A BEAUTIFUL child in my class!

This is a girl in my class. She blows my mind every time I take their pictures. She is so natural and at ease when I take her picture. This is probably one of my favorite pictures ever! Thank you to her mom for letting me post it!

BayLea, Ballet, and photography practice!

I was practicing some shots with a new backdrop and BayLea. I love her in this all black look for ballet!

She's a natural!

Dinner at Auntie Lynette's

We had dinner at Lynette's and Jack's last weekend. It was a nice get together. We haven't seen everyone in a while! When Uncle Jody came in the house, Breccan was so excited. He went running to him and jumped in his arms. He was Jody's little shadow for most of the day.

Little Dani.

Just chatting and drinking!

The kids played in the hot tub. It was a nice day out for winter. The kids had a ball!

Here are the men, hard at work watching the turkey fry.

Caught it! Make a face at me when I point the camera at you, and it goes on the BLOG!!! :)

I'm pretty proud of this picture. It was taken on the back deck of Jack's house, toward the neighbors property. I rarely take decent scenic shots, so I'm loving this one!

Cousin Kaisha and Boo Bear.

BayLea loved playing with her second cousins. It was nice to see them together. BayLea was so good with them, patient, gentle and kind.I was immensely proud of her, and Breccan, the entire time we were there.

Dana's son, Michael, and his wife, Jessica. I haven't seen Michael in YEARS! It was wonderful to see what a fine young man he's grown up to be.

This one had that beautiful light hitting Dani. I wish it was on all of her face instead of just half, but I like it anyway!

A beautiful one of Jessica. She was just standing there watching the turkey get carved, and I took it. Sure wish I looked that beautiful when I'm just standing around watching turkey get carved!

Breccan and Jody just hanging out again. We need to get to their house to visit; Breccan loves Jody.

Yet another of Dani. Guess she was my photography subject today!

And again, Dani and her daddy, Josh.

Aunt Dana being onery to Josh!

We had a wonderful day. Thank you for having us!

Can I just say she's Beautiful????

She just constantly amazes me with how beautiful she is, always, but especially when she's dressed in her ballet clothes! I hope that she sticks with ballet, because she is so graceful.

I love this pose, although I wish I hadn't cut off her bottom legs. But look at how her upper body is...so graceful!

Final Celebration at Red Robin

Okay, here it is, the final birthday celebration. Last year we went to Red Robin and she remembered that. So this year she had to go again. We brought her flowers her daddy got her, a few of her presents we hadn't given her yet, Red Robin tied a bunch of balloons around our table, and they sang happy birthday to her.

Breccan so wanted to open a present too. But he did okay not being able to.

Mimi got her nail polish and lip gloss, and an easy bake oven.

Breccan got her some Scooby Doo movies, and we got her a Playmobile horse stable. (Daddy is still in the process of putting that together. There must be 100 parts).

Oh, and the ice cream sundae. She loves getting these, but neither of my kids are huge ice cream eaters (what is wrong with them???) but they love the toppings...sprinkles, whipped cream, cherries!

And this is me and my girl. I love you, baby girl!

BayLea's Birthday at School

BayLea really wanted to spend the night with her Mimi and Pa on the eve of her birthday. So I let her, feeling a little sad the whole time, but knowing that she was having fun! I even called her before she went to bed and told her mommy missed her soooo much. She said, "Mommy, write a little note that says 'I love you very much' and put it on my pillow, okay?" So I did. she's such a precious little thing! So the next morning, on her birthday, her daddy got pink roses and delivered them to her at Mimi's house. BayLea loves them. They are now dead, but still in the vase on our table. She's reluctant to throw them out.

I got there a little later and we made brownies with frosting to take to her school for her school celebration.

A birthday kiss from Pa.

And then a taste of the brownie mix. Look at Breccan!

Mmmmmm....tasty stuff, brownies.

And here are my kids, loving each other! Love it when they are sweet!

Now we're ready to head to school. I took the day off so that I could spend part of her day with her at school. Doesn't she look just darling?

She wanted me to curl her hair into ringlets.

At school, they had their reading celebrations. BayLea earned a pencil this time.

Miss Britney is letting her pick out her pencil. Next week she earns a coupon for a free kids meal at Texas Roadhouse. Yummmm.

And then her group worked on writing their numbers on their calendars. Her group is called something silly like the Yellow Duck Horses. I'm sure the horses part came from BayLea.

Done perfectly! Good job, my little one!

And now they're singing happy birthday to her and waiting for her to take the first bite. Oh my heavens, isn't she precious standing there!

And the bite....

now everyone else can eat too!

Time for the pledge. They've learned it in both English and Spanish.

Breccan enjoyed his time there too. I hope he'll be a part of this pre-k program next year.

BayLea's job this week was calendar pointer. She loves calendar...we have to do calendar stuff at home that she directs. It's hilarious listening to her make us pretend to be in school as she makes up stuff for us to do.

She really had a great afternoon. Now we are heading off to Red Robin for yet another birthday celebration! Stay tuned...