Sydney the Gymnastics Girl

I decided to sign Sydney up for gymnastics and she started her first "trial" class to see how she would do. They advanced her to the 3 - 5 year old class since she's a good listener. We still wanted to see how she would like it and if she'd follow directions well. We walked in and she was beside herself with excitement. I got her changed into some shorts and a tank and she patiently waited on the mat for her class to begin. They started with stretches and then animal walks across the room in order to warm up. I think her favorite one was when they just had to sprint across the room. She was the fastest one, even up against the 3.5 and 4 year old girls.

From there we moved on to the "hot tub" where they crawl up onto the tub and learn to do back bends and to flip their legs over.

Then all the girls jump into the hot tub and the giggles echoed throughout the room!



From there we moved onto backwards somersaults and jumping on the trampoline

Sydney walking on the balance beam

From there Syd went onto the rings, learned how to do flips on the uneven bars, jumped in the pit and then ran across the trampoline floor. She had the time of her life and refused to go home (seriously). We bought her a leotard for her class next week, which she proudly wore over to Lala and Papa's to show off and then home for Chris to see when he got back from Phoenix. Lots of video of my little gymnast. Very proud of her and LOVE the new class!

Tombstone

Aunt Amanda came to visit for a week and we decided to head down to Tombstone to check out the town that was too tough to die. Quick history on the town, Tombstone was founded in 1877 by Ed Schieffelin. Ed was staying at what was then called Camp Huachuca (wa-chu-ka) as part of a scouting expedition against the Chiricahua (chir-i-cow-uh) Apaches. During his time there he would venture out into the wilderness "looking for rocks". The other soldiers in the camp told him, "Ed, the only stone you will find out there will be your tombstone". Well, Ed did find his stone, and it was Silver. So, remembering the words of warning from the soldiers, he named his first mine The Tombstone. Word spread and by 1880, they estimate that the population was between 15,000 and 20,000.

First stop on our tour was to Helldorado to check out the petting zoo. Sydney was super excited to see the animals and then got slightly too freaked out and didn't want to pet them.

Amanda quickly became this donkey's BFF. The donkey was practically pushing the fence over for a little more of her attention!

Shopping for Syd's new cowboy hat

Walking down the street of Tombstone

We were pretty excited to head over to The Bird Cage Theatre. It has quite the history of ghost stories and has been on a lot of the popular ghost shows. The Bird Cage Theatre was a saloon, theater, gambling hall and brothel. Legend has it that no self-respecting woman in town would even walk on the same side of the street as the Bird Cage Theatre. It opened its doors on Christmas Day 1881 and ran 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year until closing its doors in 1889. In 1882, The New York Times reported, "the Bird Cage Theatre is the wildest, wickedest night spot between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast." Evidence of this can still be seen in the 140 supposed bullet holes that have been found in the walls and ceiling. The Bird Cage was named for the cage style crib compartments suspended from the ceiling. It was in these "Bird Cages" that the "ladies of the evening" entertained their customers.

Amanda loves having her picture taken. Must've interrupted her EVP session.

A spooky hearse

Downstairs there are a few poker tables a bar and a few bedrooms for the ladies of the evening to "entertain" in

The most famous event in Tombstone's history was the famed Gunfight at the OK Corral, which didn't actually happen at the corral, but in a vacant lot on Fremont Street. On October 26, 1881, members of the "Cowboys" had a run-in with Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp with help from Wyatt's friend Doc Holliday. 24 seconds and 30 shots later, Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury were mortally wounded. In many peoples opinion, it was this one event that has kept Tombstone alive for all these years.

Syd sitting in the theatre to tell us the history of the OK Corral, about 30 seconds into it she said "I gotta get out of here!!" and we did.

Sitting in a few of the old carriages at the OK Corral

The actual site of the OK Corral Gun Fight. Big Nose Kate was the only witness to the site and watched it from the window in the picture. Although she never spoke of what she saw, except for being the witness to Doc Holliday immediately after the shootings. His return to their room, and his crying about the terror of the Gunfight, are among Kate's best known stories in her journal.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day didn't turn out to be as spectacular as I was planning it to be with the recent events of losing the baby last week. It definitely was a time that brought us closer together as a family. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Even though I was laid up on the couch, I decided I was recovered enough to muster up the energy to make some cupcakes with Sydney. Oh boy was she excited about that. She was my official helper! I mixed up the cake batter and then she added in the sprinkles to the batter and stirred them all by herself. She was very proud of her stirring, and she should be since she was remarkably thorough and clean! Not bad for a 2.5 year old! We baked the cupcakes and then formed our assembly line again where I frosted them and Sydney was the official sprinkle girl where she carefully added sprinkles to the top of each cupcake. It was so cute and showed me how much she can really do in the kitchen. The cupcakes are rather delicious too. :)

Eyeing up the cupcake she's about to steal

And she quickly licks it so that I can't tell her that she can't have it. Smart move!

Proud of her cupcakes and achievement

Rock Love

I'm not really sure what it is about these little rocks that my parents bought Sydney at the Zoo, but she loves them. A LOT. She takes them all out daily, lines them up and then begins to question us on which ones are our favorite. She then proceeds to match certain rocks to our clothing and update us on what color it is. Sometimes it's the little things that you don't think they'll be interested in that totally captivates them!

A Very Merry Christmas 2009

Christmas was a lot of fun this year since Sydney really started to understand what Christmas was all about. Meaning, she knows that Santa comes and brings her presents. That's pretty much as far as we got this year with teaching her, next year I'll be better, I promise. She helped me put cookies and milk out for Santa and was so excited that we could barely get her to fall asleep. Some reason we waited until Christmas Eve to wrap all of our presents, this is not something I recommend as it took us....well it took Chris two hours to wrap his ten presents and me a half hour to wrap all of his and Sydney's presents. Men just wrap slower! We got her down to bed and quickly hid all the presents under the tree from us. She got up in the morning and in her usual morning daze, walked to our room without noticing anything. We had to ask her if Santa came. We ran to the kitchen and saw the milk and cookies gone and then she saw all her presents under the tree. Lala and Papa came over for the traditional Eggs Benedict, which still stresses me out to make the perfect poached eggs. Maybe next year I'll be calmer. :) It was such a wonderful Christmas, we have so much to be thankful for.

Putting out milk and cookies for Santa

Ooooh Santa came and brought LOTS of presents. Obviously she was VERY good this year

Her favorite Look and Find books! She gets so excited that she can find everything and can read the book all by herself

Dresses from High School Musical, Sydney's FAVORITE movie!

The aftermath of opening Christmas presents! Time for Eggs Benedict

Grand Canyon

After realizing how close we were to the Grand Canyon up in Prescott, we decided to make a day trip out of heading up there. Although I was rather nauseous the whole time, it was still absolutely worth the trip. Can mark that off of the "Things I need to do before I croak" list. Such an amazing view, I could spend hours up there. There are tons of Elk just walking along the side of the road up there, they cause quite the traffic stop with everyone getting out of their cars to get a close up shot of them. Neil was our designated Elk photographer and a few times there was fear in our eyes with how close he got to a few of them, but absolutely worth it!

No one knew quite how freezing it would be there, but we had lots of snow on the ground and a chilly wind along with it.

Checking out the view with Daddy. Sooo bright!

Sydney living on the edge

Daddy's little girl

At the second stop we found a cozy fireplace to warm up before we hit the road again

Heading back to the car to change a diaper

Goodbye Grand Canyon

Polar Express Train Ride

Sarah and I came up with the plan to surprise Sydney and Savannah with a trip to the North Pole on the Polar Express the weekend before Christmas. We all met up in Prescott for a cold weekend in the mountains. We got the girls all snug in their jammies and got our tickets for the train. We had enough time before the train came to go meet Santa Claus. We pumped the girls up in line to get them all excited for Santa to calm any fears. Rehearsed all the toys that they were to tell Santa to bring them so that we didn't have to buy them. Our turn in line comes up and we sit the girls on Santa's lap and...holy cow, they both sat there, no fears! Santa asked them what they wanted for Christmas and Sarah and I leaned it to try and hear what they said. Obviously it was a secret only for Santa to hear. The girls did so good and Sydney keeps this picture of Santa and her best friend Savannah in her room to look at every day.

Now it's time for the train to come!! Our family shot in front of the Polar Express Train

Getting settled on the train. Ready for our cookies and hot cocoa. With some of our favorite friends Sarah, Savannah and Neil.

Eeeek so excited to see the North Pole and Santa!!!

SANTA!!! Giving Sydney a bell from his sleigh. Savannah anxiously waiting for her turn.

Her magical bell (which she STILL rings all the time)

We saw Santa, saw the North Pole and now we're singing Christmas Carol's on the way back to the train station. LOVED the Polar Express!!

Sad News...

We found out last week while at the hospital conducting an ultrasound that the baby no longer had a heartbeat. We made it almost to 16 weeks before we lost her. We at least were able to find out that it was a baby girl though. That surprised almost everyone since it was almost unanimous (other than Chris who had no idea what it was) thinking it was a boy. It's been a very hard week for us while trying to get our arms around this and we are so thankful for the love and support we're received from our friends and family.

Sydney is still growing like a weed and I promise to have all the updated additions to the blog in the next week. Lots of things going on around here. Aunt Amanda comes to visit in two days and next week is the Rodeo. Yep, I said Rodeo!!! Here's a quick shot of Syd this morning. My perfect girl who is so in love with these new flash cards. We practice her counting all day now! :)