Dance BBQ

We are super proud of Arabella. She has made a lot of progress this year in dance. It has been perfect for her OCD and ability to remember everything. {Seriously she has the brain of an elephant. She remembers things you wouldn't think she would have been old enough to remember.} 

Tonight The Studio held their BBQ at a local park which has an outdoor stage. It gives the kiddos practice on a stage and in front of an audience without a lot of pressure. I must say it was fun, and I was surprised Bubba did as well as he did considering I forced him to stay in the stroller which he has officially outgrown (holy cow, run on sentence much?).

I'm pretty sure this is one of the reasons she won the "Volcano Award"

The Volcano Award - She always performs with lots of explosion.

I am super proud of her for this award. She received a special Tap Dance award and only 6 were awarded to the entire studio, which consists of over 200 students. Way to go Baby Girl!!!

Only one dress rehearsal until the Recital. Way to go Baby Girl. Mommy & Daddy are so proud of you!!!!

Mother's Day 5K

Arabella & I ran our first Mother's Day Race this past Sunday. It's a special race for many reasons, but mainly it's for girls only. She was so excited to finally win a "golden medal." They provided tiaras for all racers and each finisher received a cute charm necklace as their prize.

It was a long day, but well worth it to spend some time with baby girl. I have an awesome friend who loaned me her single jogger for the race so that Arabella could partake and I wouldn't have to spend forever and a day walking the course. ;)

Before the race

Post Race

x

Our Little Tiny Champ

For quite a while Bubba has been infatuated with martial arts, or so it appears. He has been "High-Yawing" everything in sight and he's really good at take-downs on Sissy. None of which he's ever been shown or instructed how to do any maneuvers. So, after a lot of nagging and whining on my part, Adam finally checked into Tiny Champs.

Bubba has always loved going to watch "Dadda's Dance Class" (Krav Maga) and since he can't partake in Sissy's weekly dance class, it's only fair that we find an outlet for him. I wasn't sure what to expect walking in, but I knew this was going to be an adventure. I mean after all we're talking about a class of 3 and 4 year olds. LOL.

Bubba catching some air during warm ups.

When class started he didn't want to put on his Gi, and therefore he couldn't get on the mat. When they got started with warm ups he was all about jumping into it and quickly changed his mind about the Gi. He fit right in with the boys. (There were two girls in the class but they didn't stay near the boys often.)

Defeating the "Big Bad Monster"

Earning his first belt

At the end of the day it was fun to watch his first class. The kids are hilarious. Evan, still needs to work on his listening skills and patience. The poor kid kept cutting in line for the obstacle course and I had to tell him no at the beginning of class because he already knew where the "toys" were and of course that's the first place he heads to. :P

 I do however believe this will be very beneficial in getting him to listen. I could tell as the class progressed that he was listening better to his instructor. Gotta give props to Miss Whitton... that class of hers if full of energy!

 

How can you possibly not melt at all this cuteness wrapped up in a teeny tiny size triple zero Gi? LOVE!

Big Girl Got Her Ears Pierced

For what seems like ages Bella has been begging us to get her ears "peered." There was even an infamous video from a trip to Wal-Mart. {Note: When she asked Daddy his response was "Well, I have a nail gun at home." She sighed and walked away from him. LOL.}

So after much begging and whining and "needing" earrings and wanting to wear Mommy's earrings we finally pulled the trigger (pun intended).

I tried to take her to a studio with a professional piercer, unfortunately it was their policy that they cannot pierce anyone under 14 years old. :( So we move to the next best place and recommended store, Claire's. I'm glad we did. There were two associates there so they could pierce at the same time and lessen the chances she'd chicken out if they'd only pierced one ear at a time.

We checked out the laundry list of earrings available and she wanted these glitter "butterflies" and quite frankly we could have let her go with them, but they looked more like pink and blue blobs than butterflies. I was actually very surprised she didn't want the Hello Kitty earrings. So Daddy & I narrowed the choices down to a 3mm in her birthstone (blue topaz) or a 4mm pink crystal. She ended up going with the pink crystal.

She had a very nervous look on her face as the ladies approached from either side. She closed her eyes, they counted to three and pierced. She jumped and was so wide eyed. It was a little funny. She had no clue what she was in for no matter how much we explained it ahead of time. Again, very grateful they did both ears at the same time.

When we asked her if it hurt, she replied "The earrings didn't hurt, but the pokers did." Even more funny, the minute she hopped down Evan exclaimed "Okay, Bubba's turn!" It took everything we had to not roll on the floor laughing. He had everyone rolling and of course Daddy explained to him, it doesn't work that way. LOL.

She's done fabulous with them thus far. We clean and turn them three times a day and she doesn't play with them. I'm glad we waited until she was ready for them. I recall driving home that day, looking back to her in the back seat and she just looked so grown up. I don't what it is about a pair of earrings on a four year old, but man she looked like a mini-teenager. ;)

Random Bubba....

And he still won't look at a camera. :/

The one time he looks he's walking towards me and out of focus!

Random Pictures

Recital Costume Preview ;)

Fun at Daddy's class

Watching Daddy remove snow, February 2013

Welcome Kaleb

Brothers

Baby Girl loves her cousin

He's not sure what to do with the baby

Congratulations Daddy!

Today he received his second belt in Krav Maga. He's now a Full Level, Second Degree with an orange belt. :)

4 & 3 Year Pics

Wow, guess it's time to blow the dust off the ole blog eh?

Sadly my laptop gave me fits right after Evan's birthday party in February. And the hard drive is corrupted to the point that it will not come back from the dead. Sadly, I have items that were not backed up on there that are part of a few blog posts I intend to make. Now I'm waiting for Adam's co-worker to recover the data so that I can get the information down. :/

So, now that I have another computer I will share some photographs I've been waiting to edit. Without further adieu...

Our Four Year Old

Our Three Year Old

*These were taken February 20, 2013 - These also happen to be their Easter outfits. :)