Sydney's Birthday cont....

 Sydney informed us that she doesn't like Mrs Backer's cakes....what?!?!  So, for dinner on Sunday, she made a box cake. She also informed us that she doesn't like frosting.  So, she only frosted half of the cake.....well, it's her birthday ;)

 The Beehives in the ward Heart-attacked our door on Sunday night and Sydney didn't see it before she went to bed....Below: Brandon and Amanda did the candy poster for their sister....

 I saw this idea on Pinterest.  A balloon avalanche! Amanda helped me rig Sydney's door. Luckily she sleeps with her door closed!  In the morning, she opened her door and fell backwards because the balloons scared her!  But it worked....the balloons fell into her room!

 Amanda used the rest of the crepe paper and decorated the basement!

 The morning of her birthday, Mike & I took her outside to see the front door.

 I can't believe we have another young woman in the house!!! Hard to believe she's 12!

 Sydney also informed us that she wanted an oreo ice cream cake from Coldstone for her birthday cake.

 Photo bomb with Dad :)  The cake was delish....and I guess a bonus of her  changing tradition is that this cake was less expensive that Mrs Backers!!

Here are 12 things about Sydney for her 12th birthday!
1.  She is HAPPY!  As long as her blood sugar stays up, she is a happy kid!
2.  She's always singing or whistling
3.  She's always 'redecorating' or 'crafting' things in her head
4.  She figures math out in her head and not on paper.  She's gets math
5.  She's a fashionista
6.  She has a fish named Gil after the fish in 'What About Bob?'
7.  She loves her dog Max
8.  She can play the piano and dance like a champ!
9.  She 'does' her hair everyday.....she gets up EARLY so she can curl it and looks really cute
10. She is a great cook and makes dinners a couple of times a week
11. She loves her brother and sister and mom and dad and lets us know it
12. She is an amazing, smart, beautiful, fabulous daughter and we couldn't be more proud of her!

Love you Syd Syd!

Sydney's Birthday!

 On Sunday the 22nd, we had Grandma & Papa Gibson over for dinner to celebrate Sydney's birthday. Sydney picked the menu of S&S Chicken and funeral potatoes.  It had been the primary program at church and I also had sharing time, so by the time I got home and we started the chicken, dinner was a lot later than we'd hoped. Sydney made the funeral potatoes and cake and did a great job!

 Cute Papa & Grandma!

 Sydney's Mom & Dad

 It's not often we can surprise Sydney. She's good at guessing gifts...gets it from her Dad.  She also snoops!  Dad & I had bought her a phone for her birthday two weeks before and hid it.  Dad was convinced that she knew about it because the dumb cellular phone company texted her old phone (really old phone-it was mine from about 3 or 4 years ago) and said the changes had been made to the account.  Her old phone still worked though and so I explained it away as I changed some features.

 But, look at that face! That is TOTAL surprise from Sydney!

 There are a lot of these pictures, but I love the sequence of her total surprise, to her getting teary-eyed and finally at the last 2 pictures, Sydney returns as she poses for the camera!  It was so fun to see her surprise that I even got teary-eyed!

 Here come the tears!

 And Sydney hardly ever cries....this was so great!

She told us we were the best parents ever and we got a big squeeze and kiss from this girl!

Then, she spent the rest of the evening asking all of us if we knew she got an iPhone?

A Time for Everything

Sydney is an amazing dancer.  That's just it. You can see her talent as she dances the music.  She is a beautiful ballet dancer.   She is a cute cheerleader and worked so hard to get her back handspring this summer.

But, Sydney wanted to change things up a bit this year.  She isn't cheering anymore.  Last year it wasn't as fun.  She wanted to quit ballet, but when she got THE Clytie Adams as her teacher, I begged her to stay one more year.  And, I told her she could be in the Nutcracker performance one more time.

So, she stayed at Clyties. She added a Jazz class and a hip hop class (at L2D-Amanda's studio).  She tried out for the Nutcracker last week and this week we found out she didn't make it. What?!?!  I was shocked. I may be biased because I'm her mother, but even stepping back, I thought What??!!  Mike was shocked. Amanda was shocked. Her friends were shocked.  Amanda's friends were shocked.

We have two theories.  One, she's too tall.  In ballet, you have to look a certain way and be a certain size.  Sydney grew at least 2 inches this summer. We think that pushed her past the costume sizes for her age group.

Second, we caused a stir 2 years ago when she and Amanda were both in the performance.  We went on a trip with the Arvys and missed a practice and picture day.  Our punishment for that was to not try out for one year.  That punishment was served as we did not try out last year.  But, it could be that the powers that be remember us and decided to still punish us.  I know it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it's politics and it happens.  But, we wouldn't  have missed that trip for the world! It was SO worth it!

It's been a little hard on Sydney.  Mostly, when she goes to classes and hears the girls talking who have made it into this year's cast.  But, it's a great life lesson.  I told her she can do hard things and that the best way to not feel sad is to feel happy for those who made it in.

We haven't decided if we want to go to a performance, however.  I'll leave it up to her and won't make her go if she's not feeling it.

Sydney has already planned for her next year.  She is going to dance at Luv2Dance...where Amanda dances.  She takes hip hop there this year and her teacher is Christian...this amazing guy hip hop dancer. He's danced in Amanda's dances and the girls all love him. He's nice to them, too.  Amanda says that they will love her at L2D because she is an amazing dancer and super flexible.  She'll try out for a team next June and will get to dance 2 or 3 routines in around 5 competitions.

I just want Sydney to know that Dad and I are so proud of her!  We are proud of her because of the way she is handling herself since she didn't make the cast.  There is a time to everything and she's learning it's ok to not get everything you want.  That will make the times that she gets something she wants so much sweeter. We love you Sydney!

Brandon's football life

I'm loving my camera for the kid's sports!

This week Brandon and his team played in Clinton.  We have a 3-0 record and the buzz on the WFTL website says that Kaysville White is the team to beat! The 'reporter' says that Kaysville White is big!

They are talking about our boy and Mendoza (71) and Ford (19) and Larson (11) and Bennett (2) and more!  Awesome!

Look at all the blue players on the turf while our boys are standing!

More pics of our amazing line!

Huddle, huddle!

Get set!

Hit!

Contemplating his next moves

We should frame this right?

This was a drive by the other team, but our coaches put our starting D back in and they stopped them!

We won this game something like 41-0!  We now have a 4-0 record and will play the only other team with a 4-0 record in our division this Saturday! Go Tigers!

First Day of School

First day of School, August 26, 2013.  Amanda and her girlies. Liz, Maddy, Susie and cute Amanda!

Official 9th grader at Centennial Jr High School! When did she grow up!??

She's getting tired of the pictures....

Sydney! Official 6th grader at Snow Horse Elementary School. She loves the pictures....

Brandon! Official 3rd grader at Snow Horse Elementary School!  He so excited!

And the photo shoot continues with Sydney and B.