Guess who's 8 (and a half) Months!

Gabriel Sean is growing up!

And some others....

Karl painted his distress one day long ago...

Sometimes a boy just needs a nap.

KC with the Taryn

Yesterday, Taryn's prep team went to Kansas City U.S. Finals. She was very excited. As in, I upset her at Steak 'n Shake as we were leaving and she got over it in about three minutes. Unheard of! (No, she doesn't read my blog or have links to it!) Her team basically does a few competitions a year. They are level two, but I don't know what that means? They don't do a lot of tumbling. I have heard of groups from level one (the lowest) to 5 or something. They don't have as many practice as a true competitive team would have. I hope next year, whatever team she is on doesn't have the little girls. I think mixing the big and little girls detracts from the image of the team (not that I know anything at all about cheerleading, I mean, I would rather she just do school cheer, and she thinks that is so lame).

The trip was a lot of fun, Kansas City was beautiful (I love cities), but the arena creeped me out. They had rails painted black and the lights were low, and all I could do was imagine all the crawlies crawling around in that old building, the Municipal Arena.

As soon as we got in, though, we had troubles. We had trouble finding her team, because we were unfamiliar with the set up, but we had lots of problems with Liam. Why do other people have calm two year olds, and I get the ones full of spitfire? Anyway, Gabe's sock fell off. Liam noticed this and started freaking out, but we were already down the hall before we figured out what he was freaking out about. Liam cannot sit still hours. Makes sense, but it was rough. He didn't want to hold hands. He wanted to slide down the ramps instead of walk. Okay, it doesn't sound so bad on here, but oh my gosh, I wanted to just give him a good spanking. But commonsense and self-preservation reigned (I knew he'd just get more stirred up) and we made it.

Afterwards I was strongly wishing we had stayed in a hotel, but it's actually not too bad of a drive, especially since I slept half of it! So we made it home about 2:15 a.m. and finally around three or so, Gabe went to sleep, and we could also sleep.

Taryn had a blast, though. She loves cheer so much, her obsession has caused her grades to suffer, as she spends her waking hours learning about cheer, cheerleaders, etc. I guess you can be a geek in anything.

Getting ready to go

Kansas City

Biased version of the routine. I focused mainly on Taryn (the base with the big bushy ponytail) for obvious reasons. It irritates me that she isn't front and center. Can't they see MY girl is the prettiest and most deserving on the team? Yes, I know, you aren't supposed to say such things, and all the moms are thinking the same thing..but I am right, right?;oP

Eating before we head out to KC

Baby boy

Take the picture already, Mom.

During moments of wakefulness on the drive back, I enjoyed the stars, so many more than Springfield shines at night. I missed my mom-I only have time in the quiet moments-and wondered how many more generations those stars would shine down on (okay, not really, but doesn't it sound nice?).