K-Rae's First Violin Recital & Proud Wife Moment too!

K-Rae started violin lessons about 7 months ago. 

She seems to have a natural knack for music.

She probably gets her music savvy from her Auntie Sara, 

goodness knows she doesn't get it from her Mama! 

Anyhow, Sunday was her first recital.  

A new dress helped bribe her to go.

 She managed to get more psyched up for it once she got into the auditorium; 

here she is waiting in eager anticipation with Daddy...

 She got more excited once she was up on stage getting ready to play with the group!

 Creamie and Grandpa even made it up for the big event--

and Sammy thoroughly enjoyed "watching" the recital...

 

K-Rae played along really well,

and kept right up with all the big kids.

We were so proud of her!

There was some momentary distress, 

which is to be expected with any first recital,

when the rest of the group continued to play 

a few more movements to the song

that she really hasn't learned yet.  

She thought she was supposed to know those parts---

we assured her she played what she was supposed to, and did a great job.

 She managed some great poses for Mama afterward...

And the flowers her teacher Ms. Gretchen gave her after the recital,

seemed to fix everything for her, 

and I don't think she was too traumatized, 

as she has been playing recital with her dolls ever since then: 

lining them up with their "violins" 

and passing out flowers after they "do a good job!" 

So I just want to say:

Great Job K-Rae!  

We're so proud of you and all your

hard work learning to play the violin!

Keep it up---and I bet you'll be playing

all the movements to the Twinkle Song next recital!

And while I'm sharing proud moments, 

I'm going to take the liberty of being the blog author 

to sneak one more proud moment into this posting---

as a proud wife....

of this handsome husband and wonderful Daddy....

 

I had the privilege of accompanying this amazing man

to an awards ceremony last night....

He's too humble to announce it,

but this handsome husband and amazing Daddy is

Teacher-of-the-Year

at Grand Junction Central High School for 2012.

 His administrator had so many nice things to say about him....

and I would add--

that the balancing act RyDaddy

courageously performs each day doing his job at school and at home 

with such endurance, patience, grace and humor

(not to mention on so little sleep that I'm not sure how he survives)

 is truly an inspiring and humbling feat.

I'm so proud and fortunate to be his wife...

Here's a video clip I captured:

And the News was there....

and although he's not directly featured in this news video clip,

I know Grandma would love to see his name 

on the list of teachers named in the article.

 Click here for: News Channel 5 Teacher of the Year Award Video Clip & Article

 So proud of you Baby! 

Keep up the good work!

Happy 7th Birthday Little Miss Mae

So, we branched off from the traditional party at our house 

for Little Miss Mae's birthday this year....

She seemed pleased with our alternative surprise party, though.  

Her BFF, as she refers to her,

(Best Friend Forever---for those of you not familiar with the term!)

got to ride home on the bus with Little Miss Mae.

This was the first time she has gotten to have a friend ride home with her from school,

so that in itself was a pretty big deal.

Then we let her open some gifts and then headed out to her favorite place to eat:

Red Lobster...

She ordered crab of course! 

 Sampa and Meemaw joined us from Washington state for the big event.....
 As it turns out, and was no surprise,

little Sammy took right to Sampa!
 
Yes, Sammy is named after his Sampa, 
and this trip was Sampa's first time to meet his new (and only!) grandson.

And although the restaurant gave us a table to seat 8, 
 the girls all wanted to clamor in the little booth next to our table with Meemaw!

 

The girls shared a little birthday dessert at the restaurant,

 and got to "pet" a live lobster!

Then we picked up Little Miss Mae's BFF's little sister 

and brought all the girls back to our house.

They had fun playing with clay;

they danced,
Little Miss Mae opened more gifts,

 and she was especially pleased with the 
"Happy Napper" gift from her BFF.

 Pretending to "nap" was a great party activity!

 More cake was served...

 And the next morning, 
Little Miss Mae's official birthday,

she got to open more gifts-

a gardening set from Grandma Tree will be perfect for the season.

 New clothes are always fun!

 Little Miss Mae got lots of books.

 

And K-Rae was especially pleased to be included by getting a new book from G-G too.

 Sampa took even more photos than Mom!

The Lock Ness Monster is Little Miss Mae's current favorite topic,
so these books were a hit of course!

Hmmmm....looks like Christmas morning!

Little Miss Mae got to celebrate at school too,
with special cake pops made by Auntie Kara.

Here's a pic of Little Miss Mae and her aide at school.

Little Miss Mae is modeling her new t-shirt she got for a birthday gift

from Mama and Dadda.

Yes, yes....much to Grandpa's chagrin, 
we're now cheering for the JETS,
and we are sure going to miss having Tebow here in Colorado.
And I'm not sure how Auntie Kara is going to get a marriage proposal 
from him when he's all the way out in New York!

Mom and snuggle bug Sammy survived another jam packed crazy full weekend,
and then crashed for some much needed rest!

Easter Time Traditions

So I got a new camera....
the last one lasted about 6 months...
so, I bought the 3-year disaster warranty for this new one!
But I haven't had time to even download the manual yet....

Plus it's more entertaining to learn things by trial and error I suppose.....

Anyhow, I somehow deleted a few days worth of pictures in the process of not knowing how to use my camera very well yet....so, no pics of egg dyeing and not sure what else got deleted, but I'll share with you what I didn't manage to destroy in my process of trial and error learning! I'm pretty impressed with my camera so far though...a Nikon Coolpix P300....I'll probably be even more impressed once I actually learn how to do more than just turn it on and push the shutter!

Checking out all the Easter basket goodies

 Ooooohhhhhh.....I love my new squeaky giraffe!

 Quote of the day: 
"Doesn't the Easter Bunny know he's supposed to make the eggs harder to find?"

 "Hi Grandma & Sammy!"

 Ready for Easter Sunday church......

 Mom made me put this bonnet on for a picture......

 "....but I'm a princess and should be wearing a sparkly crown!"

 First family picture with the 5 of us.....

And as fun as all the traditional Easter activities are, 
the girls' favorite "Easter" activity by far is washing feet.....
just like Jesus....
and this year they were especially excited to wash Sammy's feet!

And here's a couple pictures from today....

 

especially for you Auntie Kara, 

since you haven't seen any pics of Sam-Sam's hair lately---

(yes, he got a bath today!)

Seems like his hair is more fluffy than curly right now,

but he's getting more of it instead of losing it,

so that makes Mama happy! 

Handsome little man, if I do say so myself!