Tannenbaum & Advent

The first weekend in December we had a visitor - one of Kennedy's favorite visitors: Chelsea! She drove down to visit but also because there was a special occasion - Kennedy's first dance performance. We had such a good time but as usual it wasn't long enough and I HATED seeing her go. Kennedy still adores her as much now as she did when she spent every day with her as a little one and I love watching their relationship grow - it's just really special. Avery doesn't quite know her yet, but she will. In the short amount of time Chelsea was here she got some of the best belly laughs out of her that I've heard in her 9 months of life.

While she was in town - we drug her along on our annual Griswald-like family trek through the Christmas tree farm to pick out THE BEST tree for the season! We went to the same tree farm that we went to last year and I loved it just as much. It is owned by a retired UK professor and his wife and they are so sweet. She hands out candy canes and they have UK Ag students chop the trees down and tie them on your car. All around it's just a really cool experience. Because we'd been last year and they'd gotten our address then, we got a sweet little hand written note from them in November telling us what kind of trees they had and when they opened, etc. I mean...what more can you ask for: seriously!? Not sure why this posted sideways...but you get the idea:

When Chelsea is town I'm virtually non-existent so Kennedy pretty much did her tree searching with Chels.

I value Kennedy's opinion, but she picks out trees like this:

perfect size for her...not so perfect for our family tree. I found one Avery's size too...

~sweet little cheeser~

Posing by our tree...

I was pretty much in love with it, but Tim wanted to walk the ENTIRE tree farm to make sure it was "the one". We were there on their opening day so there were a lot of people walking around and I was a little scared someone would get it while we were walking around. Tim decided his hat was a sufficient marker for the tree while we "made sure" it was the one. Turns out...Momma knows best - this here tree is in our living room all lit up and fancy as I type this.

The girls were intrigued with the chopping down process.

And up it goes...thankyouverymuch nice little UK Ag student - we appreciate you!

After the tree was all decorated it was time to get Kennedy ready for her Advent Dance performance. I have loved Wilmore Christian Ballet - I love that they teach them to teach for Jesus and that they are little princesses of the King...precious! She was most excited about her performance, but you know how kids are...you just never really know how they'll do.

We got a few quick snapshots prior to the performance:

~Pretty in pink~

~Daddy's little ballerina~

The performance was SO good - it was honestly moving. It told the story of Jesus' birth beginning with the Angel appearing to Mary to tell her she would be having the son of God and on through different periods in his life. The music was wonderfully powerful and just good! Kennedy played the part of a stable sheep...here she is during the performance:

We were very proud because she did exactly what she was supposed to do and I was impressed because honestly there were SO MANY girls and her part was so small but she hung in there for the entire performance. We snagged her in costume to get a couple of pictures after the cast completed their bows. Clearly she was less than thrilled about this photo op - she was "itchy and hot and wanted the nose off her face" ha! 

Even though Nana had just been here for Thanksgiving she came right back for the performance - she didn't want to miss it and we were so glad she came.

Our neighbors from our old neighborhood are part of this studio too - here are the two Kennedy's after the performance. She was a star - so pretty.

I told Tim he needed to have her some flowers for after the performance and he delivered: pink roses! She wasn't as excited about getting flowers as I thought she would be, but I still say "Good job Daddy!"

She seemed to have so much fun with ballet this semester I just knew she'd want to do it again, but when I asked her if she wanted to dance again she said she'd rather try gymnastics again. I'm really surprised, because on any given day you can step into our house and witness a scene that looks a little bit like this:

I'm all about her doing what it is she wants to do, so if she wants gymnastics - gymnastics here we come...again.