Goodbye Brace Face, Hello Gorgeous!

Ahhhh! I'm freaking out!  

My baby girl just aged 5 years! This morning she looked like a tween, she got her braces off and now she looks so grown up with her gorgeous smile!

Getting braces off is one of the best days EVER! Definitely something to celebrate!

Now, how to keep those boys away....

After the orthodontis I took her to the salon to get her hair done. 

Of course Quincy wanted to get her hair done too ;)

Ta-Da!

I love this girl so much!

Spring Dance Recital

This year the dance recital was extra neat because both Millie and Quincy performed together.

Millie danced 2 jazz, 1 ballet, 1 contemporary, and 1 novelty.

Quincy danced 1 jazz, 1 ballet, and 1 novelty. The novelty number was the dance finale that was a production number from "Newsies." It was so good! Millie was quite emotional because this was her last time dancing with this company...at least for awhile. She decided to take a break from dance (outside of Timberline dance company at school) to focus on tumbling and other things. It is a very strange thought to think about Millie not having dance competitions or recitals this year!

Anyway they both did a great job and it's always fun to watch them get dolled up and perform on stage. Proud of you girls!

Dance Comps!

2014 was such a great dance year!  How fun to have both my daughters dancing together at the same studio! Quincy is so luscious in her dance clothes and costumes and just marches right on stage with confidence and sass!  

Millie, as usual danced her heart out and it paid off...

Her dance company (Firelights) won the best award possible AND....

SHE MADE THE TIMBERLINE DANCE COMPANY!

Seems like just yesterday she was performing at her first dance recital:

Christmas fun in SLC

I love going downtown.  By that I mean downtown Salt Lake City.  I always have.  I will jump in the car and drive there for any reason. In fact I make up excuses to go.

Leading up to Christmas we went downtown for some fun festivities:

As usual Grandma, Heidi, and I had an overnighter and all day shopping spree.

One of our favorite things to do together.  

We met up with the family at the Conference Center for the Christmas concert and dinner.  So Good!

Millie and her cute friends planned a "Mother Daughter" date night.  We went to Temple Square and dinner at City Creek.  It was fun to hang out with the other moms who happen to be so nice and cool. I adore her friends and we had a great time!

Sydney, Mckayla, Maddie

Krisha, Sydney, Kiersten, Millie, Maddie, Aliyah, Mckayla, Brynn, Kennedie

 

Annie

Waiting for the play to begin

I love taking my girls to the theatre - plays, musicals, ballets, recitals, concerts, etc.  I love taking the boys too...sometimes.

This summer we went to see Annie performed by the local Alpine Community Theatre at Timberline Middle School.  The auditorium there is incredible - way nicer than most.  They did a really great job and Annie is always a favorite!  You can see the excitement on Quincy's face during intermission:

Our friend McKinley came with us too

Q's fancy upside-down hair-do

So grateful for my girls!!!!!

We heart City Creek

A few weeks ago the much anticipated City Creek shopping center opened downtown.  I personally have been waiting and looking forward to this for a long time.  I grew up going shopping downtown and some of my best memories involve going to Crossroads (the old downtown shopping center).  I loved that place and I was very sad when it closed down 7 or 8 years ago for renovation.

But.

But now it is open and it is incredible!  

On opening day I took Millie and two of her friends to check it out.  We left at 3:00 and didn't get home until 10:00!  We parked and rode Trax because I wasn't sure how the parking was and I knew it would be busy.  They couldn't have picked a more perfect day for opening because the weather was perfect!  It was on March 22nd and it was warm and sunny - so warm that the roof was off!

We hadn't been there ten minutes when we were stopped by a familiar face...Nadine Wimmer who is a news anchor for KSL.  She told the girls she wanted them to be on the news.  She said to come back and meet her at 6:00 with their purchases if they had any.  They were so stoked!  

Millie got some sassy red shoes that she wanted to show.  Her friends got some shoes too and jewelry.  They were super excited to be on TV.

Some of their favorite stores were Lush, H&M, 77kids, Vans, Forever 21, & Disney Store.  Here, they are trying on cute rompers at H&M which they bought for 9 bucks for swimsuit cover-ups.

I love this picture -  Temple in the background

New shoes!  Addie, Tatum, Millie

Mary Poppins & Little Mermaid

The girls in our family were lucky enough to go to the theatre TWICE in one week!

About 4 months ago, I got a text from my oldest brother telling me to keep September 21st open, but wouldn't say why.  Well.....turns out he surprised Grandma, Aunt Heidi, Alixann, Millie, and me with tickets to Mary Poppins at the Capitol Theatre!  He is so generous and we love him so much!

We met at the Olive Garden downtown before the show.  The timing was perfect because with Aunt Heidi teaching and the kids back in school and all of their activities, we hadn't seen much of each other.  The production was fantastic - Mary Poppins movie was one of my childhood favorites {Mille too} so we really enjoyed it!  Bert was exceptional.

Oh how I love Mother-Daughter dates

Just 2 days later, the same girls {plus Quinny} traveled to St. George to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn.  Grandma Judy was really on the ball and got tickets for a bunch of the Clark families.  So we met up with the Clarks, stayed at the same hotel, and went to the show together.  I was thinking Mary Poppins would be hard to beat - but this one was just as incredible!  They really couldn't have done anything to make it better.  We stayed to meet the characters and get photos with some of the cast.  Many of them are starting to look familiar because we have made it a tradition to go to a show at Tuacahn every Fall.  

On Saturday we spent hours at the pool did a little shopping.  We had brunch at Village Inn to celebrate Karlee's birthday and a night run to Nielsen's Custard to top it off.  Oh and a lunch date with Uncle Denny and Aunt Marcia.

It was the best of both worlds for Millie and Quincy, having the Grandparents, Aunts, and cousins from both sides!  It was extra fun to have two soon-to-be family members with us...Megan and Jordan.  Both Sean and Jenny are getting married in November!
BS stayed back with the boys and played & watched lots of football.  Sambo and Will both opted to stay home and play their games, weren't too excited to see the play for some reason :)

Grandpa Jim

Karlee

Sarah & Alex

Alix & Grandma Cindy

Spencer

Grandpa Judy & Rylee

Skuttle

The Eels - only Quin was brave enough

King Triton

We ran into Mrs. Frampton!

Flounder

Eric & Ariel

Ursula

My little "MerNaid"

So Stoked!