Gianna turns 11!

Yesterday we celebrated Gianna's 11th birthday!  We love Gianna's spunky personality.  She has a tremendous imagination...she loves animals...she loves dancing...and she loves to talk and talk and talk...

She is so funny and silly...and we are so lucky she's ours...

She's collecting all the different colored Lokai bracelets...

and was super excited to get the camouflage one...

She was also super excited to get one of these t-shirts and wore it to school today...

I have such wonderful memories of Gianna's birth. It was my easiest delivery by far.  I knew she would be my last baby so I tried to enjoy every single minute of that experience.  

Tired Mommy right after the birth...

Such a sweet picture of my Dad...

Daddy loves his baby girl...

Julia holding her baby sister for the first time...

Not sure how we did it...three babies in 3 1/2 years!  But it was all good and we lived through it...

Nicholas cuddling his baby sister...

This picture just about sums it up what it was like to have a 3 year old, a 2 year old and a newborn all at once...crazy...

Sickies

Not too much happening around here except getting over the sickies.  Nicholas and I got a yucky flu like virus and it took a while to get over it.  He missed three days of school and then Gianna came down with it and she missed three days of school too. The cough is still lingering with me.  Gianna took lots of baths when she was sick and her hands looked like this when she got out...haha!! So gross!

I think she may have stayed in a little too long?

We celebrated sister Kimmy's birthday earlier this month...such a cute picture of her...

And here's Julia stretching with her ballet band...ouch...

Only one more week of March...and then April is here...and that means...CANCUN!!!  Yay!! 

Gianna's jazz dance

I'm so happy for Gianna! She's on a fabulous new jazz and tap team this year and she has been working so incredibly hard! This dance won big and you'll see why!

Gianna starts in the front row second one in on the left side...

Screenshots

The photographer wasn't the best at this last competition...so I took it upon myself to figure out how to get some of those great moments from Julia's solo.  I researched on line how to do a screenshot from a video and then how to turn that shot into a jpeg...and voila!!  I did it!!  I'm very proud of myself because quite honestly...I can be pretty dumb when it comes to computers and following instructions.  : )

Julia's new solo "Homeless"

ADA competition

We're back from a very long and successful weekend at the American Dance Awards.  Here's Gianna warming up the night before...

Gianna's tap "All Aboard" won big with first place in the junior large group division and it also took home the highest scoring routine in the entire junior division as well as a choreography award!!

Gianna's jazz "Big Noise" was fantastic and placed 2nd to her tap in the large group junior division...

My cute girl...she did some fabulous dancing this weekend...

Gianna and her duo partner getting ready for "Ol' Bamboo"...

They were super cute!!  Julia's new duo "Enlightenment" was fabulous too!!

Gianna and her friend before their gorgeous lyrical dance "Amazing Grace"...

And here is my gorgeous daughter...

That's her classic "gorgeous" face.  Her new production dance "Can Can" was really fun!

It gets so crazy busy with all the costume, hair and make up changes (and emotions running high and low) that I don't always get a lot of pictures...but I do try.

Julia's jazz "Boyz" and her lyric "Where Have all the Children Gone" won ultimate golds too!

And her lyrical acro "Vienna"...

and her acro production "Glory" were both beyond amazing!!  The level of talent at her studio runs so deep.  So many good dancers and choreography.

Julia's new solo "Homeless" was absolutely stunning this weekend.  She won an ultimate gold medal which is the highest you can get and second place in the open category.  So well deserved!!

Elite Performance Challenge

Julia competed her new solo "Homeless" for the very first time this past weekend and did a beautiful job! She won an Elite Platinum and placed 2nd overall in the 13-15 teen category! But even better...she won the "Elite Technician" judges award! She was chosen out of all the junior and teen solos as well as all the groups in that session for having the best technique. Something she has been working so hard on. We are so proud of her!!

And one more cool thing. Two judges gave her a total of 99 points each out of 100. That's nearly a perfect score! Wow!!  (A tapper won first.) 

We went out to dinner after to celebrate her and Kerry's big win! YAY!

Julia accepting her Judge's Award for "Elite Technician"!!

Wax Museum

Gianna did a fantastic job with her 5th grade wax museum project! She was Francisco Pizarro. I think she chose him because he was a conquistador...and she likes to say that word. So cute. She also said she wanted to be a man because all the women on the list to choose from were "boring".

She is such a great writer...

Gianna and her friend Mia...

All the kids had to present their projects in front of the class using no index cards or anything.  It all had to be memorized. It really was amazing how much these kids learned and their ability to memorize all of it.

She got a perfect score!  We are so proud of her!