Ellie-Kate-- 2011

Ellie-Kate is three years old, and she ADORES pre-school. In January, Christie took her to Emmy and Chelsea’s former pre-school, and Ellie-Kate really liked it. Christie mentioned that Ellie-Kate could go just as soon as she was potty trained, and Ellie-Kate decided to be potty trained that very day! (Should have tried THAT strategy before!!) She started school in February, but we soon discovered that the situation was very different than when the other girls were there. One little boy, in particular, had issues, and it was quite disturbing for Ellie-Kate. Although very sad, we decided that we just had to move her to another school. We chose First Friends Pre-School, and it has been awesome! The pre-school is located in a large church, and we know many people who attend the church or send kids to the school. The pre-school can use the open space in the auditorium (with all of the chairs up during the week) during indoor recess time, or the kids can play outside in the big playground when the weather is nicer. The teachers are great, and Ellie-Kate gets along so well with the other kids. When she enters, the kids chorus “Ellie-Kate,” rather like the greeting “Norm” on "Cheers." She loves to play with the boys a bit more than the girls, and we good-naturedly tease her about her “boyfriends.” A few weeks ago, Ellie-Kate fell, and we were making sure that she was okay. We asked her name, and she replied "Ellie-Kate.” Age? “Three.” Number of boyfriends? She piped right up and said “Five!” We knew that she was okay. Especially given her initial challenges, we are amazed at her physical abilities! When we were at the Women’s Final Four, Ellie-Kate participated (with Emmy) in the Circle City Dribble, dribbling basketballs for four blocks in downtown Indianapolis. Ellie-Kate maintained a steady dribble for the whole time, impressing onlookers, including some folks from Stanford! She can hit a softball off of a pitch, and she knocked one ball over 30 feet and over a fence. Like Emmy, she loves everything involving sports and music. Just a few days ago, Ellie-Kate made her first basket on an 8 foot hoop, and she's obsessed with trying now! Like Chelsea, she can be quite the diva. Ellie-Kate was in her first pageant in March, and she won the three and four year old division and earned her entry to the state pageant. She participated in the state pageant in May, and, well, let's just say that we were WAY out of our league! However, Ellie-Kate (and Chelsea!) had a great time. Like Britti, Ellie-Kate can be wise beyond her years. Like her mommy, she is a HUGE Disney fan (especially of Jasmine and Ariel). Ellie-Kate can now write her name, count to 30, and remember directions like a GPS. This fall, she started AWANA Cubbies and Movement Fun dance class. She likes her "big kid" activities! However, even though she’s very tall, we treasure being able to still lift and carry her, and we tell her daily (if not more) that she’s our precious baby girl.

Emmy-- 2011

Emmy turned 11 on December 19, and she is in the sixth grade. Emmy also had a terrific county and state fair. In county competition, Emmy won first place with her food project, first place with her scrapbooking project, and third place with Coco in showmanship. At the Ohio State Fair, Emmy won Outstanding of the Day in Scrapbooking (and we found out that Emmy had the second highest score in the state!), and, with Coco, she won Outstanding of the Day in Showmanship and a silver medal in Rally. At school, Emmy was so excited to be elected by her peers in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades as Morrison-Gordon Student Council President in November! She was also selected to serve on the M-G yearbook staff this year, putting those scrapbooking and photography skills to work. Emmy continues to love sports, and her traveling soccer team won the league championship. She is currently playing point guard for her traveling basketball team. Even though the basketball team isn’t doing nearly as well as the soccer team did J, she still enjoys it. Emmy still plays French horn and cello, takes dance lessons (tap and jazz), and does Girl Scouts and AWANA (church youth group). With her Girl Scout troop, she earned her Bronze Award, the third highest award in Girl Scouting, by visiting with senior citizens at a local nursing home (playing bingo, doing crafts, etc.), and she earned her third book award in AWANA. Emmy’s big adventures of the year included trips to a Harlem Globetrotter’s game, to Indianapolis for the NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four, and to Lincoln for a University of Nebraska football game.

Chelsea-- 2011

Currently a senior at Athens High School, Chelsea (17) started college visits in May after finishing up with track season. In all, she visited Butler University in May and then Baylor University and University of Oklahoma in November. (We even survived the earthquakes in Oklahoma during our trip!) She loved all three for different reasons, applied to all, and she has now been accepted to all as well. Baylor offered a very good scholarship package and invited her to apply for its Honors Program, and Oklahoma has accepted her into its OU Scholars Program. Butler just offered her a very competitive scholarship package as well. After she learns the exact scholarship offer from Oklahoma, she can make her tough decision. At this point, she plans to major in biology or biochemistry and pursue pre-med, with the goal of becoming a pediatric ophthalmologist. In March, Chelsea was selected as an Ohio 4-H Ambassador, and she had the opportunity to help with shows at the Ohio State Fair. In August, she was named Athens County Junior Fair Queen, and she has been on tour ever since, attending 12 parades and fairs thus far to represent and promote Athens County Junior Fair. Also at the county fair, she placed second in Pro Showmanship (her best result thus far!), and she won Reserve Grand Champion Breed Show, Grand Champion Class 6, and Grand Champion New Zealand with her rabbit (by far, her best results thus far!). At the state fair, the skit team won Outstanding of the Day again, bringing Chelsea’s skit team career to a winning close. Chelsea went right from the county fair to tennis season, and she had a great one, playing second varsity singles and concluding her tennis career with a winning record. Finally, Chelsea worked hard over the summer on her Girl Scout Gold award project, and she officially earned her Gold Award in October, the highest award in Girl Scouting. She’s looking forward to fun with friends as she continues with senior year. She’s still dancing (tap, ballet, jazz, and modern) and singing with the AHS Symphonic Choir.

Brittany-- 2011

Brittany: In January, Britti (25) began her professional internship with Disney as one of six program facilitators for the YES (Youth Education Series). She absolutely loved it!! In this elite position, she had the opportunity to lead school groups on special learning adventures in the most magical place on Earth—teaching kids about physics while riding Space Mountain and Splash Mountain and instructing them about elements of light and optical illusions while going through the Haunted Mansion, etc. Unfortunately, Disney officials were very clear from the beginning about their freeze on hiring full time employees so Britti focused on her future while savoring her remaining time with Disney. She decided to follow her heart and pursue an alternative teaching license. After researching options, she selected the licensing program in Texas, and she worked hard to complete all of her requirements prior to finishing her six month internship at Disney. She chose Texas because it had the most clear-cut program and because her boyfriend from Disney, Ramon, is from El Paso. After much job hunting and conversation, though, both Britti and Ramon opted to re-locate to Athens after completing their time at Disney. Britti just couldn’t find a teaching job, and Ramon fell in love with Ohio University. Thus, in May, Christie flew down and helped Britti drive her belongings from Florida to Ohio. After a month of job searching in Athens, Britti found a job with an apartment complex as a leasing consultant, but, in September, our county extension agent was reassigned to another part of Ohio, and Britti landed the job as temporary program assistant with the Athens County Extension Office. Given her background in 4-H and
education, she is having a great time with developing programs and enhancing 4-H in Athens. In January, 2012, she plans to defend her master’s thesis (finally!) and apply for the permanent county extension educator job. Britti has received tremendously positive feedback from people around the county and state, and she is very hopeful about the permanent full-time position. She hasn’t given up on her long-term hope to be a teacher someday, but the job with the extension
office is a wonderful way to work with educational programming, youth development, and 4-H.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the BAP Family!

Hi everyone--

The following couple of posts feature news from our year, borrowed heavily from our annual Christmas newsletter. We cut down a bit on our mailing this year because so many people now follow our family on Facebook so we thought that we'd share an adapted version of the newsletter here as we wind down 2011 and gear up for 2012!

We hope that all is well with you!! This year has been an incredible blur—filled with travels, transitions, and blessings. After reflection, we realized that a member of our family spent at least one night in a hotel during every month of the year, except for January! We were blessed to be able to take two big family trips this year. In June, we traveled to Colorado and Nebraska, visiting Rocky Mountain National Park, Grandma A. in Scottsbluff, and family in Denver. In November, we went back to Disney for a week around Thanksgiving. Both trips were awesome times of fun, play, and relaxation, but, boy, did we have to play catch up upon our returns! Here are some highlights of our lives on the go in 2011!

Ohio Fair's Queen dinner-- 12/30/11

Chelsea with the other 2011 Ohio County Fair Queens and Kings-- 12/30/11


Chelsea with the other 2010 and 2011 Ohio County Fair Queens and Kings-- 12/30/11


Kara (2010 Fairfield County Queen) and Chelsea-- 12/30/11


Chelsea with the Holmes County Queen and the Franklin County Queen-- 12/30/11


Chelsea with the 2010 and 2011 Clark County Fair Queens-- 12/30/11

*Lara, the 2011 Ohio Fair's Queen, invited all of the 2010 and 2011 Ohio County Fair queens to her hometown, Georgetown, in Brown County for a dinner on December 30, 2011. Chelsea had a great time of visiting with the other queens and celebrating Lara's super reign as Ohio Fair's Queen. Lara visited 97 fairs and traveled over 18,000 miles in the past 12 months! Chelsea will be running for the honor of Ohio Fair's Queen at the competition in Columbus next week.

Emmy's Trip to the Globetrotter's game-- 12/29/11

Emmy and Too Tall


Airport and Emmy-- 12/29/11


Crash and Emmy-- 12/29/11


Emmy and Hammer-- 12/29/11


Flight-Time and Emmy-- 12/29/11

*Emmy had a great time with Mommy at the Globetrotter's game at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. She received tickets to the game for her 11th birthday. The game was so fun, and the players were very funny and talented! However, the big highlight was getting autographs on her official Globetrotter's basketball after the game :)

Emmy, Britti, Brodie, Ellie-Kate, Chelsea, and Phoebe


Christie and Grandma

12/27/11-- Christmas in IN

Great-Grandma, Chelsea, and Britti


Ellie-Kate, Great-Grandma, and Emmy


Phoebe and Ellie-Kate


Ellie-Kate, Emmy, and Brodie-- 12/27/11


Emmy, Brodie, and Snickers-- 12/27/11

December 27, 2011

Shari, Christie, and Michelle at Bob Evans for a quick reunion-- 12/27/11


Kelsay, Britti, Kylie, and Chelsea smile at Bob Evans-- great to catch up!! 12/27/11


Brodie and Emmy-- 12/27/11


Ellie-Kate and Great-Grandma-- 12/27/11

*We had a very quick but good visit to Indiana. The cousins had fun playing at Grandma B's (monopoly and charades), and Christie enjoyed catching up with Shari and Michelle at Bob Evans. The kids even got to play in the unexpected snow, and they built a snowball barricade in Grandma B's alley. Because Britti had to work on Wednesday, we traveled on Monday and then returned home on Tuesday, driving through some wintry weather on our way home.

December 26, 2011-- Christmas with the Cousins

Ellie-Kate loves her new Tweety Bird pillow!


Teresa, Grandma B., Great-Grandma, and Christie


Teresa, Grandma, and Christie


Grandma B., Teresa, Britti, Chelsea, Christie
Emmy, Ellie-Kate, Brodie, Phoebe, Great-Grandma, and Olive Oil


Phoebe, Emmy, Ellie-Kate, Brodie, Chelsea, and Britti-- 12/26/11

Present time-- 12/25/11

Ellie-Kate poses with her blue soccer ball!


Chelsea displays her presents, including tiara pins for her queen sash, new earrings, and a big album featuring her sports career-- 12/25/11


Emmy displays her presents-- her Messi jersey, a mini-basketball hoop, and other small presents-- 12/25/11


Britti displays her presents-- lots of framed pics for her apartment-- 12/25/11

Christmas Day, 2011

Britti, Ellie-Kate, Emmy, and Chelsea smile at Albany Baptist Church after the Christmas morning service.


Santa brought Emmy a "Messi" jersey-- direct from Argentina!!


Ellie-Kate wanted a blue soccer ball, and Santa delivered!


The annual picture in front of the Christmas tree-- 12/25/11


The presents were waiting for children to view :)

Christmas Eve, 2011

We started a new tradition of giving "sister" presents. The girls drew names and put simple gifts in each other's stockings during the Christmas season and then gave each other a nicer gift on Christmas eve. They really got into it!


Ellie-Kate liked making cookies for Santa!


Emmy smiles as she cuts out cookies-- 12/24/11


Our annual Christmas Eve pageant-- with Ellie-Kate as the Baby Jesus. (Yes, she's getting a tad big for the role...)

12/19/11-12/24/11

Christmas Eve ginger bread house-- Chelsea, Britti, Ellie-Kate, and Emmy

Ellie-Kate and Emmy do one last visit to Santa Clause-- 12/24/11

12/22/11: Anne and Chelsea

12/19/11-12/20/11

Ellie-Kate and Nate on the First Friends field trip--12/20/11

First Friends preschool students perform at an area nursing home-- 12/20/11

Happy birthday, Emmy!! Emmy had a great 11th birthday-- a fun party with friends and cool gifts :) She got an official soccer jersey and ball from the UK exhibit in the World Showcase (at Disneyworld) as well as tickets to the Globetrotter's game!!

Emmy enjoyed dinner out at Bob Evans as well as dessert on 12/19/11.