Mostly Gym Class

Here are some pictures before Christmas. Kevin's work has a Christmas party each year for the families. They go all out, as you can see with horse and pony rides. Jane chose the horse over the pony and did a great job. A couple months ago we went to the circus and she chose the elephant ride over the pony ride too. I guess she feels safer on bigger animals. I'm just grateful we didn't stand in line to find out she wouldn't even get on it. She is so big. Alice was not as brave, so I rode with her.

Alice and I got the horse who wanted to eat the grass

For the last 3 months (after visiting my sister, Beth), we decided to put the girls in a gym class. I had heard good things about Tumbleweeds, so that's what we went with. Jane, once again did great. She even had to wear her hair in a ponytail and never gave me any hassles (as I've mentioned in previous posts). They both loved gym class. They only let you bring a camera on the last day, so here are our pictures.

Alice loves to hang from the bars (I followed Alice around, while my mom took pictures of Jane in her class)

The gym (They use it for older kid's gymnastics too)

They decorated for Christmas and set up some rolling hills and even a sledding hill. These were the hills to climb over. Jane smiling.

Alice's favorites were the balance beam and the hanging bar. She's a good little balancer. She likes to shimy to the edge of the couch arm too at home and get help jumping off. We've had a few crashes, but not too bad. Jane does the same thing and then jumps off. Alice one day will learn to jump.

Alice hanging

Jane following her class to the next event. All the little girls were too cute.

Jane and her teacher at the top of the "roof" to jump down the chimney (barrel)

At the end of each 45 minute class the girls got stamps on their feet and hands. Alice waiting patiently for the stamps.

Jane waiting for her turn with her class. Sadly we chose not to continue gym class next year, but have decided to try dance lessons. Jane is very excited, but I think she'll miss all the tumbling just a little bit too.

Jane and Alice watching the choo-choo train going round and round the Christmas tree

Alice laying on her tummy to get a closer look

Jane and Alice having fun in the buckets

What cute girls!

Ahh, the Christmas season!

We love Christmas! Jane's favorite song is Jingle Bells, which she sings all year round. We sing it every Monday night for Family Home Evening too. She and Alice have been excited about all the lights, music, and hopes of new toys. In fact, the only song Alice would let me sing tonight as I put her to bed was "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" I need to brush up on the lyrics.

Our prelit tree is beautiful even without the ornaments. It took us about a week to decorate the whole thing. We are just running around every weekend.

Kevin and Alice enjoying the tree

The first Friday in December was temple day. It was our turn to watch the kids. It was a cold and rainy day, so we went to the library with the 4 kids. It's in a cute part of Orlando that's set up like a quaint little village. They have a great bakery across the street too. Here's Alice on the front porch of the library.

Drew and Sami on the porch too. Sami and Jane love playing together, so they had fun. And Drew is our new best friend because we took such great care of him! After the library we headed to Epcot and had a great time despite the rain and chill in the air, but I will post those pictures at a later date.

On Saturday morning the girls were invited to a friend's birthday party. I had the opportunity to play my French horn in a Cantata this year and the dress rehearsal was the same morning, so Kevin took the girls to the party. They had a great time.

Alice after sampling the cake. Yummy frosting!

From the party Kevin met me at the church and we dropped the girls off with Grandma while we went to a leadership training. Then we went to a ladies' house for dinner whom the ward helped fix her roof during the day of service and then we went to the Palm Bay Christmas parade. It was a very busy day.

Enjoying the parade, although we were a little cold

Kevin, Alice, and the Bear with their Santa and elf hats on. (I love how even when Kevin is taking the picture it looks like it caught him off guard!!!)

Reading bedtime stories. I love it!!!!

Alice for some reason wanted to wear my socks, so I put them on her and they were thigh highs. She was so cute though. She loves to jump too and is getting better at it! Pure joy!

Catch up!

One afternoon I was watching my friend, Sarah's kids, and Alice wanted to put on her giraffe costume (thanks Kim). She looks adorable in it. Well, Sarah has a little boy, Luke who is the same size and he wore the panda costume. Jane had on her princess dress so she joined in the picture. They were too cute.

Alice, Jane, and Luke

Alice on another day pretending to be the giraffe. She and Jane have fun playing. Jane is the mommy and Alice is her dog. Alice goes around crawling and barking. It's pretty cute to watch.

Trying to get out of the hot costume

Thanksgiving Day and the Turkey Trot

As has become our tradition, each year we participate in the turkey trot 5k/10k run/walk. Kim decided to run this year, so Mom and I walked with the youngest kids in strollers. We walked at a very slow pace, but enjoyed it even with the slight misty rain. It gears us up for a day of eating and football watching. We are so very thankful for the bodies we have been given which allow us to do these things.

Jane and Alice before the race

Cute little Alice

Mikayla out of the stroller and running to the finish line

Kim and Mike went back to help Mom with the kids. Her stroller pulled to the left pretty bad. But they had fun. Ben crossing the finish line. (with Mike's help)

Mom finishing the race (the runners in the background ran the 10k. We walked the 5k).

Kevin finishing a tough 10k with the help of Jane and Alice. (He was sick for half of October and all of November and is just, in the last week, feeling much better. A little bronchitis and pan sinusitis knocked him out for a long time. So he hadn't run in a long time and his lungs were still recovering.) But he finished!!!! Although, I remember now that he was just supposed to walk with the girls and I, but took off running and ran the whole thing. Crazy!

Mikayla, Jane, and Alice playing in the trees after the Turkey Trot.

Pretty girls!

Mom's 60th Birthday Party

My mom just turned 60 last week and we had a celebration for her. My parents love to dance, in fact they met at a dance in high school and the rest is history. So we had a 50's sock hop type party with dinner and dancing. The gym looked great. The food was excellent. The dancing and entertainment was fun. I wish I had done more to help, but I'm glad you had a wonderful birthday party Mom. You deserve it! You are amazing and I love you!!!!

So here are some pictures for those of you who might have missed the rockin' party.

Joshua, Jacob, and Mike testing out and setting up the punch bowl

Jane and Mikayla in their cute outfits. Mikayla still fit into her skirt from my dad's party 2 years ago. It was a tad shorter, but worked! Jane passed her skirt on to Alice and I bought a new outfit for her.

The birthday girl, Nancy, my dad (Kerry), and my nephew, Jacob

Alice sampling the party favors (Sorry it's a little blurry). I had fun sewing an "A" and a "J" on her and Jane's shirts.

Jane and her friend Sami dancing (kind of)

My mom loves music. She especially loves to sing and harmonize with us. We've been singing since I can remember. And one of the songs I remember singing a lot was "You are my sunshine." In fact when I started to learn the guitar, that was the first song I wanted to learn to play. Come to find out, it is very easy to play (Yay for me!). So I thought it would be neat for Jane and I to sing it for my mom. I practiced singing it with Jane at home and told her we would sing it for Gramma at her birthday party. Jane agreed. So the time came and she was ready. I asked her if she wanted to hold the mic and she said, "Yes!" She did a great job.

Me, Mom, Kim

And here's the video of the song

Last Halloween Pictures I promise!!!

Halloween night we went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. I knew the girls wouldn't last too long, so we only were hitting a few houses. We started with a couple we met a few years ago and they were excited to see the girls. Then we knocked to the end of the street and back to our house. Jane was done. Then Kevin and Jane stayed out front on the porch swing and handed out candy while I gave Alice a bath. We didn't have too many trick or treaters and we were the only ones out at 6:30 in our neighborhood. As it got darker, more people came out. The girls had fun.

Kevin concentrating on getting Alice's nose just right! His makeup was a lot simpler that night.

Kevin and the girls

Me and the girls

Jane's first French braid

Jane and Alice go to gym class every Tuesday morning and one of the things Jane has to do is wear her hair up. Which we all know is a hard thing for Jane. Well this morning she asked me to put her hair in a ponytail before we went to gym class. Amazing! As I was brushing her hair I asked her if I could braid it and she said yes and was all excited about it. I turned on some Qubo and did a really quick French braid. I didn't want to press my luck on taking to long with perfection, but I was ecstatic that she let me do it without a fight. She looked at herself in the mirror and proudly said, "I'm going to show my teacher my braid." Which she did as soon as she saw her teacher. Too funny. I don't think her teacher really understood what she was saying, but I knew and I felt good.

And because I don't know when she'll let me do it again, I documented well. Just thought I'd share. Oh, as soon as we got back in the car after gym class, the braid came out! At least it stayed in for an hour and a half. It's progress and it gives me hope for future hair dressing opportunities.

As a side note for any interested, the reason I'm so excited is because I love to do hair. I was the official basketball team French braider in high school. Whenever I see my little sister Beth, if her hair is long enough, I always braid it at least once. And I used to do all our Barbie's hair too. So I was thrilled to have little girls to do their hair, but for the last 3 years I haven't wasted time battling Jane over doing her hair, so I figured one day she would ask. And finally those days are starting to come. And that is why I am so excited! Plus she looks so cute!

Trunk-or-Treat

This year I was trying to come up with a theme for our costumes. We had so much fun last year as super heroes that I wanted another themed one as long as we can. Once the girls start having an opinion I'll be out of luck. Anyway, I started off thinking we could all be a mother goose character, bo peep, Jack and Jill, Miss Muffett, etc. Then Jane heard my idea and said she wanted to be a lost sheep. I thought for a moment and said, "That could work. I'll be Little Bo Peep, the girls can be the sheep, and Kevin'll be the big bad wolf." And that's what we did.

Jane was excited enough to let me try out her outfit a week in advance. So much easier this year than last. She wouldn't even wear her cape last year! And because of Jane's cooperation, Alice was pretty much on board too! Yay!!!!

Alice the cute little lamb. Kevin said she reminded him of the Pixar short sheep who got sheered and then danced. Too funny.

Kevin did his own makeup. It scared Alice. Everytime he walked by at home Alice would lay down. Then finally she started crying and clung to me for a while. She got used to him by the end of the night though.

My costume was a hodgepodge of a lot of stuff I already had. The only thing I sewed were my bloomers. I put 3 rows of lace on each one. Not too shabby.

The girls ready to get some candy!

The only way to keep Alice from tearing off her ears was to keep a lollipop in her mouth. She was wired by the end of the evening and very sticky.

Family picture

Tasting the goodies. Alice also tried some root beer, which spilled all down the front of her.

Jane busy passing out the candy. She made me say "Trick-or-Treat" to get some candy.

The Big Bad Wolf

Attacking one of the lambs. Jane thought it was pretty funny.

Ready for bed and happy!