Friday, December 21, 2012

Emily is 5 Years and 2 Months Old!

We are knee-deep in holiday madness around here-- something to do nearly every day/night...things are wild but we are so blessed to have our sweet girls and to watch them as they take in this holiday season.  Here's what's going on right now:

- Emily had a beautiful singing solo in her preschool's Christmas program.  It was a long, hard song and she blew us all away with her confidence and skill!  My heart melted, watching her sing up there- I was in the back with my video camera, filming her and choking up.  I don't have the video downloaded yet, but here's a few shots from my friend, who was sitting up front:







 After the program they had a nice little reception for the kids and families-- ours surely enjoyed the cake!

- Emily had an AMAZING experience performing in the Nutcracker!  She adored getting to wear her beautiful costume, and having her hair and makeup done, and getting to bow for the crowd.  It was great! We were so proud of her and how hard she worked.  Now that it's all over, she continues to do the Nutcracker just about every day-- only it's just her (playing the role of Clara, naturally) and poor Audrey, who is made to be the Mouse King!  Haha!  I asked Emily why Audrey couldn't be a party child or the Sugar Plum Fairy or something like that and I was informed that, "There's only one girl in this show"..... point taken!





- We have been cooped up inside for a few weeks now- lots of cold, rainy days.  Where is our snow?? We've only had the one, brief snowfall (back in October) but we made the most of it!  The girls really enjoyed playing outside, while they lasted....it was about 30 degrees out and windy so our fun was cut a bit short.  Hopefully we will get some more snow soon- we had a dusting the other day and it was pure torture for the girls not to be able to play in it.

- Emily continues to amaze us with her reading skills.  We downloaded a sight word app on the iPad and she can read almost all of the prek/K sight words..... she blows my mind!  I remember struggling with my NC students on their sight words so much- it's incredible to me that she knows so many and isn't even in school yet.  I hope she isn't bored in kindergarten!

- Emily performed in a kids' Christmas program at our church this weekend and did a beautiful job.  She had 4 long lines to say and she said them perfectly.  Paul's parents and grandma were present for the program and I know they enjoyed it. (No pictures of this as I was sitting on the floor in front of the kids, passing the microphone to each one).

- She is very much so loving our Elf on the Shelf, Tovey-- he has played some pretty funny tricks on us this year!  Her favorite was probably when he hung our underwear up on the stocking holders and hid the stockings in Paul's closet.  Too funny!

That's all for now- look for  a Christmas post coming soon!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Nutcracker Time!

Emily did an AMAZING job in the Nutcracker performance this week!  She has had a complete shift in attitude about dance ever since she was paired with my good friend's daughter in the partner section of her piece!  She is so happy about dance and is constantly practicing and enjoying it.  I am thrilled!

Performance night, with her BFF from preschool:
(Emily is a flower from the Waltz of the Flowers; her friend is a snowflake).





Practice time around the house:







Sunday, December 2, 2012

Audrey is 2 Years and 3 Months Old!

Audrey is growing so fast and doing so many things! Here's what she's like this month:

- She's doing very well with potty training.  She wears panties every day and stays dry all day... but she is a little quirky-- she will not poop in the potty!  She will bring us a diaper and ask us to put it on her so she can poop in it. It's so silly but it's working for now, so we're going with it.  I think after all the holidays are over and we're on to a more regular schedule I will probably have to take all the diapers away and hide them and just basically force her to poop in the potty?? We shall see....


-  We've had more beautiful weather and have been enjoying playing outside a bit.  I know winter is coming so we are trying to soak it up!








- She wears jewelry now.  A LOT.  Just about every morning she has to pick out a "neckins" (necklace) to wear every day.  It is so cute!



 

- She thoroughly enjoyed Emily's Christmas program at school this month- she stayed in the nursery area during the actual program and then had a great big piece of cake at the reception.  And they both looked adorable!! ;)





- She  LOVES to dance with Emily...every day it's dress up and "play the speaker, Mommy!" and twirls and turns and jumping up and down, etc.  So cute!! I love watching them play together.






That's all for now- thanks for checking on our sweet girl.  Hope this holiday season is joyful for you and your family!