Little Bitty Pretty One

Last year, sadly, Meili's dance recital did not go as I planned. I was so excited, but in the end, I was pretty frustrated with Josh because he had to work late, and then had to go back in to work after the recital was over, Meili did not want to listen to me the entire time, so rather than getting ice cream afterwards, she ended up in time out in her room. Overall, it was fine, and I try to block out some of those memories, because she really was a cute little dancer, but let's just say that I liked this year's experience much better.

 These pictures are from a performance that she did the week before at a Senior Center.

I thought she seemed pretty distracted the whole time, but when I went through the pictures again after, I realized that most of the time, she really is doing a dance move.

 These pictures are from her actual recital. I invited my parents, Josh's parents, my brother's family and my aunt. I was so worried that they would all be bored out of their minds, and they would see what I mean that Meili is a distracted dancer, and they would think it was a big waste of time. In the end, they may not have loved it, but I thought it went better than I ever would have imagined. 

 I have really loved Meili's dance teacher. I would say that her goal is probably not getting the girls ready for competitive dancing. But her goal is getting them to be comfortable with movement, and comfortable with themselves. She focuses on modesty in movement and clothing. And rather than spending a fortune on costumes that Meili will never wear again, she chooses fairly inexpensive things that Meili can wear over and over.

 This year, the recital was dedicated to dads, and Meili's teacher asked the dads of the girls in Meili's class to do one dance with them. The song that they danced to was called Cinderella and these are the words...

                                      She spins and she sways to whatever song plays

Without a care in the world

And I'm sitting here wearing the weight of the world on my shoulders

It's been a long day and there's still work to do

She's pulling at me saying "Dad I need you!

There's a ball at the castle and I've been invited

and I need to practice my dancin'

Oh please, Daddy, please!"

[Chorus:]So I will dance with Cinderella

While she is here in my arms

'Cause I know something the prince never knew

Oh I will dance with Cinderella

I don't want to miss even one song

'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight

And she'll be gone

[Verse 2:]She says he's a nice guy and I'd be impressed

She wants to know if I approve of the dress

She says, "Dad, the prom is just one week away

And I need to practice my dancin'

Oh please, Daddy, please!"

[Chorus:]So I will dance with Cinderella

While she is here in my arms

'Cause I know something the prince never knew

Oh I will dance with Cinderella

I don't want to miss even one song

'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight

And she'll be gone

She will be gone

[Verse 3:]But she came home today with a ring on her hand

Just glowing and telling us all they had planned

She says, "Dad, the wedding's still six months away 

but I need to practice my dancin'

Oh please, Daddy, please!"

[Chorus:]So I will dance with Cinderella

While she is here in my arms

'Cause I know something the prince never knew

Oh I will dance with Cinderella

I don't want to miss even one song

'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight

And she'll be gone

Meili and Josh are on the very end.

At the end of the dance, my sister-in-law said, "Don't cry or anything!" Are you kidding me? It was the sweetest thing EVER! The song lyrics were so sweet, and ended with the little girls waving good-bye to their dads from the side of the stage. (And Josh did a good job himself!)

Meili did another dance later on, to a song called Little Bitty Pretty One. It was also cute, and both Josh and I agreed that she did the best on both of her dances than we had ever seen her do. 

We tried to get pictures of our beautiful dancer afterward, but instead we got this silly goober! We love them both though!

Everyone but Josh's parents went to get ice cream when the recital was over. Josh and I couldn't say enough about how proud we were of Meili and how much more enjoyable this night was than last year!

Sleepover

Meili has been asking for a long time to have a sleepover with me, and she could sleep in her sleeping bag and we could sleep in her tent. I kept putting her off because Grant's sleep is hit and miss and I value my sleep so much. But I decided it would be way more fun if she could have a sleepover with Shasta anyway. So a couple weeks ago, we invited Shasta over for a very girly night. 

We did all the things that I believe are mandatory for a girls night...

 Finger nails 
(Sara had class that night, so we got the bonus of having Shelby with us for the earlier part of our girls night.)

 Valentine crafts
(Sara, I promise that Shelby is not eating the glue in this picture. I am a responsible, caring, sleepover host.)

And I thought it would be fun if everyone got to make their very own pizza. 

I think they really enjoyed the "making" part, the eating? Eh... not nearly as fun. 

Oh well. Josh, Grant, and I enjoyed it at least.

 And of course, a movie with popcorn.

 For some reason, it made them both seem so big to me when they were asking each other to do up the backs of their dresses.

This was Meili taking a turn being the prince.

Oh, these two girls are so beautiful, and they love being together! I thoroughly enjoyed the sleepover as well. (Until it was time for bed. Then, I mean business, and I think they figured that out pretty quickly.) In the end, everyone slept better than can be expected. I did, however, think it was funny when Shasta woke up around 7:00, and the rest of us were still fast asleep. Josh and Grant slept till probably 8, and Meili until about 9. We are not early risers in our house!

More Birthday!

We had a combined one-year old birthday party with Josh's side of the family for Grant and my nephew Brayden who are 2 weeks apart.

I believe these two are going to be "forced friends" for their lives because they're so close in age. Hopefully it's something they are thankful for as they grow up.

 There are a lot of pictures, so just bear with me.

 After the party with my side of the family, I felt like balloons were a must!

 After my cake pop fiasco for Grant's other party, I wasn't really in the mood to make another birthday cake. So luckily Kami enlisted the help of her sister-in-law, and they cake up with this masterpiece.

 I also felt the need to try out some new cookie cutters, and I bought all the candy I could find in the shape of balls. Don't worry, later on you'll see the pictures of the cotton candy that Jake and Kami couldn't resist for each of the kids. Sugar was in no short supply at the party!

 I was so excited about having Grant and Brayden do their cake smash together. And the event did not disappoint. I captioned what I think is going through their heads.

 Smack Talk

 Game faces

 "I'm not so sure about this."

 Brayden: "Buddy, I got this."

 Grant: "This can't be right."

 Grant: "Can I try yours?"

 "Yeah, maybe it's okay."

 Then Brayden just took off. Once he got into it, there was no stopping him.

We will divert for a minute as some guests were leaving, and we needed pictures.

 Back to the main event...

 Brayden left his mark.

 "What cake? I have no idea what you're talking about."

 This is what a one year old should look like after a cake smash.

 And finally Grant started to get the hang of it.

 But let's face it, in the competition of Grant vs. Brayden in the cake smash, we all have to agree, Brayden had this one in the bag!

I'm a Big Boy Now!

In the last month, Grant transformed, seemingly overnight.The week after his birthday, he started walking. Literally, one day he was not walking, and the next day he was. He just decided it was time. That week, Josh also gave him a haircut. So he went from this...

 To this...

And the combination between him turning one, getting a haircut, and walking make him seem so much bigger. He's a little boy now. He seems to know that he's bigger now too. He's decided that it's time to start talking. No one else understands anything, but he knows exactly what he is saying, and he knows that he can tell us what he wants now. So he points to everything and chooses his sound for the day, "Ba! Ba!" or "Da! Da!" "Ga! Ga!" and looks at me like I should understand exactly what that means. 

Josh also taught him how to dunk a basketball this month, which is the cutest thing ever. He knows that when he gets it in the net, we all clap for him and make a big deal. So now before the ball has even fallen through the net, he turns around and smiles and starts clapping for himself. And every once in awhile we can get him to mimic animal sounds for a dog or a cow. 

I just love my little boy. I laugh and smile at him all day!

At his 1 year appointment, he was 24 lbs. (71%), and 32 inches (97%). Seeing his belly, it's hard to believe he's getting skinnier, but the proof is right there!