Claire

I write about Olivia a lot because she is doing things.  And I write about Aubrey because she is the baby of the family.  But I don't often write about Claire.  Claire is our silly, crazy, sweet little three old that makes life interesting in our household.  She loves to be a little mommy and just last night went to sleep with her sling and her baby Ariel on.  When she woke up in the early morning and her baby wasn't in sight she asked for her baby and when I brought it to her she said, "Oh she was crying!"  So sweet.  She gets her babies in her sling and bounces up and down and shushes them.  It is the sweetest thing.  

She is also quite funny and makes me laugh quite often.  Her funniest thing she says lately is that when anything is stinky and by stinky I mean just any smell (cupcakes baking, flower air freshener, etc.) she will say, "Something smells stinky, I think it is Hans!!"  She says this with a side scowl on her face.  The first time she said this I about died laughing.  We had gone into the bathroom at our church so she could go number 2.  It smelled a little so I sprayed some air freshener.  When she smelled the air freshener she said, "That stinks like flowers!  I think that it smells like Hans!!  I think Hans farted!"  I started laughing so hard!  I love that she thinks stinky things equate to her dad and that instead of calling him dad she calls him Hans.  

Some other funny things she says is, "Libiya makes me so mad!!",  "Only Libiya makes me yell!".  The other day when watching Dora in the car and they were yelling the answers at the top of their lungs I asked them not to yell so loud.  Claire responded, "But mom I have to yell, because Dora said say it louder."  I couldn't argue with that, Dora does say to say it louder.  

Claire is our rough and tumble little crazy girl.  She loves to "fight" with her dad ( a game they play almost daily), she lovs to growl and make scary faces at Aubrey, yet she loves to wear princess dresses and dress up and has been wearing a toe ring as a ring on her hand for months now.  She just loves to be girly.

Of course the other day when I went to take pictures of Aubrey, Claire wanted her picture taken as well. So here are some adorable (I might be a bit biased) pictures of sweet little Claire.  We love you Claire and are so proud of you little girl!!

Ballet Recital

Olivia had her first big ballet recital.  She has done smaller ones with her first ballet company and then this year she had a Christmas show and then this show.  This show was fun since she had her costume and they practiced for it the whole second half of the year.  It happened over Father's Day weekend which at first was a bit of a mess since we had the Daddy Daughter Ball as well and Olivia really wanted to attend of course.  Fortunately we were able to get her recital scheduled for Sunday so we could attend the ball as well.  Saturday was very busy though as we first had a dress rehearsal for Olivia and then the daddy daughter ball.  We were so proud to watch Olivia dance and she did a great job and really enjoyed herself.  I think the high light for her was getting a rose at the end of the show although she thought she should have gotten more flowers like the other girls.  Hehe!  So the picture quality is not as good as I would like on these pics because of the lighting and movement (I am still working on getting that figured out with my camera), but it gives you an idea of what it looked like.  She did both a tap performance and a ballet performance. We were so proud of the improvements she has made over the past year at remembering the performance, her lines are beautiful and she did a really great job!!

I love the tap headpiece it is so cute!

There were a lot of little girls in her group!!

Here is a few video clips of her performances.  Sorry for the bad video quality I was trying to hold Aubrey while taping from the back of the auditorium.  But you can see most of it.

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We are so proud of you Olivia Joy!!  We hope you continue to dance and enjoy it!!  We love you!!!

Daddy Daughter Ball

Our church has a great tradition of having a daddy daughter banquet and ball for dad's to bring their daughters to on Father's Day weekend.  Olivia loves going and looks forward to it every year.  This was her 4th year of going and Claire's first official year (she was there with me last year and kind of participated).  I love the idea behind this and both Hans and I know the importance of the daddy daughter bond and him helping them build their self esteem.  I am so glad that Hans realizes his importance in their lives and really works at showing them love and how a man should treat a girl/lady.  He does a great job with his girls (and since he has three of them he realizes he has a big job in front of him!).

I once again had the privilege of taking pictures at the ball.  It is so fun to see the dad's showing love to their daughters in this way.  And the girls just love it!!  Their eyes just light up and they are so excited to be there with their dads and have their undivided attention on them.  

I love this shot!  Claire had so much fun running around with Kaitelyn during the talking.  It was a little long for her!

They have a sharing time where each of the dads stands up to talk about his daughter/s and tell what he respects, loves, cherishes about them.  Olivia is so tender and Hans shared how she is just very loving to her family and loves to give (and receive) gifts.

He then shared about Claire and her silly crazy self and how funny she can be.

Then came the dance....their favorite part.

Here are a couple short videos of the dancing.  This part is the girls' favorite part.  They especially love the end when they get to do the freeze dance and free style dance.  They have so much fun and are already looking forward to next year!!

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