Tavaci Concert

My parents came to visit us and stayed the whole weekend. They were able to attend Kam's school Christmas concert and both girls Tavaci concert that night, which also happened to be my Dad's birthday...

He's definitely not an attention seeker, actually avoids it all together, but I couldn't help but make him cupcakes and sing him Happy Birthday. We went out to eat lunch for his birthday at one of his favorite Mexican restaurants. And, we got a game of Chomp in with the girls after they came home from school.

That night, both girls performed in their Tavaci concert. Both sets of Grandparents were there, along with cousin Kimberley and Ashee. I'm so very grateful for such supportive family, willing to travel to and from in one evening just to watch my kids perform. I truly appreciate and love you guys!!!

Kamryn performed her very first solo!!! She's amazing. We practiced at home and the first time I heard her sing her part to me, I cried. Her voice sounds so angelic. I just prayed that she wouldn't get too nervous and that she'd be able to perform as she does at home. Sometimes when she is nervous, it is harder for her to hit her high notes.

The morning of the concert, she woke up at 5 am and was ready and waiting by 5:45. She was one nervous kid!! She complained about a tummy ache later in the day too. I was nervous for her. Her solo just happened to be the very first song.

We got front row seats, out comes the Tavaci group singing "Old Fashioned Christmas" and Kammi walks up to the microphone to start her solo. The microphones just happened to be turned off, so we missed the first part of her solo. I'm just so happy that it didn't throw her off though. She grabbed the mike after her teacher turned it back on and went on with the solo. She was amazing and sounded great, though I could tell she just wanted to get it over with. Still, it takes a lot of strength to go through with that, I know...not that I've ever done a solo myself (no way!), but I've witnessed first hand what Jeff goes through. After the song was over, the crowd went wild...er, that was probably just our row, mainly my Mom! My Mom cheered the whole concert and actually got other parents to join in. She's always been her children and grandchildren's biggest fan! Yay for Kamryn!!!

London also had a speaking part and did a great job!




Grandma and Grandpa got the two stars some flowers for after the performance.

Cousin Kimberley came with Grandma and Grandpa just so she could hear Kam and London sing. After the concert, we took Jeff's family to our house for some rootbeer floats and we were able to hear Kimberley perform some of the songs she sang for her school Christmas concert. Coming from two very musically talented parents I wasn't shocked to hear how sweet Kimberley's voice was, but seriously the girl can sing and act/perform. She'll be on Broadway in the future, I have no doubt! We were quite impressed!

Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread houses

While my parents were visiting, we decided to share with them the craziness of making gingerbread houses.

After we frosted Sullivan's house, he kinda just looked at it. When we showed him how to stick the candy on, he literally lit up and cheered for himself after he placed each candy. In the end (see photo of my Dad below holding Sullivan's creation), Sullivan ultimately decided to take the roof off of the gingerbread house and fill the house to the rim with candy and then replace the roof. It was all about the candy for him.




My Dad, who happened to be in charge of helping Sullivan, had a little too much fun! Here is Sullivan as Rudolf.



The finished products.

Swimming in December

My parents got a hotel so we got the luxury of swimming in December. The kids literally were in the water for a few hours and had so much fun. Unfortunately, I decided not to swim so Jeff had all 3 kids all over him. Sullivan is quite the daredevil in the water and though I kept a close eye on him, we had one little scare where my Dad ended up wet from the knees down. I thought it was so sweet that my Dad didn't want me to get wet, so he did the dirty work for me. Aww, love my Dad!

Can you see Kam's cannon ball?? She's fun to watch!



Flexing

Our kid proof nativity scene

We have our nice nativity up high on a bookshelf so the kids don't break the pieces. We just recently received this wooden block nativity for the kids (thanks Kylee!)and it has been GREAT to have. Not only do the kids enjoy playing with it, but they actually get to see the nativity scene around Christmas time.



Disclaimer...Kamryn was spending the night at a friends house and London wanted to have a fashion show with Sullivan as the model. She dressed him up all night...hence the lovely outfit he is wearing.

School Christmas Concerts

Both girls did wonderfully! London had a small speaking part, which she nailed!

Shape sorting

He LOVES his shape sorter and he's pretty good at it!

We finally got around to framing and hanging the photos we had taken this past summer.

I love my entryway now, definitely adds to the comfortable/loving/homey feel we are trying to achieve. And, we haven't had any pictures of our kids hanging up on the walls for 5 years because of renting and living at the Leavitt's, so this is quite the happy day for me.

We do plan on buying a wire/metal swirly/leafy thing to hang to the sides of the family portrait to kinda connect the photos...not sure just yet. I guess we will see what Real Deals has for us, I'm quite picky.


I had to turn our tile around for the pictures since it has our last name on it!

Thanks to Jamie at Spin Design Photographics for taking these wonderful pictures and for traveling to the destination of our family reunion and just plain making it easy on us to have these taken...which is a most difficult task with toddlers!!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Kamryn and London often complain that Sullivan is spoiled...I have no idea where they get that idea from.

Nah, here's what it really looks like...

I love things that have meaning, have some kind of a story to them. My Mom has been embroidering Christmas stockings for as long as I can remember. She embroidered mine for me when I was a baby. She also has done one for each of her grandchildren. As the years have gone on, it has been harder and harder for her to get patterns for these stockings...I think that this art is a dying breed, which makes our Christmas stockings that much more special to me. I wanted to document them in my blog, so enjoy...
Sullivan's real stocking...

London's

Kamryn's

My Mom even made Jeff one...

Mine. It has a big hole in the back because it's so old, not because of the lump of coal I get every year as Jeff suggests.

Kamryn was sick at home for the day. I was trying to clean up breakfast. My kitchen had just been mopped the day before and as I was putting leftovers in the fridge I noticed 3 little spots of what I thought was dripped OJ. I wiped them up, thinking that it had a slimer/stickier consistency than OJ. I went around the corner to the pantry to throw the paper towel away and this is what I discovered...

And, this picture doesn't do it justice. He dumped the whole bottle of laundry detergent out on my newly clean floors and then he dumped a whole box of Chex on top of it.

I had Kamryn make sure he wouldn't get into it while I ran for my camera (of course) and some towels, but when I came back he was driving his cars through the stuff. I guess Kamryn wasn't feeling well at the moment and had to lay down. Ugh, it was a long morning of cleaning up after my toddler!

He sure makes life fun!!

My mini series: Ornament Fun