Am I really this far behind?

Miss Maya started taking dance a while back. She loves it. They had an evening where we could come watch and take pictures of our little darlings while they had their lesson. It was only her 3rd lesson. MOST of the other girls had taken the year before and had also been taking for 2 months before Maya came in. I have to say she has held her own prety well. She's the one in the black leotard and tights and purplish skirt.


This first video is from Tim. He wanted to capture her teacher's accent. Maybe I've been in the south too long but I don't hear any accent. Can anyone else tell? I'm sure those of you in AR don't hear it either.

Not too bad. Sometimes a little hard to watch all those girls moving at different times but still dang cute.

Christmas Fun

Thanks for everyone's thoughtful comments and ideas for our 12 days of Christmas. We went with the idea of doing a nativity and giving her a piece every day. The kids are loving it and I have found it is helping me focus on something every day that is a little extra special as I run around frantically trying to finish everything up. (Don't tell Tim, but I just bought some fabric to make the girls skirts for Sunday - he'll give me the lecture about that I try to do too much and I stress myself out - but tradition is more important, right?)

Anyway, we had a fun Ward Christmas Party last Saturday and they had a fun little activity to do at our tables while there was a pause in between the program. I thought maybe if there was ANYONE out there that is sooo organized and everything is all done you might find the time to try and figure out the songs. It's called "Guess the Christmas Carol". Let me know how many you get right. If you want I can post the answers later. (Mom, I'm sure you don't have time to do this but I know you will do it - you can't control yourself when it comes to puzzles.)

“COLORLESS YULETIDE”
“CASTANEOUS-COLORED SEED VESICATED IN A CONFLAGRATION”
“SINGULAR YEARNING FOR TWIN ANTERIOR INCISORS”
“RIGHTEOUS DARKNESS”

“ARRIVAL TIME: 2400 HOURS, WEATHER: NOT CLOUDY”
“LOYAL FOLLOWERS ADVANCE”
“REMOTE IN A FEEDER UNIT”
“ARRAY THE CORRIDORS”
“BANTAM MALE PERCUSSIONIST”
“MONARCHIAL TRIAD”
“NOCTURNAL NOISELESSNESS”
“JEHOVAH DEACTIVATE BLITHE CHEVALIERS”
“RED MAN ENROUTE TO BURROUGH”
“FROZEN PRECIPITATION COMMENCE”
“PROCEED AND ENLIGHTEN ON PINNACLE”
“QUADRAPED WITH VERMILLION PROBOSCIS”
“QUERY REGARDING IDENTITY OF DESCENDANT”
“DELIGHT FOR THIS PLANET”
“GIVE ATTENTION TO MELODIOUS CELESTIAL BEINGS”
“THE DOZEN FESTIVE 24-HOUR INTERVALS"

Any Ideas?

Ok! So we are trying to make our Christmas more meaningful around here. We have decided that we wanted to do the 12 days of Christmas for a widow who lost her husband only a few months ago. The problem is that I've never done it before. I started looking on line for some ideas but realized that all my dear friends and family that read this blog are MUCH more creative than a lousy web site. So, if you have any clever things you have done - send them my way. Thanks for you help. Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas Season. We sure are.

WORTH READING!

So, after the whole climate-gate thing with the e-mails proving once again that global warming is a hoax, I wanted to post something but never got around to it. I was going to write about how I saw a smart car for sale by owner and how I figured he was selling it now that he realized he doesn't have to look like an idiot driving a roller skate to "save the planet." (Have you seen those things? One little fender bender and you are toast.) I also thought about posting something about how NBC has their "Green Week" so they encourage you to go green as long as you are watching TV (kind of a contradiction, huh?) Or how I just heard that it would take the whole world using no electricity or any sort of energy for 30 years to drop the earths temperature by one degree - NOT GONNA HAPPEN! Then I thought about cap and trade and how frustrating that is and how I don't want to be taxed out of my home over energy taxes - but I thought I would save everyone from my ranting and raving about that. But this morning I was looking at my brother, Bart's blog and he had this great article that makes me hopeful for not only our country but maybe even the world. Read it. I'm sure that NBC won't be covering this story.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=514118

Amish Store

Our friends here in NC took us to a fun Amish store a few Saturdays ago. After an entire week of awful weather, the sun came out just for that day and it was absolutely beautiful. We had such a great time. They had so many fun things to look at and buy. Yummy pastries and some AWESOME spaghetti sauce that we took home. They had a little playhouse outside for sale so the girls played in there while we sat on the front porch of the store and visited. It was such a relaxing day. Afterwards we went back to their house for lunch - yummy sliders, salad, and treats. The girls love going to their house and playing. They have lots of land to run and play (and a basement with books and toys.) That's also where I got to shoot the gun (see Tim's earlier post.)

Every General Store has to have a dog, right?

The Jenkin's and the girls!

Our family in front of an Amish buggy (not to be confused with a southern shopping cart.)

Thanks, Jenkin's for a fun day! Can't wait to do it again. You are so nice to put up with all of us.

Watch out, Cinnabon!

A few weeks ago Alexa had seen the Cinnabon store and couldn't get the smell out of her nose. One Saturday morning she woke up and told me she wanted to make cinnamon rolls. I said that was fine but I was going for a run and she would need to get started on her own. When Tim and I got back she had the dough all made but was just mixing it with a wooden spoon. We got it in the bosch and everything was fine. She did tell us that she had to start over and that was the 2nd batch. We worked together from then on with her doing most of the work. She did a great job and her reaction when they were done was, "Boy, this takes a LONG time." (Did I mention we didn't eat breakfast until 11:30 that morning?) I don't know when she'll want to try this again but I'm always proud of her when she wants to learn and try something new. It was nice to leave for a meeting the other night and ask her to make some rolls for dinner (with a little help from her dad.

The finished product - good thing I went running that morning! But, if all 4 girls want to learn how to bake - I think I'm in trouble - I may need to start running twice a day!