Academy of Dance Winter Concert 2011

Well we had our 7th dance recital as Academy of Dance. It was a bit stressful, but extremely rewarding all at the same time. This year they double booked us with the high school so we ended up having to move our rehearsal to the Jr. High and had our recital at Herriman High School again. It worked out, but I will say I don't ever want to have them at 2 different places again (ha ha ha...I lost way too much sleep over all of that:))

Anyways as always my girls did AMAZING, it was so much fun seeing them all up on that stage. I am always amazed how much they have progressed over the past couple of years. I can't even begin to say how lucky I feel to be able to do what I do. Dance is such an amazing part of my life and I feel so lucky to be able to share it with such incredible little girls! I am also so lucky to have such great teachers teaching at the studio this year...they are all so dedicated and LOVE dance just as much as I do:) Anyways here are some pics from last night!

P.S. My dad took pictures and I had him video Lydia's class because our card on our video camera was full so I don't have any pictures of Lydia's class...but they were stinking CUTE!!! I am sure I can track some down so I will try to add them in later!

Lydia waiting to go to her recital...she was being a stinker and I didn't get any great pics of her before

I love their little flapper costumes!~

2-3 yr old Big Girls Don't Cry...they were darling! I am always amazed with how well little 2 and 3 yr olds do on the stage.

5-8 yr olds When will my life begin, our darling Rapunzel dancers...they were absolutely FABULOUS!!!

Marie Choreographed this one and it was so well done!

3-4 yr olds..."Little Itty Bitty" they were so cute...each one had a huge smile on their face the whole time. This was another one of Marie's and it was so stinking cute!

Academy E (4-7 yr olds) "Party Rock Anthem" Let's just say this was one of my favorites...they got so into it and with the song it was so CUTE!!!

Academy C (7-8 yr olds) "Pump It" Keri choreographed this one and it was so cute...the girls have improved in their hip hop a ton this year!

Academy D (5-6 yr olds) "Can't Buy Me Love" They were so stinking good, most of these girls have taken from me for a few years and it showed, they were seriously so good!

Academy A "Imma Shine" Keri Choreographed this amazing hip hop for the oldest girls, she did a fabulous job and the girls honestly looked AMAZING they had worked hard and it showed!

Academy E (4-7 yr olds) "I can't get no Satisfaction" These girls danced their little hearts out, they are such a fun group and it showed in their dancing!

Academy B (9-10 yr olds) "Beggin" Keri choreographed this hip hop as well, it was so good and so fun to watch, the girls did amazing!

Academy A "Sky Scraper" Nichol choreographed this AMAZING lyrical...I was in tears by the end. The girls have grown so much over the past few months and it is hard not to get emotional about them. I love these girls, they are the BEST!!!

Loved this shot!

Acadmey D (5-6 yr olds) "That's what little girls are for" Oh my goodness I can not tell you how much I loved this dance and these dancers. It was a hard routine and they knew it so well and danced their hearts out. I am so proud of what a good job they did!

Academy C (7-8 yr olds) "Jump Jive n' Wail" this was one of my favorites by far, the girls were so into it and they had so much fun. It is so fun when they get a little older and really start to get it...they were AWESOME!!!

Academy B (9-10 yr olds) "Magic" Oh my goodness these girls are seriously so AMAZING...they have improved so much and the difficulty of this dance was insane. They worked so hard and they looked so stinking cute up on stage. Love it when they get to show off how hard they have worked!

Academy A "Good Luck" What else can I say other then AMAZING...these girls looked so good and are such great examples of what a lot of hard work and dedication will get you. I loved watching them up on stage and seeing how much they have grown over the past few months. I seriously can't say enough nice things about these girls...so fun to watch!

FINALE'

Part of Academy A...I LOVED their costumes, so cute!

My teachers, Keri, Marie, Nicole and my Best Friend Meg to ran the show back stage...they are all so amazing and I am lucky to have them as teachers and friends!

I am so lucky to do what I love...don't know what I would do without this in my life!

Bad Mommy!

So the other day I put my girls in Lydia's room in hopes they would play together for a little bit so I could get the house cleaned. Well to my surprise they played so well. I checked to see and it had been over an hour. I kept thinking I don't want to go in there and disrupt them, usually they will play together for 20 minutes or so and then they get in a fight and sister time is OVER!!! Not this day though. Anyways I was cleaning my bathroom and could hear Auds approaching...in crawled the little stinker and she was COVERED in marker. I was horrified...I ran into Lydia's room expecting to see a room covered in marker...well pretty close both girls and their 5 foot teddy bear. I pulled them out and was trying to figure out what to do first (well after taking pictures.) Lydia kept asking "Are you going to put me in time out?" Now usually miss-use of markers is time out worthy but this time I just couldn't...I was the bad mom that thought, I am just going to leave them. We had a big talk about not using the markers to draw on ourselves, at which point Lydia informed me she just wanted to look like a tiger, and so did Audrey and Teddy. Anyways after a good bath, and scrubbing Teddy with carpet cleaner they were all marker free! I had to laugh, especially at Audrey because she was just as happy as can be! Lydia even went as far as to put red marker on Audrey's lips so it looked like a creepy combination of the Joker and chucky...ha ha ha! Anyways I love my girls, and even though I don't love cleaning up markers I love to think of them getting along and being best friends...something I never had the chance to have!

Lydia knew she was in trouble and when I got in there she was in the bathroom trying to wipe it off, so her picture is slightly less obvious how bad it was.

Audrey on the other hand was clueless as to what she looked like (ha ha ha!)

I had to post this little gem, our Simon is so creative...we love finding where he is going to be hiding every day (ha ha ha!)

Welcome back...Simon!

Well it has been a long time since I have posted...life has been a bit CRAZY to say the least!

Anyways here are a few things I haven't been able to post about and probably won't get around to...

1. We had a great Thanksgiving spent with family and friends. Got some snowboarding in, ate some yummy food and played Settlers!

2. Saw Twilight, other then the totally cheesy wolf seen I LOVED it! I am already excited for the last one to come out!

3. Did some black Friday shopping. We live a block away from Walmart and we had to park all the way by the clubhouse...to say that it was CRAZY would be an understatement. We got very few things, sleep but we had a lot of laughs, and I got rammed by quite a few carts from psycho lady at walmart. I don't think that I will ever do that again (unless I have a big item in mind.) I value my sleep way to much, and I think Chris realized I am not a fun person to be around on no sleep (ha ha ha!)

4. Audrey got her first hair cut...I was so glad I paid to have it done after seeing how wiggley she was, I had debated but if I had tried pretty sure it would've been butchered!

5. The most important and exciting new for our family is....

SIMON "the elf" is back!!!

We have had so much fun looking for Simon each morning. Lydia found him in the fridge, in her barbie's tub taking a break, on top of the star on the Christmas tree, sneaking some gold fish from the pantry and today she found him cuddling with Snow White!

Can I just say I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Christmas time with a toddler...SO MUCH FUN!

A sneak peak!

Our good friend Andee Mcdonald did my family shots. My parents LOVED our so much so my dad got that for my mom for her birthday. We wanted some fall shots and we were so lucky to have the weather cooperate. It had snowed off and on all day but I seriously think they turned out darling. Thanks again to Andee I seriously can not

say enough nice things about her, we just feel lucky to know her! Check out her blog at andeesphotos.blogspot.com or her website www.andeemcdonaldphotography.com!

My darling parents!

Liddy we a bit freezing and highly uncooperative while the photographer was taking pics...ha ha ha

Little stinker was more concerned with the geese then getting her picture taken (ha ha ha!)

My brother Derek...I am pretty sure this picture will be on the back of one of his books he writes. He is destined to be a famous author for sure.

My brother Tyler...yes ladies he is single so if you have anyone to set him up with let me know (my kids need some cousins ASAP...ha ha ha!)

Our little family

A picture of Chris and I w/o kids...very rare (ha ha ha!)

I love Audrey's face...you can tell she is totally holding in a laugh!

Love the red in the background...so CUTE!!!

Nana and Grandpa LOVE their granddaughters...and they love them too!

My dad made the mistake of running through a bunch of birds while holding Liddy's hand and scared her half to death so we were trying to get her happy again!

Love, Love, Love this photo...the colors couldn't have worked any better!

A fan already

If you are a fan you will completely understand (ha ha ha!)

Halloween 2011

It was another great Halloween. I had the perfect day planned out in my mind, and let's just say it didn't turn out anything like I had imagined. I made soup...no one touched it (I had the left over's the next day and I thought they were pretty dang good if I may say so myself...ha ha ha!) I got caught in traffic driving the babysitter home after dance so I was rushing to get my glowstick luminaries put together...which in turn left my kitchen a DISASTER area, I don't do well with messy. Chris was stuck in traffic as well so I was a bit frazzled trying to get kid's ready and out the door (luckily my parents decided to ditch the 8 trick-or-treater's they would've had in their neighborhood and come with us so they were a HUGE help.) Anyways I had envisioned soup, trick-or-treating, pics of kids in cute skeleton jammie's, kids to sleep and watch a scary movie...ha ha ha and honestly even though it didn't turn out the way I imagined it was still a fun filled night with lot's of tricks and treats!

My mom and dad were good sports to come trick or treating with us in the cold, while Chris stayed back and handed out treats.

Liddy and Peyton...best of friends!

Grandpa was on car duty with Audrey...she was freezing by the end of the night but didn't even say boo, she loved every second she got in that little red car (ha ha ha!)

Nana and the girls!

Disclaimer* Yes Chris and I are adults, do we always act like it (NO...ha ha ha!)

Chris has had this plan for almost a year to play a prank on a bunch of our neighbor's...hence goblin boy. We placed him on our neighbor's doorsteps after 8:30 and to say that it was a bit creepy would be an understatement. We had a lot of really funny reactions, from throwing the dummy, to throwing candy at the dummy to giving the dummy choices of candy and asking if it was ok. Overall it was one of the funniest nights I have had in a LONG time. We will have to plan a new trick for next year...don't worry we are that immature (Ha ha ha!)

You have to admit if this was on your doorstep not moving a muscle you would be a bit nervous!

Kid's Halloween Party!

Our cute neighbor's up the street hosted a FABULOUS family halloween party. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to make, but boy am I SO glad we did. They went ALL OUT. The kids had yummy pizza, then played outside for a bit. Afterwards the kids decorated cookies, made spooky puppets, and went through their spook alley in the basement where the kids got to find friends like Dora, Belle, Buzz and many more. It was SO much fun, we were so glad we were able to make it!

P.S. My visiting teacher's husband does a charity where if you donate canned food he takes your kids Halloween pics for free...such a great idea! Anyways the girls were still happy after the party so we headed straight there and I will say he did a great job and was DARLING with my girls!

The cute halloween pic by Kevin Lunt photograpy

I didn't get a lot of pics, but honestly if I had left Audrey in this swing I am pretty sure she would have been content til next week (ha ha ha!)

The cute spooky treats that were provided

My little witch playing "Haunted House!"