sale sale sale

So I'm a fanatic about a good sale, and let me tell ya, if you have little ones - gymboree is having a biggie! I bought ahead (hopefully that works out!) for Jake and go the CUTEST 'snow patrol' shirt and hat with a helicopter on them... hat was .99 cents and the shirt was 2.99! I also purchased an adorable blue sweater for 3.99 and another orange and blue shirt for 2.99 - I just don't think you can beat that - PLUS they are CUTE! Anyway, had to try it on him to see if it is still a little big and personally I think it's a winner!

Tutu 'n' Tap Shoes

I have one VERY happy little dancer in my home. We made it to dance class thursday without too much chaos, minus Jake dumping his entire bottle in his lap - nice. But we didn't let that stop us! Emma met Miss Macie with a big grin and was properly fitted for her brand spankin' new ballet and tap shoes. They warmed up with the basic ballet positions and followed with several Chasse's and Pirouette's. Mommy learned a lot just by watching! And since we joined towards the end of the semester and they are warming up for their recital in May, Emma got to join in on their tap number to 'Singing in the Rain'. I am not sure I have ever seen anything so sweet!! Complete with their pink umbrellas! Anyway, I missed getting any pictures of her actually dancing, but here is one from before we left and then just a cute picture of her from the other day :)

The {BIG} gift

Big present of the night :) Every girl needs her pink jeep!




Thank you Nanny & Poppy!!!

Emma's (early) Birthday Party!

We have never taken Emma to Chuck E Cheese... and Nan thought that was a great idea for her early 3rd birthday party while we were there! After all... I think that is where most of mine were when I was a kid! Emma had a BLAST and it made it extra special that so many of my family could make it! So {THANKS} Nan, Pop, Misty, Karren, George and Molli for making this super special for Emma!

Em with Nanny and Poppy

Jake with his girl Misty


(early) Birthday girl and Misty!


Molli and Emma!

more!

Jake just being his cute self and Emma picking dandelions with thursday the puppy!


Jake playing with Papa Ken



More boy time :) And Elizabeth with her beautiful daughter Ava

Some of those promised pictures...

Again, no slide :( Suzanne are you having problems with slide.com too or is it just me?? So frustrating... so instead you'll just have to scroll down through lots of pictures! We will start with the whole reason we traveled that way! To meet miss Ava ~ our {b*e*a*u*t*i*f*u*l} neice!

Emma making sure Ava has her binkie!

Isn't she just gorgeous? 5 weeks old :)

I LOVE it when babies yawn, so precious.

Emma was such a big helper girl, and wanted to help Auntie Elizabeth with EVERYTHING!

Dance UPDATE

Ok, thank you friends for your sweet words of encouragement! We made it through! Whew! I sat Emma down to tell her as soon as she got up and I explained that her teacher was not able to be in class so we couldn't go. She looked at me so sweetly and said "Oh Mommy, that's ok that my teacher can't be there." So thinking she totally got I was beaming with pride, then she quickly added "We can just go dance without the teacher!". Smart little girl, huh? After explaining we would not be able to do that either there were a few tears but she understood. We will head to our first dance class next thursday - and you can bet I'll have pictures!!!

To try to lessen the blow I came up with a fun alternative plan (thanks to my hubby!). We instead went to story time at the library, danced to a few songs, played on the children's computer and checked out a book for Daddy to read last night before bed while Mommy was at work. Yay! It was a success after all. Oh the woes of this thing called mommy hood! :)

What's a mom to do?

So the background to the story is this: Emma LOVES dancing. And not just in an 'every toddler loves to dance' sort of a way. In a passionate, throw yourself into the music sort of a way. I decided we should embrace this and after much searching for a reasonably priced yet high quality place, we found the winner.

Anxiously I enrolled Emma and could not WAIT to tell her. I wish I could have captured the look in her eyes when I sat her down to tell her she was going to get to take dance classes. Fifteen minutes of Ballet, 15 of tap, 15 of jazz and 15 of tumbling. So this, of course, has been an endless conversation taking up most of our days this week. I am pretty sure she even managed to tell every SINGLE person at the grocery store today that her very first dance class is tomorrow.

Well, while at work tonight I got a voicemail - "This is Macie, and I hate to have to tell you this but class is cancelled for tomorrow." {W H A T ?} I listened again... sure enough. Situations that can't be avoided mean class gets the last minute cut for tomorrow at 11am. I actually felt warm tears in my eyes. How in the WORLD will I explain to Emma when she wakes up? The last thing she said to me as I walked out the door for work, I kissed her and said, "I'll come tuck you in when I get home baby" she quickly added "Yes, and we will go to my dance class in the morning!".

What on earth will I tell this child? Yes, this will be the first of MANY disappointments I am sure. And this may seem like such a small thing to you...But if you have children maybe you will understand my feelings. This is not the second class, or the third, but the very first. The one that has been talked about and obsessed over for several weeks now. We even had our tutu layed out on the bed for two days so she could put it on first thing in the morning. I have no idea how to tell her...

What's a mom to do???

broken slide

I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong... but I'm trying to build a slide for all of you to see and it just wont load for me. I have oogles of pictures to share... We have been quite busy this past week - road trip, early bday party for Emma, family in town, friends in town... I'll try to make a slide again tomorrow. Until then - my FAV new pic of Emma will do. (oh I luv my camera so :) )

Bad Morning? Not at this house!

How could anyone ever have a bad morning when this is what greets you for the day? This is the look I get every morning when I head in to Jake's room. Big cheesy grins with plenty of grunting boy noises :) I {LOVE} IT! How could you ever have a bad day? Just can't help it!

(ps... if you look EXTRA close in the second picture you can spy Jake's new top tooth! After a MONTH of swollen gums that one finally made it's appearance! yay!)

Oh how I am so in love with this little man!

(and his sister too, just harder to photograph her these days!!!)

Happy Happy 4!!!

Dearest Kylie

HAPPY BIrTHdAY

CHICK-A-DEE!!!!

We Y you princess!

Love, Auntie, Unc, Em and Jake

Light my Fire

These pictures crack me up, they make me think of that song... "C'mon baby, light my fire, C'mon baby light my fire, time to set the night on fire..." I'm not sure who sang it originally, but I know it's been sung by The Doors and UB40. haha. Anyway, Aaron made us a fire in the backyard the other night after the kids were in bed. We needed to just relax, and that was perfect. I lasted about 15 minutes {maybe} before I decided my bum was frozen. But it was a nice thought - Thanks Baby!