Brooke has taken off with her reading. It is fun to see her so excited to read. She works really hard on sounding out the words and gets so excited when she can read a whole book by herself. She now reads Sean or myself or story before she goes to bed every night. I can't believe my baby girl is growing up. Next year she will be at school all day and I'm going to miss her like crazy. She makes me laugh with her funny personality.:)
Keep it up Cookie!
A few more pictures of Cierra on race day, thanks to tiff! 
and her loyal sister waiting for her to cross the finish line! 
Cierra did her first 5k race and did so awesome. I am so proud of her. She struggled like I knew she would but she finished and that was all the mattered. She actually PR'd. Her 3 mile that she practiced on Monday was 46 minutes and her race was right under 42 minutes. She did great! She thought it was hard doing it but afterwards she said it was fun and she wanted to do it again. Being a runner, I want more than anything for her to keep it up but I am smart enough to know that she needs to decide if this is something she wants. I wish I would have started earlier but it gives me so much joy now, I would love that for her too.
Cierra did the race with 7 of her friends who all did extremely well. One of her friends did it in 28 minutes which was amazing and one came across the finish line and puked! It was great!
Cierra loves her run club shirt!
This is my friend, and Cierra's run club coach. She is amazing and very knowledgeable in running. We are so lucky for her to volunteer(yes, you heard me, she does this all for nothing!) her time to these girls. She has a passion for running and really puts her heart into it. We couldn't be more grateful to her.
Mindy came with us and ran the 10k. It was her first and she did awesome. She ran the whole 6.2 miles without walking once! Great Job Mindy! 
Here is Cierra coming in strong!
GO SOUTH HILL RUNNING REBELS!!!!!!Brooke decided to take it upon herself and make a peanut butter sandwich, when I was obviously pre-occupied! This is what I came upon. She doesn't like crust so she cut it off. She didn't have much of a sandwich left but I was proud of her for trying! She reminded me that she is 6 now so she can do it all be herself.
A few weeks ago we got some snow and although you can't tell by this picture it is coming down hard. You would think you would find us curled up by the fire watching the snow come down. Nope! Not the Elwell Family. Sean is making the best of his time before he left for a work trip by washing his car. (and mine too! thanks honey!)
I have a friend that is a heart specialist. She was so very nice to come over and do an EKG and ultrasound on Brooke's heart so I didn't have to pay our ridiculous deductible. This was a follow-up from one she had 2 years ago. She has an extra beat in her heart and we just need to keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't get worse. Everything checked out fine. We were so grateful for her!
Kaylee did Brooke's hair and make-up for her party. She looked very grown up for her 6 year old party!
The Party Guests!
We had cake and ice cream!
Brooke had a lot of fun on her birthday! I love to see my kiddos happy and she was one happy kid!
