Shaylyn has one 'dance' class that didn't perform in The Festival Of Trees. She has a tumbling class that last year was also a cheer type class. She kept telling me that she didn't like the class much because she was the oldest one in there and was with a bunch of little kids. I just figured she was being a typical teenager and didn't like being with elementary kids.
When she had her 'review' I learned quite quickly that she wasn't just being a picky teenager - she really is in a class with kids probably 4 years younger than her. There is one girl that's only about a year younger than her, but the rest are little kids. We determined then and there that we needed to get her out of that class.
But we stayed around to watch her do her tricks. And the bonus of this class - it's small, so each kid got to perform on their own!
We put Ailey in dance this year and we started her in a Ballet, Tap, Tumbling class. Each class they take 15 minutes and work on dance moves and tumblings moves in each area. The studio decided not to do a real recital for Christmas and for the classes that weren't invited to dance at The Festival of Trees, they'd just do a demonstration type thing during a class time.
Thankfully, Ailey's class is on a Wednesday and because Eric works from home on Wednesday, he was able to join us. Ailey was super excited to have Daddy there. She did a great job and it was fun to see her show us what she had learned.
And for those of you who want to really see the dance and some of her tumbling moves, here's the video.
For years I've heard of the Festival of Trees. I've never been and honestly really had no clue what it was all about.
This year Shaylyn's dance class had the opportunity to dance at it. So we made plans as a family to go. This even included my family members and Eric's mom. My family made plans to meet up around 10, but I knew I wouldn't get my act together by then and told them we'd get there as soon as we could.
The day before Eric was really sick and I knew the chances of him being able to go the next day weren't good and as predicted, he didn't feel much better the next day. Eric's mom also got sick on Friday and sent me a text letting me know that she was just getting worse as the day went, so she wouldn't make it either.
My mom, older sister - Kami, little brother - Donovan, little sister - Kaeloni still all made it. They were there before me, but that's cause I was moving so slowly that morning.
I debated taking all the kids with me, but that only lasted a few seconds before I realized how stressful that would be. I got lucky as Ailey and Nate had no desire to go and Lex hadn't returned from his sleepover. I decided I could take Tanis and Jace, but when I talked with Tanis he said he didn't want to go and he'd rather stay home. So it was just Shaylyn and I.
Because my family had been there for some time already we got out the door at 11 and arrived around noon. Shaylyn didn't need to be backstage until 1:30, so we had an hour and a half to kill.
We walked around for a few minutes hoping to see my family, but when we weren't seeing them - I texted Kami and then my mom. When neither of them texted back, I texted Kaeloni. She responded immediately letting me know where they were. We found them soon enough and found that Kami and Kaeloni's kids were already 'done' with the day and so they were going to go find somewhere to sit or something to keep kids entertained.
We met up with my mom and Donovan and took a look at the trees that lined the building. We took a few pictures of the ones we really liked or ones I thought the kids would've liked to see.
{...Monsters Inc. has long been a family favorite...}
{...Someday I WILL have a tree like this!...}
{...Polar Express...}
{...I just thought this Goosebumps display was great and knew Tanis would love it. I later found out that Shaylyn's best friends mom knew the girl that this tree was dedicated to. She works at a school for kids with disabilities and the girl was a student there. Was super glad I got a picture of that after hearing the story...}
{...The older kids are obsessed with Minions, Shaylyn just didn't really want to be in the picture...}
While wandering around and looking at the smaller displays we came across a nativity set. Normally we would've just walked by, but this particular nativity set is identical to the set we had growing up. It was such a vital part of the Christmas decorating that it seemed odd the first year my mom didn't put it up.
For years she would set the nativity set on angel hair and she took great care packing them away each year. I'm still amazed that with 7 little kids the set lasted as long as it did with very few breaks. Perhaps it was the reason she put angel hair underneath it. I was always afraid the angel hair would cut me, so I steered clear of touching anything near it.
It was then time to get Shaylyn backstage. It would be a half hour until they'd perfom, but my pregnant body was done being on my feet and so I found my sisters and where they were sitting and went and joined them.
I noticed Kami was in an arm sling and had tears in her eyes and looked uncomfortable. I went and talked to my mom and let her know what was happening. She wasn't sure what to do either, but thought maybe Kami and Kaeloni could just head out and my mom would take the kids.
My sisters are awesome and wanted to be there to support Shaylyn and so they both sat through the next half hour just to watch Shaylyn's one number. I really love my family and how supportive they are.
And here's a look at Shaylyn's dance.
When Shaylyn was done performing we went out to supposedly meet her, but she had to watch everyone dance, so we stood around for another 20 minutes. But then she came out and her cousins all clapped for her. It was the cutest thing.
We then all said goodbye. They needed to get Kami back to my mom's to rest and I had to get home to my kids and sick husband. But first Shaylyn and I needed lunch. We stopped at Training Table and had a good meal.
When I got home, I just sat. It had been a long day on my feet and just a long day in general. I was glad to have the experience, but I still don't know why it draws soooo many people. Maybe it's just cause we had the priviledge of performing on a Saturday afternoon.
Most of September was just a bunch of random happenings. We have months like that, and it's perfectly okay with me.
{...FASHION SENSE...}
Eric's mom was at Costco one day before we had gone school shopping and saw a cute outfit that she just had to get Ailey. So when I actually had Ailey wear it I had to take a picture. This outfit also came with a grey jacket thing with yellow flowers on it, but it was way too hot this day to put it on as well.
{...JUST DANCE...}
We were watching one of Ailey's best friends while his mom was at the dr. These two decided to play Just Dance and it was hilarious to watch. The song they chose has got to be one of the most difficult dances on the game, but it's also one of the most fun ones. (Sorry for Shaylyn's chatter during the video - she must not have realized I was recording)
{...REPLACEMENT...}
I happened to notice one day that the freezer wasn't freezing things anymore. I mentioned it to Eric as it had happened before and he was able to fix it. When he got home from work he went about trying to fix it the same way, but decided it was a lost cause.
We took a trip to Best Buy as that was the best payment plan we could find and took a look at what they had. We made our choice, but it was goint to take a week and half to be delivered. That was a crazy long time to go without refrigeration, but we managed using coolers and a lot of boxed and canned foods.
It was almost like Christmas Day for me when my new fridge arrived.
{...Out with the old...}
{...In with the new...}
{...LITTLE DANCING FEET...}
I finally got around to getting Ailey into a dance class. I chose to go with a tumbling, tap and ballet combo class as she's never had any dance before. I thought for sure she'd be all eager to go, but she wasn't nearly as thrilled as she'd led me to believe she'd be whenever she talked about dancing before. Either way, we got her to go and she actually did enjoy herself.
{...CUTE KIDS...}
Jace loves being outside and when he figured out he could play in the backyard, he spent a lot of time there. One day I decided to go sit out there while he played. Ailey joined in a little later and these two just looked so cute that I started taking some pictures. I was super happy with some moments I just happened across.
{...He was giving kisses...}
{...MAKE ROOM DADDY...}
For the most part, Jace and Ailey get along really well. However, they are also both prone to jealousy when mom or dad is holding one and not the other. This almost happened one night with Daddy, but thankfully Daddy has long arms and long legs. The perfect amount of space for 2 little bodies.
{...SILLY DOG...}
There are moments as owners of dogs that make you laugh out loud. This was one such sight. I don't know why our dogs are so attached to soft things...
(...JUST CHILLIN'...}
My older sister sent my little sister and I a text one day with a photo of her daughter in the dryer and with the caption, "I have to get this one out of the dryer."
My little sister responded with a photo of her 2 year old literally hanging on the bar in the car like a monkey while waiting to get his sister from Kindergarten. She replied with "Haha! Do you need us to buy some towels so you don't have to dry her? Then we have monkey boy over here..."
I quickly snapped this photo of Jace and said, "Don't know why you two are having issues, mine is being an angel."
{...2 YEAR OLD TWINS...}
So I was watching my friends boys again while she had a dr. appt. Jace and her kid are only 4 months apart or so and it gives me a pretty good idea of what having 2 year old twin boys would be like. I'm grateful the Lord never blessed me with twins. I might really be crazy. These two monkeys were having the funnest time peeking through the blinds at absolutely nothing...They are fun, but a lot of work.
After her experience with cheer last year, Shaylyn decided she didn't really want to do it again. While she enjoyed the cheer part of it and that kind of thing, the director wasn't someone Shaylyn wanted to deal with if she had any choice. I couldn't blame her and was kind of glad she opted not to do it. (It was a time drain)
However, her and her best friend Mikayla still wanted to do something. So after looking around they decided on dance. They got a bit lucky as the dance studio we decided on also offered a cheer type class - so they weren't missing out really. They'd still learn fancy tricks, but it'd be with a nicer person and it wouldn't take up so much of their lives.
So they took a Jazz dance class as well as the cheer/tumbling class. They enjoyed it a lot and were super excited for their recital. I was super excited that the recital was close by and the costume prices weren't outrageous.
Thankfully, I was on top of my game and remembered to tell Eric's mom when the recital was. She decided to make a day of it and came to the boys games in the morning and then hung around and came to the recital that night. She was a lifesaver. Eric had to work at the game store that night and had to leave the recital early, which would've left me alone with the 5 other kids, but with Eric's mom around - it was so much easier.
So for those of you that missed the recital, but maybe want to see her dances, the video is below. The 1st dance was from her cheer/tumbling class the 2nd was her Jazz and the final one was part of the finale. I was slightly frustrated at my angle during her Jazz routine as Shaylyn gets blocked, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it.
Afterwards, I made sure to get some cute shots of my dancer and her best friends, cause they are pretty inseperable.
Little Baby Lexi
-
There are times when certain scrap kits just call to me...this was the case
when I saw Connie Prince's Baby Love. My little sister had a baby in
January, s...
