Candyland Gymnastics Meet

Brynlee started doing tumbling/trampoline at the Sports Academy about 3 years ago.  She did that for two years and then decided to switch to gymnastics for 1 year at Sports Academy.  She heard through a friend that the coach they really like wasn't going to be there anymore so in August she switched to Altius Gymnastics Academy, which was a new place in town.  She enrolled as Pre-Team Level 3.  After a few months, she wasn't quite ready to move on to Level 4 but her coach wanted her to participate in a pre-season meet to see how she did and how she liked it.

On Saturday, December 3rd, we headed to Evanston, WY for our first adventure in gymnastics.  Brynlee was a little nervous but did very well.  It was her first time to ever compete and she ended up placing 6th (out of about 20-25 girls) in the All-Around for Level 3.

Warming up and stretching

After warm ups, all the teams marched in and lined up.  Since Brynlee and Jada weren't officially on team, they didn't have the new competition leotards and warm ups so they borrowed some old ones, which is why they have white jackets and silver leos instead of gold.

Getting a last minute pep talk from Coach Ray Corn.  He was the Head Coach at USU for 31 years and is now coaching at Altius.

At this level (and up to Level 6), all the routines are compulsory routines, which means everyone does the same routine that is set by USAG.  She started out on vault.  Now, this is not the "normal" vault you would expect.  They don't actually use the vault until Level 6.  Until then, they just use the spring board and land on a big mat.  Level 3 does a dive roll.  It's all about getting the technique and then progressing towards the vault.  She got an 8.75 on vault.

Next, it was bars.  Getting chalked up...

Brynlee was struggling with part of the routine where she does a forward stride circle.  She hadn't been able to get all the way around until the day before the meet, and she only did it once.  Her coach was there to spot her just in case, but Brynlee was able to do it without her help.  Her score was 7.7.

Warming up on beam...

She usually does a much better handstand on beam, but she said she was just glad she didn't fall!  Her score was 8.45.

Her last event was floor.  Do you want to know how many times I heard this song during the meet?  WAY too many!  She has been trying really hard to do a backbend kickover, but hasn't been able to do the "kickover" part :)  She scored 6.9.

They divided all the Level 3 girls into three groups according to their All-Around scores.  Here is Brynlee getting her gold medal.

With her 6th place trophy 

Brynlee and Coach Jenn

The Altius team members who competed and their coaches.  The team took 2nd in the All-Around.  Evidently, coming in 2nd after Ka-Larks is nothing to be ashamed of.  These are the Level 3, 6, 7, and 8 girls.  Levels 4 and 5 competed earlier in the day.

Good job, Brynlee!  You did awesome!

The meet was alot longer than I expected it to be. We left Logan at 10:15, got there around 12:30, warm ups started at 1:30 and then the march in started at 2:10. I think it was around 5:00 that they finished with all the awards.  Of course, there was still a 2 hour drive ahead of us. It was a LONG day!  Luckily, there was a climbing wall that kept the boys busy part of the time, but by the end of the meet, we were all ready to be done!  Ashlee was getting pretty impatient, too, wondering why it took so long and we only watched Brynlee for like 5 minutes total, if that!  I had to chuckle because her end of the year performance for ballet usually lasts about 2 hours and she is on stage for about 5 minutes, as well.  What happened to 45 minute soccer games?

Olivia at 2 Months

This chunky little Miss is 2 months old. At her well-child check up, she weighed 12 lbs. 2 oz. and was 23 3/4 inches long....my biggest baby at 2 months!

Little pouty lip.  She does it much better than this picture captured :)  And check out that belly!

Her pouty lip is cute but we sure like smiles alot more!

Her 2nd mommy...

This guy likes to hold her, too.

I found this "Olivia" hooded towel at DownEast.  All the embroidered stuff was an extra 50% off so this ended up being less than $3.  Pretty sweet deal.

Ahh, love you too sweet baby ;)

I could munch on her all day.  She is the little girl that I wished for to complete our family.  Every time I look at her I can't help but think how absolutely perfect she is!  She is now smiling and cooing, which is one of my favorite infant stages.  If only she would skip that feeding that occurs between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m., she really would be the absolutely perfect baby!  We'll keep her anyways!

Halloween

Halloween was pretty low key this year as far as sewing costumes goes.  I had great plans to have everything done before Olivia was born but alas, the costumes that needed to be sewn ended up getting done very last minute.  Ashlee had decided she wanted to be a gypsy months ago and kept asking me when we could buy fabric to make it.  I finally made to it the store the weekend after Olivia was born since there was a big sale going on at Jo-Anns.  I worked on it a little when my mom was here but then ended up finishing it late Saturday afternoon (Oct. 29th) about an hour before she wore it to a friend's Halloween party.

About the time I finished Ashlee's costume, I finally got it out of Brynlee what she wanted to be.  At first she wanted to be a clown.  Then she no longer wanted to be one but couldn't decide what else to be.  About a week before Halloween she said she was just going to be herself.  Um, yeah, no.  I gave her some suggestions, one of which was Annie.  With her red hair, I always wanted her to be Annie but it just never happened.  She agreed.  Wahoo!  So off to Jo-Anns I went...at 6:00 on Saturday evening to buy red fabric.  I used a dress pattern that I already had and tweaked it a little.  Monday morning the whole Annie thing was not going so great.  I was curling her hair and it was taking WAY too long.  I had 3 curling irons going at one time, handing them off to her as I wrapped another section of hair around another curling iron (should have had Rob take pictures of that!) Some would get a little too close to her head or a tiny strand would be pulling and she would freak out.  She is definitely my child with the most sensitive head!  She runs when I come near her with a comb!  So back to the story...it's about 9:00 a.m. (school starts at 9:10) and I still had some curling to do so Ashlee and Landon headed off to school.  Brynlee was not happy about being late for school and already in tears from the curling iron drama so unfortunately this picture isn't so great but I wanted to get a picture of the curls since I know her hair doesn't hold a curl very well no matter how much hair product I use.

After school she was a totally different girl. She loved her costume, loved her hair. As I had suspected would happen, her hair wasn't very curly after school so I had to curl it a little bit more before trick or treating.

Landon wanted to be Ron for Halloween until he found out (via Lego Harry Potter on the Wii) that Ron barfs up slugs and chose to be Harry Potter instead.  The red hair would have been perfect for Ron, but that didn't stop us from him being a perfect Harry. (No, I did not sew his costume)

Trevor got to be Robin Hood since it was one of my favorite costumes I made when Landon was younger.  I was a little worried he wouldn't wear it since the week before Halloween he said he was going to be a "spooky bat".  Luckily, he obliged and once he had his bow and arrow, he was one happy Robin Hood.

Olivia was our little cheetah (leopard?)  Her outfit was one that someone had given us when Ashlee was a baby (although since it is size 0-3 months, both older girls never wore it as a costume).  I found some matching fabric to make a headband and added a flower.  So dang cute.

Rob went with the Harry Potter theme and dressed up as Professor Quirrell.  He threw that costume together in about 5 minutes, grabbing my graduation robe and a blanket to wrap around his head.  He got some pretty weird guesses about what he was but you could definitely tell who the Harry Potter fans were since they knew right away who he was.  My favorite part was when two kids dressed as Harry Potter characters (can't remember which ones...I think the boy said he was Tom Riddle) saw him and drew their wands and pointed them at Rob.  It was hilarious.

Of course, we can't forget the pumpkins...

Fall Break at the Cabin

Last weekend we headed to the cabin for Fall Break.  It was nice to get out of the house after being cooped up with a new baby for a few weeks.  We went up Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon.

A cabin trip wouldn't be complete without a picnic lunch at the creek below Smith & Morehouse Reservoir.  The kids love this place...traversing the logs, throwing rocks and exploring (which usually means someone ends up in the water and this time was no different).  Brynlee was trying to rescue a stray flipflop (that wasn't even ours) and ended up in the water and Landon was trying to cross the creek on a log and lost his balance.

Our favorite stump is starting to fall apart.  We may not be able to recreate this photo much longer.

Grape-stuffed cheeks like a chipmunk (and a cheeto-orange face)...

While Ellie and I took a nap Saturday afternoon, Rob and the kids went for a walk.

Little Sister

I was going through my closet and found a Kohls bag that I had forgotten about and this outfit was in there. I had bought a few outfits about a week before Olivia was born after realizing I didn't have as many baby clothes as I had thought. I bought some boy and girl outfits (mostly girl...something in me kept going to the girl clothes!) but kept them in the bag with the reciept, not knowing what I would be returning. I thought this outfit was so cute...and last night realized it was newborn size (5 to 8 pounds!). Maybe she'll wear it everyday for the next week before she gets too big! :)  She was wide awake so I figured I should get some pictures of her since most of the pictures I have of her are when she's sleeping...there's just something so peaceful about sleeping newborns :)

 

How do you choose just one to post when she is so stinkin' cute!

 

Trevor apparently doesn't know what personal space is.  I guess I should just be thankful he is so sweet to her...

Already learning how to defend herself...

Olivia: Two Weeks Old

Olivia is two weeks old!  Amazing how fast it has flown by and yet I feel like she has been a part of our family forever!  We are all lovin' this sweet baby girl.  She's gotten into a pretty good routine of sleeping, eating and a little awake time.

At two weeks old, Olivia weighs 8 lbs. 3 oz. and is 20 3/4 inches long so she is growing.  She was 7 lbs. 9 oz. when we brought her home so the doctor said it's good that she has gained back to her birth weight (plus a couple ounces).

A few pictures since the last post.  Tummy time at 4 days old...

Kisses from Trevor at  12 days old...

We're still trying to figure out what color her hair is.  When she was born, it was really dark, but depending on the lighting, it had a red tint to it.  More and more lately it has seemed more red.  Her eyes are getting to be more blue, instead of the blue gray they were when she was born.

Grandma spent ALOT of time listening to Trevor tell her every detail about every animal in his favorite book.  I will be forever grateful to my mom for coming for ten days and helping out tremendously!

I could snuggle her all day long!

And so could daddy!

Two weeks old, doing what she does best...

We got wonderful news that the newest Kovacs cousin, Emmett Dustin Miner, was born just two weeks after her.  That makes three Kovacs cousins born in 4 1/2 weeks! (and one more was born a month before)  Grandma Kovacs was hoping for a little break between babies after making it back to AZ on Saturday, but Emmett was ready to come!  They barely made it back from Phoenix Monday night after staying there for the weekend for Austin's blessing.  Thanks to Grandma's mad driving skills, they made it home before his mama was a superwoman and delivered him at home (don't worry that was the plan...well, the home birth, not him arriving two weeks early!)