Landry is a Girl of Grace

Landry started dancing yesterday at Girls of Grace Dance Co. We have been talking about this day for the last 6 months. She knew that after she turned 3 years old she could start ballet and tap class. After lunch I said, "Let's go put on your dance clothes" Landry replied, "NOW? I get to go now?!" She kept saying, "I'm so excited!" She was so precious in her new dance clothes.

She is a natural at doing dance poses. She likes her tap shoes the best.
This is what I have been waiting for for 3 years. It's a great day for Landry and mommy!

Mandy Alexander is one of the owners of Girls of Grace and one of her teachers along with Ms. Sara. Mandy was precious to her and made Landry feel very comfortable and happy. She didn't mind at all that I left her. Each girl has a chair with her name on it. They sit in the chair to change their shoes before class starts. They sat in a little circle and learned how to point their toes. They are talking about the fruit of the spirit and today was kindness. Landry got in the car and told me, "I have to be kind to my brudders!"

Landry told us she loved the class. I asked her at dinner, "What was your favorite part of your dance class?" She said, "When we did point, point, point!, Daddy, what was your favorite part of my dance class?" We just laughed and laughed at her.

Christmas Eve

My babies have sweet teeth, not a sweet tooth. I let them dip oreos, marshmallows and peanut butter Ritz crackers in chocolate. Landry and Layton LOVED it! I think she ate more off the fork than she got on the oreos.

We had Christmas Eve lunch at Sis' house and dinner at Mammie's house. Here is Papa and Layton with his new signature pose. For those of you who don't know, that's a pretend light saber pose. Sis set up her little DVD player for the kids to watch. They thought that was so fun to be able to hide on the other side of her bed and watch her little tv.

Best Fwend

Landry told a clerk at a store, "Campbell Cilio is my best fwend and she is coming to my house to play tonight." Here they are on New Year's Eve. They were such troopers being so tired. They all made it till midnight. Sweet things!

Jackson, Layton and Logan were troopers too. Next year though, we're getting babysitters!

This was at 5 minutes till midnight.
You can certainly tell these little girls have big brothers.

Making Christmas Cookies

As most of you know I bake almost everyday. My kids want to help me almost everyday. Most of the time I say no because I am making the stuff for customers who are trusting me to keep their treats fresh and out of the hands of minors. The week of Christmas I said, YES and they made as many cookies as they wanted. It was fun!

Landry's cookies made me laugh so much. I showed her many times how to do the cookie cutters but she insisted on rolling hers up and smashing them all out.

Here are her finished cookies. WOW!

Then we got to share them with our good friends, Jackson and Campbell Cilio. The kids loved icing them. The boys really got into it more than the girls, they just ate them!

A Little Piece of Quiet

I let Landry take a bath in my bathtub for a treat. I don't let the kids do this a lot because they splash too much and I have curtains above my bathtub. Anyway, she was soaking and I was in the closet hanging up clothes,etc. I walked out and this is what I saw. I guess she needed a little time to herself to relax.

All the Girls

The day after Christmas we got together with my Nana's side of the family. We took an all girls picture (Kerstyn and Lauren were missing, they were in California visiting her mother) Pictured is my Nana (the matriarch now) with her sister, Aunt Betsy with their daughters and granddaughters. Nana is in the middle of the back row. Beside her is mom, Allie and me. To the left of Nana is Aunt Betsy and then Julie and Heather. The front row is Jill, Brooke and Hayley. Then Landry is the precious one in front. I love all of our girls and I hate that we aren't together more than we are. That is our new year's resolution: To spent more time together as an extended family!

Landry Loves Santa (not)

Landry has been telling us for about a month that she didn't like Santa and she was going to cry when she saw him. I am not of the mommy camp that lets her children choose if they want to sit in Santa's lap or not. They will and they do like it or not! It's worth it to me to have a few seconds of crying for a precious picture. It's just the way my mom did it and it's the way I am doing it. I have 4 years of pictures of me as a little one crying in Santa's lap and the pictures are adorable (if I do say so myself) and I was not harmed because of it.

I did however ask Santa not to touch her. Adam said I sounded like I thought he was a pedophile but I didn't mean it that way. I just asked him to let Logan hold her and to just be in the background. He complied and it was better than I was expecting. Notice how happy she is, haha.