Update in a Slideshow

Happy Birthday, Denae

My baby turns 3 today. She is getting so big and acts like it too! She told me a couple of days ago that she was already 3 (she got her b-day present from her aunt early). I told her not till Saturday and she said yes she was. I told her we didn't have to have her birthday on Saturday then if she was already 3. She thought for just a second and said, "I just kiddin'. I not 3 yet." She's not gonna miss out on getting to have a birthday!

Mommy and Daddy love you, Little Angel! You bring such joy to our lives. You love to be the center of attention and make us laugh. Most of the time! You are such a big helper when I need something. You love to cuddle and wrestle and play with babies and cars. A princess in pig tails, wearing fluffy dresses and church shoes one minute, and a country girl, running around outside barefooted with dirt on your nose the next. Can't wait to see what the next year holds, especially since Dallas goes to school, leaving you with nobody to play with but me! At least we will be doing preschool together in the fall for 2 hrs, 2 days a week at Miss Dawn's, you as a student and me as the teacher. Should be lots of fun!! Happy Birthday, Denae Alysse. So glad you are ours!

Note: I typed this on the laptop, so no pics. See two previous posts for the two different sides of Denae, the princess and the country girl.

Denae

Okay, I couldn't resist posting some more recent pics of my baby. Kids are so fun to photograph at this age. It's like they can't take a bad picture. And Denae loooves to have her picture taken. She really hams it up! Grandma and Poppa, these pics are for you! Hope you like them!

Denae showing off her pretty new dress.

Being Silly after church

Now that's a pretty smile!

And another pretty smile!

Caught her in action

So sweet!

Our borrowed pet

Hey, Denise! These pics are for you! My kids are sure enjoying taking care of your "baby" while ya'll are on vacation. These pics are from last week. It didn't take long for Denae to warm up to Bo, and Dallas has taken a real ownership of the dog. He takes his turn feeding, checking water, and basically spends all day outside playing with Bo. He makes sure Bo rests too, finding nice, cool, shady places for him to lay down and then sitting beside him, petting him. The girls play with him too, but with school, quizzing, etc they don't have as much time. The kids are really going to miss him when take him home. Now we'll have to get a dog!

Singing and stuff

Just wanted to post a couple of pics of Delaney singing a solo with the kids choir. She did a great job and we are proud of her. I wish I had a video clip to post, but I don't. I know the pictures are dark but you get the idea. The firs pic is a zoom in on Delaney and the second is a picture showing more of the choir in the loft and the chorale holding mics.

And of course, I have to add some pics of my 'baby' who will be 3 soon. She really does love the camera and enjoys making lots of faces.

What's a horsie say?

As all our family and friends know, we call our 2 1/2 year old Nae-Nae for short. A while back, to try and help her remember what a horsie says, we told her it says her name, neigh neigh. So keeping that in mind, this was my conversation with her yesterday:
Me: What does a cow say?
Denae: MOOO!
Me: What does a kitty cat say?
Denae: Memow!
Me: What does a horsie say?
Denae: De-nae, De-nae!
Hmm? Maybe our little memory trick didn't work out so great, but it did make for a cute story!

Pictures of Denae

I took some great pics of Denae hamming it up for the camera a few weeks ago before church.

This is her monkey face, which she did with no prompting!! lol

Finally - BQ Finals Post

Okay, I finally sat down and did it. I made a slideshow of the pics I took at Finals 2 weeks ago. Wow, I am really slow! Anyways, finals was a lot of fun. Friday night we went to John's Incredible Pizza with everyone after orientation. We had a blast. I don't have any pics of that on my slide show because the pics all turned out too dark. But, the beginner girls all had matching outfits from Children's Place (Thank you Sis Horton for picking those up for us!) Everywhere I looked it was pink shirts and headbands! Then after a late night of partying (and even later night of Denae crying because it was very hot in our room and she was over exhausted), we got up for a big day of quizzing. Our church junior and beginner quizzers all wore navy, white, and yellow this year. Everyone looked really nice. After a long day of great quizzing by all of the quizzers, Delaney and Darilyn took 2nd in the beginner division. First place went to another Sacramento team, Karly, Oriana, Katrina, and Kayla. They were a tough team and quizzed very well. Delaney was highest scorer on the all tournament team with 99 pts per quiz. Darilyn was 5th. And this tournament, the juniors and beginners were able to participate in the Ultamate Challenge competition, normally just a senior thing. Delaney and Darilyn both did really well in this too. In the charting competition (locate as many 1 time words as your can correctly in 30 seconds) Delaney was 2nd and Darilyn was 4th. In the quoting competion (horizontal quote as many vs 1's as you can in 30 seconds -horizontal is quoting all of the same vs numbers through the material Gal 1:1, Gal 4:1, Gal 5:1, Gal 6:1, Eph 2:1, Eph 4:1, Eph 5:1, and Eph 6:1) Delaney took 1st and Darilyn took 3rd. Delaney actually quoted all 8 of the beginner verse 1's in 30 seconds. Juniors and Seniors, of course, have more verse 1's to quote. But, if I can brag a little more, according to Danny Barba, our Ultimate Challenge coordinator, Delaney did the best of all the divisions! And, Bro and Sis Horton, our beginner program directors, received coach of the year! In the junior division, my nephews Christian and Austin, took first place, with Austin being 1st on the all tournament team and Christian being 5th (that looks familiar). Faith and Caleb, our 'adopted' niece and nephew took 2nd, and Faith was the junior Quizzer of the Year. And Carlos and Denise, received Junior Coach of the Year. Everyone did such a great job and worked very hard. Of course, juniors and seniors are still working hard getting ready for Nationals just 2 weeks away, but Delaney and Darilyn are done for the year and this Mom is ready for the break. Kevin is working dillegently from the official side of things making sure everything will be ready for the National tournament and tonight is actually at Kathy and Craigs helping Christian and Austin study. So for all those still working hard, rememeber EVED (every verse every day!)

Kids say the cutest things!

Dallas about why he was so excited about the Family Fun Night hosted by Bible Quizzing; "Oh, yeah, and God is going to be there too!"

Denae's version of what a kitty cat says: "Memow."

Darilyn's main concerning when finding out my mom was in the hospital again: "Does Grandma's antibotics (her word) taste like bubble gum?"

Dallas on why he wants to quiz next year: "So I can get first place!"

Denae, after mommy told her to tell daddy 'I'm cute': "Mommy cute!"

Delaney's obeservation regarding losing some quizzes and then taking first at the last BQ tourney: "I guess Jesus was trying to show us that even if we lose some quizzes, we can still win." (This comment struck me as kind of funny, but true, too. Even if we lose some, whether it be in a game or any part of life, including our spiritual life, if we keep playing, living, or doing our best, we can (and WILL) still win in the end. Even kids can have profound thoughts sometimes!)

Celebrating Denae's Birthday

For Denae's Birthday, we decided to take her to a resteraunt with a playland. We don't do that very often, so we thought that she would enjoy it. We ended up getting free milkshakes because the meal took a little longer to arrive, so we did her cake the next evening after dinner. We got her a 10 inch bike with training wheels and she loves it. She can't make it go yet, but she sure enjoys getting pushed places and climbing off and on.

Here's the Birthday Girl!

Blowing kisses for the camera

Playing at the Chick-fil-a play land


We have to stay INSIDE the play equipment

Hi, Mom!

Delaney posing in front of the wacky mirror!
Wee! This is fun!!


MMM, this milkshake is good!

Having cake at home (the next day!)
She blew out the candles all by herself!

Enjoying her cake and ice cream

Time to open presents!
Wow! A giftcard to the Children's Place!!(Mommy's favorite kind of gift!)
Money! More favorite gifts!

On my brandnew Princess Bike!

What a great birthday!!!

She also got two new pairs of sandals. One pair is disney princess and lights up which she wears all the time. Another gift is still on the way. She is having the never-ending birthday!!!