Low Key New Year's Eve

This is the first year I can remember that we didn't do anything in particular to celebrate New Year's Eve. We are planning to leave early in the morning tomorrow (by 7am) for a long drive to visit family out of state, so we thought it would be best to have a low key New Year's Eve celebration this year. We went to Applebee's and had a really yummy dinner. Ethan loves veggies, so Dan ordered a side order of steamed vegetables for Ethan. Our waitress brought a plate with a giant heap of steamed broccoli, squash, and carrots. Ethan surprised us by eating nearly the entire thing! I'm not much of a vegetable fan myself, but I'm very glad that Ethan likes them alot.
This holiday season Ethan has really enjoyed looking at all of the Christmas lights and inflatable yard decorations, so after dinner we drove to a local free gigantic Christmas light display. We also drove around our neighborhood and admired the lights that our neighbors put up. Along one street there are three inflatable yard decorations at different houses, a polar bear, a puppy dog, and a snowman. We drive by them often for Ethan to see, so we "visited" them this evening too. I stayed up pretty late packing, and we are very excited to spend some time with Dan's family tomorrow!

Christmas Celebration with my Family

We had a wonderful time spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my parents and brother. We had fun making dough ornaments with Ethan for the first time. We made circular ornaments with Ethan's hand impression on them. Hopefully we can do this every year until the ornaments get ridiculously big (Ethan's hands are already pretty large for a toddler!) After baking them, I painted his hand impressions green and sprayed the ornaments with a sealant. Having never done this before, I'm not sure how well they will stay preserved from year to year, but I'm hoping that they last for awhile.

Mom and Dad's Christmas tree (they always put up a real one)

For the past many years our family has opened presents on Christmas Eve, so that is what we've been doing with Ethan too. It was fun to see how excited he was to open his gifts, and he did a great job removing the wrapping paper by himself and telling everyone "Thank you".

Checking out his new "Dino Toob" (a plastic tube containing 15 miniature dinosaurs)

Last year Mom and I looked and looked for a Fisher-Price Little People nativity set to no avail, so when we came across one at Wal-Mart this year, we bought it right away. Ethan really enjoyed that when you press the angel atop the manger it plays "Away in a Manger"

It might be a little early for this game, but he seemed interested in his new Sesame Street Chutes and Ladders

Bath time is more fun when you have a dinosaur hooded towel!We'd like to collect Christmas books that we can read each year to help Ethan (and Baby Q) understand the true meaning of Christmas. Mom and Dad started out our collection this year with a Silent Night book.

There wasn't much time Christmas Eve after gift-opening to unpackage and assemble Ethan's new toys, so the morning of Christmas Day Ethan was anxious to try out his new spiral trainset and covered bridge

Who Knew Food Could be so Much Fun?

Since we ended up staying in for the evening due to icky weather conditions, we decided to let Ethan open a Christmas present early to play with. It was a set of plastic food along with dishes, silverware, condiments, a pot and pan, and a tiny stove. I thought that Ethan would enjoy playing with this set of food but did not anticipate how much of a hit it would be. Ethan played for over 3 hours straight with his food and made lots of "meals" for me and Dan. He loved to identify and cook all of the types of food. When we told him that it was bathtime and bedtime (which usually doesn't elicit complaining), Ethan became really upset. He was crying and saying "My food, my food!" He really did not want to stop playing with his food. During bathtime and while tucking him in, we had to repeatedly assure him that the food would still be downstairs inthe morning and that he could play with it all he wanted the next day.

Parking in the Yard?

Unfortunately we were unable to attend our church's Christmas service this evening! We were all set to go and left the house early (our church is enormous and the childcare area fills up quickly over the holidays), but we were thwarted by some crazy weather. We had a lot of freezing rain that caused our driveway and neighborhood streets to be just like a skating rink. We thought that the minivan would be heavy enough to gain some traction, but we found out very quickly that we were mistaken. We managed to get down our driveway, and I had very little traction driving the van along our street toward the exit from our neighborhood. We saw several other "distressed" vehicles that were unable to steer and were sliding all over the place. We decided that the conditions were too dangerous to make the trek to church, so we circled back around to return to our house. Along the way we saw a car up in someone's yard which we thought was odd at that moment (but understood later) and also a van that could not get traction on a driveway that had a very minimal grade. They spun their wheels for over 5-10 minutes trying to get up the driveway. As I approached our driveway, I found that I could not get up the tiny slope at the base of our drive. Our Grand Prix was parked in the driveway and we didn't want to risk hitting it, so we decided to try driving across the yard to get to the garage. We managed traction in the grass, but as soon as the front wheels hit the driveway, we had no traction at all. We decided to leave the van in the front yard until the ice melted rather than risk hitting one of our other cars in the driveway or someone sliding into it on the street. It looked pretty silly to have the minivan in the middle of the front yard, and I meant to get a picture of it, but within 5 or 6 hours the temperature had risen enough that Dan was able to get the van in the garage before I took the photo.

E-T-H-A-N

Today is the first day that Dan and I recall Ethan telling us how to spell his name. He has known all of the upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet for a long time and also recognizes when he sees his name spelled in all uppercase or upper- and lowercase letters, but this was the first time we asked him to spell his name for us and he did it all by himself! He has also learned to spell "Sam" (both his best buddy's and cousin's name) and shows a lot of interest in learning how to spell other words. I bought a few sets of flashcards that he has enjoyed playing with, so I think that we'll really focus on using those to learn more word recognition soon.

A Visit with Dear Friends

Our friends Chris and Kim moved away from the area several years ago when Chris joined the Air Force to become a pilot. They were members of our community group through church for many years, and we have really missed them. While Chris has been in the Air Force, their family has grown by three and moved several times! We were fortunate to be able to spend some time with them during their visit back to this area over the holidays. Ethan had a fantastic time playing with their kids Luke, Hannah, and Andrew. They especially enjoyed running around and around the coffee table in our great room. Hopefully they all took a nice long afternoon nap for you Chris and Kim!

Chris, Kim, Hannah, Andrew, and Luke

Who knew a coffee table could be so much fun? (By the way, Luke was pretending to fall down each time he ran around it!)

Christmas CVS Deals

CVS had another great sale with coupon match-ups and extra care buck earnings for Christmas. I got up early this morning to complete my transactions while the sale items were still in stock. It was definitely a worthwhile trip! I am writing this entry several weeks later, so I don't recall exactly how much CVS "paid" me for these items, but I know that I spent less than a dollar out of pocket and ended up increasing my ECB total significantly. Yay (as always) for CVS!

5 Arm and Hammer cleaning solutions, 5 Right Guard deodorants, 3 Thermacare packages, 1 Excedrin Express Gels, 2 Sally Hansen nail polish, 2 L'Oreal eye shadow duos, 1 package of Altoids, 1 3-outlet plug, 1 Halls cough drops, 5 Listerine mouthwashes, 1 protein bar, and one Benefiber drink mix

For those of you who are wondering, what do you do with all this stuff? Many items that you can get for free or be "paid" for at CVS are consumables (usually toiletries) that we use and surplus is great to donate to shelters and charitable organizations. Other oftentimes free items that can be donated include medicines, glucose monitors, and cleaning supplies.

Family Christmas Celebration (My Dad's Side)

Despite the threat of terrible weather, my dad's side of the family was able to get together for our big family Christmas today. We had so much fun visiting with everyone, eating incredible food, playing games, and hanging out. Ethan had a blast running around with his cousins and especially loved Nathan and Cameron's Thomas the Train set. He spent several hours guiding the trains along the tracks, over bridges, and through tunnels. Dan and I really enjoyed playing Tripoley with our family. The time always goes by entirely too fast; We wish that we could all get together like this more often. Thanks so much for hosting everyone John and Cindy- we really appreciate all that you do!

Photos of the "chaos" of gift-opening

Thank you all for the wonderful gifts!My brother Mike keeping warmBeth, Alex, and Eric playing TripoleyNathan and Aunt JoanneBeth was excited about her wealth of Tripoley poker chips! Cindy, Becky, Dad, and Maggie

John, Aunt Barb, and Uncle LeonardUncle Jim and MomKatelyn and Becky

Ethan's Very Own Mini-Tree

My mom knew that Ethan got such a kick out of our Christmas tree, and she had a great idea to let Ethan create a tree of his own. She had purchased some little (centerpiece-sized) Christmas trees and a variety of decorations (mini- ornaments, tree toppers, garland, etc.) on clearance last year and had also acquired some special ornaments that Ethan would particularly like (Thomas and Percy, a locomotive engine and its coal tender, Bob the Builder, and Bob and Larry from Veggietales). Ethan and I visited my family for the day today, and Ethan had a blast helping mom and I decorate his very own little tree (it's even pre-lit!) It turned out to be really cute! We've kept it on our fireplace mantle or on Ethan's arts and crafts table so that he can see it everyday. Each morning he reminds us to turn its lights on and points out the character ornaments (Thomas, Percy, etc.) It was a huge hit with him!

Ethan and his mini-tree

A closer-up photo of the tree

Hanging Ornaments... Ethan-Style

Tonight we added ornaments to our Christmas tree (last night we assembled the tree and got the lights and ribbon situated). Ethan was excited to assist in decorating the tree, so we showed him how to put the hook around a branch and gave him several silver ornaments to place on the tree. It was so cute to see where he decided to hang them- all at the same level side-by-side. He was so proud of hanging the ornaments by himself that we decided to leave them that way instead of evenly distributing them throughout the tree (which was our initial instinct to do). Here are a few photos of Ethan excitedly displaying his contribution to hanging ornaments on the tree!

Our completely decorated tree (plus an "Ethan blur" at the bottom!)

FINALLY Getting our Christmas Decorations Up!

Took us long enough, didn't it? We finally got around to getting our Christmas decorations out of storage in the garage and putting our Christmas tree up this evening. It was SO much fun to see how incredibly excited Ethan was as our artificial tree began to take shape with each layer of branches that we added. He kept saying over and over "I LOVE the Christmas tree!", "I HUG the Christmas tree!" (literally, many times), and "I KISS the Christmas tree" (yes, also literally!) He was thrilled when we added the lights, ribbon, and ornaments (we added ornaments the next day, so they are not in the video). It was great to see his enthusiasm just bursting out. I managed to capture a little clip of video showing his adoration for the Christmas tree, but unfortunately didn't catch most of his repeated hugging of the tree.

Here is the video clip of Ethan gently hugging his Christmas tree :)

4D Ultrasound of Baby Q

It was just our luck that the OB practice I go to purchased a 4D ultrasound machine a week or so after our routine fetal survey ultrasound in October. I asked our doctor if there were any way that we could have another ultrasound, as I was concerned that Baby Q might be breech (Ethan was until about 37-38 wks) and really would like to get to see a 4D view of the baby. Our doctor was nice enough to order the ultrasound, so today we had our third ultrasound for Baby Q. Everything with the baby looked great, although my amniotic fluid level was measuring high. I was aware that low amniotic fluid was of concern for the baby's health, but did not know that high levels can also be indicative of abnormalities. The baby was estimated to be 3 lbs 11oz and otherwise appeared healthy (aside from the fluid levels). And (yay!) he is head-down, not breech.
Sadly the ultrasound tech informed us that she had not yet been trained on the 4D capabilities of their new ultrasound machine and said that she had only experimented with those settings on one other patient. We asked very nicely if she would consider attempting to view Baby Q in 4D, and she was willing to give it a try! So, she experimented with the "wand" for a bit (she said that the way you acquire views of the baby in 2D vs 4D are very different, so it was difficult to change mindsets on how to go about acquiring 4D images). She managed to view about half of Baby Q's face, but he was obstructing the rest of the view with his arm. It was neat to get a tiny glimpse of what Baby Q will look like, and from what we can tell, he is going to resemble his big brother quite a bit! I had asked if we could bring a CD-R or DVD to record images of the baby, and unfortunately we were told that was not possible at this time, though we did get to keep a few printed images. My doctor scheduled another ultrasound for 2 weeks from now to re-check the fluid level.

Ethan's "Big Boy" Room Makeover

In order to prepare for Baby Q's arrival, we had quite a bit of work to do (organizing, moving a file cabinet upstairs from the garage, selling unneeded furniture, donating Dan's big blue couch, acquiring a twin bed and dresser from my parents, converting our office into an office/guest room, transporting a huge guest room furniture set from our house to my parent's house, shopping for, purchasing, and picking up furniture and a mattress/box spring set for Ethan's new bedroom, getting out Ethan's baby clothes and washing/organizing them, moving Ethan's closet and dresser drawer contents from the nursery to his new room, buying a safety bed rail, bedding, and curtains, moving a storage cabinet from the office down to the basement etc, etc...) I felt a little (ok, ALOT) overwhelmed initially, but we've been taking things step-by-step and are now nearly ready for Baby Q's arrival. I took some before and after photos of Ethan's (previously the guest) room's transformation. The photos I took of Ethan's new room didn't turn out very well, and now we are "missing" a dresser drawer (there was some damage to it when we picked it up from the furniture store), so I returned it to the store and am awaiting a repair. I will include photos of Ethan's new big boy room in a future post. Here are the "before" photos... I'll just have to keep you in suspense for the "after" photos!

This furniture set was mine from the time I was 5 until I went to college! The bed is actually a canopy bed, but we opted to leave the canopy off while it was used as our guest room furniture. Definitely too feminine of a set to use for a little boy!

Ethan's Second 3D Movie (and first IMAX experience)

While Grandma Q. was visiting, we decided to check out a new local IMAX theater that was showing "The Polar Express" in 3D. Thankfully this theater offered kid-sized 3D glasses, so we didn't have to hold the adult-sized ones on Ethan's face throughout the entire movie (as we did when we saw Fly Me to the Moon). Ethan absolutely loved the movie! I was very impressed with the animation and special effects, though I have actually never read the book before and had been unfamiliar with the story. There were more scary parts than I had anticipated, and they startled Ethan a few times. He didn't seem put off for long by the scarier parts and was disappointed when it was time to leave the theater. I would definitely recommend the IMAX 3D experience!

The Adventures of Black Friday

In previous years Gail and I had ventured out of the house briefly in the afternoon of Black Friday to check out some of the great sales, but this year we decided to brave the super-early crowds to see what deals we could find. We arrived at Kohl's at 5:30am and were pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't overly crowded, and there were plenty of employees available to help us find the specific deals from their sale ad that we were looking for. We both bought 7 inch digital photo frames which were a spectacular deal, and I bought several Christmas gifts for Ethan and for other relatives. We were amazed at how quickly we were able to get in and out of the store and were also pleasantly surprised at how friendly the other early bird customers were (especially after later hearing about the trampling death of a Wal-Mart employee somewhere on the west coast). At Kohl's I was trying to hold two enormous boxes containing Nerf guns for my cousin's boys, and a lady stopped her shopping to help me stack up the boxes so that they were manageable for me to carry to a register. Wal-Mart was jam-packed with customers, and another shopper took a break from finding all of the items on her list to help me locate a boy Cabbage Patch newborn doll (which we are saving to give Ethan just before Baby Q arrives so that he has a little baby boy to take care of too while mommy takes care of the new baby). Between the 2 of us searching the giant mountain of CP newborn dolls, we were able to locate one boy doll- yay! I think that I will be up for trying another wee-hours-of-the-morning Black Friday again next year, as this year's adventure turned out to be a great one!

Thanksgiving

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving and celebrated at my parent's house along with my Aunt Joanne and Uncle Leonard. It was great to visit with everyone, and I wish that I had taken some pictures!! We had a yummy traditional Thanksgiving dinner, great dessert, and finished our evening playing a new game that my mom had purchased, Uno Flash, and also Tripoley. Uno Flash was fun to learn and try out. It's basically a twist on the old-fashioned Uno game in that play does not go around the circle of players in a clockwise manner. Instead the game "board" determines who is going in what order. On your turn if you don't play a card within a certain amount of time, you get "buzzed" and have to draw additional cards. Kind of difficult to explain, but we enjoyed learning the new rules. Tripoley is always fun too (mix of poker and hearts). We had a great time today and are certainly SO thankful for the many blessings in our lives.

CVS Deals Galore on Thanksgiving Day

I really enjoy getting bargains, and I just couldn't pass up all of the great CVS deals on Thanksgiving Day. Gail was such a great sport and got up very early with me so that we could be waiting in the parking lot at our local CVS when it opened. So many people in our area have caught on to how easy it is to get free items at CVS that many are now tracking the sale items, and if you don't get there early, the store will likely be out of stock of many items. It was a good thing that we arrived at the CVS first as several other bargain hunters showed up shortly after we did, but we were able to snag all of the deals we were interested in before any items were out of stock. I spent a total of $1.09 out of pocket, but I increased my extra care buck total by something like $15 (I can't remember exactly). So, CVS essentially paid me $14 for the following items:
1 Aussie Mega shampoo, 1 Aussie Mega conditioner, 1 Shick Quattro Titanium razor, 1 Johnson's lotion, 3 Powerades, 2 Bic Soleil razors, 1 Covergirl foundation, 1 Covergirl pressed powder, 1 package Garnier Nutrisse cleansing cloths, 2 Philips universal remote controls, 2 L'Oreal lip glosses, 2 Crest Total toothpastes, and 2 king size Hershey's bars. Gotta love that!

Musical Moments Class at the YMCA

This Fall Ethan has participated in two classes, a gymnastics class through the local parks department and music through the YMCA. He has thoroughly enjoyed both classes and is extremely excited to attend them each week. Ethan's Grandma Q. visited us for a week over Thanksgiving, so she was able to join us for one of his gymnastics classes and one of his music classes. Dan was also off of work for most of the week, so Ethan was thrilled that both Grandma and Daddy were able to participate with him in our classes. The music class activities have varied each week along specific themes, and this week's theme was (appropriately) Thanksgiving. We sang songs about Thanksgiving and winter and learned arm/hand motions for some of them. For one song each child got to go up to a felt board and add an item to the Thanksgiving dinner we were singing about. The kids have also played with balloons, balls, teddy bears, scarves, toys, and a HUGE variety of instruments throughout the session (which lasted 8 weeks).

Ethan clapping along to one of the songs

Ethan added a casserole dish to the Thanksgiving dinner on the felt board

Grandma helped Ethan with the hand movements that went along with another song

The kids had some free time at the end of the class to explore different musical instruments. Ethan was playing with the rainsticks.

Recent Ethan Sayings and Doings

Ethan's constant running commentary of his thoughts just crack me up. He has become incredibly verbal in the last few weeks, and his expanding vocabulary astonishes us. Dan and I have heard him use many large words correctly and will ask each other, "Did you teach him that?" Usually we don't remember specifically teaching him particular words, but he is such a little sponge that he takes in and retains so much of what he hears. Some cute things that he's been saying and doing lately include:
- When eating his favorite foods he says, "It's tasty good!"
- I try to encourage positive behavior by telling Ethan "Good idea!" whenever he asks or decides to do something appropriate or constructive. He's taken to saying it emphatically as well: "Good i-DE-a!"
-Dan and I are big on nicknames, and they are constantly evolving. The nickname that has stuck is "pea" for sweetpea, but it recently has become "bitty pea" (don't ask me why, I really don't know!). Dan told Ethan the other day "Hi bitty pea", and without missing a beat he responded "Hi bitty Daddy!". Maybe you had to be there, but it made us laugh :)

-Ethan has been learning that people have first and last names and also that Mommy and Daddy have "other" names too. If you ask him what my name is, he'll say "Julie", but if you ask him what Dan's name is, he always says "Daddy Altizer"
-Ethan likes to remove his pillowcase when he's in his crib. A couple naptimes in a row we found him almost completely inside his pillowcase (like a sleeping bag) at the end of his naptime.
-I check my email frequently, and often Ethan plays in the office while I check things on the computer. Ethan has taken to asking us lately if he can "Go check email for a little bit". He doesn't have an email address yet, but probably won't be long! Dan and/or I must say the phrase "a little bit" often because Ethan has picked that up and tacks it on to lots of his comments "eat a little bit", "play with toys a little bit", etc.
-Ethan's imagination and imaginative play have really grown recently. He often pretends that things are something other than what they really are. He was eating holiday-theme shaped pretzels the other day, and all of a sudden he said "I made a dinosaur". Sure enough the remnant of one of his pretzels resembled a dinosaur, and he proceeded to create adventures for the dinosaur on his tray (the dinosaur walked around the tray, "slept" on top of his sippy cup, ate leaves off his tray). He also likes to pretend that toys are pieces of food (he brought me a frisbee and said "plate", a green ball and said "apple", and two round tinker toys with a square block in between and said "cheeseburger").

"Nesting" Like Crazy, and Yay for Craiglist!

As Baby Q's due date seems to be approaching very quickly, my "nesting urge" has kicked into high gear! We have been clearing unneeded furniture out of our bonus room to make way for a twin bed and dresser that we're going to get from my parents so that our bonus room can become the office/guest room. My parents are going to take the bedroom set that was in my room growing up from our current guest room, and that room will then become Ethan's "big boy" room. We'll leave the nursery the same awaiting the arrival of Baby Q.

A website that has been a HUGE help to us is craigslist.org. I was able to list (for free) and quickly find buyers for a La-Z-boy recliner, set of tray tables, papasan chair, and a coat rack. We need to sell a set of 2 coffee tables, but haven't had anyone contact us yet expressing interest in purchasing them. We also donated Dan's big blue couch to the Salvation Army as it is a well-built, solid piece of furniture, but the fabric had faded, and we no longer had any use for it. Moving that out of the "bonus room" over the garage created a lot of space that I have since been converting into a craft area for stamping/scrapbooking/etc. It's a relief to be making some progress toward getting Ethan's "big boy" room put together in preparation to transition him out of his crib. Thankfully Ethan has only "escaped" his crib once so far (on Nov. 2nd). He had been napping, and Dan heard a "thump" and then crying coming from upstairs. Dan found Ethan sprawled out on his back on the floor. We think that he must have fallen pretty hard and the whole experience really startled and scared him, so he hasn't tried to climb out again yet. It's just a matter of time though, so this is all the more reason to finish preparations for his big boy room.

12-22-08: MANY New Posts in the Works- Sorry for the Delay!

Our last month or so has been incredibly hectic, therefore I have not been very diligent at keeping our family's blog up-to-date. I am going to work on adding a TON of new entries that will hopefully be ready to post in the very near future. Please check back soon!

Disappointment about a Cancelled Order for a Fantastic Carseat Deal

All of you probably know that I am constantly on the hunt for bargains. Recently I came across several posts on money-saving blogs that I follow regarding the Britax Marathon graphite carseat (regularly priced at $279.99) being on sale at Target.com for $42.99 with free shipping. What a deal! Britax is a well-known and respected carseat manufacturer and has a great safety track record and reputation. I quickly jumped on the deal, and using our AAA membership discount (10%), was able to order one for $41 after tax. I was so excited that Baby Q would have a great carseat at such a rock bottom price. Of course oftentimes things that seem too good to be true are, and a couple days later Target cancelled a huge portion of the orders that were placed for this carseat due to a pricing error on their website. What was most frustrating though is that many people's orders were actually filled, and some people received multiple (I read online at least up to 4) carseats at this price. I guess since Target didn't catch the error right away, some lucky ducks actually got the deal before their order could be cancelled. Oh well- it was definitely worth a try! There was quite a fiasco and uproar online regarding the cancellation of some orders and fulfillment of others, so Target recently emailed everyone whose order was cancelled a code for a $25 e-gift certificate. I think that was a great gesture by Target to try to subdue angry customers, and now I have $25 to spend at Target that I didn't have before!

I High-Fived Gold Medal Winning Olympic Gymnasts!

My mom purchased tickets to see the Olympic Gymnastics Exhibition as soon as the tickets became available for a local venue. She was able to get 4th row seats (which she assumed meant 4th row up from the floor), but when we arrived at the venue, we discovered that our seats were actually located ON the floor, right next to several of the apparatuses (apparati? ;) Not sure of the plural form of apparatus! We were very excited to get such a close-up view of the routines from gold-medal winning gymnasts as we were literally just feet from the performers. Our seats were closest to two balance beams where we got to see routines performed by Shannon Miller (who won lots of gold medals in previous Olympic games), Shawn Johnson (gold medalist on beam this year), and Nastia Liukin (all-around gold medalist this year). The whole event had lots of special lighting effects along with live music; Due to a computer malfunction, it began about a half hour late. Apparently the computer that ran the whole lights/effects program repeatedly crashed just before the show, but they did manage to get it up and running! At the end of the show, a lot of the gymnasts ran along the stage high-five-ing audience members who were seated on the floor, and Mom and I both got to high-five Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin. They'll probably be the only Olympic gold medal winners we'll ever get the opportunity to "meet"!

Shawn Johnson

Nastia LiukinNastia and Shawn at the end of the showMen's bronze medal-winning team

The Hamm brothers did not get to compete this year due to injury, but performed in the show

Shannon Miller during warm-ups

Jordan Pruitt sang live several times right next to our seats. I'm sure there are some teeny-boppers out there that would have been thrilled to sit where we were. I hadn't heard much of her music before, but Mom and I both really enjoyed it. She has a song out now that is on the soundtrack of the movie High School Musical 3.