Our future soccer star....

For all of our family who loves videos! Here are a bunch of Piper's 1st "soccer" practice. It's at this indoor place, Grey Eagle Arena, in Black Mtn. At Smart Start soccer, the soccer players (that's what the coach calls them and I love it!) learn basic skills like trapping, dribbling, stretching, etc. Please, enjoy! And if you ever wanted to know what I looked like doing anything athletic as a child, then this will give you great insight into my life.....Piper looks just like me.

"Warming up":


My personal fav....jumping jacks:


Drills:


Piper's very favorite thing....the Spirit Tunnel- notice how she gets through twice:

This is only for family.....

....because no one else cares THAT much if Lily uses a spoon, but it is pretty cute to watch.



Here are some for everyone else....me not working while everyone else does.

My little diva.

This will make you laugh a lot and maybe cry a little. Our friend, Wayne, is apparently a baby whisperer b/c Piper won't perform for anyone and will do anything he says. All moms should call Wayne to babysit......enjoy.

Letting go. Literally.

So about 2 weeks before Piper turned 3, we finally did "it." We told Piper that it was time to say "bye-bye" to pacie. Now, we actually were really, really, REALLY sad about this (my husband- not mentioning any names- was the saddest). It was as if we were saying, "Piper, we are sending your very best friend in the world on a trip and she'll never come back."

But instead, we bought some helium balloons, tied the pacie to them, let her pick out ANY treat from the store she wanted and stood in the middle of our street with balloons and a 3 pack of cupcakes in hand. This was Piper's pre-send-off statement, "So we tie pacie to the balloons, let go and then, i get the cupcakes?" Mommy (through tears) says, "yes." Piper says, "okay" and away we go. She will sell out ANYONE for a cupcake. We gave her the balloons and told her, "okay. one. two. three. let go...." Nothing. She looks up and says, "I can't." I started crying and Phil mustered up the courage for the 4 of us (Lily, too) to let go together. We watched the fly up into oblivion to go to some other baby who needs a pacie. Thank you, Jackson Norton, for giving us that idea!

I realized the saddest part for me was that she was no longer a baby anymore. I wanted her to still have to have a pacie, but it started to look really silly. That's why it was so hard because she is growing up and it is our job to help her. In the near and distant future, we are going to have to help her grow up and I imagine this is going to be one of the easy challenges. The Lord really did teach me a lot about the way He molds us and helps us grow up. He is creative in it and gentle and will help us let go when we can't do it on our own.


Piper has been a champ with it. She doesn't ask for it anymore. Although the smart little thing does ask for the "white one" because the "green one" was the one tied to the balloon. And I have caught her hiding in the corner "holding" Lily's pacie in her mouth. She is so sweet and is replacing cuddles and lots of reading time in bed for her pacie.

Now, it's time to say "bye-bye" to diapers. Yikes.

Piper's Ears

We woke Piper up this morning at 6:45am to take her into surgery. She had tubes put into both ears today, and did a great job. She was a little groggy, but is now sleeping hard. So it looks like she made it through her first and maybe last sergery very well...