My Pablo Picasso's

I thought it would be fun and super cute for the kids to create their own artwork to hang on their bedroom walls. So, I went out and bought some canvases and paint and let them get creative. I told them they could paint whatever they wanted...
Landon painted a picture of Spiderman swinging through the sky...

Mackenzee went a bit more abstract with hers :0)

They had so much fun and it was fun to watch them do it. I think their favorite part was when I hung the pictures on their bedroom walls. :0)

Mackenzee's Winter Dance Recital

Maggie and Mackenzee had their dance recital this month as well. They danced to "Roly Poly the Polar Bear" and so they got to wear these headbands with little polar bear ears on them. :0) Very cute.
During the song the words say "Brrr baby, it's cold out here" so the girls are showing the proper way to look when it gets to that part of the song. :0)

Isn't she a cute polar bear?

This is my Landon waiting for his sister's show to get started. Yes, he is reading a book. I don't think he had much expectations for the show.....

This is all of the teachers at the dance studio. Miss Julie is the one holding the microphone off to the left. The next teacher dressed in a brown top and jeans is Miss Amanda. She is Mackenzee's dance and tumbling instructor and Mackenzee just loves her.

This is Mackenzee's class being led onstage for the final curtain call. I know it's hard to tell which one she is, but she is the fourth polar bear back.

Here they are attempting to take a bow.

I think was all we were able to nab of the actual performance. Kenzee would have been to the left of the screen here, but she seems to have disappeared. :0)

Isn't my polar bear the cutest you've ever seen? We had a good time watching her dance with her little friends. It's fun knowing how much she enjoys doing it. If she could go to dance every day she would. :0) We're barely making it through these last weeks of no dance class. Luckily only one week left before class starts back up again! Whew!

Halloween dance party!!!

Mackenzee's dance class has a new policy this year where parents are only allowed to watch their kids practice on the last class of each month. This is so that hopefully the kids will actually pay attention to their teacher instead of show off for their mommies. :0) For the month of October the girls learned a Halloween dance to show the parents on the last class of the month. Kenzee was so excited to show off her wicked dance moves. The first half of class was for dancing...the last half was for a short Halloween party. This was the first time I let Kenzee put on her Halloween costume...

This is her dancing to their Halloween song "Witches Brew"....it was really cute and the girls had so much fun doing it in their costumes. {A lot of princesses in that room....let me tell ya!}

Here are all the girls in their Halloween costumes, including Miss Amanda {the teacher}.

Amazingly Mackenzee and Maggie showed up wearing similar costumes. :0) Pink and gold!!! Although Mackenzee was Sleeping Beauty and Magge was Barbie. Gotta love it!

Happy Birthday Mackenzee!

My baby turned four this year. It's crazy how fast time goes by...
Because Mackenzee is obsessed with the color pink, it seemed only fitting for her to have a Pinkalicious birthday party. What is Pinkalicious you ask?

This book is one of Mackenzee's very favorite and she can tell you the whole story word for word. :0)

The storyline is that this little girl eats too many pink cupcakes and ends up turning pink herself. At first the girl is thrilled that she is so pink, but after being diagnosed with 'Pinkititis' she is forced to eat lots of green things to make the pink go away.

Of course this meant we all needed to eat lots of pink cupcakes too. Thankfully, nobody turned pink at the party. :0)
Adara, Mackenzee, Maggie, Meili, Ambree, and Lili

Of course, her favorite part about her birthday this year was that she got a big girl bike. She is now a professional bike rider and, if given the opportunity, will ride off into the sunset. :0)

Happy Birthday Kenzee! We love you so much!

(October 12, 2009)

Dance

Mackenzee started back up in dance classes this September. She has been so excited to have her best friend, Maggie, in class with her this year. Of course, they now have to be separated in class because they talk too much about their dance outfits....but at least they're together right???

Mackenzee has a new teacher this year too. I think she was worried about it at first because she loved Miss Cassia so much last year. But, Miss Amanda is so much fun and Mackenzee has warmed right up to her.

We were also surprised to find out that Mackenzee's friend, Libby, is also in her class. It's like a party every week for her now. :0)

She tells me that she can't wait to get on the stage again with all the lights and dance for everyone....

Definitely a dancing queen!

Winning the Mommy of the Year Award.....

What do you do when you hear your daughter crying outside and find her stuck LIKE THIS....

You make her stay in the hole and grab your camera to take some pictures. Such a nice mom I am right?

(August 2009)

Girl Time

Greta came and stayed with me for a little bit in August and Mackenzee just loved having her here. Greta is such a girly girl and Mackenzee ate it up.
We had a "Girls Night" one of the nights and I gave the manicures and put makeup on them. If you look closely you can see that the girls picked a different color of nailpolish for each of their nails. I think every color in my nailpolish box was used. Of course, neither girl was interested in having their hair brushed. :0)

We played princess music afterwards and the girls got their groove on. They were so funny twirling around in the living room.

Gotta love these girls!!!!

Swimming Lessons......Part 2

It has been a crazy couple of weeks around here. Which, of course, means I have a lot of catching up to do with my blog here. And...because it would take too much time and effort to keep everything straight....none of these next several posts are in any specific order. I was there....just don't ask me to remember which day it actually happened. :0)


Landon finished up his swimming lessons this last week and passed with flying colors! In fact, every box on his certificate was checked off. {We can't say the same for Mackenzee} Not only that, but the class that he was supposed to be in told him he swam too well for their class and automatically bumped him up to the next higher class level. So, he atually passed two levels of swimming classes instead of just one. Way to go Landon!



He is doing so well with his swimming and is turning into quite the little fish. In fact, he passed the "mommy" swimming test out at Bass Lake last week as well. Last year he struggled and ran out of energy while trying to swim out to the dock and ended up needing Jaysen to help him make it there. So, he did not pass the test last year and was "forced" to wear a life jacket if he wanted to go out in the deep water. This year he didn't need any help at all and so he doesn't have to face the "shame" of wearing a life jacket.

Though it was awesome to watch Landon learn new swimming strokes and how to dive, trying to keep Mackenzee entertained in the hot sun for an hour every day for the last two weeks was definitely interesting. She got in trouble with one of the life guards there for pretending the bench on the side of the concrete was a balance beam. She had to get down and take the walk of shame back to her mother {who had already told her not to walk across the bench but apparently does not have as much authority as Mr. Lifeguard}. She later told me that the lifeguard was mean to her and so she hated him. Good times.......

On a different day, a different Mr. Lifeguard was seen walking around with a Hello Kitty towel wrapped around him. Mackenzee laughed and told me that he was a girl.

And, still another Mr. Lifeguard was commented on. Mackenzee was quite taken with him and let everyone sitting around us know by pointing emphatically towards him and then, speaking very loudly, said, "he has BIG muscles!". After which she struck the muscle man pose with her arms up in the air. She was right....the guy did have big muscles...but I am worried about the fact that my three year old is already checking out lifeguards. I may be in trouble. ;0)







Congrats Landon!

Photography by Mackenzee

Jordan Mae
Meghan

Aubrey

Grandpa Burnham

Jodie turned the camera back on Mackenzee after Kenzee was done take her snapshots of everyone. You'd think this girl has seen someone take oodles of pictures her whole life or something.......

Aunt Jodie

All of these photos {except for the one of Mackenzee} were taken by my three year old.

What do you do in the summertime?

Gotta love it!