BayLea singing

BayLea tried out for and made it into honor's choir at the district level. She will join 60 other singers for some performances. Details to come! This is the song she sang for try outs. It took me forever, but I finally got her to record herself on my phone.

January 2017

 I set up my light and backdrop to practice. I'm really out of practice. I rarely have time to go shoot photos any more. Wouldn't change that though. Sure do love to take photos of my kids though!

 This is Bay's 13 year old picture. I love it.

 We didn't really have a theme for her birthday. Just happy polka dots!

 She wanted to do the puzzle room, so that's what we did. We ALMOST got out on time. We had ONE puzzle left to do.

 Craziness with friends.

 Breccan at hard work in 5th grade.

 The kids did a group ski deal...I think it was called Free Riders. It wasn't lessons, really, although there was an instructor there. The goal was to get the kids familiar with the mountain, so that they could ski Powderhorn without mom freaking out. They did some black runs, and they are pretty solid skiers now.

This was the first day of Free Riders. From then on, the kids had ski poles.

BayLea is Student of the Month!

My girl is student of the month for December. Her teacher told us at the beginning that when it came up for the month, she snagged BayLea before anyone else could!

November 2016

 Breccan had his 5th grade program in November. He looked so DANGED handsome that I had to set up a backdrop and take a picture.

 Saying his speaking part. He did pretty good, not too fast, and fairly easy to understand.

 This dancing with the crowd happened at BayLea's 5th grade performance, and apparently it has become a tradition. (Or maybe it always was...I'd never been to a 5th grade performance before Bay's). Anyway, the last song, they grab people from the audience to dance with them, and Breccan got BayLea out there. It was hard to get a picture, but I got this one, over exposed and blurry.

 Breccan with Mr. Berry.

 The dreaded homework...

 Pretty light pictures... If there is pretty light...we must take pictures. At least according to me.

 This year we did the Operation Christmas Child shoe box project. We had a lot of fun shopping for some boy and girl, and stuffing the boxes.

 Of course, we went overboard...and had to practically SIT on the boxes to make them close.

Next year, I will be more organized and order our labels online so that we can track the boxes afterward. I was last minute, deciding to do it, looking online and finding that we only had a few days before boxes were collected.

 Oh, these two girls...two of my favorite people. So goofy together, and even though there is a pretty big age difference, I think they will always be good friends.

 They do love each other very much. BayLea has always idolized Leah, and I'm so happy that they are good buddies.

 Everyone helping out with the cooking of Thanksgiving dinner.

 The mimi and the pa.

 See that white stuff on Ethan's face? He got BayLea, and then BayLea was afraid to get him, so Mimi got him back with the whipped cream. He is making his famous black bottom banana pie.

 Ethan and Breccan went out to the back of the lot to shoot guns. God, guns are loud.

 And of course, pretty light alert again!

 Ethan's a darned good big cousin to my kids!