St. Louis Irish Arts Feis

Nora had a feis this past weekend. She was supposed to do both days, but only ended up doing one day. She did great though. The Feis was put on by St. Louis Irish Arts and was held at the Ballpark Hilton in downtown St. Louis. We got their early so we could see Nora's friend Cecilia participate in her first feis. Right before Nora was supposed to go on she bit her lip. OMG! I have no idea how she did it, but it was a mess. Luckily the volunteers and the judge were nice and let me calm her down as much as I could before she had to do her reel. She got out there and did it and I was so proud of her. She did great and finished 3rd in that dance. Then we waited and she did her light jig and placed 2nd!!! Such a great job! I just love the group that we are a part of as well. The Clark Academy is just one of the best irish dance academies that you could be a part of. All of the girls are just so nice and the parents alike. There were feis buddies that helped out on Saturday and were so encouraging and helped Nora run through her dances before hand. And anyone that saw her later on told her good job and asked her questions about her dances. Now if we could just get her to be so kind back. We definitely need to work on talking to others when they talk to her. Overall it was great. Grandma and Pappy came to watch as well. Now we do not feis until July, so I can't wait to see how much she improves between now and then. I have started to take some lessons too. I have always wanted to learn and it is a lot of hard work. I didn't realize how hard it was, it makes me even more proud of my Nora!

Snow, snow, snow!

Well, this is the 8th day they have called off school this year! This winter has been one of the snowiest in a very long time. Now, normally we don't get out in the snow, Nora thinks it is too cold and Stella is just little still, but we went out today and played for a little bit. We were hoping to build a snowman, but it was too powdery to make one. So we made some snow angels and they played on the slide while I shoveled the driveway. Then we made some snow ice cream, which is actually pretty tasty. Let's hope for no more snow! I am ready for warmer weather to make its way to St. Louis!

CAID at the Blues Game

Nora performed after the 1st intermission at the Blues Hockey game last month and I am just now getting around to blogging about it. We had the worst seats possible, but we all had fun. I had some friends from work and SLU join us for the game and my dad came along too. Nora enjoyed watching the game and dancing. They wore their warmups and hair in buns, which was too cute. Of course the little girls always steal the show.

Snow 2014

So this would be the second snow day they have called this year. A little ridiculous if you ask me, but whatever. That is what I get for working in education. Anyway, we did head out this time around. Stella could play out in the snow for hours, Nora on the other hand does NOT like the cold one bit. She was out for about a whole 5 minutes before she was whining to go back in. Jalen and Stella played for a bit and then came back in. Thank goodness Jalen came over!

Happy New Year!

During the day on New Year's Eve I took Jalen to Hidden Valley to go snow tubing! It was part of his Christmas present. My mom came along too and I even convinced her to join us. We had so much fun!!! I highly recommend going if you have the chance.

That evening we went to our friends, the Flemings house to ring in the new year. I brought some minute to win it games for the kids. It was actually quite hilarious. We had a nice appetizer dinner and played games and had a lot of fun. The kids popped a balloon filled with confetti every 30 minutes and Karin had noise makers and kiddie cocktails for our celebration. We ended up celebrating at 10 pm and soon after that we headed home. We put Stella to bed and Jalen and Nora stayed up with us until midnight. Jalen and I went outside and made noise while Peter and Nora stayed in. Nora was scared of all the fireworks going off.

"Face the cookie"

marshmallow toss

"move the snowball"

"move the snowball"

Celebrating New Years!

We had a pretty great 2013. So many good things, way more than not good. Cannot wait to see what 2014 has in store. Hope all you reading had a great holiday season and we are wishing you a very happy and healthy 2014!!!

Christmas Day

Holy Moly are we so blessed. My sisters and mom all came over for Christmas later on in the day. We haven't had everyone here in a while. We had a great day and a great spread of food! The tree was full of gifts! It is just amazing to me. It took a while to open all the gifts and the kiddos were pretty patient. Daphne danced on the gifts, Stella tried to open many that were not hers and Nora and Jalen waited! We then had dinner and played rob your neighbor and our favorite LRC!  So much fun!!!

Christmas Morning

Crazy as it sounds, the girls did not wake up until 9:50 on Christmas morning. We had them up late on Christmas Eve and that is the way it went. But when they got up they were very excited to see that Santa had come! We headed downstairs to open gifts and they sure did get a lot. Nora's favorite was her tablet and Stella's favorite was her baby stuff that she got. I just love watching their faces light up!!! It was a great morning.