Learning to Edit Pictures..

Much better with a border.. Right?

Happy Turkey Day!!

This is a very special year for us at Thanksgiving. We get to spend our holidays with Grammy Duve! Madi is so funny, she follows Grammy around and attends to her every need. It's like she's never been around an elderly person before. However, you can see just how much Madi adores her and hangs on her every word when they are together. It really is special!!

This year, we were actually able to get a few good pictures of Papa! No chin raises!! How cute is he with his granddaughters??!!

Larry, Mo, and Curly here!

Holidays have Begun!!

Today, Madi went with her best friend to see the Radio City Music Hall program at DPAC. She looked amazing!! I got a few pictures with the girls before they left and Tori joined in too. Rachel is going to spend the night tonight and help us start cooking in the morning, then we'll go on to Nana's house for lots of yummy food and "nushers" as Grammy likes to call it.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!! We are very excited this year because Grammy Duve is here!! We haven't seen her in 3 years and we miss her so! She just makes me laugh all the time. You never know what is going to come out of her mouth, she is certainly a straight shooter! Hopefully we will have lots of nice pictures with her from the time she gets to spend with us this holiday season.

Convention 2011

This year the Carolina Dance Masters convention was really nice. Madi went with Cliff and I went up on Saturday to get her ready. It was really nice and Madi looked as pretty as ever. It's amazing to look at her and how much she has grown this year. She is still only 11 and looks anywhere from 13 to 17 on any given day. It is truely amazing watching her grow and turn into a yound lady.

Preliminaries in Albemarle

Today was a success in my book!!! Madi did great!! CDM is known for being a little on the harsh side for judging, and their medals are silver, high silver, gold and platinum. Madi got a GOLD!!!! Yeah!! Instead of walking out of there with 30 things to fix, we really only have two! She has worked so hard, and given a lot of herself. I just can't say enough. Macy and Ashlyn also competed and received a gold as well. We are so proud.

We went into this so she could just get the experience and be ready for this for next year. I feel like she has a better handle on it and will do great! Again, way to go Madi!!!

Yesterday we went to the Ray Price Harley Davidson bike feast.with the dance group. I know, not the normal place to find glitz and glam dancers right? But we went and had a great time!! It was really funny, I had several biker girls come up and ask me who  the girl in the yellow hat was. It was weird, but I said, "My daughter!!"

They were very impressed with her! I just can't believe how many total strangers have come up to me this weekend and asked about her. Whether at the bike feast or the competition. It's kinda of weird, I guess I only see her as my little girl.

Madi 2011 CDM Preliminaries               

"On the Sunny Side of the Street"                



New top, thanks Lisa and Ms Betty!!                



Working it!!

 

Thanks Amy for the pictures!! I really appreciate it!!

Hurricane Irene and Madi's Party!!

The party was a blast!! We got a little rain, but nothing that could slow these kids down!

Confetti, Bubbles, Balloons, Dance Offs and More.... What more could you possibly ask?

Happy Birthday Madison!! Hope you enjoyed!! xo xo


P.S. - Thanks to Matt and Tori for their help in organizing everything and all the beautiful decorations!!!

Make a digital slideshow

Fun with a Possum!!

This is an older post...

Last weekend was an absolute blast. Funny stories and good times with the family. One of the most interesting ones was when Tori reached in the out door bin to get out a roll of toilet paper and missed grabbing a possum by an inch.

The little bugger found himself a nice little secure three story condo nestled right above and endless supply of Purina weight control dog food. He really didn't bother me except for his really long, hairless tail. Cliff finally got the thing out of the garage, but only after Tori and I jumped on the hood of my car and got my index finger crushed. Cliff just sat back and laughed!! We were really a sight to see, I can promise you that.



Cute little guy...NOT!!


Cliff was such a good Daddy this past weekend!! He not very easily agreed to be the model for Madi to put make-up on. It was absolutely hysterical!! She would yell at him to "Keep his eyelid straight!!" and not to move. After a couple of times shes, she would grab his eyelashes and pull them down real hard. Cliff would of course say "ouch!!". To that Madi would reply, "Now you know how much this hurts!! Just deal with it!!" The whole episode was just so funny I could hardly stand it.



What pretty make-up Daddy!!



Madi's Birthday and other Stuff..

So I know it's been a long time!! It never seems like there is enough time in the day to post. Since the last post, Madi went to her first over night camp at Camp Chestnt Ridge with Olivia from her class in school. I was very worried, especially with her stomach issues and her ability to become very homesick very quick. However, she did great!! She made a ton of friends and plans on going back again next summer for several weeks!

Madi also decided to enter into preliminaries for Miss Junior Dance of N.C. this year. We are so proud of her!! She is giving it her all and practicing very hard. Her new tap instructor is the best!!! Ms Lisa works her real hard, but knows exactly how to encourage her and keep her going. We also needed a new costume top as Madi's from last year doesn't fit!?! Oh well, Ms Lisa gave us one of her old costume tops and Ms Betty is gonna work her magic and bring it back to life for little Ms Madi!!

So this weekend, is Hurricane Irene, and of course Madi's pool party!! So far so good. We are hoping that it should be mostly gone by the time her party starts at 6pm. We will see how it goes. I am hopeful!

Here is a quote from Madi's facebook page regarding today and the hurricane, "My party is not going to be destroyed by a little rain or wind!!!! I refuse to let it be a huge problem for my party!!
HA HA HURRICANE IRENE!!!"

How cute, right??

Vacation is Over!!! So Sad....

First off, I would like to say that I do not think my plan to keep this blog up to date as outlined in the last entry, is going to work. However, we will give it one more try.

Vacation was an absolute blast and everyone had a great time!!

Madi could not for the life of her say, Uncle Jeff and Aunt Heather. It was more like Uncle Jeather, or as PaPa suggested, Uncle Heff and Aunt Jeather. It was funny, Madi said they really needed to get new names so she could get it right.

The girls went parasailing and they also went on the banana boats out to the parasailing boats in the ocean and then rode them back to sand. They said it was fun, only Tori almost broke her nose on their very abrupt stop hitting the sand. Sorry Tori, but it was at the very least entertaining. The girls also went zip lining at Broadway at the Beach over the water. They loved every minute of it.

Jeff, Heather, Cliff and myself did some staying up late and telling old stories from when we were little. We did some late night walking on the beach with some gross jellyfish and I spent some time examining the parking deck below our balcony. It was great. Our families competitive spirit was sparked with our new favorite beach sport, Bocci Ball. Lord knows PaPa was all over that.

Another really cool thing that we noticed this trip was that Madi and Uncle Jeff have the same exact walk/stride. It's really neat to watch them walk side by side.

Another really fun picture I'll upload is one where Tori took out her braids and had the really kinky hair. So I said lets do your hair the way I used to do mine when I was 17. What a hoot!!!! I did her hair and took her out on the balcony and everyone started to die laughing. I opened the door and said tell me who this is? Everyone said, "You!!!" It was really neat and Tori couldn't stop laughing. She kept saying, "Is this really how you used to do your hair?" I was a lot of fun!



It's so cute, they have the same walk and gait!!