Last Christmas...

Yes, I am still 6 months behind.  Here are some things we did last Christmas!

Bella was not anywhere near as excited as the other two were about decorating the tree.  she preferred to play with the ornaments rather than put them on the tree.  Fortunately, after the first few days she left the tree alone most of the time.  :)

We (read: the kids and I, but not Daniel so much) love seeing the lights at temple square.  It was beautiful as usual.  We decided to go up the first Sunday to beat the crowds.  Too bad that's what everyone else does so there were huge crowds.  Oh well, it was still beautiful!

Matthew had his first preschool program for Christmas.  Being up in front of everyone made him a little distracted.  He did sing and do actions a little, but a lot of the time he was looking around wondering what to think.  He sure was darling though.  We love him!

Bugsy Ballet!

Yes, I know that ballet is usually something that you put your little girls in.  However, ballet is a good foundational dance for every other kind of dance.  And, since we own the studio, Matthew can go for free, so yes, we put Matthew in a ballet class with a bunch of girls.  

He's okay with the dancing, but what he really loves is the fact that he gets to go with daddy every Monday and Wednesday.  He does like the running across the floor part though.  I could only get good pictures of the slower stuff, but he really likes running!

And yes, this is from last September, but I'm hoping I'll get caught up soon!

Bella's First B-day Party

Yes, Bella's birthday was 5 months ago.  Better late than never right?  ;)

Here are some pics of the celebration.  We did a "Belle of the Ball" celebration.

Here is our little princess.  She was a little shy as usual, and didn't eat much cake, but she seemed to have a good time.

We decorated with royal flags and a royal cake.  I was only up until about 11:00 the night before which is a lot earlier than I am usually done.  The cake took a lot less time than it usually does.  Notice the torch to light the candle, obviously you need a blow torch for your birthday candles.  :)

We all got to decorate our own crowns, had some lunch and of course since it was a ball we did some dancing.  It was realy cute to see the kids doing the "Hokey Pokey," "The Chicken Dance," and following me in  line dance.    They seemed to have a good time.  I was just glad we didn't have any big problems and I got to actually see the birthday girl during the party.  Simplifying can be a great thing some times.  :)

Bella

Well, I'm behind as usual, but don't have time to catch up so I'll just post a quick little nugget of cuteness from today.

I was driving in the car today.  My little 15 month old Bella likes to take her shoes and sock off in the car.  Usually she just throws them on the floor.  However, today I heard her laughing and looked back to see her with her sock on her head, laughing at how funny she was.  I was cracking up - she was so darling.

For any of you who have seen the movie Monsters Inc., that is where this originates.  Daniel likes to put a sock on one of the children and yell 23-19 just like they do in the movie and then tickle them like crazy.  It was so cute to see Bella doing what she's seen daddy do.  What a joy she is to us!

P. S.

I totally forgot to post about this, but we are ECSTATIC that Bugsy has finally finished potty training!!!!!  It was a long road, but we are finally there.  He isn't potty trained at night yet, but we are pretty excited about him being potty trained during the day.  He has no inhibitions though!  He strips from the waste down and when he is done he comes running out excitedly.  He'll even come outside that way if we are not around.  He is such a funny guy!  We just love him and are so glad he finally decided to become a big boy!   The end!

Birthday Post... a little late!

Emma just had her first day of school 3 days ago so I decided I'd better do her birthday post before I do her first day of school post so that it will be in chronological order.

Emma wanted a "whale" party with the big blow up water toy.  I sent out whale invitations and we did it at my parents house again because the slide doesn't fit at our house.  (Thanks Mither and Pappy!)  I stayed up in to the middle of the night making a whale cake for Emma.  This is not an usual occurrence the night before my children's parties.  The uncommon thing was when the sno cone machine landed directly on top of it when I turned too sharply while driving to my parents house.  You can see from the before picture above, it was not a pretty sight.  I did the best I could to fix it while the guests were arriving and it all worked out okay.

We only get the big water toy out once a year on Emma's birthday so we always invite all of Emma's cousins so that everyone will get a chance to play on it.  With most of her cousins and four friends from school, we had a pretty good sized group.  I think everyone had a pretty good time and I know that Emma had a GREAT time!  We love our sweet little girl.  I can't believe she is 6 already!  Time sure does fly!  :)

Denver Dance Classic

Daniel and I were going to Denver for a dance competition.  We brought the kids and the girls along.  We were totally unprepared for this competition so it was a little nerve racking.  We messed up our routines several times, but it was good to get out there on the floor.  And, the kids had a lot of fun.  We didn't get any pics of us dancing, but here are other pics of the weekend.

Daniel took Emma out on the floor and danced with her during the break in the competition.  She was DARLING!  Unfortunately, it looks from the first picture like she got my double jointed elbows.  See how her arm bends funny from the elbow up.  Poor little dear!   Anyway, she LOVED dancing with daddy.  You can't see her cute little smile, but she had it the entire time!

We went to the aquarium they have there and their favorite thing was the tiger... at an aquarium... go figure!

Jan and Jen took them to the Zoo one day when we were practicing.  They loved it.  Bugsy loves crocodiles and from what I understand he got to spend an entire 20 minutes looking at it.  What a cute little guy!

 They always love train rides...

and the carousel! 

The car ride wasn't too bad.  We stopped a little more frequently, but the kids really did pretty well.  The pictures below are from a rest stop just as you come in to Utah.  There was a little trail up to an overlook that we went up to.  It was a nice little spot to stretch our legs.

This is the place!

We had a great time, but I sure love home!