A Star is Born

If my memory serves me right.....and at my age it better.....this was Kenzie's seventh year to do ballet!! If I hadn't been at every single recital, I wouldn't believe it!! 

She LOVES dancing! It's almost apart of her identity at this point. I know I am her mom, but she is sooo talented. She really is! I don't feel like she is dancing at the level she is capable of this go round, but she was able to master what she already knew, which will be a true blessing later.

This year, her dress rehearsal and recital were all on the same day. It may have taken up a whole Saturday, but I only had to do her hair and makeup once, and I would gladly do that any day. 

And, of course, she was the most beautiful one out there ;)

See for yourself...

I LOVE this picture of her!!

Anyway, she won an award this year for being a "helper" to a little girls' class. She went to an extra class with little girls every week to learn their routines and help their teacher. I think that class was close to Madison's age group...three and four year old's. And on recital day, she danced with them. So that made five dances for her to perform and some crazy costume changes!

I am going to attempt to upload a video again, but it didn't go well for my last post....

Ok, the video worked, but it still isn't a dancing one. In this one, Kenzie receives an award before the recital begins for all of her hard work as a helper. So proud of her!!

With the help of the dress rehearsal, we quickly figured out that she would definitely need help changing in and out of her costumes. So, of course I wanted to be the one to help her. I made my notes of what I needed when, when she went here and who should would dance with there....It was NUTS!! And I loved every minute of it. The absolute madness behind the scenes was so exciting. Costumes flying everywhere, all kinds of ballet shoes, accessories, hairspray....Oh, the hairspray!! That was madness in itself. Lol!!
Chaos is not normally my forte, but it didn't seem to bother me that night. I don't know why. Normally, I would have been popping my crazy pills fifteen minutes in. Lol!! But it felt different...like I was apart of something.....something great. And I loved it! But what I loved the most, was that I got to share that memory with Kenzie. She will always remember this recital as, "the one she won her first trophy at", "the won where she danced with the little girls for the first time", "the one where her mom ran around like a crazy person with a piece of paper and a bag of ballet clothes"!! Lol!!! And she will always remember that I was the one there with her.

Now that the year has ended, she is already talking about what class she will sign up for next year. Lol!!
And, of course, I have a few pics of my beautiful ballerina to end out another great year...

Her friends...and I thought Kenzie had on a lot of makeup :)

Waiting to get her recital pics taken

Kenzie and Rainy

Her Mimi and Papa

This is the teacher she helped with

These two girls are the stars of the show...little ballet besties

 I am sure you noticed our family picture was one short. This was Bailee's first year to miss Kenzie's recital. I guess this is something we will have to get used to, but I don't imagine it will get any easier with time. I hate that she had to miss, but Kenzie still had fun and did another great job.

I LOVE watching her learn and grow in her passion for dancing, but I am glad to call it a year.
Amarillo Little Theater 2012- another great success!

The Littlest Ballerina

It has been a crazy couple of weeks!! 

I don't think I have been on here since....May!!

Kyle has been a computer hog for a month now, but I guess I will I will forgive him since he is taking three on-line classes...but only this once! Lol!

Ok....so I need to go back several weeks.....and it looks like Kenzie and Madison's ballet recitals are next on the blogging list.

Madison had her's first on a Thursday night, which I am not a fan of. Nothing like getting off of work to run home, rush around a 3 year old with hair and makeup and then expect her to be calm and relaxed for her performance. Just sayin'.
Anyway, she did really great. Putting her hair up is always my least favorite part, and her's. Holding still for that long with all of the bobby pins and hair spray could probably be considered child abuse, but she took it like a champ.

Me and my little ballerina

She looked so beautiful!! And she was so cute doing her dances. She knew exactly what she was doing. I was so proud of her.
Give me a sec...I am going to attempt to upload a video...

This is the video of the opening performance to the recital, which she was in. She is the one on the very end that wouldn't wave. Lol!! I wanted to upload the two videos of her dances, but Blogger is being dumb right now. Anyway, I will try to upload again some other time. But I promise you, it was super freakin; cute! ;)
And of course now, it's picture time...

Coloring a picture waiting to go onstage

Madison and her friend (? name)

This was actually taken at rehearsal, not recital

These next few are my favorites, so I played with them a bit on a photoshop website...which I LOVE!!! If you are interested, let me know. The site is free and super cool :)

Her favorite part of recital is the flowers

Mimi and Papa with little missy

Madison and her favorite daddy

Facial expressions not at their best, but we were ALL together and that's what matters :)

Ballet is always so much fun. The girls love it doing it and I love watching them. The progress they make throughout the year is exciting to see. I'm sure I look like a whack job sitting there grinning ear to ear like a crazy person, but I am just sooo proud of them and how hard they have worked!!
But as much as I enjoy all of this, by the time recital and summer gets here, I am ready for a break!

Amarillo Little Theater Ballet 2012......HUGE success!!
Here's to another year!!

Just Another Week

We have officially made it through Kyle's Monday through Friday work and school schedule!!

Praise the Lord!!

He is finally home and feeling a part of the family again. And it couldn't have come sooner. I was certainly missing him, but the kids, I think, were missing him more. I couldn't tell you how many times I heard, "I miss my Daddy" or "When is Daddy coming home?"

Broke my heart every time....

But now he is home and we are loving it! Of course, his presence will still be competed with school. He is taking three classes this summer. He chose to do them on-line so he could be home instead of in class. He has never taken an on-line class, however, so I am a little nervous. He has done so good in every class completed so far, and I just don't want him to do poorly because we selfishly want him to be home with us. He is really going to have to be very disciplined to make sure he gets his assignments done, correctly and on time. Continue to keep him, and us, in your prayers.

Last night, we went to a wedding. It has been forever since I've been to a wedding. The bride is a cousin to my bestest, bestest friend, Katie. And it was sooo great to see her!!

 We go way back. 

One of my first memories of the bride, Marli, was way back when me and Katie (her cousin) were in middle school. That would have put Marli in the 1st or 2nd grade...I remember we were at Aunt Lolly and Uncle Jimmy's house (Marli's parents) watching her twist and fold her body into a pretzel on the living room floor!!! I told Katie that her cousin was crazy! Lol!! 

It is so weird for me to think that that strangely flexible little girl is all grown up...and now married.

She made such a beautiful bride. The moment she walked out onto the alter, my youngest daughter informed me that "There is a princess and I WILL have my picture made with her". Lol!!

 And she did...

I didn't get a lot of pictures at the wedding, due to the fact that I am late everywhere I go, but let be the first to tell you it was beautiful! It was outside, late in the evening...absolutely perfect. Marli's brother sang a song that he had wrote for her and I just about died...his voice was AMAZING!!! I had no idea he was such a talented singer! Anyway, here is the few pics I did get...

This is the best depiction of my family ever captured in a single photo...

And with this disturbing picture, I will say, "Until next time."