No More Brace Face (:

On Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011 Brennan got her braces off! She was so excited when I texted her at school to tell her that I had to move her appointment to a week earlier because of a schedule conflict. They took off the brackets, cleaned the cement, made impressions for her retainers and made her temporary retainers. She came straight to my office for a cleaning and xrays, which showed NO CAVITIES!! She is so happy to have pretty, straight, white teeth and a beautiful smile.

Finally a REAL Mustang!

Brennan is officially a high schooler and a true Mustang! She made the JV softball team over the summer and starting practicing with them. Their first game was on the second day of school. Some highlights include: Kickoff Banquet, Mustang Mom Game, Cancer Awareness Game, Second Place in the JV tournament, watching Varsity go on to State, and of course-making lots of new friends!

On a personal note, Brennan earned her spot as the starting Second Baseman, made some amazing plays in the field, had several beautiful bunts, and a few nice line drives that resulted in RBI's. She has really flourished as a ball player and we are excited to see what the next few years have in store for her.

I'm a little late posting this, but 8th grade is over! Brennan had a great year, we are so proud of her. This year was sooo busy and rewarding! She played Metro softball in the fall for the Kennesaw Mountain HS Mustangs. She played second base and outfield. Brennan also continued playing the Viola in the Orchestra for the first semester. She decided to give it up when second semester started, which was fine with us because she just didn't love it anymore.

The huge event this year was the 8th Grade Dance. We bought her dress in January and it was absolutely gorgeous! I thought it would be fun if I did her nails, hair and makeup. We practiced her hair twice the week of the dance so I could figure out what we wanted it to look like. It turned out perfect! We went to a friend's house before the dance with a bunch of other kids to take pictures. Then, they all went to another friend's house for dinner. She had a great time at the dance and then went to another friend's house for the after-party.








Brennan maintained all A's and B's the entire school year AND Perfect Attendance. The end of the year Award Ceremony was held at KMHS, which was cool.

So, now she is enjoying her summer, playing travel ball and getting ready for high school.

One year 'til her Learners License....

That's a scary title, isn't it?

Brennan had a great 14th birthday! She loved being able to go to school on her birthday because it's never happened before. Every other year, her birthday has landed on the weekend, or during Winter Break. She really enjoyed walking through the halls and hearing everyone say "Happy Birthday Brennan!"

When came home that night, she was kind of bummed because Harrison had hockey practice, so she knew we couldn't take her to dinner. But I had another surprise for her. When the boys pulled in the driveway I went out to meet them and handed them each part of her surprise. Jason got a bouquet of flowers, Harrison got the balloon, and I carried the cake. We came in the front door and started yelling "Happy Birthday!" After dinner, we let her blow out her candles and then ate some cake. This kept her happy until we took her to Ted's Montana Grill on Thursday night.

She has grown up so much in the last year, in height and maturity. We are so pleased with the young lady she is becoming!

White Christmas!!

We had a great Christmas this year! On Christmas Eve, we had two stops to make: Irma's house for the Phillips family, then to Douglasville for the Casey family. Brennan got to see all of her cousins and got some cool gifts. We got home really late that night and had to go straight to bed so Santa could come.

On Christmas morning, the kids didn't wake up until 9AM....which was crazy because they were so excited. Brennan loved all her clothes, jewelry, shoes, CD, pajamas etc. She was a happy girl! Around 11:00, we were all getting ready to go to Nana Phillip's house when all of a sudden.....it started snowing! It snowed almost all day and we got a couple of inches at our house. The bad part was, we had to leave it to go to Nana's. We drove in snow the whole way there. It was snowing there too, but not as much as at our house. When we got there, we got to see the Cobb's and Aunt Linda and Uncle Louis. It was a great day!

We headed home before it got dark so the roads wouldn't be bad. Once we got home, we started a fire and played Mario Kart on the wii for a while. It did stop snowing in the evening, but the best part was the next day- there was still snow to play in! So, of course, the kids bundled up and went out for a while. Here is a slideshow of our White Christmas:

What an Honor!

I had Brennan's conference this week and heard wonderful things. First of all, she made Honor Roll again...all A's and B's, plus Perfect Attendance for the first nine weeks! Her teacher also said that Brennan has matured so much since last year (she had her last year too). We discussed how the kids are getting ready for high school and how things change next year. I still can't believe she will be in 9th grade in 10 months!

Here is a recent picture of my sweet teenage girl:

KMHS Fastpitch!

Brennan has started her 3rd year playing for the Kennesaw Mountain Metro team. These are the girls that will play for the high school team once they get there. As one of six 8th graders-Brennan earned a spot in the infield. She is playing second base again this season! Here are few pictures we took last weekend at the game against Pope. We won 12-3 by the way! Brennan turned two double plays too!

~World Series~2010~

Well, yet another travel ball season has come to an end. We traveled to Panama City last week for the World Series! This is always a fun (and exhausting) trip for everyone. Jason was able to go with us this year, so that was even better! We drove down late Friday night and arrived at 1:30 in the morning. Since we stayed in a house (owned by my friend Laurlelyn's parents), we were able to go early. The rest of the team stayed at The Shores of Panama, beside Pineapple Willy's. It was a 15 minute drive to get to their condo, but it was worth it !$!$ Anyway, on Saturday we slept in, bought groceries, then headed to the condo to see the team as they arrived. The girls hung out on the beach and swam in the huge pool.


On Sunday, we did more swimming, then had to get ready for the Parade and Opening Ceremonies. The team met at the park so that we could give them their goodie bags. They got so many cool things: monogram beach towel, golf towel for trading pins, cosmetic bags, sunglasses and much more!



They had 3 pool games on Monday and Tuesday... won 2 and lost 1. Bracket play started on Wednesday and here's how it went.....WIN, WIN, LOSE, WIN, LOSE....So we helped send 3 teams home before we were put out on Friday afternoon. After that game, we went to the condo and had one last swim before time to go home on Saturday. We are still waiting for the final standings to post, but we think they took around 25th out of 107 teams! Here are a few other pics from the week:

~Curly Q~

Brennan got her first perm last week! I took her to see MaryBeth on Friday because she wanted curly hair. So that's what she got and she loves it!

Rollin right along!

Well, another school year has come to a close! We are one week into summer and report cards came today. Brennan maintained her Honor Roll status for the fourth year staright!! All four quarters since 4th grade she has had all A's and B's!! We also got her CRCT scores (not that they really count in 7th grade) but she passed! I am so proud of the young lady she is maturing into. Not quite sure I am ready to have an 8th grader in a couple of months.....but I guess it will happen rather I want it to or not.