Football 2023

Last season is one that we'll remember for a long time. I'm recapping it all in one and honestly, I don't know which game is which, but I know that we had a winning season that ended in the conference championship and ended in a top 4 spot in the college football playoffs. 

We were ready for our first game!!! Sadly, Gretchen only attended one game the entire season because she was so busy with theater rehearsals. 

Bevo traditonal picture always. 

The 2nd week of the season we played at Alabama. This was a big game because the year before they beat us at home- but barely. I went in to the Pants Store, and had to be sure all of their horns down buttons were actually facing up. 

And of course I had to go by sorority row and see the houses. 

Our seats were at the very top of the stadium. I don't think I've ever sat so high, but it was total payback for Texas seating the away fans on the top deck at our stadium too. 

Nana went with me and we sat in the nose bleeds together. 

DJ came up to say high before the game got started. We were matchy matchy in our icy whites. 

And spoiler- we kicked Alabama's butt on their home turf and it felt amazing. It was then that I knew that the season would be unforgettable. 

We started letting the girls have friends tag along and they loved having them! 

They spent the whole time after the game taking pictures with players, cheerleaders, dance members, the band and even Bevo. 

October rolled around and Nana came down for a game and two of her friends were able to come too! 

We are always so thankful for life long friends who have watched DJ grow and supported his career. 

October rolled around and Gretchen was finally able to come to a game! 

And my parents made it too! 

Winner Winner! 

The first weekend of December, we headed to Dallas to play in the Big 12 championship game. Gretchen had to stay behind for her theater performances. 

We played Oklahoma State and won and became Big 12 conference champions! 

Every single hard moment during the season is nothing compared to the most unforgettable ones. 

A family picture- and later we discovered that Arch Manning was in the shot too. 

Sweat became my favorite player of the season and we had to get a picture with him after the big win! 

And a few more celebratory ones!!!

This season will definitely go down in history. 

 

Hi There. It's Been a While

Well, hello. I haven't blogged in a year and DJ said to me a few months ago that he missed checking the blog and reading  about what we've been up to. I haven't blogged because my blogger was acting up and it was really difficult to upload pictures. I had to download them to my computer and then re-upload them and it was a process. And as you know, raising 3 pre-teen to teenage girls is time consuming along with working a full time job, and handling life through football season. I was also doing a lot of work putting myself first and have been working on loosing weight for over the last year, which just left little time for anything else. I've grown and learned a lot over the past year, and the other day I just happened to check out blogger and I realized it was importing pictures correctly again. And since I'm way too OCD to just pick up again, I  have to spend a few days or maybe even weeks recapping the last year- because there's a lot to share! 

Last August, Adalyn and I went to the Moody Center for a country music concert. This girl loves country music. She sings a long to the every song on the radio. She is a music girl. 

We had suite tickets and she was spoiled with lots of food and sweets, and she tried to rally through but the headliner didn't come on until well after 9 and she was tired. We didn't make it through the entire concert, but she saw the 2 openers and 1/2 of the headliner, and had the best time. 

The girls and I started making bracelets last April. We had a lot of orders to complete for coach's wives and for our vendor markets! The 2nd Saturday of each month, we along with other kid businesses set up our stands, and the girls sold their bracelets. They were each able to keep a portion of the sales!

We named it Pearly Girls- because all 3 girls have the name meaning of Pearl! 

Adalyn started 5th grade and was at a new school. She had 2 teachers and a few friends in her class. We were really excited for our last year of elementary school and all in all- it went really well; much better than the experience we had in 4th grade. 

The Welte girls all headed back to school. 

And we still tried to soak up summer on the weekends. We had passes to the waterpark and went as much as we could! 

Gee and Papaw came down in September; Gee showed the girls how to make fried pies. 

And while I was out of town in Alabama- Gee and Papaw even took the girls to church. 

Megan started cheering and we went to all of her home games to support her and cheer her on. 

And Adalyn continued to play soccer. 

She asked me to go to lunch wtih her on Fridays and I went as often as I could; though not as often as i should have- but on this particular day her bestie had her dad there so we took a group photo. 

Both of these girls had Homecoming so we went and shopped for the dresses! They tried on lots and lots and it was a process. Gretchen was looking for one dress imparticular and couldn't find it. We finally figured we would give David's Bridal a try and she found exactly what she was looking for. 

The girls had fun playing at the park during a family birthday party. 

And Gretchen was all Barbie'd up for HOCO week. 

We went to Megan's HOCO game. 

And Gretchen and her friends all had mums to celebrate their HOCO. 

We watched the eclipse happen at one of our Saturday markets. It was so fun to be out there with everyone and experience it together. 

Gretchen was in her Swiftie era and went to see the concert on the big screen with two of her besties. 

And then she had her HOCO dance. She was able to get ready with her friends and then take pictures together. 

Her dress was perfectly Taylor inspired. 

Megan had pink out games in October. 

And her HOCO dance ended up being delayed but they had it a few weeks later. Her dress was sparkly and twirly and so fun! 

We spent the last of October trick or treating, and this was the year that the big girls ditched us and went with friends. 

Megan found a scarecrow costume. 

Adalyn went as a witch. 

And Gretchen repurposed her homecoming dress. 

 

Meet Season

Megan's meet season has gone by quickly this year! We are so incredibly proud of how hard she has worked throughout her years of gymnastics, and sadly, this will be her last competition season. She's ready to hang up her leotards and try out some other things. 

She had her first meet in August and it was a fun Barbie inspired meet! 

In this meet she placed 4th on Beam, 7th on Bars and 6th All Around. 

She's gotten really good at doing her own hair this season! 

Floor continues to be one of her hardest events, but she keeps working so hard to improve her scores and correct her mistakes. 

She has so many medals! We are definitely framing a few with her competition leotards so she'll have a keepsake of her seasons. 

I missed her 2nd meet of the year while I was out of town for the Alabama game, but my parents and her aunt were able to be there to cheer her on. 

Her 3rd meet was definitely her best of the season! She placed 6th on Bars, 4th on Vault, tied for 1st on Beam with a score of 9.15 and placed 3rd All Around! 

Seeing her on the podium was definitely a proud moment! Right after I took this picture, they clarified that she actually tied for 1st! 

We will never forget all of her friends and team mates that she's trained with the last 3 years. 

The Judges Cup meet is always a fun meet of the year! There's always a theme and costume parade. Megan decided to dress as a gumball machine! 

She placed 9th on Vault and 9th All Around, 8th on Bars, and had a beam score of 9.225 which landed her in 4th place, but it was her highest beam score of the season! 

We grabbed some dinner and a milkshake after this meet! 

She competed in Corpus Christi the first weekend of October. She was excited that we were able to drive down and get a hotel the night before. 

Her bars routine looked great!!!

And you know, I didn't write down any of her placements for this meet! I keep track of all of her scores from every meet on my phone, but I was watching her meet, the awards, and the Texas OU football game at the same time! 

She did have her highest vault score of 9.1 though! 

And afterwards, we stopped at the beach for a few minutes, but the weather had turned cold and we didn't stay long! 

We did celebrate with chocolate cake though!!!

Megan has one more meet ahead of her this year. She'll compete in South State back in Corpus Christi on October 29th. She has to score a 36 total to make it to the state competition, and so far, she hasn't scored a 36 all year, but she did come close wtih a 35.2 one meet! I know she'll keep working hard and either way, we'll be so proud of all that she's learned through gymnastics!