Jingle Bell Rock

Kaylie had a fun time dancing with the New Richmond Dance team when she did "Jingle Bell Rock". She and 90 other girls participated and learned a dance in 2 hours on a Saturday and then performed at a high school basketball game halftime. She did great and really enjoyed herself. It was fun to watch her dance! Here are a few pictures from it.


Kaylie practicing her dance at practice.



Kaylie and her good friend Shaye practicing right before performing.

Kaylie performing at halftime.

Christmas shopping

So we attempted to start our Christmas shopping this weekend but found some other things to do instead. We headed to Mall of America because I wanted to go to the American Girl doll store to get the girls some things for their dolls. The girls decided they wanted to get their dolls hair done in the salon they have their for the dolls. So we spent most of our afternoon in just that one store. Ryan was pretty excited :) He already loves that store so much after having lunch in their cafe last year and the dolls got about as much food as he did. Oh well, it is a fun stop for the girls and they love their dolls. We still have a ton of shopping to do but we always have next weekend!


Maddie showing off her Bitty Baby after they put a bow in her hair.


Kaylie showing off her American girl doll after her hair was done.



Kaylie waiting patiently as her dolls sits in the salon chair and gets her hair done.

Maddie waiting for her Bitty babys "hair" to be done.

(they don't exactly have hair but Maddie thought her baby needed a bow like her)

Swimming Lessons

Here are a few pictures from Kaylie's first go around at swimming lessons. Much to my surprise they are going very well. Even though Kaylie is used to swimming and loves to be in the water and spends a lot of her summer in Mama and Papas pool, she very much dislikes getting her face wet. She defintely has put on her game face for swimming lessons and does whatever the teacher asks her to do, which we are very proud of her for. We were told that this was just a slow introduction to water so we thought it would be perfect for her, however, they just jumped right into going underwater and having them do the back float and front float which she is doing great at.




Kaylie and her teacher getting into the water.



Madelyn enjoying some time in the water while Kaylie is at swimming lessons.

Getting ready for Christmas!

It's hard to believe that Christmas is right around the corner and being the procrastinator that I am, No I haven't even started shopping yet! Oh well! It always gets done!
Here are a few pictures of us getting ready for the Christmas season. The first few are from church and making our advent wreath. Our family had fun having dinner at church and then making this project together. The girls really enjoyed it and are proud of their end results as you can see. The other pictures are from when we got our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. We had fun decorating it and our house!




The girls holding the advent wreath they made.


Kaylie



Ryan and the girls working hard at putting it together.

Enjoying a candy cane while our tree was being prepped.

Kaylie enjoying some hot apple cider after picking out our tree.

Olivia has arrived!!!

We are so excited to have our new baby cousin/niece here!! Olivia has finally arrived and she is soooooooo adorable (as you can see)!!! Our family had fun visiting them at the hospital last night! Sarah looked great and seemed to be doing awesome. The girls are so excited to have her here! They have been waiting and waiting and guessing at when her arrival would come. When we got home from the hospital, Kaylie went and got one of her baby dolls and swaddled it and was rocking it last night and whispering to her "Olivia". It was pretty cute!
Congratulations Sarah!!! You are going to be a great mom!!




Adorable Little Olivia


Mama and Papa with their grandkids!



Sarah and Olivia

Halloween 2009

Our little Wizard of Oz girls


Glinda the good witch in my old flowergirl dress



We certainly cheated this year! We weren't up to the whole carving thing so we just bought things that they could push into the pumpkin. Here they are showing off their end results.




Our little Dorothy holding Toto in her basket.

So it's only going on a couple weeks past Halloween, but thought I would post a few pictures of the girls and their Halloween fun. They had a great day! Kaylie was busy all day with birthday parties and trick or treating. Madelyn went as Dorothy. Wizard of Oz is probably one of her favorite movies right now so she insisted she was Dorothy. Kaylie decided she wanted to be Glinda the good witch from the movie.
We had a little harder time finding Kaylie's costume until my mom remembered she had saved a flowergirl dress that I wore when I was 4 or 5 in my aunt Sue's wedding. It worked perfectly! It looked just like Glinda's dress on the Wizard of Oz! Now the only probably was Glinda's tall crown! We couldn't find one to buy anywear! Believe me I searched high and low and had to settle for making one. I am definitely not a crafty person but she was happy with it and thats all that matters!

Kaylie's Kindergarten Halloween

Kaylie and her teacher Mrs. Jacobson


Kaylie and her class



Kaylie singing "If your scary and you know it!"




Kaylie parading around the school with her class.


Madelyn and I had fun watching Kaylie in her Halloween parade around her school and at her Halloween program in her classroom where she sang some fun songs that she has learned in Kindergarten so far this year. Kaylie was Glinda the good witch from the Wizard Of Oz.