Disneyworld 2012!

 It started off with a phone call from Jon: would I like to take the kids to Disneyworld?  The cost was outrageous, I was sure, but Jon told me about a friend from work offering for us to stay at a resort for free because they couldn't use it that week...

 but it had to be that week.  We debated for a few days, and after the weekend we decided we'd tell her.  We didn't know yet what we were going to tell her, but we'd figure it out.

 That Tuesday, we had an early morning meeting called and we were informed of a student's near passing and I called Jon immediately after I gathered myself and said, "Let's go.  You've got to live everyday."  I believe that's the message he left for all of us.

 So, we went to Disney and saw lots of shows (Macy's favorite), rode some rides (Caitlin's favorite was Big Thunder Roller Coaster - in the dark)!!!

 We had an unbelievable time - we are so thankful for the time we spent as a family.  Jon said he wished we could stay 2 more days and I reminded him - that's what makes it a great vacation - that you don't want to leave!

 Lunch at Cinderella's castle - FABULOUS food - and the girls met ALL the princesses!

Sea World!!!  The shows were fantastic and it rained but Jon wants to go back to ride the fascinating roller coasters!

Leavenworth U9 Thunder

Here are the most recent pictures of Caitlin's competitive soccer team.  She loves this team.  She is 8 years old and they play competitively in Kansas City and surrounding tournaments.  It's a tryout team that is getting more exclusive, but these girls are tight.  She is also on a rec team, which I thought she would love because it's more relaxed and not as focused on winning.  I was completely wrong.  These girls range from 8 years old to 10 years old and are from different schools in the area.  Only two other girls from her school are on this team.  They practice a couple of times a week for 2 1/2 hours each time, often have 1-2 games per weekend (not including tournaments), and have homework.  They are required to have 1500 touches on the ball per week outside of practice, and watch videos on soccer practices, juggling, and soccer moves.  She practices in the park, in the garage, and her favorite place is dad's gym.  Her position is defender and goalie.  Her coaches say they've never seen a natural defender such as she at such a young age.  She loves that kind of praise and enjoys these girls so much.  We worry somewhat about next year as 3 girls will age out of U9, but think they might get to stay together if their coach jumps the entire team up to U10. 
Coach Ruff is her head coach, and Coach Phillips is her assistant.  Coach Ruff has no kids on the team, and just loves the game.  His daughter helps goalie train, and his son is getting Div. I looks as a junior in high school playing competitive soccer.  He is excellent with the girls and has given Caitlin more skills than I never knew existed in soccer.  She is truly enjoying the sport and often asks to find soccer on in the mornings rather than cartoons.  It's not always available, but it's fun to see her take on something she loves!
We are so proud of her hard work and effort, and enjoy watching her play every weekend!

Fall Soccer 2011

 I stopped counting what soccer season this was, but whatever number, it was a good one!  This is the first year Caitlin really took it seriously.  She didn't ask to be taken out of the game or dread practice.  She actually enjoyed it and worked a little harder on the field. 
Her footwork really improved and her kick is monstrous.  We are very proud.  Jon thought we should've moved her up to the 9-10 year old group, but I didn't do that when I signed her up.  The last few games, though, opposing coaches have come up to us and told us that she's a good player and should move up.  Today, her coach (who's daughter plays on a premier select team for Kansas City), told us they were going to give us the information for that premier team because they said she needs to play on a select team.  We were so excited!  I knew, though, that ultimately it was up to Caitlin.  It would mean more practices, double the games, and better competition.  I don't know if she realizes all that means, but she was excited and wanted to do it!  We're so proud of her!  We'll see where that takes us!

Another Gift from Above...

 On August 9th, Brooklyn Mae Donaca joined our family and she is absolutely gorgeous!  She has her daddy's eyes and a small tuft of dark hair to cover her cute little head!

 We were so thrilled to hear the news of our new niece and new cousin! 

 We stayed true to our "all girls" grandkids, and welcomed new mom, Traci, and new dad, Will, to the club of screaming girls, giggly pants, ruffles, hair bows and ponytails, and outfit discussions.

 Traci was a champ and did an AWESOME job, we hear!

 Dad, Will, called us early in the morning and we wouldn't have wanted any different!

 New Aunt Jenny (yes, I've already boughten her a My Auntie Loves Me onesie), and new Uncle Jon, got to see Brooklyn when we went to Oregon for our anniversary.  Caitlin and Macy are super jealous and counting down the days until Thanksgiving!

We're so blessed to have this beautiful baby girl in our lives!  We can't wait to spoil her!  We love you, Brooklyn!

Taylor Swift Concert!

Caitlin and I got the pleasure of enjoying the Taylor Swift concert last night in Kansas City, thanks to Tisa Bulin, Jon's mom's friend.  This summer, Tisa surprised us by pulling out an envelope from her purse and asking, "Would Caitlin like to go to this?" and opened the envelope to find two 12th row tickets to Taylor Swift!  She said she had heard their radio station was having a contest and she set out to win them - just for Caitlin - and she did!  We are so thankful!

Caitlin could not have been more excited!  She's been asking daily, "How many days until the concert?" and while we were there, she even rocked out to the opening acts!  She kept saying, "This band rocks!"  We hadn't eaten much that day, but Caitlin wanted to stay glued to her seat, "...in case Taylor comes out, I don't wanna miss it!"

We had a fabulous time! Caitlin kept screaming for Taylor and we sang all the songs we knew.  Caitlin told dad that her favorite part was "...all the songs," and it was really neat when Taylor walked to her tree and sang there because that was right by us!

She puts on a great show.  She does an act for every song and fireworks shot out of the stage in the beginning, middle and end!  It got quite chilly, so Caitlin put on her t-shirt we bought her towards the end, and we even brought home a Taylor Swift glow stick for Macy!  They've been playing with those in the closet all morning!

Thanks, Tisa, for a great mommy-daughter night!  Caitlin kept thanking you all night long!!!  She was so appreciative!

First Day of Preschool!

 Dad said Macy had NO problems going to Preschool on her first day.  We were a little concerned because our first choice was preschool on Jon's campus, just a walk away from Dad's office.  They sent an email announcing they would be closing their doors in December after 30 years of service to the community to make room for students.  This email came in July.  We scrambled and visited a couple other preschools knowing they, too, would soon fill up.  We settled on Xavier Preschool, the other catholic preschool in Leavenworth. 

Macy and all the other students have to have the same bag, but preschoolers do not need to wear a uniform.  She picked out her own outfit for the first day, and Jon said she did famously when he dropped her off.  Immediately, she found a friendly face, Carson, with whom she knows b/c his dad works at the university, too.  Jon said she didn't shed a tear.  After I received his text at work, I high-fived my coworkers (yes, I still high-five) and felt confident she would do well this year.

But, then I got a little sad b/c Macy won't be small and easy to rock soon.  She knows she's my little baby and will rock with me anytime I ask.  She loves to be held and carried places, even by Caitlin, who loves to carry her, too!  My heart was so happy that she was not sad, but made me also realize that she, too, is growing up just like her sister and it all goes too fast.  I'm just thankful I get to spend as much time as I do with them and hopefully slow time down as much as I can. 

First Day of 2nd Grade!

 Oh my gosh.  Second grade sounds so old!  Caitlin is entering her second year at Lansing Elementary and although excited, she was nervous, too.  I let her wear a necklace of mine so she could think of me, and Dad said she was a little distraught on the way to school b/c it kept tangling.  He gave her a big pep talk and then she wouldn't even let him walk her in!  She is growing up so fast!  She looks so grown up in this picture and everyday.

Macy wanted to be in the picture, too, although she had to go to work with dad for the next week.  What a couple of cuties!  Makes me well up a little now that they are both in school, but I remind myself that Macy is still in preschool for awhile and I'm totally good with that.   If she stays there for a long while.

Family Vacation - Wisconsin Dells 2011!

This past August, my mom took our family and my sister's family on vacation to Wisconsin Dells - home of the biggest waterpark in the U.S.!

The start of the trip: Grandma was a TROOPER and rode in the backseat nearly the entire way (which ended up being like 7 hours)...

 Here is a picture of Caitlin and I during the hour I spent in the back seat.

Mom wanted to do the "Oregon Ducks," which I assumed was watching ducks from a boat.  In all actuality, it's a tour of the area in this boat/road rider thing - a huge attraction for those vacationing in the Dells.  The kids thought it was a blast - especially SPLASHING into the river! 

Talia and Macy posing for pix - they're so good at it.

In the "party room," as my mom called it - Kelly and Brian and the kids relaxing before we went to our second waterpark.

The kids - ready for bed - and pouncing on Grandma...again, what a TROOPER!

While Jon golfed one morning and Grandma went to her time share meeting, Brian, Kelly and I took the girls to an indoor amusement and game arcade.  Macy LOVED the airplanes, Caitlin was thrilled to ride the bungee shoot and roller coaster and Talia wanted to ride EVERYTHING!  She kept saying, "I'm brave!"

I think Kelly gets the TROOPER award at this game playin' Extravaganza!

I'm pretty sure Caitlin's favorite part of every waterpark was the wave pool.  She did karate against the waves.  Dad through her in the waves.  She dove in the waves, got carried like a mermaid through the waves.  She rode the tube with Grandma in the waves.  She just loves waves, I guess.

We had a great time.  The girls loved seeing Grandma, their aunt and uncle and cousin.  They loved waking up and going next door and eating breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Fights were rare, but fun was abundant!  It was a great time and we are so thankful Grandma took us on this trip! :)  Wonder what we're doing next year????

"Bake Sale!"

 Not your typical bake sale...the girls decided they wanted to "bake cookies" with play-doh - they are big fans of creativity and of play-doh.  Jon - not a fan of the play-doh.  Sometimes I just let them go for it, though, and I even let them set up their "kitchen" on their dresser top because, of course, play-doh is much easier to vacuum up than sweep off the dining room floor, right?

 They had an absolute blast.  I let them use whatever cookie cutters they wanted.  They only charged a quarter a cookie, too!  That is, until dad got home.  When he arrived, they named their price, and when he said he only had dollar bills, they said they'd accept those.  He handed Caitlin a dollar and she gave him one cookie.  He said, "What about the other 3?"  She said, "3 dollars!"  He reminded her that if he paid her a dollar, that was actually worth 4 quarters; the price of 4 cookies."  She looked at him quizically and said, "Price went up, dad, since you only had a dollar."  What a business woman.

I got off the hook and left Jon with clean up.  Maybe I'm the smart business woman.  :)

Great Wolf Lodge Mini Vacation 2011

Last year, we went to Great Wolf Lodge, courtesy of gift cards from Grandma Dawn, and Grandma and Grandpa Rudy & Tootie.  When we went there, the Triple Twist Slide was "out of commission," so they gave us 4 free day passes to come back and enjoy on this random super hot summer Tuesday!

Our girls were not the daredevil go down every slide as many times as you can kinda kids here.  They liked the safe staples...the 1000 gallon bucket (Caitlin stood almost completely under it...a safe distance away),

the water contraption that they played with for hours last time, and again, raced to start and stop the water in this intriguing, safe stationary toy,

and the spouting fountains that mezmorized Macy...

We did convince Macy to go down a small Frog slide outside, and we forced Caitlin to go down one of the large fast major slides of Great Wolf Lodge.  In fact, I took Caitlin up, she started crying, and I told her there was no other way down except to go down the slide.  Then, Jon took her up, crying all the way, and he said a lady behind gave him an "Awww," look, and he said, "It's okay, she cries each time and we just keep on forcing her to go down," and supposedly the lady said, "Good for you."  It's possible we are damaging her fear level, but we just KNEW she'd love it!  (those were the only 2 times she went down any slide today, by the way)...

We played from 9:30am-4:00pm, and had a great time.  After missing the Triple Twist Slide the first time, Jon was able to brave it with a 7 year old kid who had been ditched by his tube buddy, too, so he finally got to ride it.  Not worth it, he said.  In fact, the funny thing is, the slide we forced Caitlin to go on was probably the fastest and scariest.  No wonder she denied us the rest of the day!

After Macy fell asleep on the way home, and after Jon and the kids watched a movie together, the kids talked about their favorite parts of the day.  They listed every activity and moment and prayed at the end of the night their thanks for a day with family - what it's all about.