Kayla's recital

Kayla played Jingle Bell Rock and Santa Claus is coming to town and she did such a great job! The recital was wonderful and the little party after was great too!

Octopus

Collin read the word, "Octopus" all by himself yesterday!

18 month olds

Wow, going back I can't believe how different their coloring was as toddlers.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

And the winner is.... Tim!!! Yay Tim! He won "overall ugliest Christmas sweater" while I won "tackiest" and Chris won "unsexiest".
We all deserved our wins!
How fun to dress as badly as you can for a party instead of spending time trying to look great! :)

Tuesday night

It's Tuesday night and I happened to have walked by a couple of scenes waiting for me to snap a picture.

The kitty loves to sleep with Collin and Kayla. So sweet.


Walking down the hall upstairs and seeing how pretty it looked down there.


I love our tree. It was Kayla's year to choose and both she and Collin agreed this had to be the one.

Collin and the violin

Today the kids and I went to see "The Princess and the Frog".
It was such a wonderful time! On the way home I noted in my mind what a nice day we'd had and how much peace and Christmas spirit we all seemed to be feeling.
At that moment Collin said, "I really feel like I've been in Heaven before. I can remember it. There are big mountains and there's this little brick wall. Jesus and I sat down on it and he let me play his violin. I remember that."
It was so sweet and a little amusing all at once!

Last week

Last week was such a big week that I barely have any pictures of it because there just wasn't time.
But a lot happened.
Monday: A fairly normal day. The kids had Bailey and Ethan over to play. And they got new pjs! And Collin colored all over his face with marker.



Tuesday: Tim left for a business trip. Kayla had a much anticipated audiologist appointment to find out what the devil was going on with her hearing since she has now failed three hearing screenings. Turns out that just like the rest of her, her ear canals are tiny and any time they put the big headphones on her for the screenings, they actually compress her ears, resulting in... well... bad results.
Her hearing is fine!
Wednesday: Collin had lunch bunch at preschool where he gets to go an hour early and play with his friends and eat together before school. He loves it!
I spent all 4 hours of that time trying to find a dress for Kayla for a holiday party. Almost nothing fit her... we had to go to the 2-6 year old dept to find something.
JuneBug went in to be spayed. Awwww... we felt bad for her.
Here is a picture of her after she came home. She wasn't allowed to be around the dogs for 24 hours so they laid on each side of a baby gate staring at eachother sorrowfully. JuneBug actually reached through the gate to Lucy. Broke my heart.


Thursday: Collin had a Christmas craft party at a friends. After which we had to race home to change in to formal clothes for a holiday party at First Studio.
We were invited by the casting agency that has cast Kayla in a couple of commercials.
Tim was out of town so Chris was nice enough to go with us.
What an incredible night! It was a party thrown by the entire office building, consisting of the production company that produced K's last commercial, the casting agency, a photography company, digital design and many more!
A bar upstairs and one down with live jazz music and goodies galore.
Kayla's commercial and auditions were being looped with other actors' work on two different screens. CRAZY! Many people were excited to see her and she was asked for her autograph by one gentleman... but she didn't have a pen. :)
I had very little time to take a picture of her so her hair is still wet in this one and the kitty was still hurting from surgery and trying to cuddle up to her.



Friday: I had to get Kayla to a new commercial she was filming and wait there with my Mom and Collin until Tim could get home from the airport and meet us. Once he arrived my Mom and I hustled over to the theater at ASU to see the screening of the short film "Ed" to see Kayla on the big screen. It was worth the effort to get there.
Seeing her on the big movie screen was overwhelming for me. Still is just thinking about it. I don't know where acting will take Kayla or where Kayla will take acting, but if all she ever accomplishes is what she has this past year I am immensely proud!
Here is a picture I snapped with my cell phone in the theater.


Saturday: Tim bought the kids a soccer goal net thing (what is it called?) so Collin can get ready for his upcoming season starting in January. He is so excited and I will officially become a "soccer Mom".
I scheduled his birthday party, hired a face painter with his very specific jungle theme requirements and got going on his invitations.
Sunday: family photo shoot in the AM and Christmas shopping all day.
What a week! I'm tired.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Kelsey's parents and sister, Elizabeth were able to join us and we had so much fun.
It was a great day and evening!