A fun weekend

Beautiful dancing Carlee
Yep, I guess she didn't realize all the rest of the class was off stage. Go Carlee!
Carlee with her most fantastic teacher, Mrs. Robin - Thanks Robin! You're amazing!

Carlee posing in front of the sign to her performance

We girls in front of the Festival entrance.

The Twilight Tree! Even the gifts were perfect!

Grandma's tree! It's amazing!

The girls in front of the American Girl doll tree. You can actually see Julie (chlo's favorite) and Felicity (Carlee's favorite)

This week has been nuts! I honestly don't think I've sat down for 3 days! I guess that's the fun with Christmas time and kids :) I just have to list all the things I had to do Thursday:

Get Chlo to school by 8

Get Jaylee, Carlee and me ready by 9:20

Take Carlee to pre-school

Help out in Chlo's class

Go to Carlee's dance class

Return a gift to Walmart

Dr. Appointment for my hand

Cash Checks at the bank

Go to Mom's old house and help show it (huh, the people who were supposed to come didn't show!)

Grab a quick dinner at mom's

Carlee's dress rehersal

Chlo's reading and homework

Huh, one day's work, not to mention Jaylee was crying for 2 1/2 hours straight Thursday night.

I guess this is one of those days where you thank Heaven for all your blessings and for good music in the car :)

Yesterday was a exhausting but fun day! After Chlo left for school Carlee and I got ready for the day just in time to have my best buddy Mindy come over to help make a bracelet for Jaylee to match the outfit I had her in. Right as she was knocking on the door I realized Chlo and Carlee had sprayed the toothbrush Jaylee was sucking on with Halloween hair color! Jaylee had lime green all over her fantastic white shirt!!! I was so mad! I had just finished making her a bow and Mindy was creating a bracelet just for this outfit. I honestly wanted to cry! Fortunatly Mindy gave me a magical cleaning idea and it worked. Poor Jaylee did end up wearing a wet shirt for a few hours though... Oops :) Good thing she had a sweater. When Chlo got home we went to meet my mom for a fun afternoon at the Festival of trees. She was awesome and got us some food to eat on the way. We had a blast! It's an amazing thing to see that many Christmas trees in one place. I highly recomend going if you haven't been before. It's for a great cause too - all money made goes straight to Primary Children's hospital. Love it! The girls favorite tree was the "American Girl doll tree". It had all the American girls on it including both the girls favorites! We were actually even lucky enough to meet the lady who put the tree together. (She's the one who took the picture of all of us together. She's a SUPER nice lady!) Mom and dad decided to buy a new tree to fit in their new house. It's an amazing tree and honestly had to be one of my top 5 favorites out of all 400+ trees! Good choice mom! I was a bit partial to the Twilight tree too. They did an amazing job with it! I think we spent about 3 hours just looking at everything. I tried to get the girls to sit on Santa's lap for a group picture - yea, still not happening. I have no idea why they're so afraid of him... Maybe next year. Thanks mom for the most fantastic outing!

We got home and I had a friend come over to get some Shindyz bows. So fun! It was great to have her over. Her little girl is such a doll and super smiley. Once she left we were off getting Carlee ready for her dance recital. She's been having a hard time staying at dance by herself this year which means I've gone to every dance class she's had. I'm hoping when she starts again in January she'll be a bit more brave. I pulled her hair up and of coarse, added the bow I'd made for the performance. She even let me put mascara on her - it's a first! She looked amazing! Right as we left to go out the door I couldn't find our ticket to get in anywhere! I knew I set it on the counter by my bag so I wouldn't loose it or forget it. I was panicked! We were already pressed for time and Carlee's class was second to perform. After over 10 minutes of pulling the house apart I found it in a tiny pocket in Carlee's dance bag. She said she thought it was a pretty paper and it was the "Utah" color (red). How can you be mad at that?? I was at this point quite frazzled though. We had to be at the Jr. High by 6 and we didn't leave until 6:05 and the recital started at 6:30. I got in the car and started getting on the girls to put on their seatbelts. I told them I wasn't mad at them but just frustrated at the situation. Carlee said, "mom, this is supposed to be fun!" What an angel. I immediatly felt better but Chlo still made the comment, "mom, you're driving really fast". :) We got to the four corners where I turn to go to the Jr. High when I noticed there was a complete bumper to bumper road block... I was stuck! I wanted to cry! What else could go wrong?!?! I was honestly half tempted to drive over the curb and grass to turn around. I haven't spent weeks at dance class and hundreds of dollars to have Carlee miss her recital. Fortunatly traffic moved enough to allow me into Smith's parking lot where I was able to back track. We got to the school with about 5 minutes to spare :) They actually ended up delaying the performance 15 minutes to help allow people to get to the school. Carlee did a wonderful job in her dance! I was afraid that she wouldn't dance because at Dress rehersal on Thursday she was up when everyone else was down and down when others were up. She even skipped to the back of the stage where the Christmas trees were and played with the lights instead of dancing... I held my breath when she got on stage. But she DID it!!! Go Carlee, you did a beautiful job! The best part is when the dance was over all the other kids got off stage but her, she hung out until she heard her teacher call her from off stage. It was way cute. I'm kicking myself for turning off the video camera before then. I did snap a quick picture though. The recital ended up lasting about 2 1/2 hours so by the time we got home it was almost 10! It was worth it though. Carlee had a great time and even Chlo is interested in doing dance again. Chlo can't wait until we get the DVD copy of the recital. She wants to invite friends over to watch it again. Love it! I'm excited to be cleaning the house and spending some time at home today. Phew, what a week :)