What a hectic start to 2012!!

Okay, I thought that 2011 was a

We started the year with a trip to the Ohio Fair Manager's conference on January 4-6. Chelsea competed in the Ohio Fair's Queen competition, and she did a great job!! We checked into the hotel at the Columbus Convention Center, and it was so amusing to watch all of the girls checking in with their carts of clothes-- just like the pageants on tv! Even though these girls are all county fair queens, we definitely felt a diva atmosphere! She participated in a pizza party on Wednesday, January 4, and it turned out to be part of the selection process. The judges were in attendance as the girls mingled (or not) and responded to an impromptu interview question. Chelsea had to say what she would do with $5000 if she had to spend it in a few hours. (She noted that she would drive home and give it to Britti for college loans--awwwwwwwwwww :) !) Although some parents went to the pizza party, Christie decided to give Chelsea her space and ordered some food to eat up in the room. On Thursday, January 5, she wowed the judges during her formal interview. Her interview was at 9:50 a.m., and she was done by 10:15. Christie enjoyed visiting with the other moms and a couple of our senior fair board members while waiting on Chelsea. We spent the time between her interview and the 3 p.m. rehearsal at the mall and Olive Garden :) The actual pageant started at 6:30, and they treated it just like a pageant. Chelsea introduced herself-- along with the other 66 girls in the competition. The ballroom was packed! We were so excited that Chelsea was chosen for the semi-final round of 16 contestants!! She answered a "fishbowl" question. Unfortunately, it wasn't one of the ones that we had practiced, and Chelsea rather made a face as she first read it. That face likely cost her a spot in the finals. The question? How have you made a difference in someone's life in the last three days? Her answer? Saying thank you to her mom :) Very cool! We actually have that thank you now on tape :) Although she didn't make the top five, we were still very proud of her success at the pageant!

The rest of the month has been booked thus far with the re-start of dance classes (Chelsea, Emmy, and Ellie-Kate), basketball (Emmy), scholarship applications (Chelsea), spelling bee (Emmy), and Girl Scout stuff (Chelsea and Emmy). Our big news of the month thus far is that Chelsea passed her driver's test on the second try, and she is now officially able to drive by herself. Her parents aren't quite convinced, but she earned her license, one day before her 17 and 1/2 birthday, and we'll take it slowly and ease into this driving thing :)

On the other "big news" front, Chelsea learned that she has been officially accepted into the Baylor Honors Program and the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core. Very cool!! No decision yet, but it's nice for her hard work and strong record to be acknowledged :)

As we look ahead, Ellie-Kate is already very excited about her rapidly approaching FOURTH birthday. Wow... I'm not ready for my baby to be four years old... I just want to freeze frame days so that I can spend quality time with each kid, get my work done and the kitchen clean, and stay sane. At this point, I'd trade sanity for actually having all of the Christmas decorations put away :)

Hope that everyone is having a great start to 2012!! Please pray that things finally slow down for the BAP family in the new year :)

Christie