Once Upon a Lilly Pad

Alexis and Tori have been in a musical theatre class for the past little while and a few weeks ago, they had their first performance! It was called Once Upon a Lilly pad. They were so excited and nervous but they did so good, and were so much fun to watch. Alexis was a firefly and a bird, and Tori was an alligator. They worked so hard on their parts and they did great! The parents weren't allowed to watch rehearsals so we didn't know at all what to expect.

Here is Alexis and one of her friends after the show

Here are our two cuties. They were so cute to watch! When their parts came up I was grinning ear to ear. I was so proud of them! Especially of our sweet shy Tori who said her part perfectly. A few weeks before the performance, one of the girls in their class dropped out, so Alexis got her part. It included a solo. She sounded so pretty as she sang it! =)

The girls good friends Kayla and Haylee Beyerlein are in their class with them, and they all had a blast together.

We took a ton of pictures afterwards, and finally had to leave because another class was starting.

The girls had a lot of people cheering them on that night. They were so happy that Grandma, Grandpa, Michael, Nana and Papa all came to support them.

Here they are with their teacher. She was so much fun and the girls just love her.

A new session starts tomorrow. The girls are so excited to continue on and can't wait to find out what their next performance will be. Neither can I! =)

Alexis's Thoughts

We have been trying to be better at reading our scriptures as a family and have figured out that reading before we take the girls to school seems to work best. Over the past week we finished reading Jacob, read Enos, Jarom and Omni (which each consist of only one chapter) and are starting on words of Mormon tomorrow. At the end of each of these chapters the prophet writing is nearing the end of his life and so he turns the plates over to his son or brother to continue recording the record of their people. When we get to the end of a chapter we always talk about who is going to be writing next. After this had gone on for a few chapters, and when we had finished another one Alexis exlaimed:

"I just can not beleive it! They only pass it on to their sons to write in it. It's just like when women couldn't vote!!"

Oh my goodness did we get a laugh out of that! I had to write it down. Alexis is always so attentive and always asks the best questions =)

hAPPY bIRTHDAY cINDY!

Today is a special day! It's my sweet sister Cindy's Birthday. Every year month after month she writes the sweetest happy birthday posts to everyone in our family. How can I let today go by without a tribute post to her?? We had so much having you here with us at Christmas time and wish that could be how it is all of the time. Here are some things that make you so special:

~You are so supportive and genuinely interested in everything that is going on in our lives

~You have great fashion sense

~You make the yummiest treats

~Family is so important to you

~You have taken on the role of motherhood with ease, and are the cutest mom

~You are a great blogger, and have a great talent for writing.

~ You are so much fun to hang out with

~ Your house is decorated so cute

~You love to take pictures, and always capture all of the important moments

~You are a wonderful, sister, sister in law, mother, aunt,wife, daughter, friend, and so much more!

We love you so much, and hope that this Birthday is as wonderful as you are. Come and visit us again soon!

Christmas Day

For the past few years, Santa had brought our kiddos treasures in a sack for each of them. Since Lyla was here this year, Santa left her things in a sack too!I thought that our kids would wake up at the crack of dawn this year, but I was surprised that when I heard them start to stir it was already 7:30! Here they are anxiously waiting to run downstairs and dive in! I love their first thing in the morning looks =)

Christmas morning used to go by so fast for us. We would go through stockings and open up presents and be done in like 45 min. We decided we wanted things to take longer, and to be able to enjoy every moment, so first the kiddos looked through their stockings and Santa Sacks....

Lyla got a lot of really cute and unique toys.......

Tori asked for Go Go my walking pup....

Levi asked for more Hex bugs and a battle zhu zhu pet game....

And Alexis finally got the sewing machine she has been dreaming of =)

We can't forget the grownups!

this is the only picture I got of AJ opening his stocking. He doesn't look to excited about those starbursts, but he was!

No matter how old you get, Christmas morning is always so much fun =)

After that, AJ went to work on making us a delicious breakfast. We had Belgium waffles, homemade hash browns, eggs, and sausage. It was so yummy! While breakfast cooked, the girls played a new ds game they got in their stocking.

Brandon's parents arrived right about breakfast time. They have never been over on Christmas morning, so it was so fun to have them there!

After breakfast we started opening presents.....

These next two pictures of Lyla are so precious! The first one is of her with Tori's gogo pup. Lyla loved it so much! The second one is of Lyla snuggling with her new pillow pet. What a sweetheart =)

We actually got to watch Nana and Papa open the gifts we gave them this year. We usually just put them under their tree for them to open Christmas morning. But since they were coming to our house, we left them here so they could open them with us!

Here is Cindy with her "fake wedding ring" from AJ. Check out her blog for the full story. When she opened it up she exclaimed, "I've been wanting a fake wedding ring!" It was hilarious =)

All of our kids really wanted snuggies this year......

We got done around 1 (i think) so we just relaxed a little, and then headed over to my mom and dad's house, like we do every Christmas afternoon. We had so much fun hanging out with family there. We had a yummy dinner, opened up more presents, and then hung out and played games. Christmas is always so much fun when you are with the ones you love. We were so sad the Fords weren't there =( It turns out that David didn't even get called in on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, so they could have stayed after all! What a bummer!!

I can't beleive another Christmas has come and gone! We had a wonderful whirl wind of a couple iof weeks, with the wedding and then Christmas. It was so much fun being around famiy daily for so long. I love family!!