Rainbow to Black

After eight years of hard work, Livvi was promoted to black belt in Tae Kwon Do on November 1. Now the real work begins to truly learn the art.

The test was nearly 5 hours long (due in part to 5 other students going up with Liv and another going for her 2nd degree black belt).

The test included warm ups, forms, weapons, choreography, board breaking, brick breaking (note the concerned look on Joie's face above when Liv attempted to break a brick), sparring, push ups, sit ups, etc.

The students also had to write a black belt thesis paper. Heather got to read Liv's to the folks in the room. If you would like to read it, I included it at the bottom of this post.

Finally, after all that hard work (that day and the previous eight years), the reward came!

More pictures here.

Video Playlist (click the upper left corner (where it says playlist) to pick which video you want to watch):

Congratulations, Livvi (Miss Shaut)! We are so proud of you!

Throwback Thursday

I know Throwback Thursday is more of a Facebook or Twitter thing, but I came across some old info I thought would be nice to share out here. It was 13 years ago today when we took our first child home!

Olivia:

KINDERGARTEN!
Livvi started kindergarten on 8/24/2006.  Here is a picture:

Her first day on the school bus was 8/25/2006:

GRAVELRAMA PARADE
Here is a very brief video of Livvi being silly at the local parade in August 2006:

Livvi playing soccer on 10/20/2006:

Livvi lost her first tooth on the morning of 5/16/2007.  However, for some reason, she would not tell me she lost her tooth.  Not sure why....  She finally let Heather tell me two days later. She lost her second tooth on 9/8/2007.

FIRST GRADE!
Livvi started first grade on 8/22/2007.  Here is a picture:

Josephine:

Part Dolphin?

Our precious new girl just might be part dolphin.  Check out the sounds she makes:

Here is video of Joie coughing to get people's attention, reacting to Daddy coughing, and reacting to Daddy saying "boo".

Some pictures: