There She Is...

The 5th Annual Miss America watch party was a few weekends ago and we had a great time! This has become such a fun tradition that I look forward to every year.  There is nothing better than sitting around with close friends critiquing some of the most beautiful and talented young women in the country! Ha!  Maybe it's jealousy speaking. :) We were disappointed for Miss Oklahoma, but had a great time watching with yummy snacks!

 

 We have ballots every year and try to figure out who is going to make each of the top categories.  Each category is worth a certain number of points and we figure up the winners at the end of the night.  

2nd Runner Up...Lori!  She was so excited to be in the Top 3!

 First Runner Up...Anna!

And the winner for the 2nd year in a row...Misty!  But it should be noted that this year's win was WITHOUT CHEATING!  We were so proud!

Thanks everyone for the fun night!  Can't wait until next year!

Our Little Sooner Cheerleader

A few weeks ago, we took Olive to the bedlam basketball game.  We had great seats and a great time!   First thing, she got to meet Boomer.  She wasn't really sure what to think about him.

 

 At first she was not too excited about all of the noise and spent time sitting like this.

 A little ice cream magically made the noise a little more bearable!

 This sweet cheerleader spotted her in the stands and came up to say hi during one of the time outs.  She was so sweet and Olive was in heaven!

 She watched her cheer the rest of the game and would say "there is my cheerleader friend Whitney!"

 The game was exciting and she finally got into it!  Giving Daddy high fives after scoring

 When the Sooners shoot free throws on the other end of the court, the cheerleaders stand on the floor and do back tucks if they make it.  Well, our cheerleader insisted on doing "flips" too.  Every.  Single.  Time.  Thank goodness for Daddy's flipping ability!

 After the game, Olive got to go have her picture made on the court with all of the cheerleaders.  She was in complete awe!

 She even got to hold the poms!

 Boomer Sooner!

New Years Donuts

A few years ago we ate black eyed peas on New Years day (first time ever for me) and ended up having a pretty terrible year, so I have refused to eat them again.  I had been searching for different traditions that might work a little better for us and I came across this blog post on lucky food!  

http://www.positivelysplendid.com/2012/12/5-lucky-foods-for-new-years-day.html

We were so excited to find out that donuts are considered a lucky food!  So we busted out the donut maker and the chefs got to work! 

 

 She cinnamon sugared some...

 and frosted and sprinkled the rest...

 Every good chef knows you must taste everything before it leaves the kitchen.  (I know this from watching Top Chef, not from being a good one!)

 Grapes were also mentioned in the blog post, so we had those too!

 YUM!

 "These are delicious Daddio!"

Hoping the donuts and grapes do the trick and we have a great 2013!

Link Family Rockin' New Years Eve Party!

We decided to have our own little family New Years Eve party to celebrate the arrival of the new year! I told Olive that we were going to do some special things and she was so excited.  I think she called Stephen 10 times on his drive home asking if he was ready for the "End Party".  We worked on special hats and noise makers and blew up a ton of balloons to get ready!  

  

 After supper it was finally time to begin the festivities!  We started out by making special NYE cookies and decorating them. 

 Someone is a sprinkle hoarder...

 Don't they look delicious?!

 After eating a few of her yummy creations, we headed in to do the "dancing girls" as Olive calls it.  It is really Just Dance for Kids on the wii.  She had so much fun!  Half of the time she was really trying to do what they were doing and the other half she was free style!

 This pose at the end of a song was a classic moment...

At midnight (well, when we decided it was midnight, it was more like 9:30) we counted down...

 and Olive went into a balloon induced craze!  She was running around as fast as she could squealing and throwing balloons.  This was the best way I could imagine ringing in the New Year! 

 Wishing you a blessed 2013!