in December about being a finalist, but we had to keep it under wraps until it went online today (I even had to sign an affidavit and get it notarized!). They sent a film crew to my kitchen and filmed us making the kabob and interviewed us. And now we can finally share this exciting news with you all! Online voting starts today and ends next Friday, Feb. 27th, so vote for her Peanut Butter Kabob now!

Thanks!

We'll keep you posted with the results after the contest as soon as we know.

Wendy and Justin

Visit from an old friend

This past weekend my dear friend, Tammy, and her beautiful family came for a visit. Tammy and I have been friends since elementary school. Ironically, we're kin as well. Her grandfather and my grandmother were brother and sister. She, Eric, and their precious girls, Maddie and Ella, came down Friday evening and stayed through Sunday with us. All our girls had been counting down the days to the visit. Over the years I have only shared my girls' clothes with Tammy's girls, so there has always been this sweet connection between them. It's been so fun to see them in the same pajamas or smocked dresses that my girls wore and to know that a particular outfit was a shared favorite or that they enjoyed the same play clothes. Our youngest girls are eerily alike, so those of you that know Sophie will know that we had one very FUN weekend. Maddie and Reagan have lots in common too. They are both very intelligent, deep thinkers who don't usually step outside the box. It was such a pleasure to see ALL four girls cut loose Saturday night at our "dance off". We turned to t.v. to swing tunes, cut the volume up, moved the living room furniture out, and boogied! Following that, we had a "scat session". Think Louis Armstrong. It was great fun. After the kiddos were totally exhausted and put to bed, Tammy and I relived some of the childhood memories we've shared together. Tammy was always teaching me her latest dance moves or piano lessons when we were kids, and we performed on a dance/flag line together for two years in high school, so we decided to show the guys some of our moves. Pretty funny!

Maddie, Sophie, and Reagan


Breakfast Saturday morning





What's with all the chocolate milk? ;)



The girls create their own kick line. Ella can't put her cookie down long enough to join. That kid loves her food!

I never said I was good at dancing, but Ella obviously loved it.

OK-I had to put this in to make fun of myself. Here is why I should never go clubbing. Look at that hysterical look on my face. Sophie has mastered this look as well.

What are they laughing at?

Oh-here's what they're laughing at. I can't believe we did this on a football field.

This would be us trying to recreate a tap move.

My all time favorite move that Tammy taught me! The heel click-IN HIGH HEELS!

You want me to play what??? Tammy worked for hours one day when we were little girls to teach me Fur Elise. When I FINALLY got it, I went flying off the back of the piano bench with excitement and landed in the floor. She was always the graceful one. To this day, I can still play it and have taught it to my girls.

We love you guys and thoroughly enjoyed our weekend. Thank you so much Tammy for your help with my bathroom (Venetian Plaster-hopefully I'll finish and post pics soon.)