ball, Kiah grabbed my hand and started swinging it to the music as if she was dancing with the prince herself. And little Leah sat on my lap the majority of the time. I love how my nieces love me. I can't wait to have children of my own...they are so wonderful. When we were saying goodbye Leah wouldn't let go of me and kept saying "I want my Greshin!" (PS I love how she says my name) Ugh, it makes my heart hurt to hear her so sad, but I'm glad my nieces love me as much as I love them!
On Saturday Feb 16th I performed a tap dance at our Branch Activity. Earlier this week the ward activity chair called me to ask if I could put some dance routines together for the ward activity because the ballroom dancer's she scheduled canceled on her. I was able to ask 2 of my friends Sarah and Jen to come and do some clogging and Irish dancing for the entertainment. I also put together a Latin tap routine to include in the entertainment. I was really nervous because I had never performed a solo for people before. However, it went really well and I got a great response from the branch members. Sis Hassinger approached me following my performance and said she always thought I was a shy person, but once I started dancing I owned the stage and was not shy at all. I thought that was funny =) I tried to post the video of my performance...however it won't upload...I will try again later.
Jake and Macy
Macy sure loves her uncle Jake
Technically these sledding pictures were not taken over Christmas. The weekend before Brandon headed into the MTC on Jan 16th, we all spent a few days in Sun Valley with the Pollard family. The picture above is of the boys in the bed of the truck while we were driving up to our sledding destination.
Mike trying to convince Macy that riding in the sled will be fun
Macy seemed to enjoy getting towed around
It was absolutely gorgeous.
Trey, Paul, and me.
Paul and I had fun playing the piano together for a bit before he left.
Soooo...its about time that I wrote a little about Christmas this year....seeing as how its February =) Jake and I spent Christmas in Idaho this year! It was really fun! On Christmas Eve Jakes extended family came over for dinner and a white elephant gift exchange. Jake ended up receiving a couple of really nice baseball caps and a freak'n huge tub of bubble gum. I received The Holiday, a really good movie that we already had so we returned it for something else...and an ornament and some lotion I think. That night we slept in the basement with the whole family so that Santa could have the upstairs to himself. The day after Christmas I flew home to California to spend some time with my brother Paul before he headed back home to DC. We went out to dinner at a really good fondue restaurant that night and then drove home. The next day we had a big yummy breakfast and Paul and I played some piano together, but he left that afternoon. I am so glad I was able to see him, even though it was for such a short time. Jake flew in a couple of days later and we spent New Years with my family. The holidays are so fun, we especially enjoy spending time with our nieces and nephew that we live so far away from. They grow up so fast! My nieces love me so much though, it so sooo great! The first time I saw them over the holidays Jake and I went over and I opened that door and Elissa (my 18 month old niece) was in front of the door and she saw me and her face became one huge grin and her arms opened up and she came running at me to give me a big hug. Emma heard me come in but she was in the bathroom and started crying because she wanted to come see me but she wasn't able to at the time. I felt so loved =) Man I miss those girls! One downer over the vacation was that in California we all came down sick...which limited our activities. Luckily my dad was healthy and took care of us sicklings. Hopefully next year we will be healthy! We look forward to next Christmas when Elder David Ainsworth will be there to share it with us!
Below are some videos of the sled trip in Sun Valley, ID
