Family pictures!

Stacie took our family pictures, we haven't had anything close to a picture of all of us since Saylor was born and she did SUCH AN AMAZING JOB! They are simple and I love them. I love Maguire's super bright green shirt that he refused to change out of so we just went with it. I love that I had to hide my braces the whole time, who's big idea was having pictures done while having those bad boys on?? I love Gracie's little gangly front tooth, the beginning of her losing her tiny baby teeth. I love Jace's tanned skin and his almost white hair. And I love Saylor's pulled up socks with her little sneakers. And I'm just happy Ryan was involved, we all know he is not the biggest fan of pictures, he can't handle the patience it takes to get cooperation out of four kids! I am so so thankful that Stacie came down and took these for us, I still need to take hers! We did these in the Spring of 2010.






Ryan was getting a pep talk in this one, lots of bribes were used.

Kennedy

Since Kennedy will be home in a few months (FINAAAAALLLLLYYY!!!!) I better post these ones of when we dropped her off at the MTC. There were many tears! I miss her so much, I'm so ready for this mission thing to be over, I'm not going to sugar coat it. It feels like she has been gone for 5 years! These first few are just some I got that same day of the kids, we took some pics in the studio before we drove her down to Provo to send her away....to Draper..hahaha! Still can't believe she's serving 15 minutes away from me. Well actually they moved her to Park City but she's still only an hour away! So crazy!






Since Kennedy will be home in a few months (FINAAAAALLLLLYYY!!!!) I better post these ones of when we dropped her off at the MTC. There were many tears! I miss her so much, I'm so ready for this mission thing to be over, I'm not going to sugar coat it. It feels like she has been gone for 5 years!

Failed family pictures.

We had big plans last year when we went to Disneyland that we were going to take some awesome family pictures on the beach. We failed miserably. Well I did anyways. We got to the beach WAYYYYY too late and the sun set as we were pulling up!! I was so mad! We had gotten all ready and completely missed the boat. So we got these super red fuzzy shots, but we still have them!

At the fair

These are from last year, but before I take them off my computer and archive them, I had to post a few.

Speaking of dancing

Here is Saylor, sharing her rockin' moves.

Lots of hard work!

When Gracie was 3, I put her in ballet lessons. Even though she loved dancing in front of me and Ryan, she wouldn't step foot onto the dance floor with the other little girls. So there we sat, lesson after lesson (since they were paid for I had to at least keep trying!) with two year old Jace and baby Maguire in his car seat, with Gracie sitting on my lap, all dressed up but too shy and scared to go out there. So I thought FINE, when she is begging to go to dance, I'll put her back in. She didn't ask until the summer she turned 7 years old. So I put her into Diva's Dance Studio. It was a once a week class and then they performed three times at different competitions. She really loved it. I thought FOR SURE she would be way too shy to get out in front of a gym full of people and do her entire dance. But she did, and she LOVED it so much. Ryan and I were both surprised. So in September I decided to jump into the dance world with Gracie. She tried out at Jazz n' Place and made their competition team, Mini Prodigy Prep. There's 8 girls ages 5-8, they go four hours a week and take ballet, jazz technique and tumbling. In just four months, it is amazing how far she has come! In October she started asking me if she could do a solo, I kept telling her next year, but she just kept asking. Finally I decided to ask Heather, one of my friends if she would choreograph a dance for Gracie if I took pictures of her kids. So we traded and she made the cutest dance ever for Gracie. She practices everyday, even days where she has been at dance for hours. And the cutest thing is that Saylor is right there, copying all her moves and shaking it just as hard. There are also three little 4 year old girls that are in our neighborhood that come over to play with Gracie, she dresses them all up and they have dance parties. Recently Gracie has been trying to teach herself how to do a "no handed cartwheel" as she calls it, and I was seriously afraid she was going to hurt herself. So I put her into a tumbling club up in Draper this month. She just loves it!!!
Okay I just had to do a little history of how she got involved in dance. It's so fun to watch her doing something she loves so much!
This video is of her practicing her solo routine. She's been learning and practicing it in our upstairs playroom that has no furniture.

My loves!

Here's a picture from the summer when I took the kids to see Toy Story 3. They all looked so clean and nice so I took them in the studio to snap a picture of them. I really need to do this more often, they don't even complain anymore! They are all my favorite.