Happy 11th Birthday Seth

Our Seth celebrated his 11th birthday.

On Wednesday, I made his favorite supper and bake his birthday cake for Jeff's parents to come over and eat.

Thursday, the official birthday, we headed to Mellow Mushroom and bowling with meme and papa.

 Our elf on the shelf decided to help herself to some of Seth's cake.

This young man is caring, considerate and loving.

He loves to snuggle and give hugs.

He enjoys being big playing with his brother but can also pull out the little and play with his sister.

Right now, he enjoys to tickle and wrestle his sister.

He loves to grin and smile but can turn and get MAD really fast.  

He doesn't joke around.  He is all business.

This boy has endured some big issues with asthma, skin issues and medicine.

He is always willing to try the different things the doctor needs him to do.

What a great mixture of Jeff and I both in this kid.

He measures daily to see if he is even with me.

Happy 11th birthday Seth (Sethie to us)

Parent Watch Day at Ballet

This girl loves the stage.  She concentrated so hard in class.  She really listens to Mrs. Bonita, watches and tries to follow every move. 

So proud of her.

This is her 4th year of ballet.  Each year is a different color of leotard.  I love going back and looking at how tiny she was.

 4Praise him with the tambourine and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.

6Let every thing that has breath praise the LORD. Praise you the LORD.

Psalm 150

Nutcracker 2012 - Ella 2nd year

Little Party Girl

2012

Christmas Shoe Tree Musical

Seth was in our Kids Musical at church.  He did a fabulous job.  I helped him study lines, memorize them and took him to practice.  I had not seen the entire play until one of the last dress rehearsals.  

We were amazed.

I love when our children use their gifts and talents to serve.

 Ella was part of the choir that helped sing the songs.

Great night of worship with the kids.

What's that sound?

We hear the sirens all the time.  We live right down the road from the local fire department and rescue.  So anytime, they head out we hear them.  This time the sound came closer and closer.  We peep out the window because the sound and lights are in our neighborhood.

We find out they have the tire truck decorated, Santa is waving, and music is playing.

 Ella is in her pj's with no shoes so dad offers to hold her.

 I added this picture below because this is what Seth looks like from the time the Christmas decoration come out until Christmas is over.  The Santa hat has always been his favorite.  He wears it from sun up to sun down where ever we go. 

Last Day of Co-op

December 6th was a grand day -  Last day of co-op for this semester.  In order for us to 

make it to this day, we had lots of work to do.  Garrett has a paper and presentation to prepare.

Seth had a presentation to prepare.  Seth and Ella both decided to participate in the Science Fair.

Yes, all in one day.

Garrett presenting his King Solomon song

 

 Above, Ella is dipping her newspaper strips into a flour mixture for her volcano science experiment.

She was thrilled with her final work.

 A Hershey bar for participation was worth all the work.

By the way, Seth won 1st place in the Elementary age group.  By the time I made it our to him to take a picture, he had dismantle his board and set up.

As a celebration of co-op being over, we headed to the ice rink with friends.  This was some of our groups first time ice skating.

Love this gang of friends.

Clara's Tea Party

Another big event with being a cast member in the Nutcracker is Clara's Tea Party.  

This was the best night.  We were invited into the Land of Sweets.  We were able to wear our PJ's.

This was a grand treat since it had been a crazy, busy day.  I was ready for my PJ's and slippers.

 Kelsey and Ella playing in the dress box.

 The gingerbread Ella

 A huge gingerbread house

 What great fun to share with my little lady.

This young lady was Clara this year.  Her name is Sarah Jergel.  What a fabulous young lady.  

From the time the Nutcracker practice begins until the Nutcracker, Sarah is no longer Sarah but Clara.

The big girl are so sweet and patience with the little one.  They really make them feel 

special and important in this big production.

Mom and Ella enjoying our sweet treats and PJ's.

Nutcracker Gala - Celebrating 20 years

This was an exciting year for the Nutcracker with Mrs. Bonita.  She was celebrating her 20th

year of the Nutcracker. 

This was a dress up Gala.  All the previous Clara, Sugar Plum Fairy, Rat King 

and Nutcracker were invited to this event.

We wore a fancy dress, put curls in our hair and put on our lip stick.

Ella and I were recognized because Mrs. Bonita was my first dance teacher.  

I was also her miniature bride in her wedding.  Ella was very excited to be recognized in

front of everyone.

Ella with Mrs. Bonita, her ballet teacher

Checkers 5K

 The Charlotte Checkers hosted their first 5K.  Some of the boys from Garrett's team along with their dads and coaches ran the race.  The team has been working so hard on

off-ice, conditioning this year. 

 Garrett running sooo fast he is blurry.  Ha  not really

Just a bad photographer

 Ella and I enjoyed Chubby, drank hot chocolate and ate our breakfast while the boys ran.

Best part of the race.

 Jeff is coming to the finish line in the blue shirt.  His goal was to beat Garrett.

Lots of smack talking at our house a few days before the race.

Jeff beat him.

Dads, Coaches and Hockey players