Piano Recital

Tracie had her piano recital on Saturday. It was our last big event of the holidays, so know we can just turn on ABC Family and do this.

Friends and neighbors, get ready for some sugar cookies, because guess who cranked out 3 batches today? Brooke is excited to deliver some of the treats to her friends as well.

Now the recital. Tracie had paired with another teacher so that there were 18 students in total. Since all the students are relative beginners, it helped to have the recital last a little longer. All the kids did really well.

The basement is coming along. Trim is up.

And that includes the crown molding. Paint coming this week.

Other events that didn't have pictures. Touring the neighborhood Christmas lights. Brooke liked all the Santas, especially the inflatable one that was over one story tall. We listen to Pandora's Christmas music regularly, and today an instrumental version on Angels We Have Heard on High came on. Naturally, as the song ends, Brooke sings, "In excelsis Deo", in rhythm and in key. I guess she's been paying attention during ward choir practice.

Trouble

I spoke too soon about wanting Connor to figure things out.  As of last Wednesday he has been cruising around all over the place and definitely wanting to go places that he's not allowed to go to.  ie)laundry room where the kitty litter is.  Wouldn't that be a fun day for him.

He is way ahead of schedule compared to how Brooke was. I know you're not supposed to compare kids but I wasn't expecting a mobile child until 7 1/2 months at least. Not before 7 months...although he is 7 months today.

It's a good thing that Christmas is right around the corner.  Connor has started looking a bit bored with the toys he has right now.

 Speaking of Santa, we had our ward's Christmas party last Friday.  It was a lot of fun until it was time to meet Santa.  I suppose I should have done a better job in prepping Brooke but I thought she'd do fine.  Even when we were waiting in line to see him she was getting impatient and wanted to see him right then.  When it came time for our turn she would have none of it and even tried to crawl away. 

Connor on the other hand was a champ at the whole thing.  Maybe Brooke can learn a thing or two...

There has been a lot of this going on lately.  It's kind of funny.  Lexie has been dubbed as the mean cat.  Squishy has the nice cat.  But I can definitely say that Lexie is the more obedient cat and Squishy is just plain naughty.  She still hasn't quite figured out to stay away from the Christmas tree.

She has figured out to run for it when the squirt bottle comes out to play.

Now that Connor is moving around he pretty much wants to be wherever Brooke is.  It's cute, I must say, and for the most part Brooke enjoys it...until he tries to grab a toy she's been playing with. 

All in all, I love how they love each other.  Brooke can get Connor to smile and laugh more times than me.

Lastly, for those that want the basement update...we've got textured walls.  If you're never been around newly textured walls I will just tell you that the stuff they spray on smells AWFUL!!!!!!!  My goodness!  And it doesn't help that last week was pretty cold so we couldn't open windows to air out the space.  We also have doors and trim up but I forgot to take a picture of it.  You'll just have to wait until next week!

December?!

The best word to describe this last week is DUSTY.  Insulation went in Monday and then drywall for the rest of the week.  Can you tell that it was dusty? 

It's kind of cool to see the differences once all the dust has settled. 

 We're on to texturing this week.  Can't believe all that has been done is such a quick amount of time.

 Temperatures have dropped within the last week.  I think the high for today is 10 and the low for tonight is -5.  We've gotten a good amount of snow too.  Doesn't make for an easy first week of training for the Surf City Half that I'm doing in February but luckily I've got a treadmill in the bedroom so I can just hop right out of bed and get some mileage behind me.

 Just thought I'd add a pic of my cute family.

If you look closely you can see the new mouth accessory that Connor has been working on. 

 Connor's favorite position as of late.

If only he could figure out that he can move forward.  He has figured out that how to sit up from being on his tummy so that has made him much happier.  Now if only he can kick the cold that he's had for the past week.