Our Christmas Dancer

I had the day off and went to go watch Mikayla practice her dancing. She's enrolled in tap and ballet and I'm really not sure who enjoyed it more her having us there or us being there. I got so wrapped up in watching the girls that when my MIL and I were the only 2 clapping I looked around and it was weird that we were the only two watching it felt like they were doing their real recital .... that happened on every song...hee hee (yes I'm a dork...and that's ok) ;)


Here she is getting ready.

Showing off her splits.

Oh drat, I hate when the pictures come in sideways. She was tap tap tapping here :)

the grand bow!

Now we're on to ballet.

She loves dancing!

I loved watching them perform!! I'm so proud of her!!

You knew I'd take video...right? Here is some of what I recorded.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We started out our Thanksgiving celebration by having lunch with Mikayla at school. She was so proud to have us there. :) and seriously - the house was PACKED!! The second round of families was waiting outside before we even got our lunches! It was so fun!



On Thanksgiving day we went over to my BIL/SILs house. We had a great time. Here are some after dinner pictures. The kids had an absolute blast. I know Mikayla fell asleep less than five minutes after we left. (she was sick too though - nothing catchy though - but that sure didn't stop her from having so much fun.)



Naturally the kids found the rocks in the stream....what fun, right? Never mind it was only mid 60s and the water was COLD!

Jason, Whitney and Bryce were able to come too.

Crazy Cousins!!!

GOOFBALLS!!!

I love this picture.

Mikayla and Jonathan found their way to the top of the waterfalls (above the pool) and we had an impromptu photo shoot :)

Here's Dakotah.

While we were outside playing, Michael and Ron were inside playing.....

Nathalie too.

oh....and breaking things too..... yes, these two broke the guitar trying to put a battery in....

We really had a great day!! I'm so thankful!!!

Best day ever!

Mikayla is still saying that about her birthday! wow!!! It really was a lot of work but boy was it worth it.... here is her reaction to one of her gifts..... she's just a little bit excited.

I love seeing her so excited and happy!!!! (and yes, we're still on the birthday hangover....yowsa)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Well I guess I'm really looking back at how my baby girl has changed over the years but here she is on her actual birthday day!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Here's my 1 year old.

Lookie who turned 2

Holy Moly....3

4...wow time is flying

5... seriously how did this happen?

6... So grown up!!!

At exactly 6:45 and 33ish seconds this morning, our baby girl turned 6.... it was so much fun.... naturally I made a celebration out of it...as I was doing the count down, I would shout out 7 MORE MINUTES TO BE FIVE...and every single time both she and mother in law would jump about a mile high... then it was 6 MORE MINUTES TO BE FIVE.... and so on. Then the time came....and wow.... my baby is really six now!!! I think she totally feels different today too :) Here's a picture Michael snapped right after she was born... gosh, how the time flies!

I hope she has the best day EVER!!!!!

It's Party time!!

WOW!!! What a party we had. I am so happy we all had a good time!! We had her party at Monkey Buziness (same as last year, per Mikayla's request). WOW!! It really was so much fun!!!

Let me start with Katie...I think she found the windy spot on the big slide.....

Here's Bryce playing hopscotch!!! What a cutie!!!

Mitchell arrived!! Now let me tell you, Mikayla thinks that Mitchell hung the moon, she just KNOWS that she's going to marry him. Won't it be fun to see what really happens. In any event he just got here.... SERIOUS hugging going on....*shudders* (I think he loves her a little bit too)

FUN!!! WEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Whoopsie, Lauren found the windy spot! LOL

And they're off....I don't think it's possible to walk here....one must always RUN!!

One of the best "group" pictures we got! LOL!!!

Food time, they ran HARD for an hour so now they got to eat. We brought in Subway subs, chips, fruit and veggies.

CAKE TIME!!!

Here is precious making her wish. I wonder what it was....

Here Mikayla and Tyler were helping get everything back to the car.

This is the first party EVER that we haven't opened the presents there and I learned a couple of things. If you see in the picture above, the yellow bin on the left... that is what she would have had to have opened in less than 15 minutes. She was also already completely overwhelmed with everything and I think that would have pushed her over the edge. So we didn't force the issue (it is the new trend). So we opened the presents at home and it was so much fun...it was so relaxed and she (we) got to really see what her gifts were and enjoy the experience without all the pressure and rush. I just can't even express how much fun it was to see her able to enjoy the experience. She also played for the rest of the day with her new toys while we all visited.

I think this was our best and most fun party to date!!!