Oh Chickadee

About a month ago, I went to wake up the girls and in the process, I made up a song to the tune "Oh Christmas Tree".

Oh Chickadee
Oh Chickadee
It's time for you to wake up!

Oh Chickadee
Oh chickadee
It's time for you to wake up!

Your beautiful smile
It makes me grin
Your shiny eyes
Give me a thrill

Oh Chickadee
Oh Chickadee
It's time for you to wake up!

Now sometimes the verse gets a little different since this is the first time I've tried to write it down and I tend to make it up each time.  But it generally involves seeing a little girl's beautiful eyes and smile.

This morning on the way home from taking Kaylyn to school, the radio is tuned to "The Christmas Station".  Oh Christmas Tree comes on - in an instrumental version.  And guess what happens?
Morgan:  "Mommy!!!  They're playing Oh Chickadee!"

She was very excited to hear their special song on the radio :)

Morgan is a Scarecrow

Morgan's Preschool had a scarecrow parade at the end of October.  I was counting Boxtops that day so I got to see her parade.

 The pink shirt is actually mine.  It was the only thing I could find that was close to being a scarecrow.

 Isn't her makeup adorable?!

Laura Ingalls Wilder House

The first Friday in November was a day off school.  We arranged ahead of time with Granny for a field trip and headed out to the Laura Ingalls Wilder House.

You are not allowed to take pictures inside the house and I didn't take many pictures outside but we had a great trip and the girls both came home with sunbonnets which will be perfect for Pioneer Day celebrations in July.

In the picture below, Granny is pointing out fossils in the rocks they used to build the fireplace.  Laura had them placed at this level so she could see them.  One thing we learned was Laura was short so she had a lot of things in the house made short, like the kitchen counters.

Although it wasn't Laura's favorite, my favorite of the two houses is still the Rock House (which I didn't get any pictures of).  But the parlor window seats in the farmhouse would totally be my favorite place to read a book and/or watch thunderstorms.

A sweet and strong Spirit

Kaylyn loves to read The Friend magazine, either the actual magazine or the Friend's website.  She is also reading the scriptures and striving to Choose the Right as we get closer and closer to her baptism in January.  The other night I went into her room to turn off her light and this is what I found...

She fell asleep reading the Book of Mormon.  Oh so sweet!  And by the way, she is cuddling the baby blanket I made for her when she was born (I actually finished it on the drive to the hospital to pick her up).  She still sleeps with it and is definitely a Mama's girl - even if at this moment, she is off to the symphony with her Daddy.

Kaylyn's 2nd Grade Performance

Thursday night was the 2nd Grade Performance at the girls' school.  Kaylyn had a one-line speaking part at the end (but Adam missed the picture and Jason, our neighbor, was videoing and then his camera died halfway through the program).

Each song had a variety of actions.The girl on the back row in purple is Kaylyn's friend Lilly D (there is also Lilly N so we have to say which Lilly we're talking about).

 For one song, a group of girls were chosen as dancers - this is Kaylyn's friend Rylie, aka Jason's daughter.

 At the end they waved these ribbons.

Gymnastics Meet - She's #1!

This morning was Morgan's second gymnastics meet (the first one was in the Spring which I apparently haven't blogged about - guess that's added to the To Do list).  Morgan attends a non-competitive gymnastics center so the Meet was more about fun than actual competing.  Every child earns a medal (you may remember Kaylyn doing these each fall).

Morgan "competed" in the Novice 3&4 year old division.  Morgan was the first to do the routine.

Instead of taking pictures, I decided to video her routine - I saved it to a low quality so you could see it faster.

Here's Morgan's score....

 After everyone had a turn doing their routine (and getting their score), they started the awards.  Each Preschooler was given an award.  But Morgan wasn't competing in the Preschool division, she was in the Novice division where they received a Place.  Here's Morgan when she heard her name announced as tied for 1st Place!

 Here's Morgan receiving the medal.

 If you click on the picture below and zoom in, you might be able to get a close up of the medal itself - The top section spins!

Morgan was a little excited about her medal!



 .  Kaylyn was also proud of her sister. 

 A piece of the group shot - Morgan would NOT look at the camera while they were taking the group photos but I was able to zoom in on her and capture this shot.

Fall Recital - Oct 2010

At the beginning of the summer, Kaylyn started working on a sonatina in preparation for a sonatina festival in November.  By mid-October, she was working on the 3rd movement but didn't have it down yet.  So for Fall Recital, she played the first two movements.

 If you're wondering what she's wearing, it was also a costume contest so the kids dressed up.  Kaylyn is a ballerina.

 Immediately after she performed, Kaylyn rushed to be hugged by Daddy.  Aunt Robbie, Ian, Regan, Granny, and Nana all came to cheer Kaylyn on and it really made her day for everyone to be there for her!

An Early Thanksgiving at the Farm

Sandy is home on R&R so we gathered as a family for an early Thanksgiving out at the farm.  We took a group photo but it's on somebody else's camera so we have to wait on that one.

I did take a few pictures.  Here's what Robin was doing...

 Sandy loaded up my Dad's old motorcycle and is hoping to get it ready to ride by the time he returns in the Spring.  The tags from the last time it was licensed were still on the bike - 1986!

 Joseph kept asking if his Dad was going to pick him up from school tomorrow on the motorcycle.  Then we had the following conversation...
Me:  how would your brothers get home?
Jo (his mom): (sarcastic) We'd just tell the school I'll be back in 10 minutes to get the next one.
Me:  (LOL) Oh the principal would love that!

 Sadie thinks she's one of the family but when we didn't let her in the group photo, she decided to relax on the couch with Kaylyn.

 Morgan got a little assistance from Uncle Matt so she could touch the ceiling.

 I wanted to give Sandy and Jo a photo session with our photographer but we couldn't afford it and I doubt they could have squeezed in a session before he heads back.  So we made do with me as photographer for a family photo.  I had hoped to do lots of photos but it was cold and we were running out of time.

 Matt kindly took this one with my camera while Jo took one with another camera (I think Robin's).

 Does this look like trouble to you?

 And this looks like sweetness.  Can you say Ahh!

 Robin didn't get Ian's school pictures this year - maybe this shot I got of him will work for wallets?  I just need to smudge out the background.  He has a great smile for this picture.

 9 years later and still smiling...

 Maybe getting stuck in Hawaii on your honeymoon because of 9/11 gives you the courage to fight it through all battles that come your way.

You thought the barn loft was trouble?  Well, we can change your mind with the tall grass that the boys turned into swords.  Thankfully, I didn't have to feel their sting.

But they had fun :)

Fall Family Pictures 2010

We always seem to want family pictures in the Fall - that's because I'm thinking Christmas cards.  This year, we arranged with our neighbor to have a real photo shoot.  Jason does photography on the side (in real life, he is a network administrator similar to Adam).  He is really developing a talent with the photography!  Here are the shots from our photo shoot.

We headed to a local park at about 4:30 in the afternoon.  Morgan is our cooperative child.  She left Kristie (Jason's wife and Photography Assistant, and the mother of our girls' best friends) pose her anyway - almost like a doll.  Then Morgan would give a great smile and look where she was told to look and Jason started snapping pictures.

 Kaylyn was highly uncooperative.  I finally convinced her to take a picture with me.  In the picture below, she is fighting just a little bit to stay - that's why her smile is almost a smirk.

 She warmed up just a little bit to include her sister in the picture.

 We moved over to a bridge by some rocks.  We tried getting some shots of Morgan walking and skipping across the bridge but the lighting wasn't right so the pictures didn't turn out.  Kaylyn decided to climb the rocks.  I followed her a little bit and signaled Jason to try to get some pictures of Kaylyn without her knowing.  Kaylyn either didn't know or decided to cooperate - by throwing leaves on me (you'll see my hand in the bottom right) and laughing.

 Under the bridge are these little waterfalls that Morgan posed in front of.  She is our little model :)

 Adam arrived and we started some family group shots.  Kaylyn still didn't want to cooperate so she was squirming.  But Jason with his talent captured this shot and I love it - it shows personality and movement and Kaylyn is smiling, at the camera!

 Because we had the picture of me with the girls, we wanted a shot of Adam with the girls.  Morgan didn't want to sit still and immediately started climbing Adam.  We went with the flow, although we had to keep telling her to not cover Daddy's face when she was holding on to him.  She is squealing here, claiming she's going to fall (not our monkey girl).

 We were then able to get some family group shots in front of the lake.  I like this picture, but I do have to admit I don't like that our faces are so squared up with each other.

 This one I like because the girls aren't directly underneath but I like our faces better in the other family shot.

The girls took off to run around with their friends so we were able to get some couple shots.

 We did a little dancing while Jason took pictures and he caught this little dip.  (So no, we weren't posing.)

After the couple pictures, the kids were close by and Jason lined them all up for a friend picture.

 Or two.  The two extra kids are Jason and Kristie's kids - who our girls always want to play with.  Let me say, it is very advantageous to have your daughter's best friend just a few houses away so that I don't have to drive her to a playdate.

When we tried to get Kaylyn's pictures at the beginning of the photo shoot, she was highly uncooperative (I know I mentioned that but she was REALLY uncooperative).  We tried to bribe her with going out to eat afterwards but it didn't work.  After we finished our pictures, she asked where we were going to eat.  We told her that since she didn't get her picture taken, we couldn't go.  She then asked to have her pictures taken.  Jason was very sweet and pulled his camera back out and got these shots of her.