MadaLynns Recital

MadaLynn had her ballet recital this past weekend. It was her first one and I think she did pretty good. We were not allowed to take any pictures or videos during the show so these are from the rehearsal that was right before the show. The show was called, Tea for Two. The 3-year-old class did the flight of the bumble bees. I think it was perfect for the spring show.

She did pretty good during the practice and remembered most of her parts, but during the show she just stood there half way through her part and then started dancing. ha. She was really cute and when I went to pick her up they told me that she didn't want to get off the stage and that she told them she wanted to dance again. We wouldn't of known from the lack of dancing. :)

 She had to wear some make up for the performance, look how long her eyelashes are!

Going into position

 

She is making sure we are still watching. 

Nice job, Maddie. 

 MadaLynn and her partner.

I love this picture of all their wings. 

Playing catch-up

There is so much to catch up on I don't know where to start. I am going to try and go in order so that I don't forget anything.


 FEBRUARY:

Collin turned 6! He is getting so big and we are just so proud of him. He had a bowling party this year. Collin loves to bowl on the Wii and though it would be fun to go bowling. He learned very fast that it is a lot harder than the Wii but he still loved every minute of it. He has the best group of friends and really had a great time. We had a blast this year.

 The Birthday Boy

 Collin's best friend, Aaron

Now, most of you know but for those that don't this is a big day in our house because Jason shares his birthday with Collin. We celebrated Jason's birthday by going to dinner and a movie and we also had family in town so we threw him a birthday party.

The Birthday Guys. Our nephew, Austin, also shares the same birthday. 

MARCH:

On March 5, 2011, my little sister passed away suddenly in her sleep. I have debated to blog about this because she was so dear to me. I also do not know how I feel talking about this quite yet, but I think it is good to get it out.

Megan, is my best friend. We are only 2 years apart and have been pretty close our whole lives. Every memory I have from when I was little has my little sister in it. I remember thinking about how our kids would be able to play together like we did. Now I know she is watching them in heaven. Megan was just married on October 28, 2010. I am very grateful for the knowledge that I have. I am very grateful for her husband, Seth, and that he was able to take her to the Temple. I know that we will be together again.

Megan Rebecca Howe Briggs

While we were out for the funeral we were able to see my Grandma. It has been about 6 years since the last time I have seen her. I just love her.

Maddie and her cousin, Lydia. They are only 5 weeks apart. 

 APRIL:


We had a very relaxing Easter. We started it off by going to church, then coming home and finding what the Easter bunny brought. We boiled some eggs and realized we forgot the vinegar, so this year the kids decorated their eggs with crayons. It was so much fun and they turned out very cute, only I didn't get a picture of it. We then had a little Easter egg hunt. Later that night, we had my brother and his family over for dinner.

This year I was able to look at Easter in a whole knew meaning. I have been told and taught the real meaning of Easter my whole life, but I think because of my sister passing I was able to apply it to my own life and it took on a whole knew meaning. I am very grateful for the sacrifice of our savior and am very glad to have the gospel in my life.

MAY:


This year for Mothers day we were able to have my parents out here. It felt so good to be around my Mom for Mothers day. It has been at least 3 years since I have got to spend a Mothers day with here.

Jason was on top of it this year. He spoiled me rotten. He cleaned, cooked, took care of the kids, and gave me exactly what I wanted. Although, I would have been happy with just the cleaning and taking care of the kids part :). We had a big family get together at our house with my brothers family and my parents. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Collins class put on a Mothers and Fathers day celebration and invited the parents to come and watch. It was one of the cutest things I think I have seen. All of the kids dressed up like their Mom or Dad and had a fashion show and told some of their parents favorite things.

Working the run way!

Collin also graduated from Kindergarten. We are very sad that he will be leaving his teachers. We absolutely love them and will miss them so much. Collin is very excited to be a first grader though.

The Kindergarten classes get together and have a graduation for all of the kindergartners. The teachers really worked hard, and put in a lot of time into this program. I have it all recorded but will only share some of it with you :)

 Most of his class

All 5 of the kindergarten classes. 

Mrs. Spina

 Mrs. Buffalow

We rock, we rock, we rock on!

Collin's favorite Christmas present this year was his stereo and CDs. He will go in his room, shut the door, blast his music, and dance his little heart out. Ha. I think this is just a preview for what is going to come in his teenage years. So, while it is cute now, I am going to soak it all in because I might not be enjoying it as much in the future ;)

He has really taken an interest in music the last couple of months and will come home from school singing a song (they listen to music on the bus). The other day we were switching radio stations, trying to find something good, and he told me to stop because it was Lady GaGa. Well, we don't really want our 5-year-old listening to Lady GaGa so we have been trying to find other music that Collin likes. Needless to say, all Collin talks about now is Justin Bieber, the Jonas Brothers, and Selena Gomez. It amazes me at how much he knows in so little time, especially because we don't know a lot about those artist's. He learns it all from his friends and from school.

Anyhow, Collin's favorite CD right  now is Camp Rock. Here he is rockin' out to it:

Glasses for a Three Year Old

A few months ago, I noticed that MadaLynn would cross her right eye (only her right eye) when she would focus on something. She was beginning to do it a lot more and people would actually comment on it. Needless to say, while we were at her 3-year-old well child appointment I asked my Pediatrician about. He didn't think twice about it and told us that we needed to see an Pediatric Ophthalmologist.

As soon as the Dr. looked at her he knew what exactly was wrong with MadaLynn's eye. She has a condition called: amblyopia, otherwise known as a lazy eye. It is when one eye becomes weaker than the other, and causes the weak eye not to develop normally. This condition is treatable if caught early enough. MadaLynn's treatment is glasses. The glasses that she needs have bifocals in them, this to teach the eyes to work simultaneously again.

We have been getting a lot of questions from people (some we don't even know) about her glasses. My favorite is: "does she really need those?" I don't know how to answer to this question,  because I think that it is a silly question. I don't know why or who would force their child to wear glasses. Other than some questions, people have been pretty good about them. As a mother, I worried that she would be teased about wearing glasses, but the complete opposite has happened. Collin, and some of her close friends are asking if they can wear glasses too.

I think it is the most adorable thing that I have ever seen. She doesn't mind them that much which I am grateful for. It would have made this situation a whole lot harder.

Also, I didn't send out a Christmas card this year. I was too busy, so for those of you who would've cared, here you go:

Merry Christmas from the Renfros!