A "Star" is Born!

Boy was this Sarah's year to shine!  I guess we have arrived at the age when extracurricular activities really begin to add up.  Sarah was set to be involved in no less than four performances during the months of November and December.  It would have been five, but I opted out of a gymnastics recital (it was just too much).  Unfortunately, we were out of town for the Thanksgiving program at Building Blocks but we were back just in time to prepare for the Providence Christmas program and two ballet recitals all occurring in a three day period.  Whew!  I get tired just typing this.  First up, the Christmas program.

Unfortunately, our camera was less than stellar from our seat in the nosebleed section for this program.  Sarah is the star standing right next to the manger (where the real Star was located many years ago).  It was a cute program that allowed Sarah to get great practice of singing many Christmas carols around the house all season.  I love that she enjoys music as much as I do.  I only wish I had more photographs that came out but alas, this is the one and only one that is "share worthy".  Good job sis.

Next up, two rehearsals and two recitals in a four day period (for four year olds...really?)  Sarah had a blast dancing to the song "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas".  I was definitely a proud momma. She had missed two weeks of rehearsals leading up to the performance due to our Kansas trip.  Sarah didn't miss a beat.  As a matter of fact, she seemed to remember the moves better than many of her classmates.  (A lot of worry for nothing, as is usually the case). 

Little Sarah is on the very end.   She is hard to see from this vantage point.

 

Here we go, this is showtime.  No nerves here.  We have a natural born performer on our hands. I guess all that crying during her three year old Thanksgiving program is a thing of the past!

The grand finale was cute.  They sang "Santa Claus is coming".

And he "magically" appeared on stage.  Sarah was over the moon.

I am so proud of my little performer. 

We also had a stroke of luck that weekend that was related to ballet...professional ballet.  A friend from church offered us FREE tickets to see the Louisville Ballet production of "The Nutcracker".  I have always wanted to take Sarah, but was afraid she would not like it enough to merit the tremendous amount of money it would cost to go.  Free tickets were such a blessing!   I called my best bud Julie and asked if she and Maura were interested in accompanying us and they quickly said "Yes!"

Here are the girls all dolled up for the performance.   You have to dress up for the ballet.  Right?   Sarah was overcome with excitement at the thought of ballet, but also at dressing up :)

I can't believe how they have grown.  These girls have been together since they were just a few months old.  What a special friendship.

Julie and I have a pretty special friendship as well.  God has blessed us immensely.

This was our last photo snapped just before we were told to put up the cameras.  We had no idea we could not take photos BEFORE the performance even started.  Oh well,  so many wonderful memories made during this very busy week of December. 

So much to be Thankful for...

Fresh off the heels of a nine hour trip from Kansas, we agreed to host our families for Thanksgiving at the Coleman home.  Crazy right?   Not when the attendees agree to cook multiple dishes and treat it as a potluck.  We got home with three short days to clean the house, buy the fixins' and prepare the foods for the big day.  We have had most Thanksgivings here at our house since we have lived here.  Maybe this is becoming my holiday?  Who knows. I  truly love the holiday.  I think it is wonderful to be giving time off by employers to stop, gather with family , and thank God for our many blessing.  We Americans have so much to be thankful for, and only those who have traveled to other lands can truly appreciate it.  And now comes my plug for mission work.   If you have not gone on a mission trip to another country, you simply must do so.   It is a life changer.  But I digress.   Anyway, here are some photos leading up to and during Thanksgiving day.

The night before Thanksgiving and all through the house, the Coleman girls are stirring...up...trouble!  Leah is playing us a wonderful tune while we prepare for family's arrival.

Surprise!  Cousin Alena drops by for a pre Thanksgiving visit.  These two are sooo cute together.  They will be best friends for life, I just know it.
The big day arrives and so does the family.   Aunt Jennifer drives down from Columbus to join us.  We love getting to visit, even if it is only a couple times a year.

Here are the sisters.  They are very close, as are most sisters.   I am so glad Sarah and Leah get to share this special bond.

Leah is up and ready to eat!

Chris, Leah, and Alena share some playtime.

She is my little poser.  I just love my niece so much.  What a personality this girl was blessed with!  She's a keeper.

Baby Aubrey's first Thanksgiving.  I simply can't believe that she and Leah will be in the same grade (instead of Alena).  It goes to show just how much change occurs in the first year of life.   She will be bouncing off the walls with the rest of them this time next year!

Now, time for an ATTEMPT at a family photo with my parents and the four grand babies.  Mamaw, Papaw, and their girls had a pretty difficult time snapping the perfect shot with this many little ones.

This was by far the best of the bunch.

Most of them ended up more like this.... Check out Alena's upset look.  I crack up every time I see it!

Speaking of cracking up, check out the get up Sarah put on to travel down to Chris's parents with aunt Amy.  She sure has a sense of...ahem...style :)

Granny also got to come be with us this year.  We always love when she comes to visit.

The girls enjoyed playing with Jeniffer's doggy as well.

Mamaw Coleman and her girls.  Check out the hair on the little one.  It is getting out of hand!  She refuses to wear any type of bow at all.  Oh well, " I gotta be me"  right?

Unfortunately, I neglected to get photos of Chris's dad, Ashley Jason, and oh yes, myself!  Thanksgivings are always so busy with the cooking, cleaning, and running after children.  Maybe next year we will all just meet at Cracker Barrel and get it over with.   

 Naa.....I know this tradition will stand the test of time.  Like I said before, we love our Thanksgivings.

Kansas City Part 2

Hello again,
Yes, I am still on a quest to bring my blog as up to date as possible.  January is always a very slow month for us in terms of photo worthy events, so I am confident that I CAN accomplish what seemed impossible.  I am now into late November in terms of my photos to blog and I am pretty proud of the progress made of late (pat, pat on the back).  Here we go with Kansas City part 2

We spent A LOT of time up around the Legends Outlet Mall area.  It was across from a beautiful Nascar speedway and a construction zone for a new soccer arena.  It is obvious that at certain times of year, this place is hopping!  Not so much on a blustery November day.   We loved this area because of the attraction you will see coming up.

Sarah thought this gigantic Christmas ornament was cool so we snapped a shot of her with it.  Notice that we are the only ones around on this week day.  I guess everyone else is at work!

We went multiple times to the TREX cafe.  It is like the Rain forest Cafe, but it is solely devoted to Dinosaurs.  We at there once and it is pretty cool.  There is a volcanic eruption once every hour or so!  There is an ice age area, an ocean area, and the jungle.  The girls looooved this place because they were able to...

play in the sand and...

Dig for dinosaur bones!  They also had a small cave to explore creatures.  All for a nominal fee of course.  As is the usual, Sarah made friends with a little guy there and talked about him for the rest of the trip.

Another cool place we visited to pass the time was "Monkey Bizness".  For those of you who have never heard of it, it is a cross between Monkey Joes and the Kids Zone at the Lexington Athletic Club.  I enjoyed the small kids area immensely.  It allowed Sarah to bounce and swing to her hearts content, while Leah played safely on age appropriate toys.  I wish we had something similar around here.

The swinging area was definitely my big girls favorite area (along with the giant inflatable slide of course).
Not all days there were super duper.  On Sunday, BOTH of my girls got sick within 30 minutes of one another.  Chris and I took turns going to church and allowed them to recuperate.  Unfortunately, in a two bedroom apartment with one tote full of toys and no DVD player, the girls had to get creative with their sick day.   Sarah adorned herself with every hair bow we brought on the trip!

Once everyone was well (yay!) and Chris was back to work (boo!)  we headed to Science City in Union Station.  What a beautiful historic building this was!  It reminds me of Cincinnati's union station.

They had put their Christmas trees on display and we spent a long time just admiring the beauty. 

   Finally, we found the place we were looking for... Science City.  I must say, I was a little underwhelmed after the great time we had a the FREE St. Louis museum.

It was really pretty and had lots of fun places for big kids to learn and play, but their little kids area left a lot to be desired. 

Sarah did like the Escher exhibit.  She didn't understand everything, but she LOVED this mirror trick that made her body disappear.

To my surprise, Sarah was pretty scared of the caves there.  She is growing more afraid of the dark every time we encounter something like this.  We just avoided this area.

The biggest hit was the put put golf zone.  Leah loved crawling around and Sarah honed her skills.

On the way out, Sarah chose her two favorite trees.  Of course, both were.....

Pink!  No shock there.

What trip to Kansas would be complete without a drive to Kansas University or as Chris puts it " the place where it all began"   I think he was referring to the great sport of basketball.

I was not so amused.  We got there around supper time, couldn't find a recognizable place to eat, and got stuck in basketball game traffic.  Yet one more reason to have no love for Kansas University.
After our two weeks were up, we headed home.  I got my second ever speeding ticket on this trip (yipee!).  At least it was a reasonable amount.  We did make it to St. Louis for a stretch break and decided to check out the City Museum.  Boy was that place interesting.  It was unique because it was a playground made entirely of original art.  Sounds cool right?  Well, it looked like it hadn't been cleaned since it opened.  It was a wonder we didn't catch a horrid disease from being there for one hour.  Chris's face says it all.

There were some cool exhibits and places to climb....

There were also balls that were mildewed and two inches of water in the pit itself (ick... you couldn't get us out fast enough!

More outdoor climbing areas.  These were difficult even for me.  I am so glad I did not send Sarah up alone.

Finally, it was time to leave Missouri.  We got some beautiful views of the arch before we left.

As with all trips, there were wonderful memories made, but there really is no place like home.  I love my house, and especially my bed.  We will never forget our adventures West in 2010. Thanks Lexmark for footing the hotel bill!