bryce is 15

15 is a funny age.

15-year-old stats:

Height: 5'5" (28th percentile)

Weight: 132 (64th percentile)

Blood pressure: 110/60

Things to note about his growth.  He grew FIVE inches last year!!  In his words, FINALLY!!  This was definitely a big deal!!  He had on a sweatshirt and a belt and had his phone and air pods in his pockets on the scale.  I'd say that number was skewed a little, ha!

Jason took Bryce and a buddy up to Wintergreen on Saturday for one last snowboarding hurrah for the season.  Now we're ready for baseball and warmer weather. 

Bed head and no shirt are the best way to start your birthday.  And presents too!

Since Christmas most of the gifts Bryce has wanted are out of stock.  I've done plenty of internet stalking for the past few months and luckily have been able to deliver on some of the coveted items! 

We went out to lunch with the family after church and then everyone came back to our house for donuts to celebrate our favorite boy!

The youth group went bowling tonight which was a fun way to celebrate Bryce's birthday.  Even Jason got in on the action!

Close friends are the best friends. 

Today starts the countdown until Bryce can start driving.  He can take his test for his learners permit in 6 months.  WOW!!

valentines day and excalibur

We had a sweet Valentine's Day.

I love spoiling them with festive treats.  

I spoiled Jason too.  He didn't make it in the pictures. 

Emmy had spirit week this week, so she had free dress for Valentine's Day.  We went to her 12-year-old well visit after school and then to Starbucks for a treat.  I'm loving every minute of this tween stage.

Bryce and Avery exchanged gifts after school and we ordered festive pizza for dinner. 

This weekend was meet weekend in VA Beach.  We headed down Saturday morning and did some shopping along the way.  After we checked into our hotel, we stopped at one of our favorite beach front restaurants to fuel up for a late evening meet. 

Gymnastics is a tough sport physically, mentally and emotionally not only for Emmy, but for me too!  It's been a tough season of working a difficult vault and adding more difficult elements to her bar routine.  Even when a routine feels good and looks good, the judges have the final say.  The scores were hard to swallow at this meet, but with a small scoring group at this meet, Emmy came out with 2nd on bars, 3rd on beam and floor and 2nd all around.  This sounds great and anyone should feel proud with those results, but she felt pretty defeated with her scores on these events.  Just more motivation to make next time better!

Emmy and a sweet teammate.

Emmy has endured plenty of Bryce's baseball games, but he has found a way out of most of her meets.  He spent the day living his best life snowboarding at Wintergreen.  He's hoping to get one more trip in this season. 

It was a cold but calm morning at the beach.  I snapped this from the balcony before we headed to breakfast and back home to reality.  Thankfully the kids are out of school tomorrow!

Now we're just waiting for the warmer weather to arrive so we can really enjoy this view!

emmy is 12

We kicked off a week of celebrating Emmy on Saturday!

She has made some sweet friends in middle school, and it's been fun to watch their friendship grow.  One of her friends wasn't able to make it over to celebrate, but these three had fun.  

We had the family over on Sunday to celebrate.  

She got lots of goodies and gift cards that immediately were burning a hole in her pocket, so we went shopping that evening.  

She is the epitome of a tween girl and I love it!

Tuesday was her actual birthday, and we had a quick celebration before school.  

I dropped off Chick fil A lunch and she asked me to bring home all her loot from her friends. 

Taylor spent the afternoon with Emmy afterschool, and we stopped by Crumbl for a birthday treat. 

Nana and Paul took us out to dinner and Emmy got a Stanley!

Again, tween!

We wrapped up the celebrations today with a new piercing.  A second hole!

No tattoos!  The only ink they got was to mark where to poke the hole, ha!

I'd say it was a wonderful week of celebrating!

Well visit stats:

Height: 54.5 in (4th percentile)

Weight: 69.6 lbs (6th percentile)

Blood pressure: 100/60

remembering

This week marked one year since Jason's dad died.  How is that possible?  

Last Sunday we went to Brunetti's for lunch and MeMa bought a round of hot fudge cakes in honor of PaPa.  This was one of his favorite desserts and we indulged in his honor!

Monday was the one-year anniversary.  Our preacher dropped off donuts for breakfast.  Such a nice gesture and they were devoured!

We all had things to do on Monday, but we came together at the end of the day and had chocolate ice cream and a banana split in memory of PaPa.  Boy, do we wish he was here so we could enjoy his favorite treats with him!

Emmy had a wax museum project this week.  Our sweet friend Barbara made her some accessories to dress the part and I popped in to school to show my support!

We rearranged Emmy's room last weekend, and she got some new bedding for her birthday this weekend.  She's growing up and getting rid of things.  It's like the end of an era getting rid of these massive stuffed animals she's had for years!

a low key week - make a wish meet

 This was your typical routine week.  School, work, sports, homework, repeat!  It makes the week go by fast and slow all at the same time.  It also leaves little to be photographed.  We did go to Fredericksburg for a gymnastics meet on Saturday. 

This particular meet is a charity meet that our gym participates in each year.  All the athletes get the same leo.  It makes finding your gymnast a little difficult at times. 

Emmy had a great meet.  She medaled in every event and came out 4th all around.  She was really hoping to place in the top three because those athletes receive a sweatshirt.  She got second place at this meet the first time she competed in it years ago and was hoping for another sweatshirt!  If her floor score had been as high as it usually is, she would have made it.  She was only .125 behind the third place finisher.  We're proud of her hard work. 

a snowy week

We got some snow this week and the kids were happy campers.  They were out of school on Monday for the holiday, so they were excited to be home to play in the snow, even though it was just a little.  

There was enough for a cute little snowman.  It's still standing today because it's been SO cold this week. 

They enjoyed their hot chocolate outside because they didn't want to come in and miss the snow. 

Bryce already had the day off of school Tuesday for a teacher workday so Jason took him and a buddy up to Wintergreen to snowboard on the fresh powder.  Emmy ended up getting a snow day and we enjoyed a day at home.  

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday flew by in a flash as they had more delayed openings.  We were back to regularly scheduled programming this weekend.  Emmy went to the gym, got her nails done and went to a friend's house.  Bryce went to Wintergreen with his buddy's family for another day of snowboarding. 

Bryce got a 4 pack of lift tickets for Christmas so he's excited to go back two more times this season. 

meet day

Winter break is over and we're back into the swing of things!  The kids were back to school this week with their normal activities, and nothing was documented by pictures!  Emmy did have a meet today so that gave me a reason to snap some pictures. 

Emmy continues to improve in her sport.  She got season high scores on the floor and bars today and placed third on both!  

She placed 4th all around in this meet. 

This meet was different because the competition was only against her gym.  It kind of made it fun to see where she stands with the girls she spends all of her time with!

happy new year

With the majority of our winter break falling after Christmas, we had time to hop on a plane and head south!

We went to Fort Myers, Florida on Tuesday and enjoyed a few days of sun and sand!

Shell hunting on Sanibel Island was on Emmy's wish list.  We did this on Wednesday.  It was a cool day on the beach, but the sun felt nice.

Best buds!

We enjoyed lunch out before heading back to the house to warm up in the hot tub.

Being on the gulf side allowed for evening sunset viewings!

Stunning!

Love these two!

Unintentional twinning!

We went to manatee park on Thursday.  The park is built near a power plant, so the manatees are attracted to the warm water.  We saw a few!

Here, lizard, lizard, lizard!

Putt-Putt is a must at the beach.  Emmy won, even though it was questioned the rest of the week!

After a day of adventure, we headed out to the beach for a little sun, another sunset and of course gymnastics. 

Friday was forecasted to be the best day of the week, so we planned to park it on the beach ALL day!

After the beach, we headed out for our last dinner.  We ended up going to the same place two nights in a row, ha!

Silly

Silly

Hopefully this fun trip will last us until summer!  It doesn't look like we'll be doing a spring break trip this year, so we've got a long stretch before another vacation!