The Nutcracker

Mikayla continued to take ballet class through the rest of the year with her cousin Kambria and got the opportunity to participate in the Nutcracker. I don't think she quite understood the whole scope of what she was a part of, but she was sure excited for her 5 minutes of fame on stage.

 She went on stage first as a baby mouse.

 There was a lot of waiting backstage but the girls kept busy with coloring and playing together.

 On stage the baby mice were partnered with a soldier.

Mikayla was partnered with her neighborhood friend Emma.

 After their performance as baby mice, the girls had to quickly wipe off their make-up and get ready for their next part.

 Getting her make-up done was always one of the highlights

 Heart lips

 Beautiful baby angels 

 

Mikayla did exactly what I asked her to do during her few minutes on stage--she smiled and looked out at the audience as she went across the stage. She even gave a little wave as she was exiting.

 There was lots of family that came to watch those 2 girls perform.

 Mikayla was super excited when we surprised her with flowers after the show was done and proudly got to display them in her room.

We enjoyed watching Mikayla and glad she got the opportunity to participate in the Nutcracker!

November Wrap-Up

 Austin's soccer team put on another fundraiser to help earn money for tournaments and uniform.

 They were the first customers trying out the food before serving it to the public.

They did a great job and the team made a good profit.

 Cousins playing in the sand at Sonic on a warmer November night.

 Brooklyn's favorite new activity is doing puzzles and she is getting pretty good at doing them all by herself. She was happy to have Mikayla's help on this day.

 Playing super heroes with friends is always fun.

Owlette, Catboy(girl), and Gecko from PJ Masks 

 Enjoying the nice November weather and hitting the park.

 Craig and his dad spent several hours one week playing old school Nintendo games.

 Mikayla actually let me get rid of her blanket that she has used for years and years. It was old, and frayed, and had holes in it. I tried to get rid of it before but Mikayla wasn't ready. I still don't think she wanted to do it but after it went out in the trash it was a done deal.

Katelyn drives us crazy by always getting into the pantry and pulling snacks out to eat.

 These two fight like cats and dogs sometimes....actually most of the time so we grounded them from their electronics and made them play a game together...haha!! They actually enjoyed themselves and spent hours playing together.

 Katelyn has decided she wants to feed herself with a spoon. I can get away with doing it most of the time but some days she won't have it and has to do it herself.

 Making sugar cookies at cousin's house

 Got some new family pictures taken. Love these beautiful children!!

Our new family picture!

Soccer Season

Austin continues to do what he loves (and his dad loves)......PLAY SOCCER!!

He got a new coach, Coach Copeland and several new teammates this season. They are a great group of boys and we really enjoyed watching them play.

And during the games, the girls found plenty of friends to play with.

Austin spent most of his time as a defender.

He also got to play forward several times during the season too. And scored a few goals. What a great corner shot he had in the above picture!

We celebrated the end of soccer season with a pool party!

Boys being boys

The girls were out numbered but they enjoyed themselves also.

Fall Soccer season in the books.....now we get to enjoy a couple months off before it gets crazy again in the spring. But watching this kid enjoy something he loves to do makes it all worth it!

Thanksgiving

Earlier in the month we put together a Thanksgiving tree to help remind us of all the things we are thankful for. Austin and Mikayla really enjoyed doing this and came up with almost all the things on the tree on their own. We discovered there is a lot to be thankful for.

 Thanksgiving morning Craig took Austin and his cousins who had spent the night to the annual  turkey bowl. There was a choice of football and soccer and no surprise they chose soccer.

 Mikayla made handprint turkeys for all the kids attending thanksgiving dinner. We had a traditional dinner at Dave and Debbie's house. For the previous 12 weeks several of us were participating in a weight loss challenge which ended on thanksgiving day.

 The top three losers (aka winners) of the challenge.
This was calculated by the percentage of weight lost not just pounds. 

 Andrea snuck in at the end and was the biggest loser, followed by Jeff, and then Dave. Altogether we lost a total of 140lbs which is awesome!  My goal was to lose 10 pounds and I lost 11.2 pounds so I was super happy about that. I'm sure you can imagine how much we all enjoyed thanksgiving dinner and the pies after 12 weeks of watching the calories!

 Brooklyn and Bristol about to enjoy their chocolate pie!

 We ended the night with another sleepover. This time the boys at Jeff and Andrea's and the girls at our house. It was Bristol's first sleepover at our house. She looks excited!

 On Friday afternoon us girls had fun getting together to do a Christmas craft.

Then on Saturday we had another Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house with Nathan & Dayleigh, Travis and Jessica who came into town. The kids were super excited about the leaves at my parents house since we don't have trees. They spend a good hour outside raking leaves into a big pile. It was a great weekend. So much to be thankful for especially people. I feel so grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful family and friends!