Yes, we're alive!

I know, it's been a while! We haven't had much to "report" on, so I didn't blog. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving with our friends,

had a great "girls day" during the crazy shopping weekend, and have been on the run ever since, getting ready for...drumroll...Emma's first dance recital!!! Let me tell you, I was about to pee my pants at how cute all these little kids were in their costumes, especially (of course) Emma's class and the one just younger than them with 2 yr olds! THEY WERE SO STINKIN' CUTE!
Emma's dance teacher is a 4th yr dental student's wife, Miss Tracee, and I can't say enough what a fantastic job she does! Emma thinks the world of her and is quick to tell me every week on our way to dance that Miss Tracee must have missed her so much. She really is amazing! She had the recital at the stake center in Kirtland (it's just a free event, bring friends and family and a treat to share!).
Emma has her best buddies Elizabeth and Evie in her class and they were adorable teddy bears! The whole class started out "asleep" and the music began and the teacher came around and tapped each one to wake up and they did cute little dance moves to stretch and stuff. She had a little "solo" part that we didn't know about! All the girls were running off stage and she stayed on and laid back down and I was like, No Emma, get off the stage! But it was all part of the act. Little girls came on in groups trying to wake her up, then finally she woke up and they all joined her and danced! It was so much fun to watch this whole recital. Ever since Emma has started dance she isn't afraid to make up her own dances to whatever music she is listening to or show she is watching, or she'll just make up her own song and dance to it! We recently got "Annie" and turned it on and now she always wants to watch the "dancing and singing movie"...but I'm not sure how I feel about it (I didn't realize how drunk Miss Hannigan always was!). And, of course, anything with Barbie and dancing is always appreciated! What fun it is to see her grow up and experience things that "older" girls experience. She really is getting older, and while it's sad that my baby is growing up, this part is so much fun!

And then there's our cute, sweet, funny baby Bree. I LOVE THIS BABY! Her personality is so much like mine that I can't help but love on her and give her kisses and snifflies all day. She's learned some new tricks lately. She's been able to do this floppy wrist type wave for a little while now, but now she's learned to open and close her hand as a wave, and I LOVE watching that tiny hand move like that! And I'll make monkey noises and she copies me and thinks it's hilarious. Her monkey sound sounds like "whoo whoo whoo." We went to Lowe's yesterday and when we were checking out the lady said hello to Bree and smiled. I always notice it takes a few seconds to register to her what is going on, so she just stares, then smiles. Then the lady waved, so Bree keeps smiling, waits a few seconds, then does her new little wave! The lady LOVED that, and by that time, the other checkers were watching and laughing too. Dave did something while paying and the lady laughed at that, then turned to Bree and made a slow laughing sound and said Your parents are silly. Then Bree copies her laugh with her monkey sound and we had the whole group laughing their heads off!! That took a lot longer to type than how it all played out in real life. But it was funny to see her interact like that. She LOVES LOVES LOVES to wrestle. Sometimes, in the middle of the day we'll just be doing our thing and all of a sudden she'll fall to the ground and roll and growl and get all spazzy and giggly. That's when I know she wants to wrestle!

I just laugh at her most of the day. But don't talk to me between 4-6pm--that's when she turns into demon child! Just kidding...it's not THAT bad, that's just when she whines all the time b/c she's hungry and wants to eat her dinner and go to bed. She's in bed by 6pm at the LATEST and doesn't wake up until 7:30am (or later if she woke up around 6am and we just gave her a bottle in her crib-then she'll fall back asleep until 9 or so!). WE ARE SO LUCKY! I just love my family. Dave exists too. :) It's just more exciting to hear about the girls.But, I HAVE noticed that a lot of bloggers talk about their life, so maybe I'll talk about mine. Hmmm...let me think about what I've been doing lately. I've totally been into my digiscrapping and I love playing around with different products and layouts.

Also, my sister Adrienne made a HUGE paper mache "F" (for Finch) that was just so awesome, so I got some smaller letters (12 inch) and did a J for Joy and an H, which I haven't finished yet, but will be either Ho Ho Ho or Happy Holidays. She made my huge "L" for my Christmas present, and from the word on the street, it's killer. I'll post pics of it when we get back from California.

I also found this site from my friend Hatsuho's blog, and it's AWESOME...if you're the crafty type. We're following in Dave's brother's footsteps and we've created a Christmas elf. We told Emma that Santa can't watch ALL the kids to make sure they're good, so he sends Christmas elves to watch them. Our elf's name is Blinken. And he's ALWAYS watching. I was talking to Dave about how we were going to have Blinken leave messages and little treats for Emma and thought if I could leave a little shoe somewhere that would be cute. Lo and behold, I'm just browsing through this site and WHA-LA! My elf shoe, complete with a free pattern! I've gotta finish making it tomorrow, and it WILL be coming with us to California! So, the girls and I head to Cali on Thursday. I'm so excited for warm weather, walks on the beach, sunshine, Christmas dresses made by Grandma, and time with family! Maybe Dave and I will go on a date too :)