FWSSR - 2018

We got tickets as a family to the Rodeo this year.

 It is truly one of our favorite events to start the year off. 

We love seeing all the animals in the stock show, the tractors at the trade show, eating all the carnival food, and the rodeo events. 

 

This kid might like it more than anyone.

   

 We give it all we can to get a good cousin pic but they normally turn out like this.

   

These boys loved Honey, Boss and Evelyn as much as the rodeo events.

 

Thank you Honey and Boss for such a fun day!!

  

Daddy Daughter Dance

The same weekend as the Talent Show, Kinley and Ben went to the Daddy-Daughter Dance at Compass.

 It is one of Kinleys FAVORITE nights of the year by far and she looks forward to it all year. 

She was able to keep her talent show Sweet & Sassy hair for this event too. 

She rocked her dress from her birthday last year and her new red coat from Aunt Olivia and Aunt Sandy that she got for Christmas. 

 These two make the cutest pair! 

 

 Ben knew I would hound him for pictures so he did an amazing job taking a couple and even got some selfies. 

 

 Love the sweet bond these two have and this annual tradition. 

 It is so precious and memories we will always be so grateful for.

Talent Show

Since the Christmas Eve services when Kinley and As;lynn saw Carlee and Kate sing "Sisters" from White Christmas,
 

they had been performing and choreographing it nonstop together.

When the Talent Show came around, they decided pretty quickly they wanted to perform "Sisters" together too.
 They practiced a few times, divided up the parts and ordered their own blue dresses and fans.

It was Kinley's first Talent Show performance and she had a blast doing it with Aslynn.
They were precious and I could not get enough of watching them.
 They just lit up the stage and had a blast together.
They had 2 performances. One for the school in the morning and one in the evening.

This is the link to the video that was done by the school.
Scroll to 6:00 minutes to watch Kinley and Aslynn's morning performance.

  OCT Talent Show

Watching the rest of their peers in the show. 

 Little ones patiently watching this performance for the 100th time. 
They now know every word of this song by heart too.
 
 A couple of pics after on the stage.
So proud of these girls!

 Headed back to class

 Love my girl.


The Talent Show display booth at the front of the school
 

After school, I took the girls to Sweet & Sassy for some performance hair and makeup (which we promptly toned down) and they couldn't resist the stage to put on a show. 

 

Had a few sweet visitors for the evening show!

   

I love how this experience gave Kinley such confidence and joy and support for all her peers too. 

 It was so much fun!

Merle

We suprised our kids at Christmas with a picture of their new puppy. 

 They had been begging for months for a new puppy.

 Our precious dog Haley is 12 years old now and getting slower by the day. 

 Our kids have never had a puppy because Haley was full grown before any of them were born. 

Ben and I both felt like now was a good time to get a new puppy. 

Our kids are a good age to start learning responsibility and taking care of animals more. 

We definitely wanted our new puppy to be "trained" by Haley on how to behave with the kids and the chickens around. 

And with Haley advancing in years, we wanted a smooth transition from one dog to the next when that time comes. 

 We had the kids hunt around the house for their final gift on Christmas day and they found it on Haley's dog bed and it was a bag with a stuffed Australian shepherd inside. 

And, we had these couple pictures of our new puppy from the breeder.

   

We talked and talked about names for days. 

Ben came up with the name Merle based on her breed and coloring. 

 She is a Red Merle Miniature Australian Shepherd.

 Everyone loved it and she had a name! 

We drove up to the breeder in Oklahoma one Saturday in January when she was ready to leave her momma and brought her home. 

 

She spent so many of those early days just sleeping. 

She would sleep everywhere. 

 

One of her favorite spots is below my feet in my bathroom when I am getting ready. 

This is so precious because from the very beginning Haley felt very protective of Merle and she would follow her everywhere. 

 Here she backed herself up as gently as she could and laid down right next to her. 

So sweet. 

 

We got her set up at our vet that we love and she has been such a happy camper at home with us. 

 

 Love that I took a few good pics of her on her first few days when she was so little. 

 

We love our little new addition. 

She's getting LOTS of attention and loves cuddling and playing fetch and car rides. She loves to go to soccer practice, baseball games and pick up the kids in the carline. 

What a special gift she has been this year.