Kaiden had her first Orthodontist appointment today.  The good news was that she does not need braces yet... the bad news was that they want four teeth pulled to make room for others coming in.  They want to see her back in next summer to re-evaluate and see if she will need braces.  Overall they think she looks great and there is a good chance she will not need braces at all.  She is LUCKY - she has her dad's teeth, which are almost perfect and he never had braces.  The appointment was TOTALLY worth the time just so that I could get this photo, which she begged me to please delete. NO CHANCE!

Recently I was moved out of the Tactical Division of my company back into the construction world and tasked with running a 95 million dollar contract that we won. So we needed someone to replace me in the tactical division.  Guess who needed a job?  KELLY!  So Kelly is now working with me.  She is doing a great job. Everything is running great, although getting used to the fact that she is a whistler has been a challenge! 

Last year, Kaiden came home from school with a flyer for a school-wide competition to create an Anti-Bullying Poster emphasizing the role of the Bystander.  The posters would be hung near the guidance office and all students would vote on a winner.  The winner's poster would be hung in every classroom in the school for the next two years.  She said she wanted to enter the contest.  She came up wth a slogan and an idea of what she wanted the poster to say, she and I sat down and came up with ideas for the poster to go with her slogan, then we got on the computer and designed it.  She actually came up with two separate poster ideas and she submitted both.  We never heard back from the school on who had won the competition last year.  Well I was in the school for the 7th Grade Open House and as I was sitting in her homeroom teacher's classroom... guess whose poster I happened to see sitting on the wall.  Apparently Kaiden won the Bully Poster contest and her poster is now hanging in every classroom for hte next two years at PAMS.  Pretty damn awesome!!!

Kaiden and Ashton on the First Day of School for the 2013/2014 school year.  Ashton is 9 years old and is going into 4th Grade. Kaiden is 11 years old and is going into 7th Grade. Man I cannot believe how old they are getting!

Kaiden spent A LOT of time with the VA Wesleyn's Women's Soccer Team this past summer.  She went to two week long soccer camps with them.  She went multiple times a week with my sister to their conditioning training sessions to get in shape for the season... working out with them every single time.  She was on the bench with them for many games and in the locker room with them before and after the games.  She really felt like a part of their team.  When she broke her arm at her tryouts for the PAMS soccer team, she was so surprised and touched when she received a hand-made Get Well card from the VA Wesleyan girls.  They spelled her name wrong... but MAN, who cares... what an amazing thoughtful thing to receive.