Thanksgiving Bliss

This Thanksgiving we headed out to sunny Colorado (literally). It was incredibly warm... like in the 60's!! We stayed at my sisters with Elli & Dewayne and my parents and Andres & Sandee stayed at a hotel nearby. It was Christians baptism weekend so the whole fam damily went out to celebrate! It was really fun for us and for the kids too... they LOVED having big slumber parties every night with their cousins and playing their guts out! Jamie & Caro were such great hosts too... always making us ALL feel welcome!

On Thanksgiving we all went to the skate park by her house before the big feast and the kids had a great time:

We always joke about these two in pictures together... they make such a cute couple!

Here is their engagement picture:

All the little kids really like Marcus... especially Isaac!

I miss this little beauty everyday!

This pic was at a local park that the guys took the kids to the day after thanksgiving while we ladies got caught up on some sleep! We headed out Thanksgiving night at 10pm (which is when her outlets opened) and didn't return until 7am the next morning! I was on a shopping high! It was SO crazy fun... I have said it once and I'll say it yet again... Colorado has THE BEST shopping!

All the cousins (on Jamie's and Caro's sides) after Christian's baptism.

The kids played a musical number for the baptism. They played "I am a Child of God" with Nico on the piano, Hallie, Jaxon and Sydnee on violin and Summer playing the violin obbligato part. It was SO cute! They did such a great job!

Summer with Cassidy & Max (Jamie's niece & nephew).

Aren't they all so cute?

Let's just say Summer really enjoys going to Colorado ;)

A bunch of CRAZIES!

We had a serisouly CrAzY family night a couple weeks ago. It all started with a little of this:

Then we mixed in a little of this:

And got this:

And this:

It was a night full of Crazies! I think family game night is here to stay... expecially if it ALWAYS includes milk shakes!

Loving Music

The kids had their annual Suzuki Violin Recital the week before Thanksgiving. It was a HIT! Hallie played "Long, Long, Ago" (the Book 2 version), Jaxon played "The Happy Farmer" , and Summer played "Spring" by Vivaldi - 1st movement. They all did so great! I was VERY excited that I got to accompany them on the piano too... I am loving piano lately and obvisouly loving music! I love that my kids play. It makes me happy to hear them playing... especially when they are loving it too ;) I am so grateful for music in my life and in my home.

The kids love their teacher (Marcii Palmer), and so do I! She makes music so fun and she is an amazing person! We are so grateful that we are in her studio!

This pic is of Summer and Denise Willey (her Orchestra Director). Summer auditioned for the Lyceum Chamber Ensemble this year and she is really enjoying it! This was after their Christmas Concert on Dec. 2nd. It was an amazing concert seeing so many young kids up on that stage making beautiful music together... again... I love music!

(As an interesting side note: Jaxon told me at this concert that he likes the DEEP sound the Cello makes and he wants to play Cello! I think that would be SO fun for both of us... but can I really add that to my plater right now? We shall see ...)

In fact, I love music so much that ... Alan bought me a Brand New Piano for Christmas and I couldn't be happier! Here she is:

I have been in heaven... big change from our little keyboard!

Now for some piano lessons...

The kids are really enjoying playing it. Summer has amazed us all at how much she can play on the piano and apparently... she can read piano music! She is awesome...

wish I was that awesome ;)