Dance-a-Cross Competition #2 Pictures

Dance-a-Cross Competition #2

So we have our 2nd and final dance competition today at Adventureland in the Palace Theater at noon today!!  Granted we've only had 2 competitions, but the girls are worn out w/ it....Abbie was bemoaning putting makeup on again for this dance, really, is she really a 6 yr old princess????  They have more than loved the challenge of doing more dances, learning more difficult moves and being challenged with the experience overall, but I think this will be our only year in competitive dance:-(.  Awesome friends made, fabulous times had, but just not for the Hilton ladies I'm afraid.  They are super excited to actually learn the other 2 dances throughout the rest of the season until our recital in June, they've begun the ballet dance, and I don't think they've started jazz yet, our competition dance is tap, so they will be encouraged and challenged these next few months, but will be just happy to go to gymnastics meets and that's it, competition wise.  We are hoping for another 1st place day today, but will be very happy with whatever we receive, as long as they tried they're hardest in the end!!!!

We have 2 gymnastics meets in March and another 2 in April, I'm sure a few in May, and then Nationals are in June, which if either girl places well enough all around, from what I understand, an invite will be extended for Nationals.  We are loving getting the girls into the competitive end of sports and I'm glad they are having as fun of a time as we are!!!  Well, time to go finish getting everyone ready, then we're off!!!  Will update tomorrow on how we did!!!!  Happy Sunday!!!

School Conferences!!!

We had the girls conferences tonight and they are both soaring thru 1st and 2nd grade w/ flying colors!!!!  Austyn is finally up just above 2nd grade reading level and she's mastering her math skills like a champ and has a deep love of anything science related!!!  She's finally opening up in class, I know, really, I'm talking about Austyn, and she's just an absolute joy to have, teacher's words, not mine:-)!!  Abbie is literally exceeding at all things 1st grade and doesn't show signs of stopping:-)!!  She's always quiet, but excited to learn anything she can.  She's very friendly/social but knows that school is priority numero uno:-)!!!  She's having some issues w/ counting money, but let's be honest, we can all have some issues with that now and again, even as responsible grown ups:-).  All in all, she is thriving and making excellent headway towards 2nd grade!!!
Today, the whole school of Hillside got to go to the Iowa Energy Basketball game, a 1st for the girls, and they had such fun!!!  The Iowa Energy won and the girls now get to check going to a "professional basketball game" off their fun things we've done list!  I just love how our school has such exciting and wonderful opportunities for the students to see/do that a lot would of otherwise never had the chance to!!!

One last thing.........................we have a major success for our household this week, and it's the getting along of 2 doggies!!!!!  Oh yeah, we got another dog, Marley, a 2 1/2 yr old Chocolate Lab, last Friday from some friends who had decided that 2 grown labs was plenty:-).  The 2 of them wanted nothing to do w/ the other at first and Peanut was not okay with another puppy invading her space, but something clicked last night and they are now the best of friends!!  You know how hard it is trying to keep 2 dogs from fighting like cats & dogs:-)....our house is not near large enough for their playing of swords, but we love that they are now getting along like brother and sister:-)!!!  Praise the Lord for the little things!!

THE FLU OF THE WEEK:-(

We've had the distinct privaledge of being blessed with a week of family flu fun!!!!  Courtney got the bug last Saturday night and it lasted through Sunday night, then he had his back/sciatic nerve flare up, which actually got bad enough for him to seek medical help for the first time in 9 yrs!!!  He's currently on some very low strength muscle relaxers and naproxen sodium, and with heading back to work tomorrow and an impending 63 mile race on Saturday, I hope he's able to hold up and know his limits!!  Sidebar:  Today is the 4 yr anniversary of Courtney quitting smoking and changing his life beyond belief!!!  We are so proud of him for all he's accomplished and what we have yet to see:-)!!!!  So, back onto the flu train.....Austyn came home from school on Monday afternoon w/ a tummy ache, which she claimed to have had since Thursday the week before, and started vomiting at 9pm and continued every hr/two all night long, ugh!!!  Then the next day we actually went to the doctor for Courtney and Austyn slept a lot of the day w/ Daddy while watching every tv show and netflix!!  Austyn felt really good today, but after we got home from school and a visit to the library, Abbie started complaining of a tummy ache, not wanting dinner, same ammo that Austyn had just 2 days before, and before we knew it, screaming from the bedroom of a sick tummy in the works:-(.  It was my Super Mom moment that I actually had a bowl next to her the first moment she told me of the tummy troubles, and she actually was able to hit it...win/win here!!  She went to bed early tonight and hasn't thrown up since...hoping it was just a one time thing b/c all of the kids school is going to see the Iowa Energy Basketball game tomorrow and Abbie has been so excited for it!!!!  Just hoping this doesn't spread to both Patrick and myself, although I'm guessing we won't escape it, no matter how much doctor scrubbing up we do:-)!!  Here's hoping others have had a flu/yuck free week!!!  Praying for you all who have been going through this!!  Hang in there, it's ALMOST SPRING!!!!!

Austyn and Abbies Dance

This and That....

Not much has happened in Hilton land the last week-ish to talk about, but here goes anyways:-).  Finally got over my stomach bug from a couple weeks ago and then Patrick got some upper respiratory thing, which is always made worse by his asthma, a few days after I was feeling better.  It was a few scary days for this Momma, soley because he can't control his coughing from taking over and his breathing being labored...poor little man:-(.  We pumped him full of preventative and quick responding meds and he was doing better and on the mend by this past weekend.
The kids were super excited to have a snow day last Wednesday, I wasn't b/c I had, by then, been cooped up in the house w/ a sick kid for 2 days and a semi-sick baby(our niece Emmalynn), that I about went out of my mind by Wednesdays end.  However we mustered on and came through the end of our week w/ flying colors and overall health, which makes me very happy!!!
Saturday brought the annual BRR(bike ride to Rippey) ride that Courtney went on, and the adventure of finding a new town in Iowa to pick my husband up from later that night.  Bouton is a very small town, but has a very hoppin' bar scene on a Saturday night:-)!!  We had a very nice and relaxing Sunday w/ church, potluck lunch following, a trip to Sam's to finally get me my own card, I know, it's 8 yrs in the making, a trip to Bass Pro Shop to get Daddy a new pair of work pants and then home to sledding fun, the kids and Daddy, not me, and then watching the Super Bowl w/ Courtney and Abbie!!  Great game last night by the way.  I'm not a huge football person, I enjoy watching, but don't have a favorite team and all.
Today brought us a sick Abbie, headache, tummy ache, ear ache....an all over my body and just won't go away ache I think, but we've been giving her meds and she perks up for a couple hrs to my normal Bob, so I like the time w/ her!!  She and I also got our hair cut today after taking Monkey to school....way frizzy and crazy right now, oh, okay, it's always that way, but very much so since I didn't style or product it myself, but I'm liking the new do!!!  Which leads up to me loosing my last 1.5 lbs to get my hair cut, actually I lost 2.5 this week, which thrilled me to no end!!!!  Now that I'm getting soooo close to where I was almost 5 yrs ago, I can't believe how fast it's come off, which wasn't the case early this past fall.  I've got 13 lbs to go until I'm at my next goal of the lightest I ever have been before and then I'll forge on for another 25, hopefully 40 lbs from there....we'll see where it takes me and where I feel like "me" again:-)!
Well, enough blabbering on about my boring life, just needed to get it all out of the head and on "paper"...time to go get Austyn from school and head to dance.  Our first competition for dance is this Saturday and I'm excited to see what the girls think of it!!!  Until then, have a wonderful week!!!