Tiny Dancer

Last week Rachel had her very first dance recital. It was so much fun to watch her...and funNY! At the beginning, each girl had to stand up and introduce herself. Rachel just sat there waiting for the teacher to physically lift her up. When the teacher whispered for her to say her name, she yelled, "RACH!" (not Rach-el). That girl is definitely a free spirit. And instead of facing the parents during the performance like the other girls, Rachel was facing sideways so she could see herself in the mirror! I kept loudly whispering her name so that she would face forward but she was completely oblivious! The funniest part was when they were throwing pieces of tulle or "snowflakes" into the air gracefully. Rachel had a long piece of it stuck to her leotard for the whole segment of the dance, which was pretty humorous in and of itself. But when she finally realized it was there and pulled it off, she waved both pieces up in the air triumphantly and exclaimed "I HAVE TWO SNOWFLAKES!!!". Miss Courtney or "Miss Corny" as Rachel calls her, definitely has her work cut out for her with this little ballerina! Best of luck to you, Miss Corny!

Here she is doing her "thing". Notice all the other girls are standing in a line watching "Miss Corny".

She goes to dance with two of her best friends from the neighborhood: Rose (right) & Tyli (left). She's almost a year younger than both of them (although every bit as tall), so I like to blame her dancing on immaturity.

I look forward to many dance recitals...and some laughs ahead!

Good Times!

Oh, and don't worry Rachel...we have it all on videotape for posterity!

Hannah's night!

Hannah is in a little performing group. She has class once a week and has been working on her Christmas show over the last few months. Last night was her recital and she had a small solo part in one her group's songs. She did SO good! Hannah is a natural performer and she sings amazingly well for her age. The best part is that she LOVES it and has no fear of being up in front of people, unlike me who would be TERRIFIED!

Here she is with her cute cousin Carly - they always support each other! We also had Grandma and Grandpa Jenson, Grandma Seeley, Aunt Dorrie & Uncle Rick, and even more cousins: Bekkah, Goldie, Ava, Ashley, Adam & baby Aiden. Thanks for coming guys!

This is Miss Laura,, the owner of Performance Academy and Hannah's teacher. She LOVES Miss Laura (and I think Miss Laura likes her too!) Hannah was thrilled to be able to wear a little bit of makeup...should I be worried??

This is a terrible picture, but the best I could do...I'm no Jodi! I was so nervous her to come in at the right time and on the right note, but she nailed it (of course!)

I can get used to this "girl" thing - I'm pretty sure I had as much fun watching her as she did performing. I'm already looking forward to the Spring show!

Family Photo Shoot

So, when you are blessed with super-talented friends like I am, you sometimes are are the beneficiary of their incredible gift, like a family photo shoot with Jodi! My friend Jodi is an amazing photographer. She's been playing around with photography for years and she truly has a talent for it (I can picture her face turning red right now!) She took our annual Seeley family pictures several weeks ago. She endured all kinds of drama (the husband/sons "we don't want to be here" sort) in those two hours and yet somehow managed to get a lot of great pictures (she said she took over 600!!)... AND the best part is that she's still friends with me! As much as I KNOW you'd like to see all 600, here are just a few of my favorites (in no particular order)!
Jodi, you somehow managed to make photography look easy and our family look flawless. We BOTH know the truth! Thank you so much!

My big day!

So yeah...it's my birthday. 36. I'm not a big birthday person, but I had a really good day today thanks to my cute family and kind friends. Cade got up early to make me/us breakfast. He decorated with streamers and everything. He's really good at birthdays! See?
Oh, and he got me an I-pod Shuffle (I ruined my last I-pod running through the sprinklers...I know...dumb)! The kids were super cute and gave me lots of birthday hugs and kisses. The rest of the day flew by with lots of well-wishes from my friends including lunch at the Brick Oven. Yum.

The MVP of the day would have to go to my sister, Suzanne, who devoted her whole day to my b-day. She even wrote a really nice, non-sarcastic post on her much-more-up-to-date blog about yours truly. She came to lunch with me and then shopped with me all afternoon. I think that will definitely have to be a birthday tradition from now until forever. She helped me pick out things to try on and even hung up all the clothes I tried on, which is the worst part of shopping. That and paying...but we sure got some cute new duds! Later Cade and I went to the Mandarin restaurant in Bountiful, along with Suz and Frank and our friends Jodi and Jon. We had a great time, see? (Sorry Cade, Frank, Jon, and Jodi...this was the only picture I had).
I don't much like getting older, but I do like feeling loved and appreciated...so I guess December 10th isn't such a bad day!

Last Monday for Family Night we decided to hit good ol' Krispy Kreme. They give 1/2 dozen doughnuts for each kid's report card, meaning...lots of free doughnuts for the Seeleys. Boy, were they happy to see us! It was fun and I think Rachel could have watched them make doughnuts all night long. I have to say, I am very grateful for Monday nights and the chance we get to spend a little quality time together as a family. I know as the kids get older it's going to get more difficult to make the time, but I hope we'll always make it a priority.

Some of us weren't really feeling that cooperative for pictures when we got home...
A little better?

Tyler & Adam are nothing if not DETERMINED. Whatevs.

p.s. Krispy Kreme? Well see you at the end of 2nd term!

Moab

A couple of weeks ago Cade and I took our long awaited trip to Moab, Utah. Cade won the trip on the radio at the beginning of this year, and can you believe it took this long for the stars to align long enough to get the heck out of town? Cade's sister Dorrie took the boys and my mom took the girls and off we went on a Friday morning! We stopped in Provo to have lunch at one of our old college stomping grounds, La Dolce Vita. It was pretty good, but of course, never as good as you remember. Plus, we were the ONLY ones in the restaurant besides the paid employees so that was a bit awkward. Anyways, we made it to Red Cliffs Lodge before dinner. Check out the view from our room...excuse me...SUITE:
It really was that beautiful, maybe even more so! We had a "complimentary" dinner at the lodge (part of Cade's prize). It was de-licious!

Here was the view from the lodge:

Wow, right? We spent the rest of the night relaxing and watching T.V. I decided "Meet the Parents" is as excruciatingly funny on the umpteenth viewing as it is on the first! Anyway, the next morning we had breakfast at the lodge and went horseback riding (yes, also included in our free package!) I haven't been on a horse since I was a teenager at Youth Conference, so I was definitely nervous about getting in the saddle again...literally. Because I am becoming less adventurous every year, I was secretly hoping we would just ride around in circles in the corral. That was not the case. It was a 3-hour ride through some pretty rugged terrain if I do say so myself!

Here we are with our horses: me on "Lucky" and Cade on "Cisco".

Don't we look the part in our hats and bandanas?
Cade got lots of pictures of me since he was behind me.

See? Rugged.

This was my favorite part, riding through the river to get back to the trail!

Despite my reservations, I had a great time and so did Cade! Later that evening we drove into Moab to check out the night life. Turns out there really isn't one, so we settled on dinner at Miguels's and then hit the drugstore for candy and an Us Weekly magazine for me (it's tradition!) Then back to the hotel. The next morning we checked out of the hotel, got some breakfast in town and headed to Arches for a quick lookey-loo at the National Park. It was COLD and I was feeling a little under the weather so we got a couple of photos and then headed for home!

That's Delicate Arch. I felt too yucky to make the 1.5 mile walk up to the arch, so there's the more scenic view for ya!

It was so fun to go out of town with Cade and spend some quality time together...something we don't get much of these days. I'm married to the perfect guy for me and I hope we are still taking fun trips like this in the years to come!

Sometimes you lose...

This pretty much sums up the BYU/Utah game today.
Better luck next year, Cougars!!

My New Gig

I got called to be 1st counselor in the Young Women's presidency a few weeks ago. I was very humbled and nervous to be working with teenage girls. I remember being a Mia Maid myself (14 & 15 years old). That was a difficult and important time in my life, and my Young Women leaders played a pivotal role in helping get through those difficult years. I now realize the sacred and important responsibility I have of teaching and helping these girls remember who they are and where they are going. Wow! The fun and easy part of this calling is that these girls are AMAZING! They are cute and fun and supportive of each other and of me and we have fun a laugh a lot. Their testimonies are strong and they are trying to live the gospel every day. I get to work with my next door neighbor Wendy (she's my advisor) and we make a pretty good team if I do say so myself. This calling is a far cry from Primary chorister which is what I was before (and I LOVED it!) but I am trying my best to do what I can for these cute girls. I think about the fact that someday soon my own 2 daughters will be this age and I know I will be depending on their leaders to help them and guide them along. That makes me want to try even harder!

Love 'em!

Awww...sisters!

As I was looking through my pictures, I was definitely struck by all the ones that looked like these:Rachel & Hannah after making their fairy hat crafts!

The girls having fun together in the water!

At their cousin Sam's wedding open house

Being silly!

Their many, many arts and crafts!

Reading together in bed

I feel so lucky to have 2 cute little girls who genuinely love each other. We thought Hannah was our last baby and that she would only have brothers, so imagine our surprise when we found out not only were we having another baby, but a baby SISTER! They are so close now and I hope they will always will be.

Cute little punkins!

So Halloween went off without a hitch this year at the Seeley house
(well, other than the rain!)

Our little PUNKINS included:

Rachel the ladybug,

Hannah as Mulan,

Jason the clown,


Adam the hippie,

And a very menacing-looking Miles Austin of the Dallas Cowboys!

And last, but not least...

Thank you, Cade.

Happy Halloween!