Winter show 2017

The girls are fortunate to be a part of a dance studio that has some pretty great values of fun over fame and inclusion of all kids. (Granted there are a few things that Ryan would like to change about the studio, but I'll leave his rant out of this post).

This past weekend they took part in the annual winter show. I'm so grateful that this (Christmas themed show) is held after the holidays or we may not get a chance to be a part. With all of the busy-ness of the holidays, adding extra weekend practices and a crazy show week to the mix would likely put me over the edge.

So after much anticipation and a lot of practice, we headed to a new local theater for dress rehearsal in a packed house! There were nearly 400 people at dress rehearsal alone; I'd say that was pretty good practice.

Each of the girls take part in 3 separate classes.

Regan does ballet, lyrical and danceline.

Sidney does acro (more on that in a bit), jazz and tap.

Regan got some compliments on her high kicks after her number at each show. She bashfully blushes and gets high on cloud 9 to know she is doing well on stage. Those legs of hers are l-o-n-g!

And this little one knows how to shake it up there. I chuckled that 2 of her teachers must have choreographed the dances with Sidney in mind. She sure can shake her hips!! I have a video of her at age 3 up on stage shaking away....she's a natural :)

This is her first year in acro (and only the 2nd for the studio). It's a class that combines gymnastics and dance. And she LOVES it! Might have something to do with the fact that during the winter show the younger class was combined with the older kids, or the fact that she aspires to be an Olympic gymnast one day.

Check out that tuck jump!

For weeks upon weeks, all that we heard was "I get to climb under Sarah!". We didn't exactly know what that meant but it meant the world to her to dance with an older girl.

This was show #2, just look at how cute and happy she was!

I love it :)

These girls put in countless hours of practice leading up to the show. There was some blood, sweat and tears and yet they adored every second of being on stage.

In the end, they were in 3 shows, dancing a total of 9 dances each spanning across 12 hours! Talk about a long day. We were all exhausted!

One word

Well actually it's 3. One for each kid. As I put the kids to bed tonight, I rocked Lincoln and watched as his foot tapped up and down and couldn't help but think the same thing that I do every time I'm trying to get him to bed. Boy is he active. And it got me thinking, I bet there is one word that describes each of these kids right now. And so, here we go.....

I'll start with Lincoln since I already gave his away. This boy is active. From sunrise to beyond sunset, he doesn't stop moving. His mouth is going a mile a minute with questions and statements as he learns about the world around us. He even talks in his sleep!, crying out for someone to get him his truck, wondering where his trains are, etc. His body never stops either, he darts in and out of clothes racks at the store, runs ahead of me 99% of the time and his favorite game is "run get me!". He likes large movement games: run, throw, kick. Go big or go home. That's our boy!

Then there's Sidney. She is strong. She is strong-willed, strong-minded, and though she is little, that girl has some serious strength! I have told her time and again, some day those traits will take her far in life, but for right now, it's not always easy to be her mother :) She is determined and stubborn but thankfully cute and likeable.

Last is Regan. This one is passionate. She's learning about persuasion in school and puts her heart and soul into ideas. Good thing she isn't super convincing yet or we'd be on our way to pick out a puppy. But oh can she be intense and extreme this oldest child. It's all or nothing with her!

We love these three and their very distinctive personalities. They are unique and adorable in their own ways and we wouldn't want it any other way!

The good, the bad and the ugly

I don't actually have pictures depicting all of these words (because who takes pictures in the moments I'm about to describe!), but I do have a lot of explanation on how our little man is good, bad and ugly!....

Life with a toddler (and two older siblings) is exciting, entertaining and downright exhausting. We have good, we have bad and we have completely ugly. Let's start with the good...

Lincoln is certainly the sweetest little boy I have ever known. 

*He is the first to say "sorry" or "I wuv you" and will try to make you smile when he knows you are upset. 

*He is quick to lend a helping hand, and enjoys helping in the kitchen, shoveling the driveway or putting away groceries. 

*He is genuinely concerned when someone is hurt. The other day Ryan slid down a few steps (likely due to his recent surgery) and Lincoln came running to be sure he was ok. He grabbed the items in Ryan's hands and carried them all the way down the stairs for him!

*And he always always always needs a big huge goodbye hug before I go.

And along with the good, we have to balance it with the bad. 

* He loves to tease his sisters, whether it means going into their rooms when asked to leave, touching them in the back seat of the car, or destroying their play area. 

* Although completely potty trained, he will intentionally miss the toilet, spraying his yellow water all over the bathroom floor. Laughing. 

* He likes to dump all of his toys from every room with zero intention of actually playing with them. And not just dump in one spot, nope, this kid likes to throw things clear across the room. 

And then there are the moments, in pure toddler form, where he is downright ugly!

* Like when he picks up his plate and tosses it clear across the room, with food flying through the air. 

* Or runs around the house, racing up to each person and using their legs (or something in that general area....) as a punching bag, darting away faster than anyone can catch him to stop the cycle (this turns into a disaster giggle game for him). 

* Or when he takes a bite of food, chews it up, and then spits it on his sister sitting next to him. Yes, he really does this. Poor Sidney. 

There certainly are days where he tests our limits and we are so grateful when bedtime rolls around. I have to remind all of us that these ugly moments won't last forever (thankfully!), and we just need to ride them out, stay consistent, and remember that the good far outweighs the bad! 

Best of 2016

As we bid farewell to 2016, I thought I would flashback to the best of our 2016 (as taken by my actual camera, not iPhone)....one from each month. This was not an easy task! Some months I had 5 of them I could pick, one month I barely  had one! It was an incredible year for our family. We love to have fun, explore and live life! Happy New Year!

Christmas 2016

Christmas day is one of my most favorite days of the year! I just love the feeling of Christmas :) We woke up to a houseful of presents and ate a fun breakfast of Christmas Tree cinnamon rolls (which I didn't get a picture of darn it).

In true kid form, these two were (not so) patiently waiting for the rest of the family to join them under the Christmas tree to see what Santa had left for them. They were just giddy, running back and forth between the tree and the rest of us, asking if we were ready yet and if they could open gifts. The excitement in the house was simply off the charts!

I politely asked that we not tear through the gifts as fast as we had in previous years. I know...I'm such a downer! But they abided by my request and took turns opening gifts (for the most part), and it was so much more fun! They got to see the excitement in each other's eyes and really pay attention to more than just themselves.

Lincoln got a few larger toys, one being a grill so he can stand outside and grill with daddy. We use our grill year round despite the temps so he's pretty pumped to help daddy!

He also scored this sweet ORANGE snow blower and is over the moon excited! Seriously, I don't understand where this wish-list came from, but he kept telling everyone that Santa was bringing him an orange (his favorite color) snow blower.
Wait...what!?

I'm so thankful that Santa came through! He's going to love helping out next time it snows!

Sidney and Regan used their own money this year (Regan's unprompted idea) to buy each other gifts. Sidney's reaction after opening her shopkins stuffed animal brought tears to my eyes. She raced over to Regan to give her a huge hug and nearly knocked her into the fireplace!

And Sidney scored a Little Live pet dog "Lulu" from Santa. It's the closest thing we're getting to a real pet around here so she's loving her up as much as possible. The thing even breathes like a real dog! Super cute :)

Grandma Jan and Papa came up in the rain (yes, it was raining in Minnesota on Christmas!) with their ugly sweaters to spend the rest of the day with us. At that moment, after seeing their awesome tops, we decided that next year we will ALL be finding ugly Christmas sweaters!! It's our new tradition, and Ryan has already been online looking for his!! I love it :)

We soaked in as much time with them as we could, seeing as though they departed for Texas after leaving us :( but thankfully they gave each of  us plane tickets to come visit and so now we are busy preparing for our winter vacation! 

I had to get a picture of each kiddo in front of the tree and then one together, because they are growing up just so fast.

Lincoln: 3 years old

Sidney: 8 years old (with Lulu)

Regan: 10 years

After a huge lunch with turkey, potatoes, and all of the fixings plus dessert, my dad promptly fell asleep snuggled next to Regan's new gigantic sized teddy bear!

One of my most favorite 'decorations' are all the Christmas cards we get throughout the month. We line them up this wall and occasionally I will find someone standing just staring at them. I found a way to hang on to them for longer than 3 weeks (thanks Pinterest!) and will be creating a cute little album to pull out again year after year. 

                               

I hope you and yours had the most lovely Christmas. Once again, I'm beyond thankful for our health and happiness.

Let's all just pardon Ryan's purple Vikes pants and recall that he had knee surgery only 3 days before Christmas. It added a bit of stress to our holiday but he has seemingly recovered just fine and again, makes us thankful for our health!

 Merry Christmas!

And before I forget, here was our 2016 Christmas Card:

Christmas Eve 2016

It's hard for me to imagine that Christmas is already over, and we are heading into the New Year. I love December because we look forward to some extra family days, good food, treats and celebrating Christmas. Once it's over, I get a little sad that we have 3 months of winter weather to endure.... so let's re-live those 2 magical days of Christmas:

We dressed in our red on Christmas eve, all for SANTA is what Lincoln said :)

I love these three cuties more than life itself. And I don't often get into pictures so I forced the camera on whoever was nearby and jumped in for a few pictures. Can you believe how tall Regan is getting? Standing next to her really points out her height. I'm not super tall by any means (5'6"), but she is on my heels and catching up quickly. Her feet are officially bigger than mine...and she's only in 5th grade! I made her stand next to her growth chart the other day and realized she's grown 1.5" in the last few months. Wowzas!

Grandma and Grandpa Friederich came up on Christmas eve and spoiled the kiddos rotten for the first of many celebrations. Regan's favorite was her gift cards, Sidney got a cozy robe that she wears nightly and Lincoln will be loving up on the wee-ride copilot to attach to my bike this summer. He loves the burley and I think this will take it to the next level for him.

We ate food, opened presents and just enjoyed the evening together.

And before bedtime, the girls/I put out our luminaries to line the driveway and side walk. When I told Ryan about my "project" 2 weeks prior, he waved his arms as though he was money just flying away....aka: a waste of money. But even he admitted it looked pretty cool. There were many slow cars driving past so I knew it was a hit, and definitely something we will continue. Every Christmas, it appears that more and more of our neighborhood is participating in this fun annual tradition. I'm so excited to be a part of it!

 

As we laid our heads to rest on Christmas eve, bidding farewell to the beloved Ellie the elf, I prayed our little ones remembered the real meaning of Christmas.