All About the Girls

It has been a long time since I have posted! I am so sorry for the delay. January came and swept us away! It was a very important month for our girls so we will dedicate this update to them. Josie Ruth turned 4 on January 21st! Josie is a tenacious outgoing "big" girl who of course has been counting down the days to her birthday since Christmas. In fact she acts so much older than she is that I can hardly believe she is only now just 4! Thankfully she is at that perfect age where she is happy with ANYTHING that happens on her birthday. Everything makes a 4 year old happy as long as it is celebrating them.

We started the festivities with a trip to Build A Bear where Josie adopted Princess Angela Kitty.

Then we had some family friends over for cake and ice cream. Josie's request was a unicorn cake which the kids barely ate after eating all that mane (sour airheads).

She was a very happy 4 year old but she has already made strict demands for her 5th birthday. 

Even so she went to bed clutching her Princess Angela Kitty (and her growing collection of Disney Princess stuffed animals which is now up to 4 after this birthday) snoring loudly after falling asleep in her Daddy's arms. As "Big" as she claims to be it is nice to know she isn't too big for some things. Nice photobomb Jesse!

As for Anna, January was the start of competition season for her dance academy. They have been practicing their dances for 5 months now and the girl lit up to finally be on the stage doing what she loves. Her and I stayed at a hotel all weekend together why she danced and competed from sun up to sun down, the smile never leaving her face. 

When Anna is on stage, we see a child that we never see at any other time. It brings tears to our eyes every time. Dancing is not a cheap world to be in, and Joel and I were starting to debate whether or not we were going to carry this on next year, and then we saw her on stage; and we remembered why we do this. So I will remain a "dance mom" (and they are not all crazy mean dance moms...we are truly blessed with an awesome studio) following Anna to competitions about once a month. The moms at this studio have completely wrapped their arms around us, showing me how to do hair and make-up, helping me in a world outside of my comfort zone. Anna and I had such a special time together on our weekend (and we got to meet Twitch!!!)  and I really can't wait until our next one at the end of February! 

And most special of all, Anna was baptized on February 1st at our home church of Plum Creek Community Church in Castle Rock. She started asking to be baptized about 6 months ago. We went through a class with her and after many talks, decided she did indeed know what she was doing and was ready. She said she wanted everyone to know she was a Christian and since Jesus was baptized...so should she be!

Yes we all cried and our spirits soared with pride to see our girl declare to the world that she loves Jesus and wants to follow His example. We pray the Lord will guide us as she continues to grow and has the moments where it will be hard to stand up for Him. May she always remember the moment right here and how it felt so she can cling to it. Afterwards we went home with a small group of her friends who came to witness and enjoyed her favorite dessert, red velvet cake!

And the last girl to update you on is ME!

 I am so honored to say that I have been selected to be a 2015 Ragnar Ambassador for the Colorado Road Relay Series. I participated in the Ragnar Appalachians Trail Relay in 2014 and had the time of my life and am excited beyond words to not only be participating in the series here in Colorado but to also be representing something I love so much. Ragnar says they are the overnight running relay race that makes running and testing your limits a team sport! It is all about the community, not about the pace...200 miles from point to point shared amongst 12 people...what could be more fun?! I have bonds and friendships with my Appalachian team that can never be broken (and I secretly hope to get some of them here for the Colorado race!). I am blessed to get to run wearing Ragnar's gear, host fun runs, and captain a trail and road team. It is a dream come true! So if anyone is interested...give me a shout out! Come find your inner wild!