My take on Cheer

Olivia participated in her first cheer competition this year. I didnt let her go in the past cause I didn't want to fully immerse us into the "Cheer culture." Any one that knows me knows I hate cheerleading on so many different levels. For now I am ok with it cause she is 6 and its cute. But once I arrived at this arena full or crazed screaming girls all my fears and worries were confirmed. Watching these fat, middle aged women, that were once cheerleaders and came back as cheer mom's ,with high pony tails and huge bows in their hair ..WAS NOT cute! And whats worse is these women are dancing around like they are hot stuff. In general you get these girls that think they are it. That they have accomplished the highest level of social hierarchy. In reality they were a cheerleader in a small town and when it comes to the rest of the world that matters UM.. not at all. But they never leave those days. They never realize in the real world it doesn't make you better than anybody. And most importantly cheerleading doesn't teach you any skill that will be of value later on in life. You could argue team work but the way these girl cry under pressure and backstab each other I would say your stretching a bit. Blah blaaaah blaahh I ramble on. In the end I detached myself from all my preconceived notions and just decided to observe her unbiased. And I was so happy for her. She was glowing and having the time of her life dancing in the stands and goofing off with her little friends. She is so good at dancing and she was amazing when she preformed. The lady behind me (who didn't know who I was there to watch) commented on how the little blonde girl (Olivia is the only blonde on her team) was killing it. She was right! Andrew and I talk about keeping her away form the pole cause she can get saucy and raunchy with her dance moves. I'm not sure why she came to us so full of spice but I think she is adorable and I could kiss her cute little cheeks all day long. I will always love her and support her thorough whatever it is she wants to do. The fact that I even signed her up for cheer is proof. So proud of her and happy for her that she has this life and is talented. For the future I guess we will sign her up again as long as she wants it. Yes I hope its a phase. Not cause I don't want her to hold pom poms but because girls are cruel and mean and hateful and back biting. If your pretty they hate you even more. If your ugly they use you to make them feel better. And cheerleaders take the whole mean girl drama to a whole nother level especially in High school. I don't want that for her wether it be her being cruel or her taking it from the mean girls. I was reading this blog...The blogger was making fun of cheerleaders and a former cheerleader commented. She basically said (to the blogger) "you are just jealous cause you were probably not pretty enough to be a cheerleader and your boy friend probably left you for a cheerleader and lets face it we get married to hotter richer guys later in life cause we were prettier." Wow. where to start? That pretty much sums up the mentality that I hate. To be in your 30's and thats your view of why your superior to others is a disgrace to the human race. Sigh... We will see . I am hopeful that our parenting will keep her from being like that if she still chooses to cheer. But my logical side always says: you can be guilty by association.

Home work

All this homework my kids have is killing me. If you combine each of their required reading and home work it would take me a total of 4 hours to complete. They get home at 3 and I go to work around 5 or 6 so as you can see I don't have as much time as is needed. Dallin can pretty much do his on his own, but he doesn't. He lies to us about what has to be done and will claim a worksheet in his book bag isn't due till Friday when its really due tomorrow. So he takes a lot of time to hunt down and keep accountable. The other night we found out he had a book report and hadn't read a single chapter of the book. So at 9 pm I started reading to him. 40 chapters later I was crying when the grandpa lost his wife and he was falling asleep on me. We got it done in the end. Olivia has a ton of home work for a first grader. I think its a bit much but O well we must stay calm and carry on. And Addie is too smart for her own good. She is testing at a 6th grade reading level and does her homework during her free time at school. I wont put her in gifted and talented program cause those parents are like the annoyingly competitive parents on STEROIDS! I want nothing to do with that drama. NOt being in the program hasn't made her dumber and being in it doesn't make her smarter it just gives her more busy work. Needless to say I feel like I don't do much for her cause she does it all on her own. One day she came home and told me she was to make a musical instrument from objects she could find around the house. I was freaking excited as HELL cause I finally could be there for her. She told me "Mom I need a couple of things from the store" and she hands me a slip of paper "I wrote them down because I noticed you always forget things we need from the store because you never make a list." Not the nicest approach, but I am beginning to stomach her honesty a little better. I went all out and we made Hello Kitty maracas. I'm sure kids in her class were thinking its a little over the top but I couldn't miss this golden opportunity to HELP in some way. I take Olivia with me to Addie's piano lessons and make her read in the car while we wait. I always feel behind and like there are just not enough hours in the day. Sigh....

Addie's Baptism

Addie was baptized on the 29th of September. Andrew's parents flew out and all of my family made it except for my dad (football season-nuff said). What can I say? I was very happy with how it all went. Becka and Olivia sang a song. I have it up on face book here is the link http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=4756124505035&set=vb.1352901591&type=2&theater My brother and Dallin gave the best talks! They were short and sweet. Uncle Jed cried which is pretty rare. I think its the first time Jed has ever cried during a talk. He is getting softer. Addie played a song on the piano. Annette came in to announce out loud that there was no plug for a hair blow dryer. Smooth Annette! John was giving me a hard time like always. Peyton was walking all over the room talking very loud and cute. Grandma played the piano with extra bravado. Andrew gave the prayer when she was confirmed with the Holy Ghost. Me and every one else in the audience have NO idea what he said cause he is very soft spoken so... maybe its written on some documents in heaven some where and I can get a copy. Other wise it was a sweet memorable day. We celebrated at Chuck E cheeses later Bassett style which is always a good time.

Cute artwork

Olivia made this picture of Addie's Baptism. I thought it was super cute cause she made all the people with big eyes and cute round faces. I love her art work and I couldn't get over how cute this picture was.

This is Andrew dunking Addie into the water.

This is a picture of Grandma Bassett on the front row with grey hair, Andrew's mom sitting behind with Red curly hair, and next to her is Annette with longer darker red hair. Im not sure what happened to the rest of us that were there...maybe she got tired but I am not complaining when a picture is this cute.

This is a pic of her and her aunt Becka singing.

The whole picture from above. Love love love this art work .