holiday home tour…

November 9, 2010
shamelessly, we went straight from halloween to christmas.

on november 1st.

my thanksgiving table will be decorated appropriately…
with turkeys, brown, orange, leaves, and pilgrims.
and, we will feast with giant thankful hearts.

but,

big ‘but’ here…

the ambiance surrounding the next eight weeks
is set in red, silver, white, gold, green,
candy canes, owls, santas, wreaths, and
with lots of lights & sparkles…

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nycda – salt lake city

November 6, 2010

…well, after most of our halloween festivities wrapped up last week,
we all headed up to salt lake city to meet up with kiana at her nycda
dance convention-competition.

here’s a little peek at how our family squishes ourselves into one hotel room.

yes, our youngest child throws a fit about her bed on the floor,
which usually means she ends up in someone else’s bed before 2am.

if you notice myla sunken in her bed,
she had messed with the remote-numbers on her bed,
and it was never quite right the rest of the night…

those ‘number’ beds just don’t make any sense to me!


we were all up &

.....

mindy.
she took our family pictures recently…

since my kids have been wearing these 3D movie glasses as an accessory
for the past 2 months, they were my inspiration for our session.
and, we took the pictures here, right next to our home,
so i love the home sweet home scenery connection.

i am obsessed with the pictures {obsessed!},
they turned out exactly how i’d hoped and better.
mindy totally captured our family life through her lens…

her photography style is brilliant.

the first time i saw the pictures, i just sat there stunned,
and had one thought over and over and over…

.....

nycda – mobile, alabama

October 26, 2010
miss twelve and i spent our weekend in mobile, alabama.

she attended a dance workshop there, with nycda.

three years ago, she set a goal, i mentioned it here and here.

well, now she is at the top of the junior age category, and we are working towards her goal…once again.

these six dancers: kiana {12}, darby {14}, jenna {16}, zoey {17}, justin {16}, and ruger {16} all had similar goals this weekend…

and they all met those goals! all six of these kids went to NYCDA Alabama & earned ‘outstanding dancer’ scholarships in each of their age divisions for nationals in new york city in july!

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have you ever wondered…

October 22, 2010

how all those little rhinestones get on dance costumes?

probably not.

but, just to fill you in,
this is how it’s done…

you use E-6000 glue,
you fill a medical syringe with the glue,
you put a tiny dot of the glue from the syringe on the fabric,
you use a little wax wand to pick up and place the stone,
then you let it dry.

one by one.

diet coke & i have a serious bond from hours spent stoning

this is a skill i picked up when i was on the ballroom team in college,
and it’s continued use has been applied so many times since entering
the world of dance mom.

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punkins…and more

October 20, 2010

we are a little ahead of schedule this year for halloween festivities,
because our life is going to be packed with so many other adventures
the next few weeks {or months}…

this past weekend…

we carved punkins…
we played mr. potato head with our punkins,
we made rice krispies haunted houses,
we made caramel apples {the easy way},
we went boo-ing…

we had our annual family halloween dinner,
we made skull-candy necklaces…
and more!

life is good…


{still lovin’ warty punkins!}

we indulged in sweets all weekend,

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