Dance Costumes

Makenzie and Kendall in their costumes for their upcoming recital for Star Performance Dance Academy!  (They are SOOOOOOO excited!!)

Friends who will be moving away soon...we will miss them!!!  They are a beautiful family!!!

Easter Outfits

Easter Outfits 2009

Sophia's Princess Party

Boy, I've been so bad about blogging! I still don't have the girls birthday pics up yet! But I do have some new pics to share from our friend Sophia's fourth birthday...it was a princess party! The girls had a great time getting to wear their dress-ups out of the house!!! Makenzie dressed in a Snow White costume and Kendall wore a Sleeping Beauty dress.
See the pics by clicking HERE!

...Spring is around the corner!

It's hard to believe that spring is almost here...and that of course means Easter too!  I am looking for some interesting outdoor locations for photo shoots....does anyone local have any ideas?  I'm looking for either interesting or old buildings, or open fields with pretty "backgrounds."  If you have a suggestion, send me an email (or leave a comment) - I could use your help!  If you are waiting to get some outdoor shots done...I will be ready as soon as the weather breaks!!!!

elbystudios.smugmug.com

Kelly's Baby Shower Playgroup

Last Tuesday we had a little shower at playgroup for my friend Kelly. She has twin boys the same age as Makenzie and Kendall and is expecting a little girl (just one!) in March. So, we were very excited to shower her with pink, girlie things!!! If you want to see a slideshow of the pics, click here.

Here was one of my gifts to Kelly - a diaper cake! If you've seen my diaper cakes before, this was a new idea using recieving blankets....what do you think? I liked it! Lots and lots of PINK!!

Pre-Christmas Celebrations

Cousins: Kendall, Mckenna, and Makenzie:

We actually started our Christmas celebrating early, on the Sunday before Christmas. We left early Sunday morning to get to church with Mimi and Pappy and then had dinner at Gram Hughes. The girls left with a plethora of Hannah Montana items: shirts, purses, jewelry boxes, barbie, microphones, headsets, as well as some clothes and cute blankets. Jason had to come back home to work Monday & Tuesday, but the girls and I stayed at my mom's.

Monday, Mimi and I took the girls to the mall and then stopped to visit Aunt Whitney and Mckenna. For dinner we got to go to my favorite restaurant, the Villa! Yum!

Tuesday, we stayed home and visited. (I actually worked on my website a bunch.) The church I grew up in (across the road from my parents house) has ALWAYS had a Christmas Eve Eve service (that's just what I call it) and even after going to college and to a new church, we've always gone to that service and then to Gram Younkins' for late snacks and visiting!

The Candlelight Service

Jason came back to Freeport during the middle of the service (perhaps this should have been a tip off to what I'm about to tell you, but I didn't notice.) After the service, while we were walking back home, I put my hands in my pocket and found some keys. I stopped right away thinking someone from church must be the owner of these keys and would be worried when they couldn't find them. Then I thought (when I felt a thin plastic tag), hmm...they must be Gram's...she had just gotten a rental car that morning. So I held the keys up into the light and I saw "Subaru Tribeca" (which we had test drove at our friends car dealership a few weeks ago) - so I say to Jason, "Didn't my car get done in time today?" [It was having its oil changed that morning, and I thought maybe Matt had lent it to Jason to drive.] And he says No...and just looks at me. So after saying "what?" a few times, we had pretty much made it back to my parents and I saw it in the driveway!! So after last week when I saw all the red bows on a few car lots and said Who really gets a car for Christmas...now I can say, ME!

So clearly this picture is back at home...and after a few trips in the mucky snow!!:

My cousins daughter Caroline, and her Pappy (my Uncle Jim:)

My Gram Younkins:

Christmas Eve we spent relaxing and playing with the girls (Mimi and Uncle Brian had to work) until everyone came over for dinner. After a quick dinner, the girls were super excited to give out the presents they brought. And of course they loved getting gifts too! They got MP3 players from Uncle Tyler (already loaded with Hannah songs); craft stuff, clothes, doll clothes and games from Mckenna, Aunt Whitney and Uncle Brian; crying doll babies, books, a balance beam, and doll changing/bathing center from Mimi & Pap.

Here is Makenzie with her MP3 player (which she thinks doubles as a microphone) singing Best of Both Worlds...if you have ever seen the theme song on the show, she is dancing like Hannah when she raises her arm on stage right before the chorus!!  Oh she is too funny!:

Kendall on the balance beam:

We headed home in the new car around 9 with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads!!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning we woke up early, and I think Jason was the one most excited - he couldn't wait for the girls to open their presents! When the girls walked into the gameroom, the first thing Kendall says is, "There's my bunk bed!" (The one think they asked for were doll bunkbeds - which were completely wrapped - I have no idea how she knew!!) So amongst all their gifts from us, which included more play food, other play kitchen/cleaning toys, lots of doll clothes, books, the doll bunkbed, and a dollhouse - they have a few random favorites!

One favorite is this tiny little container of four wooden tea bags - they love playing tea party and they absolutely love that they can make tea like Nonni now!!

This is Kendall pointing out her "bunkbed!":

Here is Makenzie's doll bed:

Here is Kendall's doll bed:

Another favorite is part of a Bitty Baby feeding set (that I bought when Jason and I went to TX) - its a tiny bowl with a lid that opens and it has pretend doll snack food. Makenzie went to bed crying tonight, "Where's my baby's fruit snacks? She neeeeeeeddss them!!" [I found them during clean up under the play stove]

Another favorite is a Disney Fairies book that is sort of like a Where's Waldo. They are very good at it!

They got a few games for Christmas and now they want to play games all the time!!! They have a Fancy Nancy game and a Memory game that they really love!! [Although, during clean up tonight I found that several pieces of FN are missing...grrr...]

Later in the day on Christmas, we headed to Nonni & Pappy's for presents and dinner! Aunt B got them lots of craft stuff; Uncle Josh got them some foamy letters (they might have designed for crafting, but my girls just love to lay them out and play!!!! This gift is also ranked a favorite!!); Uncle Davey got them Hannah Montana stuff; Nonni made them hats and scarves for themselves and their doll babies, and blankets for their beds at her house, and got them some games and other toys. We had a nice dinner at Nonni's and then headed home for some much needed sleep!!

Sesame Street LIVE!

We went with Mimi today to Sesame Street LIVE!!! While the girls don't typically watch Sesame Street, they have LOTS of Sesame Street books (The Monster at the End of this Book being a favorite!) The weather was a little crazy, but we actually got to our seats about 2 minutes before the show started, so we couldn't have timed it more perfectly!

Mommy and Kenzi:

Kendall and her "Melmo" toy:

Mommy and her girls:

Mommy and Makenzie:

Kendall Riley - what a sweet smile!!!

The girls had a great time and enjoyed the day!!! (Thanks for taking pictures, Mimi!)

BTW- I do have Christmas pics to post...coming soon!

MOPS Christmas Party

This past Saturday we had our MOPS Christmas Party at my house...I totally forgot to take pictures, but I did get some pics at our December MOPS meeting: check them out here!

elby studios

I officially have a photography website...although, it is still a work in progress! Staying at my mom's last night gave me a little time to work on it! Hopefully, I can get more portfolio pics on it soon! I am very excited for this new adventure, but also VERY nervous! Thank you so much to those of you who are supporting me in this crazy endeavor!

elbystudios.smugmug.com

Dance Class

Dance class continues to be one of the girls favorite activities! Their favorite dance is the Freeze Dance (that's what they are doing in the above and below picture!)

Here they are getting measured for their recital costumes!! They love wearing leotards and tights, so hopefully they won't mind a cutie-pie ballerina costume!!!

Part of their class is dancing and part is tumbling...they love both! Here's Kendall trying a front roll (I've been wondering how they've gotten so good at front rolls all of a sudden, and then Kenzi told me that's what they do in their room at night before bed!! And I thought they were jumping on their beds ;))
They do the crab walk in both gymnastics and dance - they are getting better!

The girls in their class (missing a few!)