Easter 2011

Rachel's First 5k Race

Rachel had decided a few weeks ago that she wanted to run in a 5k! There is one held here locally, so we signed her and Robert up. Several of her friends signed up to run in it too. Rachel did a great job, especially since it was her first 5k! She did have to stop once and take a puff of her inhaler, but she did great! Her friends did an awesome job too!!! Lloyd ran in the 5k too and improved his time from last year! Katelyn and I just cheered everyone on and watched and took pictures!

Katelyn's Birthday Party with Friends

Katelyn had her 8th birthday party with her friends a couple of weeks ago. She just wanted to have her friends come and play in the backyard, so that's what we did! Some of the kids played kickball, some played in the sandbox, and some played on the playground. I think they all had a fun time! Instead of gifts, Katelyn asked that her friends bring gently used books to donate to Bell Central School in Kentucky. Our church partners with that school through Mission of Hope, and they use the used books as part of their reading incentive program. Katelyn and her friends collected over 100 books!

Cowboy Day in 2nd Grade

Every year when the 2nd graders read their weekly story about cowboys, they also get to dress up like cowboys/cowgirls! Yesterday was that day! Katelyn didn't have a hat, but I still think she made a pretty cute cowgirl!!!

Katelyn's 8 Year Checkup

Katelyn had her 8 year checkup today. She weighs 40 pounds and is 45.2 inches tall. I was a little surprised about the weight. She doesn't weigh that much on our scale at home. Of course, that 40 pounds is fully clothed! When the doctor showed me the growth chart she just said that she's "well below the 5th percentile." That's just a nice way of saying she's barely on the chart! From what I could tell, she's around the 1st percentile. But the doctor isn't worried because she is growing! She has grown 2 inches since last year and gained over 3 pounds! The doctor said she's just a petite little thing! She also said that Katelyn doesn't have any of the outward signs of any of the diseases/syndromes that are associated with being so small, and so she doesn't see any reason to subject Katelyn to a series of labwork and tests. She said Katelyn is just growing at her own pace! If she were to level off and not grow, then we might need to check it out. The only thing that the doctor was concerned about was her vision. Of course they just do a basic eye chart test, but it at least gives you a general idea. According to them, Katelyn's vision in her left eye is 20/160! Last year they said her vision was like 20/50 in each eye so we took her to the eye doctor and he said she didn't have perfect vision, but it wasn't really bad enough for glasses. I actually took her again before school started because she was complaining about not being able to see well. But once again they said she was just borderline on needing glasses. It appears this time, however, that she may be needing some glasses. I made her an appointment for next week, so we'll see how that goes. We just got Rachel into contacts and now it looks like we may be getting glasses for Katelyn.

Happy Birthday Wendy & Katelyn!

We celebrated Wendy and Katelyn's birthdays on Sunday with Mom & Dad and Lloyd & Wendy. We grilled burgers and had chocolate cake and ice cream. Yummy!!!

Katelyn is 8 Years Old!

Sunday was Katelyn's 8th birthday! She woke up early and was so excited!!! Guess she wanted to make sure she had time to open her presents before going to church!

Covenant Kids Run

Rachel and Katelyn both ran in the Covenant Kids Run on Saturday. It was a mile run into Neyland Stadium! And they also encouraged the kids to run 25.2 miles leading up to the Kids run so that after they ran the mile into the stadium, they had completed a "personal marathon!" Both girls completed all their miles and more leading up to the run and did a great job on Saturday! Lloyd ran with Rachel and I ran with Katelyn. Rachel ran her mile in under 9 minutes and Katelyn ran hers in under 12 minutes. After the run, we celebrated with some friends by eating pizza at Mellow Mushroom!!

Softball Season 2011 - Game 1

Softball season has begun! The girls are both playing softball this year and are on the same team! Robert is coaching it and I'm also helping, so it's a family affair! The first game was on Saturday and our team did awesome and won 19-9! The girls did great! Rachel played 1st base the first two innings and then shortstop the next two innings. She did AWESOME! She made some great plays at 1st base and made an incredible stretch and catch at 1st base! She also played well at shortstop. Katelyn played the first two innings in right field and the next two innings at 2nd base. She did well! Both girls hit the ball well too!!! And they had lots of fun!!! Go Cardinals!

4-H Clover Bowl

Rachel and three other kids from her school participate in the 4-H Clover Bowl last Friday. The Clover Bowl consists of a variety of questions from four different categoris: 4-H, Agriculture, Tennessee History, and Family & Consumer Sciences. Rachel actually didn't find out she was participating in the bowl until Wednesday, so she didn't have much time to study (especially since we had church on Wednesday night and swim clinic on Thursday night). Regardless, it was a good experience for the team. They didn't win, but they did just fine. You could tell they were all nervous and kind of afraid to push their buzzer for fear of being wrong. But like I told Rachel, at least she tried and it was good experience. Our school doesn't focus a lot on 4-H, so our teams typically don't do very well. But I guess you have to pick and choose what extra activities you focus on. Congrats to those teams who won! This is Rachel and her team members getting ready to answer a question The team!