Reflections Contest

So on Saturday we remembered that we promised the girls we could help them complete a project to submit to the Reflections contest.....and all entries were due on Monday.  Ok, no big deal normally except at the time we remembered Kadence looked like this:

 Shelby and her have been super sick and Shelby was on the mend from her sinus infection and double ear infection, but Kadence was still in the middle of another round of pneumonia.  Luckily she turned into this a little later so we decided to go for it:

The theme is "Dream, Believe, Inspire" this year.  Kadence said she dreams of being a ballerina.  We worked with her and came up with the idea that we would take a picture of her sister in dance clothes.  I honestly was surprised I let her do her thing because I struggle with doing it for them.  She wanted a building for a background.  I then posed Shelby for her and helped her hold the camera and let her sit on my knee for stability.  As you can tell in the picture below I literally only held the camera and her little hand focused it until she thought it was clear and pushed the button.  (I figured I may as well have her focus manually)

She was so proud of herself!

Kadence had some great pictures, some blurry pictures and some in between.  She picked the one she liked best and then I was able to tell her that she picked the one that I liked best.  (I really didn't want to influence her choice)  David and Shelby went out to buy supplies for Shelbys entry and pick up the picture and Kadence stayed home with me.  Well, she started looking horrible and wasn't really responding well to me.  I decided to check her oxygen levels and sure enough, they were hanging down around 88/89 with a few jumps as high as 91.  It was late and our only choice would be to take her to the ER which without insurance wouldn't be my first choice.  I tried different fingers to see if I was getting a bad reading and then realized I wasn't.  I had David come home so we could get ready to take her in.  By the time we were getting in the car, she wasn't responding much at all.  Just a few moans and squeaks.  They gave her some IV fluids, ran some tests, did another breathing treatment....and randomly she perked right up and was her normal, spunky, "nothing gets me down" self. 

 They sent us home, even though her oxygen level was still at 90 which I thought was so bizarre.  I'm not a doctor though so whatever.

 We slept in and then started on Shelbys entry.  She was going to do string art like Kadence did last year.  She was very into picking which colors, deciding exactly how to do it all and she even wanted a heart in the middle. 

 

 Shelby seriously HATES getting dirty and this part took some talking into.  She struggled!

 "I believe imagination lives in your heart"

 Proud little artist!

(I think her face still hurts from her sinus infection because she wouldn't smile normally)

"I dream of being a dancer"

 Proud little photographer. 

(As usual you would never be able to guess Kadence was sick if you didn't know better)

Although it was stressful, it was so worth watching them be so proud of themselves.  It was fun to see them figure out what matte they wanted, what colors they wanted, etc.  Its fun to let them enjoy entering like David did when he was little.  All that being said......Next year we are starting early!