What's On Our Happy List?

WE HAVE AN OFFICIAL COUGAR IN THE HOUSE! 

Kyleigh has been accepted to BYU! Me oh my, ya'll missed out on witnessing the THE happy dance of.the.century. Knowing we could be finding out any day we had been waiting for a letter to come in the mail. We found out that the status of her application was on-line late Tuesday night. We were both at the computer as she pulled it up.....I took her hand, my heart was pounding...we were nervous! It was the longest few seconds.....but the instant I saw the word "Congratulations" mamma freaked out! I flew out of my seat, took her in my arms- jumping up and down, bursted into the ugly good cry, and of course screaming my football scream! {Kyleigh swears she went deaf} It was a sight to behold people!..

Poor Ky was in shock! 

For months {she applied Dec 1} we've been preparing ourselves... just in case things didn't go our way.  She is smart and talented, {no doubt}, but we wondered if she had done enough to set herself apart from all the other talented and smart kids that want to go there. If she lived out of state yah, it was probably a given she'd get in, but in Utah...it's competitive. So we didn't get our hopes up. 

Because of the AP and the Salt Lake Community College concurrent enrollment classes that she's taken at the high school she is closer to getting her Associates Degree than she thought. So she basically had decided that whether she got accepted to BYU or not she would take that first year out of high school and finish up at SLCC, then transfer to the Y. So finding out she was accepted was a little anti-climatic for her {no worries I freaked out for the both of us}. 

In all honesty though, just getting accepted means the world to her. It validates YEARS of being focused on a dream. All the hard work and dedication she's put into her grades and in everything that she's been involved in. I swear everything she's done, extra curricular activities, leadership opportunities, volunteering...it's been so one day it will look good for BYU.  I was just so thrilled for her, and quite frankly for myself too. Getting news like this is a huge mommy pay back. Even the other night she said," my mom helped me get into BYU!" So sweet and so true! All those years of helping her work towards her dream...encouraging her, helping with late night school projects, the gazillion times I drove her back and forth to dance, or up to the hospital to volunteer, or to a tennis match... it makes me wanna cry.. because all my hard work payed off too. I'm telling you receiving this acceptance letter {whether she ends up down there or not} goes down as one of my proudest, happy mommy moments to date! WAY TO GO KYLEIGH!      

THE OLYMPICS AND DOWNTON! 
We needed some major "happy" pills and "happy" juice last Sunday night at our house. WE LOVE the Olympics!! {that's an understatement} When they are over, we {especially me, Kyleigh and Emma} have some coping issues... Like I seriously cry come closing ceremony time. Am I the only one who does that?  AND THEN when we realized the Downton season finale was the same night. Oh goodness...Double the withdrawals! 

Some of our favorite athletes from the 2014 Winter Olympic games in Sochi...

BYU sophomore and Luger, Kate Hansen's dance moves! Loved her positive spirit!
                                                                     getty image

Alpine Skiier, Ted Ligety who won a gold medal in the giant slalom. Loved his dad's reaction!

                                                         zimbio.com 

Another Utahn, Noelle Pikus-Pace's silver medal in the skeleton! Serious mommy power!
                                                              photo credit:CBSnews

Loved this 15 yr old Russian Ice Skater, Julia Lipnitskaia!..She didn't make the podium, but what a beautiful, graceful, AND flexible skater!...Actually we loved everything to do with Ice skating, and the Ice Dancing. It's our favorite!  
                                                                                     superbwallpapers.com

Snowboarder Sage Kotsenberg, from Park City, Utah! Won the first Olympic gold for the US in Sochi. What a happy guy! {The Canadian on his right, Mark McMorris, in his interviews, stole our heart too.}                                                                        edition.cnn.com

The most heartwarming Olympic story {for me anyway}, was Canada's gold medal mogul freestyle skiier, Alex Bilodeau! The inspiration he receives from his older brother, who has cerebral palsy, my gosh, makes you want to cry tears of joy for him!

Now to Downton. The last scene of the finale. My favorite. Everything else was just ho-hum. Nowhere near the emotion of last season.  Not that I wanted anyone else to die, of course, but I found it sorta lacking in UMPH! Lack of suspense, too many story lines either wrapped up or dragged on, too many new characters, and certainly not enough progress in the love department for Mary. Left me a little disappointed.

 IN OTHER NEWS! 
Took all 5 girls to the dentist. Kate cooperated so amazingly well it tickled me to death. She just acted so grown up. She passed with flying colors and no cavities...

Brie lost another tooth after we got home from the dentist! The tooth fairy came in all her glory...left quarters in a jar of glitter water!

A little outing to one of daddy's favorite places...Cabella's. 

 At a family funeral.....

Just because!

Brie's first trip to the eye doctor...

New glasses for both girls!