November is always busy with school, Thanksgiving and Nutcracker prep and then the show after Thanksgiving. This year felt especially busy!!
We started off with our 2nd annual barn dance at our church. I had some awesome helpers and it being the second year made it a bit easier to put together. Here are my pictures of the place all set up.
This year was a little different program order. Parts of it worked well and others I will have to think through if we do it again. We started the night early at 4 I think with square dancing for an hour and a half. Then we had dinner and a testimony. And finished off the night with country dancing, some line dancing, and finished the night with a couple live songs from some young men in our church. Here are some pictures from the night. I missed Hans for square dancing as he had a different party he had to go to for a bit. So I danced the male part with my friend Trisha. Claire and Rae were also not there as they had Nutcracker practice. And Olivia wasn't there either as she was back at school.
We got some fun treats from our neighbors.
There was a craft fair one weekend and we signed up to pass out Nutcracker cards at it.
 |
| my cute little Sam cat... |
It was such a warm winter and I still had dahlias! Crazy!
Yummy egg nog! My favorite fall/Christmas drink!
Here are a few co-op pics. I am thankful for this co-op and the weekly chapels.
We had fire drill that day too and the fire department came. Fun for the kids.
Aubrey had a fun birthday party to go to for Aria.
Veteran's day parade. Only Hans and I went because the girls that wanted to go were busy dancing.
The Nordic group had so many flags and was awesome!
Raelyn finished up her plant collection and so completed the end of an era. 4 plant collections made by each of my daughters. I think I learned the most about plants helping all 4 of them do their collecting.
Raelyn the only one willing to do calendar pictures for me. We were getting ready to decorate for Christmas which we love to do before Thanksgiving to make it less stressful.
This happened on a Thursday night. Hans and I had taken our van in to Costco to get the tires rotated and get some groceries and we got a call from Claire that she had been in an accident on her way home from dance. Claire and Raelyn were in the car and when Claire went to turn out onto Clear Creek she hit a car that she thought had it's signal on and was turning but then it didn't. The airbags deployed and the girls were pretty shaken up. The man they hit way over reacted and yelled at them at the beginning and was not very nice. He later apologized and they had lots of people stop to help and our friend who is a cop and lives very close by came to be there before we were able to get there. We were not supposed to, but we did just drive the car home because we were so close and it was fully running. We did not want to pay to tow it just because the air bags had deployed. The damage was actually not that bad and had the air bags not deployed we would have probably kept the car. But because they deployed it wasn't worth it to keep it.
One of Claire's first hair cuts!!
This boy is just such a kitty and so bad!!
And cute little Oliver loves to lay under the tree upstairs!
We had a pie and praise night at church and this was the only picture I took...lol!
Raelyn made these at her friend Olivia's birthday party.
Nutcracker season is always a lot of craziness, fun, anxiety and stress, beautiful dancing, exhausted girls and this year was bittersweet because it was Claire's last Nutcracker and her final performances on stage. Because it was Claire's last and she was the Snow Queen we had to invite the whole family out so we also had a very full house for Thanksgiving. Stress it's a killer! Lol! It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was fun to have all the family (minus my brother and his family) out for Thanksgiving and the show. The three days before Thanksgiving the girls practiced on stage...Here are a few pics from that.
Thanksgiving crazy games of Nertz around the table. It got a little wild!
Playing some telestrations. There was a lot of laughter that happened during this game.
Friday morning a few of us got up early to find a Christmas tree at our friends the Michauds house. Claire and Aubrey weren't up for it. WE found the prettiest one pretty fast as Rae had to get back to get ready for dance that evening.
Rae was the example for the girls of the perfect twist bun for Nutcracker.
Flowers for my girls!
Game playing again till it was time for Nutcracker.
The whole family went to the Friday show and we close tickets in the 2nd row I think. I love being up close. Claire does not like it when we are up close. She looked so beautiful. I was not supposed to take pictures but I just could not help it, because it was the last time I would see her on stage and she just looked so so pretty! Here are a few from that night. Claire was a doll in the prelude.
And then it was time for snow queen and the snow corps which Rae was in. She was hard to find a get pictures of during snow though.
Raely had a fun role in Spanish. She looked so pretty and was on pointe with 2 other girls and 1 boy to do lifts and twirls. It was really fun!
And then both girls were in flowers together. I just love the flowers dance because they are on stage the whole time and it is just so so pretty! This dance did not disappoint!
Finale and Finale, finale...
After the show pictures!
Family picture!
And the flower pictures...
Saturday night I was supposed to be backstage, but the other moms felt compassion on me and having a senior and let me go to the show. So Hans and I ended up having a date and getting to watch. I am so so glad we got to, because I just got to really enjoy it. I also got to watch the afternoon sensory show, which was shortened and lights up and not quite as good, but still fun to see them on stage.
Sensory show pictures...
A few pics from backstage...
I was able to get a few good pictures that night. I tried to just enjoy it though too..so hard to do both. I just wanted to watch it again and again.
That night we had a few friends attend as well.
Our friends the Blacks came Saturday. It was so nice to have them support our girls.
Selfie!
Sunday was the last public performance and the last show I got to watch. This was the last time that Claire dances on stage for us. I am so sad that her dance career is officially over, but I hope that she will always look back on dance with fond memories and glad for the experience. I hope that she will be proud of all that she accomplished through out the years. And hope that maybe someday she may use her dance experience to teach or take classes or maybe just put her daughters someday into dance. We will see.
Sadly, for Claire's last performance I had signed up to be head usher which meant I got to watch for free, but I wish I would have just paid and been able to fully enjoy it. I had to watch the door and make sure no one messed up the video they were taking. I unfortunately hurt my knee in the process of guarding the door. All of our friends were there on this night too from our church.
Claire had a tiny fall during her dance where her foot slipped out from under her when she was doing a sweep of her other foot. But she showed what an amazing dancer she was by hopping right up and dancing like nothing had happened even though I know it was so hard. She showed such professionalism.
The original above and a fun background added below by a friend.
Here are the after-production pictures. There were some tears for sure...
We had so many friends come to support our dancers! So many from church which was just so awesome! Also my parents, Hans, Aubrey and Olivia all went to the show again as well. It was her last show.
We tried to get a group picture. Grandma did a terrible job. You are fired mom!
These two have been friends since childhood! Fun to have a picture of them all grown up.
I just love these two dancers of mine. Hard to see Claire graduating and moving on.
Claire and the girl who played Clara this year.
Besties!
And our family picture from Saturday was terrible so we had to retry!
Back home with all the flowers...lol!
Exhausted....
Raelyn is getting pretty good at making nails!
A few things from pics from facebook...
My amaryllis were blooming!
The end of a Nutcracker era for Claire. I wish she would have had a few more years to do Nutcracker but because we hopped studios a bit she got what she got. I was so proud of her and all she accomplished. I will be sad to not see her on stage next year, but I am excited to see what Raelyn will get to do....
