It IS fun to look back.....

Here is a look back at our Santa encounters :) the first 2 are from the same year....two different tries....



Clearly - she's not having it!

She wouldn't go to him this in 2007 at all....so I had to See Santa too - he was so nice to pose this way with us.

The next year she did it ONLY because Grandma went with her (Santa totally offended Grandma too...he was getting fresh LOL)




The next year, 2009 we went and saw Santa at the North Pole in Colorado and also Santa came to her school...so she did pretty good - she refused to sit on his lap though.







So 2010 was when it really became magic to her!!! I LOVE and cherish making it so much fun for her.



and now 2011....she is in the full wonder of the season. She looks forward to all of the Santa stuff but she says that it's even more special because it's Jesus birthday!!



I love love love this time of year!!!

SANTA baby!!

My dad had noticed that there was a breakfast with Santa at the mall, the first day he was going to be there. So we thought we'd go see what it was all about. On the way, Mikayla and my dad drew a picture for Santa, and then she wrote on the back what she'd like to receive.



When we got there, sadly, there was no Santa....however, there was Mrs. Claus so Mikayla went to her and explained the picture (it was a picture of Santa, Mikayla and Rolo - he's the Elf that comes to our house to help Santa)

Mrs. Claus really took a long time with Mikayla. They had a really nice conversation.

Mrs. Claus looked up and saw my dad.... and called him over to be in the picture too. (oh and Mikayla wanted to be twins with her Papa that day too).

Then we learned a secret....the secret was that Santa was coming.... and he was going to lead a parade over to where he will be for the rest of the season....so we headed over to where he was going to be to get into line before everyone from the mall food court got there (and believe me, there were a TON of people there).... it turns out we were 2nd in line!!! It was awesome, because I know those poor people in the back of the line had to wait at least an hour to see him. (good thinking huh?)

Santa loved the picture she made for him, he suggested that she bring it home and put it out with his cookies, and he'll take it then (what a smart Santa...). She requested a new camera (direct quote from her "because her other one just doesn't hold a battery charge any more"), a guitar strap ("so she can walk around while playing"), and some new dress up clothes ("because she outgrew her other ones"). So there we have it!

Here they are :)

Then she met up with build-a-bear

and of course the chick-filet-a cow

We really had a good time!!

Our Little Lamb!

Mikayla's school play was last night and OHHHH what a great time we had. It was so fun but let me tell you...she was JACKED up...I don't think I've ever seen her so wound up... I mean like WOUND UP.... she couldn't talk - she had to shout, she couldn't walk - she had to run...when she couldn't run she had to hop and so on...wow! I was teasing her teacher saying, wow, she is wound up...she looked at me and whispered...well...they all have been wound up all month long. You'd never know it though, she really does a great job with the kiddos :)

There are four kinder classes at her school and all of them were lambs...so nearly 80 little lambs came out and sang three songs near the end of the program. All of the kids (K-5th grade) really did a great job. I did find myself singing one of the songs that she had been practicing at home... complete with hand motions LOL (yes, I'm one of those moms...hee hee). We really had a good time!!!

Here is Mikayla and her teacher.

Angles galore :) we all need our angels, the shepherds were lower down from the angels.

Mikayla is the 4th child from the left in the 2nd row...all you can see are her arms and folded hands LOL

I'm there in the background picking up my lamb after the show.

I really really enjoy these activities. I love it!!!!! Next program is her dance clinic on Saturday, I'm sure I'll have a bunch of pictures from it also. Then her dance recital is the week after that, so we have some serious entertainment coming up :)

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!!!!!