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!