Tuesday, June 30, 2009

To the Jessups

Sorry I have no documentation of your visit here. Do you think you could email some pics to me? danceemotions@yahoo.com or misssarah@emotionsdance.com

Your baby boy is perfect, I was SO impressed with his behavior and attitude! Way to go, Silas! (oh, and it was nice seeing your parents, too!) :-)

Mike's Birthday

I am going out of order. My apologies.

SO. Mike is 30. To celebrate, we had 3 different meals with friends and family.

Our first meal was with Mike's parents at Pappadeaux. YUM. They sure do spoil us. Thank you, Grammi and Grandpa for a wonderful lunch!!
After lunch, we visited Mike's NaNa and PaPa for dessert. (Cheesecake. Again, YUM.)
I don't have any pictures of Mike with his Grandparents (I always feel bad asking, because I get the feeling they do NOT like having their pictures taken. Mike's grandparents gave him a new driver (I think that's what it was!! ha!) and he was very surprised and super excited.
Later that night, we went out for sushi with some friends. And, I only got one picture. I will share it even though it is apparent we'd already had a few drinks.; Oh, well... it was Mike's 30th! We were celebrating!!
The next day was Mike's celebration with my family. Mike and my Grandma share a birthday so we did double duty celebrating at my Grandma's restaraunt of choice- Cheddars. Ha!
Me and my beautiful sister
One table of family: counter clockwise, starting with Grandma: Grandma, my cousin Sherri, her daughter Brooklynn, Melissa, Melissa's in-laws Les and Jane, Mike, Mom, my Aunt Susan, Uncle Bob, cousin Scott
Second table of family: counter-clockwise from front blonde girl: my 3rd cousins Bryanna, Logan and Andrew, my Uncle John, his "wife" Oro, Aunt Cheryl, 2nd cousin Kelly, Uncle Frank
Addison at the booth with the "big girls" (and Mayson in the back being silly)
Uncle Frank giving his Happy Birthday speech
Grandma in all her glory :-)

Day Family Reunion Part 1

Sunday marked the first day of our Day Family Reunion. All of Grandma's kids (and my mom's second cousin and all of her kids) traveled from all over the country (California, Florida, Nevada, Iowa and Kansas) to spend the week here for a fun family reunion!

My mother was the planner extraordinaire. She planned our reunion to a tee. We are using Melissa's in-laws event center (The Page House- the same place Mike and I were married!). When each guest arrived they received a gift bag with a reunion t-shirt, personal fan, cooling bandana, a bag of "austinuts" and a TX lotto ticket. We have an ongoing wii bowling tournament, the men are expecially loving this! They are also enjoying the new Tiger Woods golf game. While the men are inside playing video games...
The kids play outside on the COOLEST water slide ever!
This is Addy's newest, most frequent face. She wants to smile, but resists and ends up looking like this...
Posing poolside
Aislynn (my cousin Sherri's daughter) and Abigail
The kids also get to paint and draw on the huge cement area at the Page House. So fun!
So far, the reunion is going splendidly. :-) I will post more as the week goes on- we have lots more fun activities planned- including an amazing race style scavenger hunt, a talent show, a dj'd dance party, a trip to Sea World AND a 4th of July celebration! Whew!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Happy 30th to my sweet husband!



Thank you for your daily loving, giving, caring approach- not just to Addison, but to everyone. You truly are a wonderful man. You are the WORLD to Addy, the light of her eye. And you are the LOVE of my life (and the light of my eye!). We love you SO much, we hope you truly know how very much that is. XOXO

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Our Addy's first dance class!

Well, the time is now. Addy is officially a dancer. She is taking a two year old combo class on Wednesday mornings. The Tuesday before, she was pretty yucky- definitely wasn't feeling herself, but went to bed just fine, we didn't hear a peep out of her until morning time, when she was all energetic and happy and ready to DANCE!

This dancing is serious business!

The dance class was soo much fun. I enjoyed very much being able to sit and watch my daughter in her class! There are some studios who don't have viewing windows into the dance studios, and that's a bummer for the parents. Being able to watch can make you smile for an hour straight and not even really realize it!

Don't have good action shots. Here's a cute one of them waiting for their turn to go jump on the trampoline.


Addy hugging Elle. Elle's mommy, Laurel, went to high school with me, we both danced on drill team together, and we lived together for 1 year in college. SO glad that Laurel signed Elle up : ) And thrilled that she and Addy are in the same class!



SO much fun! I will reserve my professional critique and assessment for a little ways down the road. ;)

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Recital!



Here we are, five days later, and I finally feel recovered. Just in time to start back teaching our summer classes!

I was so fortunate to have a photographer behind the scenes. You can check out all of the pictures she took here: http://picasaweb.google.com/shelljamesphoto

Here is one of Sheridan, my friend Julie's daughter. Julie had baby Leighton earlier that day, she had to miss recital. You would've been very proud, Julie. :)

And this is one I love- Melissa getting Abbie ready.

Abbie before the show. (these might look staged, but they totally weren't!)

Next year Addison will be part of the fun! (Although I hear she was part of the fun in the audience. Sat and watched the first half, danced in the aisle during the second half) Her first dance class is Wednesday at 10am. I'm sure you can imagine how EXCITED I am about this!! Will definitely post as soon as I can after that momentous occasion!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

I just HAVE to!

So, I am tired and have a to-do list a mile long in prep for recital (3 days away!), and I really had no energy or desire to blog. Even with all the shenanigans that went on this week on So You Think You Can Dance.

But, I can't help it! I just HAVE to blog! I lay in bed, and so many thoughts run through my head. I mean...

First. Natalie. Excuse me, but WTF? (f being fudge, of course). I just don't understand! I posted her audition video here on my blog, so clearly, I am a fan. But to just cut her like that OUT OF NOWHERE? Excuse me, but when a choreographer pulls a dancer out in front of the class to demonstrate the dance, that is the choreographer saying YES! THIS IS WHAT I WANT! Does that mean NOTHING to the judges? To quote my friend Holly, why am I so heated?!

Let me just say that I think that Mia Michaels is a hater. And that's too bad. I have a real problem with haters- I don't understand the hate. She is just blatantly egotistical and rude. And I think I am over her choreography, for the most part. I do think she is talented, but find it harder and harder to like her when she continues to display her true, ugly, colors.

On to the brothers. Now, I understand this is a tv show, and it's all about the drama, etc., so I guess I understand why they held out til the end with them. If the brothers had any smarts, they would have figured out that this would be what the producers would do. I guess I just want to say that I really like them. I love their friendship, their closeness, and think that if Melissa and I were to ever be in a situation like that (haha yeah right!), we would be just as loving and supportive and proud as the brothers were. Class acts. Love them.

Speaking of love. L. O. V. E.

Alex Wong.

If you have sort of been just scanning this post because you don't watch SYTYCD, or don't care... I don't blame you. But focus. Pay attention. Because this is important.

Alex Wong.

Holy Crap.



He couldn't be on the show because of his contract with the Miami Ballet. And my heart is weeping. Sound dramatic? It is. My love for him is true. I mean, come on. First of all, some of you know (now all of you do), I love Asians. I really don't think I've ever known an Asian I didn't like. I just think they are beautiful, elegant, I just love them, okay? Melissa said the other day I need to adopt an Asian baby and she's right. Ummmm, anyway. Obviously, my love for him goes beyond that. Watch him. WATCH him. His talent is breathtaking. Alex Wong. HELLO. I love you.