Amazing feats of strength and endurance!

Our Ruby is a climber... always has been.  She climbed up onto our dining table before she was a year old.  Anyhow, she has been taking a real rock-climbing class for the past eight months or so.  She loves it.  It is fun and challenging.

So I took Ruby to the rock wall at the gym on Saturday.  And she decided to climb laps.  Climbing laps means climbing up the wall, then climbing back down (instead of letting go and gliding down with the belay system) and when you get to the bottom, that is one lap, and then, without touching the ground or taking a break, you climb up again, and so on.  It takes a lot of strength and stamina.  Ruby beat her previous record of 6 laps.  Then she made it to 10.  Wow!  But she kept going... for almost an hour... and she climbed 35 laps!

The wall is 35 feet high.  So she climbed 1225 feet up... and 1225 feet down... continuously without a break.

She ended up with two blisters.  And she was "slightly sore" the next day.  

Already she is planning to break this personal record.

Here is a little clip of her climbing a post at a soccer game.  She grips the beam and uses 1/2 inch bolts/nuts as toe holds.

My best is 4 laps... gotta work on that.

And so it begins... 2015!

Cora started the new year with tooth #3 and taking steps!  Slow down kiddo!  

She loves taking baths.  Here she is after a particularly messy dinner...

She also loves to crawl away at top speed mid-diaper-change... giggling the whole time!

June just turned 6!  She has the honor of having the first birthday of the year.

 June recently started reading really well.  It is fun to watch her catch on and find a love for books like her big sisters.  June got a baking set for Christmas, so she has taken an interest in the kitchen.  She made jello for her birthday dinner... she requested chicken nuggets and fries for her special dinner... and jello.

Alli is almost 11.  She is excited to be "almost a teenager."  She sang a solo in the school choir concert and she joined the archery club at school.  Alli continues to be a voracious reader.  

 Alli is starting a babysitting class.  (I am pretty excited about that!)  

 Ruby has been taking a rock climbing class this year... it is her thing.  At the gym where she climbs, there is an "around the world" challenge where climbers go around the entire room by climbing along the walls without touching the floor. It is really tricky.  It takes lots of skill, strength, stamina, and problem solving to make it through.  She has been working on this for over six months, and she finally got it!!!

 Oh happy day!  Here she is adding her name to the list of those who have conquered the around the world challenge.  She was the first to complete it in 2015.

Ask Ruby to flex her muscles for you sometime... wow.

So you can see we are diving into 2015 full speed ahead!  This will be a great year!

What happened in December...

Goodness!  Is it really 2015?!
December flew by in a blink... our December was packed with life!
Here are a few highlights caught on camera...

Cora got a bike-like thing.  She loves it.  Her first words (besides mama and dada... which she is really good at) were "Go! Go! Go!" while sitting on her bike.

Cookies!  We made lots of really great cookies in December... and they are all gone.  Hmmm?

 Check out these beauties that Alli made.  Yes, that is a nativity scene made out of sprinkles!

 Christmas morning photo on the stairs.  Just let us open presents!!!

June got a Santa beard for daddy.  Cora had mixed feelings about it.

After presents...

Okay.  That wasn't all that happened.  

It was a really busy month.  In fact, I haven't sent out Christmas cards yet... hopefully we can get it together for a Valentine card???