So many firsts!

I love finding pictures of my kids. The cheer coaches are good at keeping up their social medias.

It's happening! Christmas preparations - love, love, love.

This isn't really a Christmas prep since I was making cookies for the cheer tailgating, but unwrapping Christmassy Grinch kisses to make Elves Caps is very Christmassy feeling.

I love a good advent calendar gift, and I found 4 fun ones for Lu's family at Aldi. 

Also some Highland cows that didn't work out for the girls, so the boys will benefit from them.

I had the basement bedroom all prepped and ready for Lu and Henry!

On Friday I went to the temple with Alecia and had a regional conference planning meeting and drove kids around and made lots of food for tailgating. Adi had friends over for a movie Friday night and Alexis and Henry arrived at 11:00. I got them settled and then headed to bed for our very early morning.

Saturday morning Frankie had to be to school at 4:45 to ride the bus up to the Navy Stadium in Annapolis. Matt and I made a deal that I would wait up with Adi and friends and also Lu, and Matt would go to bed early, and then Matt would wake up early and drop Frankie off.

I got up at 5:00 and baked my hot dips and Matt and I headed out at 5:30. We met up with 48 other cheer families for morning tailgating at an elementary school 1/2 mile from the Navy Stadium. We had to be there by 7:30 to get our spots.

I had never tailgated and wasn't sure how it would be, but there were some mad professionals there. We had a signup genius and everyone signed up to bring food and tables and grills. We got set up and then we mingled till 9:00 when the girls got back from their practice.

Heather Foster was there and it was fun to catch up with her and everyone was friendly and it was a fun atmosphere.

And we were all excited when our girls showed up! By that point there were warm hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, and brats ready for the girls, plus tons of other food. I brought spinach dip, buffalo chicken, hot corn dip (both stayed warm!), chips, a veggie tray, and elves caps and oatmeal cookies.

And then we tailgated - eating and chatting and the girls huddling and having fun and being silly.

Someone even brought cornhole and a giant heat lamp. When I say professional, I mean it.

Lu had asked if we could keep Henry one night so she could go to a show in NY with Alli and it happened to be the day of Frankie's Navy game so we planned to bring him. But then once Lu got her train ticket times and we looked at everything, there was only about an hour we didn't have care for him to be able to stay home, so it didn't make sense to take him out in the cold all day.

 Lu left at 1:00, Adi at 1:45 to babysit, and Delaney at 1:30 for dance, but D's dance was only one hour, so Lu was able to get Ami to watch him for the 2 hours no one else was available and it worked out perfectly.

Tailgating was fun, but it was sad to be away from home and visiting with Lex and Henry! 

We sent them this and asked for pictures of their fun.

Anyways, we tailgated forever - 7:30-11:00 and then loaded everything back up and walked to the stadium together.

We've never been to a Navy game, but the half of it we saw was super fun. The fans are super into it and loud! We like fan spirit, so it was fun. And Navy won, so double fun.

The halftime show was so fun too. 500 cheerleaders from all around the area danced and did stunts together and it was very impressive to see how it all came together, since they all learned separately and had only the one practice that morning.

After the halftime show we were able to meet at the Blue Angel and grab our cheerleaders to either stay and watch the game or head home. Since we had a babe waiting for us, we headed home.

It was a fun opportunity for Frankie-girl. She has loved cheering.

Sweet Henners was so good for Ami. We made it home before she dropped him off and Frankie picked him up from his carseat and then he only wanted Frankie. It was so strange, its like he imprinted on her.

I finally took him up to my room and tried cuddling and rocking and feeding and finally let him down to crawl around and cry. It was all very sad.

Eventually he decided Delaney was sort of okay, but still not me. :(

I subscribe to the sad baby take them outside or get them wet theory, so we gave him a bath. And 2 aunties and 1 mimi happily fan girled our sweet boy.

And it was a very happy bath indeed.

We had planned to take him to Darrows for game night at 7:00, but he was still being a stinker and also was so tired. Matt and I talked and he offered to stay home and let him sleep, which was a very sweet papy move.

They walked around a bit and he fell right to sleep and slept sweetly till after midnight, so we made the right decision. 

The girls and I had a very stressful drive to the Darrows. There was an eery howling sound and we missed hitting a deer by about an inch and then the Wiests creepily followed us all the way to the Darrows. It sounds silly, but it really was creepy. 😆

I took one picture because Frankie and I made a deal not to have our phones out at all and that was that. We played a Times Up style game all together and then everyone broke off into their groups and there was lots of laughter and fun all around, so I think it was a success. Adi came over when she finished babysitting and it was fun for the kids to play with the Torgesens and Davis' who they don't know too well.

Another first for me was playing 5 Crowns which Lana won and Rob lost and I came right smack dab in the middle. We left after 11:00 and I'm happy to report that the ride home was not at all creepy.