Dance Recital and Parent/Teacher Conference

Holiday had her Holiday Showcase at the dance center on Sunday.  It was an informal event and fun, not all the students were there but it seemed okay because it's a small studio.  We were sitting down on the mats in front watching all the dance groups.  It seems the class structure for Holiday's class is much more focused on creative movement than pre-ballet than it did last year, but that actually seems more age appropriate for Holiday.  Besides, she's having fun so nothing else really matters.  They had all sorts of Christmas goodies there so we all got treats when Holiday's show was over.  Grandma Claudia got to come see the show too.  Yesterday evening we had our first parent/teacher conference with one of Holiday's teachers.  Basically she's doing quite well with just a couple things to work on that we were pretty much already aware of.  Like being able to focus on what the teacher is directing the class to do as opposed to her doing her own thing, keeping track of her things because they find them everywhere, and being able to put the letters of her name in the right order.  All of this sounded like normal 4 year old stuff anyways.  They probably need to point out every little thing to parents just in case they were dealing with parents that really were clueless to their child's development.  So none of that surprised me and it's stuff we're working on at home anyways.  But Holiday knows all her letters and their sounds, knows numbers, getting a grasp on time and days of the week, plays well with others and on her own, wonderful imagination and an impressive vocabulary.

Cute kids...as if there was any doubt

Holiday on the merry-go-round downtown.

And Daddy and Johnny too.

Johnny was less interested.

Hello Captain Adorable!

Okay, so the story behind this was that after breakfast that morning, Johnny was sooooo covered in yogurt that I took off his pajama top then wiped him up.  So now after lunch he thought that since he was done with his sandwich that he needed to take his shirt off.

It was absolutely hysterical, everyone was laughing pretty hard.

All smiles in our jams around the Christmas tree.

Thanksgiving and Christmas tree pics

View of the rec room at Aunt Kelly's house, most of the men-folk.  L to R: David, Ryan (Kelly's friend Ania's son), Fred (Wade's mother's boyfriend), Johnny, and Uncle Wade.

Holiday and Johnny in matching jams.  I'm back in the kitchen (view from standing in the rec room).

More jam action.

They look like 'whos' from 'whoville'.

Hey it's Cindy Lou Who.

Awww...

Just too much cuteness.

Stop the cuteness already.

Cuteness plus Johnny's cheese face = off the Richter scale of cuteness.

Johnny, Holiday and Hally (Uncle Travis's daughter).  Johnny is actually saying 'cheese' by the way.

Snow!

Presents from Aunt Kelly.

Back to cuteness.

Strike a pose...

vogue...

Camera distraction over...back to presents.

There's the elephun for Johnny and notice how Holiday is keeping 'Backpack' as far away from Johnny as possible.

Johnny and Uncle Wade.

Setting up the Christmas tree.

Johnny's helping with the ornaments.

And so is Miss Holiday.

All of Daddy's hard work on outdoor lighting.

We went downtown on Friday for the Figgy Pudding contest.  Holiday liked it but Johnny didn't like being always harnessed in something or other when he'd rather be running through it all himself.  He didn't like being on the merry-go-round either.  That's okay, we can wait on rides.  Yesterday I took Holiday to the Nutcracker at McCaw Hall while Daddy and Johnny hung out.  Holiday was more and more excited with the whole process of walking across the grounds, seeing the lights, then the building, going inside, getting a special cushion, getting a ballerina cupcake, and then seeing the stage.  She kept asking, "Where are they going?  What happens next?  When is it my turn?"  Yep, she just couldn't get it out of her head that she was going to perform as well on that beautifully large dance floor.  I told her they just don't let the public dance on their stage.  "Why not?  Don't they like us?"  "They like us just fine.  There's just too many people to manage that."  "Ohhhhh...they don't like us." (Sounding very sad).  She wouldn't let it go.  She told her daddy all about them not liking us.  But she still had a good time even though she was denied the dance floor.

Some ballet class pictures

Does Holiday like posing for the camera?

In a word...YES!

Whole class with her teacher Miss Alyssa.

Skipping along...

and along...

The teacher has an assistant now since the class is so large just to keep the girls herded together.

Shake-shake-shake

and twist...

and twist again.

David is putting up the Christmas lights outside.  This got the kids really excited.  So much so that they kept banging on the window calling out for him.  It's good to be a rock star.

Catching up on pictures

This was at Ayden's 6th birthday party almost a month ago.

Pretty cool looking cake.

Holiday, Ayden and Grandma Claudia.

Johnny's got a birthday balloon.

Johnny getting a horsey ride from Uncle Chris.

Now it's Holly's turn.

Kids snuggling with the grandparents.

Holiday and Johnny having a 'sleepover' in the hallway.

Too cute.

Now it's 'dump out all the toys so we can climb into the toy box' game.

It's lots of fun.

Yeah...Mommy has gone through the toys since then.

So we're back from our Thanksgiving vacation.  We went to Aunt Kelly and Uncle Wade's house in Spokane.  We had favorable driving weather both ways.  We did have to slow it down a little through Vantage coming home the fog was so thick, but there wasn't much snow driving at all.  Kelly's house is pretty big so we were able to stay there overnight as well as visit.  The house still needs some work, but they've done a lot already and a good job at that.  I tend to be a barefoot walker at home and they had some NICE carpeting and hardwood flooring put in.  We got to meet her friend Ania and her family as well as play some board games with Kelly, Wade and Wade's cousin Olie and her boyfriend.  I think we were making too much noise playing Wits and Wagers because Holly kept coming downstairs wanting to be part of the action.  It took several tries to get her to go to sleep.  I guess Olie sang Twinkle Little Star on a loop till she did.  She's great with kids, but she's one of eighteen kids so she has experience.  Yup...no typo...18.  No multiple births in there either. (Ouch...my uterus!)  She's 23 going to school to be a OB/GYN nurse, I think that's pretty suited for her.  Her oldest sibling is about 40 and the youngest about 10.  It's hard to fathom.  Holiday and Johnny opened Christmas presents from Kelly and Wade so they can see their reaction.  Johnny got an Elephun toy that was a hit and Holly got Backpack, the character backpack from Dora the Explorer.  That was the hit of the century.  Holly was of course excited about it, but Johnny went crazy excited and he kept repeating 'Backpack...backpack...backpack' in a high pitch excited squeal because he recognized it from the show.  It was incredibly funny.  The kids had a great time as did we all but they really didn't want to leave.