Happy Birthday

Well Maddy is officially 15 (and like so many people pointed out - 1 more year til she can drive)
It was a great day for her and our whole family filled with many surprises, love, and pure celebrating of the day

Saturday my mom and brother came down to spend an extra day with her. Saturday night was spent watching a movie and enjoying some ice cream

This was the ice cream couch. Take a few bites and then pass

Today the whole family came over for lunch, presents, and cake

 If you look at the bottom of this picture, you can see my 6 yr old nephew's legs

sticking out the bottom of this gift bag

blowing out her candles

Early Birthday Surprise

Well the countdown is on: Maddy turns 15 tomorrow and I don't care what she says, she is stoked (each year she pawns it off that she is getting older and is not as excited about her birthday, then the big day arrives and she is like a little kid again! hehe) I will ramble on more tomorrow in a new post: her birthday always makes me sentimental and so proud!!!!!!!
Tonight she is off at a swim meet (her last one at Trinity High School in Camp Hill) and I have decided to arrange one of her birthday presents early! Unfortunately, she already knows that she is getting a zebra print comforter (one of those bed in a bag deals) with pink sheets and so I have been telling her all week that she is not getting it to put on her bed until Friday, but I would be a nice Mommy and wash it for her sometime this week so that it would be nice and fresh and clean. Her surprise then? While she has been away at her meet tonight, not only did I wash everything, but I put it on her bed already for her :-)

The challenge now becomes making the bed. Anyone who is familiar with my daughter's "sleeping nest" knows that unless it is the dead of summer, Maddy has at least 5 blankets on her bed that she is snuggling under. Currently?

Seven!!! LOL

And I have to put them back in the EXACT order or she will come home tonight and rip her bed apart then remake it before she can sleep in it for the night. So cross your fingers that I did it right. It was a little difficult for two or three of them because her bed wasn't made to begin with so it was a little hard to see which way they were laying :-P

One Last Time

Last night was our last home meet. We swam against Boiling Springs. It was also Senior Rec Night. We are going to definitely miss all of them next year!
Wasn't going to video tape this season, but Maddy wanted to see what she looked like diving, Dan is super sick and couldn't go to the meet last night and I know there are alot of family members who were unable to make it out to see her swim this season
The video is a little rough. It is next to impossible to see her when she gets down to the end of the pool. I also only focused on her so she can't swim what she is doing in comparsion to the rest of the swimmers in the pool. She also did relays tonight, so it is hard to personally beat someone when it is a team effort.

200 Meter Medley Relay

(Maddy swam first with backstroke)

200 Meter Freestyle Relay

(Maddy swam anchor - last person)

This was her best event for the night. She closed a lot of time up in the lane even though we were so far behind

Last event for the event - 400 meter Freestyle Relay

Maddy swam the longest she did all night. (down and back 2 times for 100 meters)

She was tired, but still tried hard

Just keep swimming

Well in case you have missed the memo (Dan and my facebook statuses basically explode on days when Maddy has a swim meet! haha) Maddy is totally "ripping it up" in the water this season :-) Almost every time she swims, she is scraping seconds off of her time and we are so proud of how hard she has been working (the poor kid didn't get a single day off while on Christmas vacation during the week) and looking ahead to the potential she is going to show in this sport in years to come (that is where we cross our fingers that she will want to keep going)

Too cold is what I say!

Well, I think we have putting it off long enough: winter is here! (at least temperature wise) Last week the kids at school had to stay in for a day because the temps were too cold but that wind yesterday was just HORRENDOUS! I personally felt like I was going to blow away :-P lol
I got off work and came home to find this at the end of my driveway

A frozen puddle that I think just the wind created because temps were not below freezing

Time to let Rocca out in the backyard & she decided it was going to be one of her afternoons where she was as hyper as a year old puppy. She was just rip roaring around the yard chucking pine cones up in the air while I stand by like a frozen statue and practically beg to go inside to play. She was probably saying to me "Let's go Mom! It isn't cold out here, I wanna play!" Easy for her to say, she has on two coats :-P Me? I am just a giant pansy when it comes to the cold!

"I love my GIANT stick!"