Art Show Awards Ceremony

Raeg with her displayed drawing. Over 800 pieces of artwork were submitted and Raeg came in 3rd in the 6 - 8th grade category! Way to go!

waiting for the ceremony, eating cookies :)

receiving her award

Mr Walker, the girls art teacher

The Family photo that a passerby generously offered to take

Raeg with her drawing (it will be on display at the airport for a year)

Raeg with my MUCH older twin sister. hehe

Ash helping celebrate at... where else? Dairy Queen!

Raeg being a cheeze :)

hmmm... I wonder where she gets it from? ha

a couple of cutie pies

What a great night!

Opening Day

Raeg waited so long for this movie to come out.. She was in Harry Potter heaven! ha

taken in the Imax theater while waiting for the movie to begin

dinner afterwards at Michael's Grill.. yummm

Great memories.. Great day!

School Community Project

Ashlynn's language class broke into small groups and had to create a display representing their middle school. Brad brought the projector home and here is the collage of symbols she created:

Didn't she do a fantastic job! Their teacher, Mr Troop, was so impressed he asked to keep the project to be placed on display in the glass case in the front hallway of the school. Here is the email I received:

Mrs. Turner,


Yesterday Ashlynn and her group presented their community UPA, and I was absolutely amazed by Ashlynn's incredible artistic talent and the beautiful way she captured Nolan in her artwork. She has kindly agreed to allow us to keep the work, and I will be presenting it to Mrs. High so we may put it in a place of honor where visitors to our campus may view it.

I also took a picture of it and added it to the home page of my website. :>)

Thank you for sharing your daughter and her talents with us.


She does you proud!


Best regards,


Mr. Troop

Ashlynn Coconut and Halloween

Vampire, Supergirl (Maddie), and Strawberry Shortcake

How cute are they? (except Raeg.. she wanted to look scary this year, not cute. ha)

evaluating the goods. (there was a quiz and review of my favorite candies before trick or treating so they would know what to bring home.. hehe)

Ashlynn found an unexpected surprise in her trick or treat bag of goodies! She dumped her candy to find a sucker with her name printed on it.. and spelled correctly with 2 n's! She was a little creeped out until we did some research online to find a North Carolina girl won a 'be a popstar' contest and got her name added as a dumdum flavor; Ashlynn Coconut. ha. Although Ash doesn't care for coconut, it was pretty cool for her to find she has her own sucker flavor. :o)

Saturday Breakfast

with a smile..

Of course, Brad made one for Riley.. she loves waffles too. :)

P.S. check the previous post below for an update on Raegan's artwork! :)

Art Show

Here is a photo of the drawing Raeg has been working on for an upcoming art show at school. 25 drawings will be selected to be matted, framed, and hung at the Sarasota Airport for the remainder of this year. First place receives $100.00.. Second: $50. Good Luck Raeg! You did an amazing job!

"Baby Cub"

Drawn By Raegan

12 years old

UPDATE: Raegan received a letter informing her that she has placed 3rd in the student art show! We will be going to an unveiling of the artwork on Dec 2nd where Raegan will receive her $25 prize. (and we can then look at the artwork that placed 1st and 2nd and talk about how much better Raegan's drawing is and how the judges missed the boat on that one.. ha!) Seriously, we are so happy for her! She was a little bummed she didn't place first until we explained to her what it meant to be placed in the top 3 out of the hundreds of drawings submitted throughout the county. That's saying something! Great job Raeg! You got skillz! :P

A Good Sign

This evening our home was filled with the beautiful sound of Raeg practicing Allegro in A Major and Come Back to Sorrento. She was a little disappointed after her first practice with Christine because she was so nervous during the lesson, she didn't feel she played very well. But.. tonight at home, she played as if she had never stopped. I think it's just going to take a little time for Raeg to become comfortable with a new teacher.. they have to get to know each other. We're not making any long term commitments yet. Raeg has decided to take it one month at a time.. I suggested she go a few weeks and see how it goes. A good piano teacher is so hard to find. (sigh)

7th Grade Portraits

School pictures usually turn out about as nice as a county jail mug shot. But, we were pleasantly surprised when Raeg and Ash brought these home. My only complaint is that they look so grown up! Where did my babies go?

Progress Reports

Unfortunately you can't see this very well, but it's a scanned copy of the girls first progress reports this year! Both Ash & Raeg are maintaining an 'A' average and trying hard to do their best. We're so proud of them.

Announcement, Announcement, Annoooouuunnnnccement!

Raegan started playing the piano at the young age of 7. She truly enjoyed playing and would practice her little pieces of Old McDonald and Mary Had a Little Lamb until she felt confident she could play them perfectly for her teacher, Mrs Weaver. We were so grateful to have found such a loving piano instructor for Raegan. They worked well together for almost 4 years until Raegan reached level 5 and Mrs Weaver could no longer teach her. We then found a young man at church who had gone to school to study music and played the piano beautifully. Unfortunately, he turned out to be better at playing than he was teaching. The experience with her second instructor seemed to have stolen Raegan's enthusiasm for playing. She wanted to take a break after that. Weeks turned into months, and eventually a year had passed with Raegan not interested in lessons and her piano here at home collecting dust. I was torn as to what I should do because I've heard testimonies of people hating forced music lessons as a child, then growing to thank their parents for not letting them quit.

Anyway, Raeg and I were talking the other night and.. she has decided to start lessons again. I'd be lying if I didn't tell you I've waited for this day, and have even pushed a little for it, ha! But ultimately, I want it to be her decision. We found a seemingly nice and talented female teacher who lives only minutes from us. Raegan's first lesson is scheduled for next Tuesday at 4:45. I have no idea how this will turn out, but I'm hoping this teacher can help rekindle the love for piano Raegan once had. Raegan is so talented musically, I would love to see that talent nurtured so it can grow.

I said all that to say, "Yay! Raegan is going to give lessons another try!" :)

Almost Paradise - Captiva Island

Here are some pictures from our relaxing weekend spent at South Seas Island Resort.. compliments of Brad's company. :) We forgot our camera but took these with our phones.

The view from our room

Enjoying the beautiful sunrise from our balcony (can you believe we actually woke up to see the sun rise? shocked us too. ha)
Island trolley ride

One of the ocean side pools at the resort... Raeg was certain we had stepped onto a movie set. ha.


Getting ready to go down the slides. They had a blast racing each other down.





Admiring the Gulf of Mexico from the pool. This was a much needed getaway, which definitely helped us to recuperate after battling the tensions of a first week at a new school.

Beautiful Mingo Falls in NC

The water was lower than usual due to lack of rain, but it was an astonishing sight.

Where a kid can be a kid :)

A couple weeks ago the girls friend Katie stayed the night. The plan was rollerskating, but after finding out the rink was closed for repaires, we ended up at Chuck E Cheese. hehe





You're never too old for Chuck E Cheese. :) Even us big kids had fun!

They purchased glow in the dark fangs (among other things) with the tickets they won.