Brinley's FIRST Dance Recital!

The second weekend in December Brinley had her very first dance recital! She was so excited! She has wanted to be "on stage" for ever and she finally got her chance! She was pretty nervous at first and so they let me go back to the dressing room with her. I was glad to see where she would be waiting the whole time. She did a great job and I was so proud of her!


They had crayons and pictures waiting for the girls. She was so excited... the perfect activity for her!


They danced to the song "Once Upon a December" from Anastasia. They each had their own little teddy bear with their name on it. So cute!




They had to line up and then took turns running and leaping in the middle... the first little girls to go forgot where to go next, so the teacher stopped the entire thing, gave them a little direction and had them start the whole thing over!

This was her first leap :) She was the last one to go and as soon as she landed the other little girls lined up on both sides on her. I think she liked being right in the middle :)






She LOVED getting to bow at the end :)





Our sweet little babysitter Annika, and our dear friend Casie came to support Brinley at her recital. It was so sweet of them and I know it meant a lot to her!

Casie picked up these cute flowers for me and Brinley loved them :)


Brinley unwrapped her flowers, re-arranged them in this vase, and then decorated the vase. I thought she did pretty good!

After the concert Brinley said she didn't want to dance to "pretty music" anymore, after seeing some of the other music she wants to dance to "fun music"

Preschool - Play - Learn- Grow

The first 2 weeks of December I got to teach Casen's preschool. Each Mom took a turn teaching 2 weeks and I had the last 2 weeks of the semester. It was fun working with the kids and seeing them interact. Such a cute group of kiddos we have!



We learned all about the cold winter, ice, and Antarctica . The kids had fun making little igloos.


We talked about different animals and the different ways they move. The kids had fun racing and pretending to be different animals. Here they are flying :)







Here they are jumping like frogs, Graham was the clear leader on this one!


We talked about shapes and specifically the heart and what it represents. These kids all love each other :)


I let the kids play outside for a couple minutes while I put Marlee to bed, and I came out to find this!


Way too cute!


We made these advent rings to count down to Christmas. We talked about the real meaning of Christmas and the birth of our Savior.

The kids learned about reindeer. We talked about how the real name is Caribou and how the males loose there antlers every year. I traced their hands to make their own reindeer antlers.

Christmas Tree Ornaments... the kids really had fun making these and felt special to have their own pictures in them :)

Cute little Camree sure was fond of Marlee. She was so sweet to her!

We all worked together to have a little Christmas party for the preschoolers, and Keli was kind enough to host!


Casen and his ice skate. The kids had fun making peppermint ornaments and ice skates.



They got to play Christmas bingo and ofcourse Case loved it

Family Photos!

While Raquel was visiting she was SO awesome and took our family pictures! She did an amazing job! Marlee was teething and very grumpy, but despite that I think we still got some great shots... and Raquel did an incredible editing job!

Done with November... just in time for Christmas!

Cereal, chocolate milk, and bubbles for breakfast :)


Marlee helping me take out her winter clothes.


Karrissa, Dayna, and I escaped for a couple hours and got pedicures and frozen yogurt while the kids were at preschool, it was a perfect little break! Marlee joined us too, and was so good :)


LOVE LOVE LOVE coming into this every morning!


One of Brinley's homework sheets, it says "Kylie came to my birthday at Casie's Dad's house". I haven't been very good at having her write her own sentences and I thought she did pretty well!



Casen is loving karate... this is the type of thing they do most the time :)


Organizing their Halloween candy remains


Graham, Jude, and Casen... 3 cute boys loving the wheat grinder


I needed a good excuse to make puffed french toast, so we had a little breakfast while Raquel was still in town. These cute little kiddos loved it!


Love these gals, decided to dye her hair in about 10 minutes in my kitchen! Raquel was going for the same hair color as Ashley, it didn't quite turn out the same, but ended up so cute!


Brinley showing Marlee her NEW school pictures.



Love those unedited eyes :)


Apparently Brinley decided to build herself a little head tent one night and this is how I found her sleeping. The next morning she told me it was cause the light was too bright...


The same night I found Casen sleeping like this :)


Our street happens to be one of the few streets with trees that changed color for the fall, and I loved the color!


We passed this house on the way home from soccer every week and we had to get a picture of it on the night of our last practice!


Marlee has discovered the play kitchen and has been loving it!


Brinley helped Casen write our names, but we only have 1 of each letter so they had to improvise.


Bead jars! We started these bead jars to help our kids be better at bed time and let me just say it is working! Yay! Let's not get away with ourselves, it is still hard at bed time, but better :) Once they fill their jar all the way they can go buy a small toy. Totally worth my sanity.


Brinley rediscovered my glasses


9 months old!

Casen's turkey


Casen helped me make ants on a log for an after school snack, he did so good and it was the prefect thing for us to make together :)


Kylie and Kinley came to play and Kylie brought tacos for everyone, the kids loved them. Brinley and Casen had never had them before!


We got to go see the Christmas lights at Ethel M's Chocolate Factory for family night with the Blanchards. We had a great time. I love this shot of the kids, ALL 6 kids smiling, pretty impressive! All our kids are within months of each other, kinda fun :)


Checking out the chocolate factory and loving it!