Dance, Dance, Dance

Anne and Abbey have been doing a lot of dancing this Fall. They are both taking BYU creative dance and loving it. We were able to visit their classes this last week. Unfortunately, I forgot to put the newly charged batteries is the case and the ones in the camera died at Anne's lesson, so we didn't get many pictures (and I couldn't find them while I was posting this). However, she also is taking a ballroom dance class and we were able to attend their Christmas Party and got some pictures and video of it. Here are a few pictures of Abbey's class and Anne's ballroom party. They both did great!

A few more funny things the kids have said

My kids keep saying things that make me laugh, and since my blog seems to be the only place I really keep track of goings on in my life, I'm making an update to the last post.

Last week while grocery shopping, Jane informed me that she needed to use the bathroom. We were next to an employee of the store so he let me know there was a public restroom on the other side of the store, but if we needed to use it, there was an employee bathroom just through those doors. Since we've had many accidents lately ("I didn't quite make it to the toilet") we opted for the through the doors option. Since it was an employee bathroom, there was a wall of small lockers. As soon as Jane saw them, she squealed with delight, "Kitty cages!" I'm guessing her comment comes from recently having gone to Petsmart and seen the adoption area where there were lots of kitty cages.

Apparently, I haven't been looking my best lately because the few times I have taken time to look nice, I've gotten comments from my kids. On Saturday, we went to the Kramer Family Christmas party which consists of my dad's and his nine siblings and their families. I went downstairs to Anne and Abbey's room to check out myself in the mirror when Abbey said, "I know why you're trying to look cute. It's 'cause Syd's gonna be there."

Kids say the darndest things!

Since Max's birth, Jane has come up with some pretty good excuses for not being able to help. Her two favorites are "I'm too dizzy." and "I can't because my legs are too wiggly." (Now picture her bending in half and shaking her legs.) Sometimes she can't because her tummy hurts.

Olivia really loves Max and she especially loves holding him and playing with him. A few weeks ago, she let me know that she taught Max how to talk and that I should put it on our blog. I can't remember what he "said" but I'm pretty sure it was "a goo." Isn't Liv a great teacher?!

The girls aren't the greatest at going to bed (honestly, they just don't). We've been trying to let them play quietly in their beds, or just look at books. Well tonight, I stayed upstairs a bit longer and overheard/ joined this little conversation.

Thud
Olivia: "You just have to face your fears and do it."
Mom: " Girls, that doesn't sound good. What's going on?"
Jane: "Olivia's just learning me how to do stuff."

Since the girls share bunk beds, Olivia is learning all the different ways to get up and down fro the top bunk without climbing the ladder: Climbing over the rails and hanging before falling, climbing up/down over the headboard or foot board, jumping from the top rung of the ladder. I'm guessing this is whatOlivia was "learning" Jane. So far, no broken bones. Maybe Olivia really is a good teacher!

Halloween (a little late)

Our scary front porch!

(Our neighbor's grandson was pretty scared by our ghost.)

These were our scary faced

jack-o'-lanterns.

Please note the very sharp teeth on Olivia's (left), and the fangs on Anne's (center).

The small and very frightend jack-o-lantern on the right was carved by Mom for Max.

Here are Jane's and Abbey's.
According to Abbey, hers is sad because Jane's pumpkin stole her pumpkin's boyfriend.
She wanted to carve a tear on it's face too.

(I think she just really wanted to use the powered carving knife)

These pictures show the whole pumpkins better, not just their glowing faces.



Here are the girls in their costumes:

Abbey dressed as Cleopatra,
Lucy was an angel,
Anne dressed as a Lady from a Masquerade Ball




Jane was Cinderella, and
Olivia was Ariel.



Max was a very cute Cow, but I'll upload a picture of him later.

A Few fun Pictures

I've been wanting to make a collage wall of some of my favorite pictures for quite a while, and I finally started working on it. Thanks to my sister Eleanor for helping me turn the photos sepia. I had hoped to post a few others, but Blogger won't let me (and I'm not computer savvy enough to understand why and then fix the problem!).

Here is a picture of me a Cory a few years ago (2005). We went to Preference when we were dating, and thought It would be fun to go again when I went back to BYU.

(On a funny aside, I uploaded this picture a few years ago to a face matching website, and I came up as a 78% match with Janet Jackson and Cory had about 40% match with Jennifer Aniston!)

This is a picture of Olivia in her blessing dress. I have been trying to find these pictures for years (literally). I finally found it in a folder called "Princesses On Ice."

Where are my priorities?!

Here is one of the latest pictures of Max.

He's looking handsome in his blessing outfit.

(He was blessed by his dad yesterday).

One of three wedding pictures now on display in our house.

An old favorite that I don't think I'll ever get tired of looking at.

(Abbey, Olivia, and Anne)

And finally a picture of all 5 of the kids.

I think they're a good looking bunch!

Pictures of Max

Since I just posted a lot of princess pictures, I thought I'd add a few pictures of Max . After all, Jane did always say he'll be our prince!

Olivia's is 6!

Olivia's birthday was last week.

She requested a barbie cake.

I thought it turned out great, and from the smile on her face I think she agreed.

Since several family members had been sick,

we just had her party yesterday. Anne and Abbey did a great job of planning it!

Her friends came dressed as princesses.

They played freeze dance to a playlist Anne and Dad created using songs from disney princess movies. Then they had a princess walk where they got to choose their crown and a candy necklace making kit.

Then we opened gifts and ate cupckaes.

Olivia wanted this Ariel costume so she would be the prettiest princess at her party!