And Presenting..........

This morning was the first dance performance of the year, and Ava's first time ever performing! The performance was at the mall. Both grandmas came to watch, and all the girls did well. Michaela and Payden are on the same dance team again this year, which makes it SO much easier for scheduling! They have a really cute dance this year to a song called Hey batter batter, or somthing like that, and they wear adorable baseball costumes, and dance with plastic bats.

There is Payden up front, and Michaela in the back.

Here is Ava's tots class. There are three girls and three boys, and they are all so cute. I am the team mom for them this year, which for them means I gather them for practice before performing, practice them, keep track of them until they go on, and then make sure they get back to their parents after performing. This is the first time I have done this, and after I practiced them I walked over, holding Ava's hand, to where our stroller was. All the parents were close by, so I thought they would go back to their parents. I got to our stroller, turned around, and they were all following me! They must know to stay with their team mom! It was so cute, and after I realized I was responsible for them, I kept a close eye on them.

Ava looked so cute up there! I was afraid she would get scared, because she didn't even do the primary program at church! She did look a little concerned up there ( she didn't smile much), but she stayed up there and did good.

They have a simple routine, and do fairly well for 4 year olds!

They have two teachers who sit in front of them and remind them of their moves. Ava is second from the right, where it dips down in height a few inches!

A picture of all my dancers on our way out the door, curly hair, ribbons, make up and costumes; ready to go!





They have you put make up on the dancers. Two years ago when we started, this bothered me some. Make up on my little girls?!?! But I saw what happens when they don't have make up on; the bright lights wash their faces out really bad so they need the color. Ava has these increadibly long eyelashes without mascara; with it they were pretty amazing.

She looks like she is ready for a beauty pagent, and I really didn't put that much on her. She LOVED getting make up on and her hair curled. What can I say, another girly girl!

Payden is up front and center most of the time. Michaela is a little harder to see; she is in the back on the left.

Ward Christmas Party......Angels and Shepherds

Tonight we went to our Ward Christmas Party. The girls were both in the program. Here is Michaela; you can't see her face, but she is in teh red robe, shepherding the little lamb! Michaela has developed a fear of performing lately; she gets upset stomachs so bad she feels like she is going to be sick. That happened tonight; she kept going back and forth whether she needed to go home or not. In the end, she did it, and was fine. The funny thing is, she didn't even have a speaking part; she just walked across the stage!

Payden was an angel. She wanted to be a shepherd, but we only had one robe and we had an angel costume, so an angel she was!

I sang with a couple of other women. We sang Still, Still, Still. I don't know what is going on in this picture; it looks like I just said something funny, but nothing like that happened! It was a pretty nice song, considering we only practiced a couple of times.

Jason sitting with the two little ones. We had a ham dinner, and lots of dessert, my favorite part. It was a nice evening, even if it was a little under attended. Those in charge did a great job and we had a wonderful time celebrating the Christmas season!

Everyday moments

A new use for a tu-tu...Ava put it around her face. I told her she looked like a sweet flower, but alas, she was truly a lion, growling and prowling around the house.

Corrine sits in her car when I eat or am cooking. She usually does pretty well for about 20 minutes or so, then wants out. She can already push herself across the floor!

I was trying to document her peach fuzz hair, it is so cute!

She is such a cutie pie. She loves to growl and grunt... I call her my puppy dog baby. Today when I went to get her out of her crib, she cuddled me. Usually when you hold her, she holds herself straight up, wanting to see everything around her. She doesn't conform to me anymore. But today, she leaned into me, and laid her head on my shoulder for a few minutes, like she was giving me a hug. It was precious. I also love it when she is so happy to see me; she smiles and wiggles with joy when I look down on her in her crib.



This was how I did Ava's hair for her four year old pictures.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Corrine actually slept from 9pm until 3:30am last night! I woke up at 3:30 and realized that she hadn't gotten up yet, so I got up to check on her. I had hung a Christmas dec on my door that has a bell on it (dumb, I know) and forgot to open the door slowly, so I woke up the baby. If I hadn't done that, who knows how long she may have slept! ( I took that thing off my door.) This is by far the longest she has slept yet; her average is waking every two to three hours. To bad I didn't capitalize on this; I went to bed at 11:00 pm last night and had a hard time falling asleep for a while, so I didn't sleep as long as I could have if I had gone to bed earlier. So while I am feeding her at 3:30, I am thinking; this is great! What did I do differently last night? Maybe something I did or didn't do helped her sleep longer. She did go to bed a little later, 9pm instead of 8pm. Sadly, the only thing I can think of was that I didn't have chocolate until after Corrine went to bed last night. Maybe my chocolate habit is causing her to wake more often? Anyway, its worth it to me to lay off the chocolate for a while to see if it helps her sleep. (I LOVE chocolate; you can see how tired I must be to suggest this!) I am so excited!! I hope this isn't a fluke, but a sign of good things to come, like 8 hours of blissful Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Tonight we had a really fun FHE. First we went to the mall, and took the kids picture with Santa. Corrine kept grabbing Santa's beard, and I have to say Santa was a little crabby about that, but it was pretty dang cute! I was just surprised that she didn't cry; she doesn't do well with strangers. Then we went and picked out our tree, then went to Craigos for dinner. When we got home, we put up the tree and decorated it. Some of these pictures are dark or yellow; the flash on my camera seems to be going out. I hope my camera isn't pooping out on me; we have only had it for a couple of years! At the mall, I had to take about 6 pictures before my flash finally worked. I was so worried the lady was going to tell me I couldn't take any more before I got a good one. And would it be to much to ask Santa to smile?


Jason in his Craigos shirt!

Payden hanging up her ornament.....

Joyful chaos.............

Ava hanging up her ornament........

And Corrine "hanging" up hers. We call her a "Corrine-amus Grabagus" because she is always grabbing things. You can't hold anything without her reaching for it. Here she is grabbing the tree.

Each child has their own "baby's first Christmas" ornament that they get to hang on the tree each year. We got to get a new one for Corrine this year!




Ahhh, the finished product. When it was all done and the kids in bed, I noticed the tree listing to the front. I fixed it, and noticed that somehow, all the ornaments (and some of them are heavy!) were on the FRONT of the tree with nothing on the back. I evened it out a little to help balance the tree, maybe the kiddos won't notice.:) Before we put the ornaments on after I had put on the lights, Ava came in and with wonder on her face said "Wow! can we turn off the lights and look at it?" Good idea, sweetie. And when we started, I started playing my christmas playlist on the computer to bring in the Christmas mood. Payden says to me "is this blog music?" So funny. I love my children and hope they have good memories of today.

We put up the upstairs tree this weekend. I love this tree; its purpose is purely for decoration. No one touches it but me! Downstairs, we put a real tree ( I love the smell!) that we put all of our family ornaments on, we put the presents under this one too. We are going to get that one on Monday for FHE. I know, two trees is sort of silly, but this way I have one tree that I get to decorate, and another that is sentimental (plus smells good). And putting the presents downstairs means we don't trip over them upstairs. I love Christmas decorations, especially the lights. They seem so soothing, romantic and timeless.

A perfect expression of how I feel!

I saw something on HGTV that I wanted to try, and I did this weekend. I made these decorations. They look really cute, but I'm not sure how they will work out. If you touch them, they are sticky, which is not good when you have kids. I think I may spray some varnish on them, that might help.

I also love being able to play Christmas music. I do it all the time; I don't seem to get tired of it! I love this season and I love having four beautiful girls and a wonderful husband to share it with.

Husband tag

So far, this is the only tag thing I have been tagged on, so Ican't impress by doing three at once!



WHAT IS YOUR HUSBAND'S NAME? Jason Kay Hendricks

HOW LONG HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN MARRIED? 13 years this past July

HOW LONG DID YOU DATE? Off and on for about 3 years

HOW OLD IS HE? 33

WHO IS TALLER?Him

WHO CAN SING BEST? For sure me!

WHO IS SMARTER? Me, in some things, him in others; isn't that the way it's supposed to be?

WHO DOES LAUNDRY? Me, he is not allowed after some fiascos involving jeans and pens....

WHO PAYS BILLS? Him

WHO SLEEPS ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BED? He does, I have to be on the left to get up with the kids!

WHO MOWS THE LAWN? Jason mostly, but sometimes I like to do it.

WHO COOKS DINNER? Jason grills, and I cook the majority of the time, but if I failed to have something ready on the nights when I work, he is capable of some yummy stuff!

WHO'S THE FIRST TO ADMIT THEY ARE WRONG? Jason most of the time

WHO KISSED WHO FIRST? Hmmm...I think it was mutual.

WHO WEARS THE PANTS? I have to say, I think this is me.


Lisa, Nichelle, you guys have been tagged!