Christmas Piano Recitals

This year we had 2 Christmas Piano Recitals to attend!

~First we had Rachel's recital. She has been playing for 4 months and she LOVES it!!!
And she is great at it, too! (she loves her teacher, Brittany Hall, too!)


Rachel played "The 12 Days of Christmas" and "Yankee Doodle". We are so proud of you, Rachel! You have been practicing so hard and your songs were wonderful!

The next day Sarah had her piano recital and she did awesome! She has been taking from her teacher, Jamie Snarr, for almost 3 years, and it is so great to listen to her!

Sarah's solo was "Jingle Bells". Great job!


Playing a duet with her teacher is one of her favorite things to do! Sarah played "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and it was beautiful!

Playing the piano is so much fun!

The girls both love playing the piano! We are so proud of how hard the girls work! They are both such wonderful girls!

Sarah's Piano and Emma's Graduation!

So it has been a month, but I am getting back to the blog! Yeay! Good job!

Sarah has been taking piano for 2 years and she LOVES it!
She had her Spring Recital in May and she did amazing! She played 2 songs- her Classical piece was "The Merry Widow Waltz" and her Contemporary song was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".

Sarah loved both songs and practiced ALL.......THE........TIME!!!!!!

I was really proud of all her hard work. Her songs sounded wonderful. She has been working on dynamics (the louds and softs) and they were amazing!


Had to take a second to snap a picture with Sarah and her wonderful friend Ashton!


AMAZING piano teacher Jamie Snarr and Sarah! Thanks for all you do!


Quick silly family snapshot! We never get one with everyone looking. hahahaha!

The same night as the piano recital was Emma's graduation from preschool. It was a really fun evening!

Had to get a quick shot with Emma's great friend Regan (who is actually Ashton's little sister). Cute girls!!!!!!!


5 little ducks went out to play!!!!!!!!!!!!


Emma and her fabulous teacher Mrs. Lori! We love you and miss you already!


Getting her diploma!


Emma, what a doll! She is getting so big! Her teacher said she is VERY ready for Kindergarten and we can't wait!

Fun December Adventures!!!

I am getting back on the band wagon.
So I hope you enjoy the catching up!
Here is December...

Emma singing "Jingle Bells" with at her preschool program. What a cutie pie!

Sarah had her second Christmas Piano Concert and did awesome! She loves to play, especially Christmas music.

Waiting to get up there.

Solo: "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town"

Duet with her teacher: "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"

So, since we live in the midwest, we had to get our snowman on!!!

Big snowman!!!

Mini snowman on the antenna of a neighbors van


Christmastime in Nauvoo. The Visitor's Center was so beautiful!

Christmas at our house! The girls were up earlier this year, but waited patiently until it was time to open presents.

Sarah and her unicorn pillow pet, beautiful new purse, and zhu zhu pet

Rachel and her beloved guitar, panda pillow pet, and books

Emma with her remote controlled Strawberry Shortcake car, lady bug pillow pet, and dolly

New pjs for Christmas! (Rachel's pjs glow in the dark)

Rachel, our little roaming minstrel!

Building with her new rods. They are glasses!

Sarah really wanted a real purse that was pink with sparkles! Love it!

It was so fun to be together as a family! We are so grateful to have each other!
I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Past Four Weeks!!!

Here are the misc. adventures of us during the last four (probably even six) weeks! Just looking at the pictures makes me smile!! (0:

Pijama Day at school for Rachel and Sarah. Had to bring their toys, too!!!

Kung Fu Panda, Rachel can't leave home without him for pijama day!

At church, there are four children turning 8 years old this year. And they are all girls!! Lizzie, Ashton, Sarah, and Gracie. It is so awesome to watch them learn and grow and take the decision seriously to be baptized! Sarah doesn't turn 8 for another few months, so we will just learn and prepare for that day!

HI!!! says Rachel

New dresses so we had to have a photoshoot. Most Sunday mornings begin with a Fashion Show at our house!

HEY!!! from Sarah

Emma is becoming our resident grouch! Not really!!!! Lately there have been many grumpy faces to the camera! I just wanted to put up 2 of them!

And yet, there are funny little times like this. I was working on the computer while Emma was eating her snack and I turned around just in time to see these pretzel toes! What a silly girl! We sure love her!

We have an amazing family museum, and we love it there!! Here, Rachel and I are "playing some musical pipes with the provided flip flops". Yeah, I thought it was funny, too!

Room Changes-
For over a year now the girls have all been in the same room. A set of bunk beds and a day bed, allowing Richard to have an office to study in. It has truly been an adventure for sure! There are times that we all struggled with it, but most of the time it has been great. I think that it has brought the girls closer and they didn't fight as much. Who knew???

Last month Richard decided that he doesn't really need the extra room for his office and Sarah wanted to spend more time at night reading. So Sarah got her own room and we took the bunk beds apart for Rachel and Emma. We decorated their walls and it has been great! Sarah gets her reading time and Rachel and Emma get their sleep!!! So here are a few pictures of the wall decor we did!

Sarah's beautiful dresser and pictures!

Rachel's for sure! Kung Fu Panda rules!

And you can tell this is Emma's bed, because the infamous Ducky is in the picture. Where would we be without Ducky!

And Emma and Rachel share a wall with their dressers on it, so we had to do this wall, too!

I think they all turned out great! And the girls LOVE their new rooms!!!

Thanks Daddy!

Bubbles and Rachel's Hair! Check 'em out!

We found a classic Merry-go-round and the kids went CRAZY!!! SO much fun! It is just like the one I played on when I was a child!

Sarah's Spring Piano Recital-
For about a year now, Sarah has been taking piano lessons. And she loves it! She can't walk past the piano without opening it and playing it! Her teacher held her Spring recital this last week and it was wonderful. Sarah played 2 songs. "A Little Night Music" and "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf". She was great! She was so serious and didn't even seem nervous!!! We are so proud of how hard Sarah works and so glad she loves the piano!!! You are amazing, sweet Sarah!

Sarah with her teacher, Jamie, her best friend's mom! And one of her mom's great friends! So lucky to have her as Sarah's teacher!

And Mother's Day, 2010

Got a new shirt (on clearance, of course, and got another one in red and pink).

Really, I am so grateful to be a mother! I am so grateful to have my mother!! I am so grateful to be around so many amazing women!!! I am grateful to my mother, my sisters and how amazing they are! I am grateful to my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law and how much they love me and my family! And I am so thankful to all my wonderful family and beautiful and amazing friends! You are all examples of strength, patience, wisdom, humor, and most of all love to me! Everything wonderful in my life was given to me through the Lord! You are all gifts to me and my family!!!!!!

I love you all!!!!