Father's Day 2012

We had a fun Father's Day in our house on Sunday!!  We are so lucky to have such amazing men in our family.  My Dad and Matt's Dad are both such wonderful men and truly are role models for our girls.  Tatum and Camdyn could not be luckier to have Matt as a Daddy always there for both of them no matter what!!  It is great to get a day every year to make sure they know how much they are loved (but hopefully we show them everyday).

On Father's Day Tatum, Camdyn and I woke up and snuck downstairs to make Matt breakfast.  We made biscuits, eggs and chocolate milk.  Since it was such a special day the girls and I decided we should have a picnic on the loft for Daddy so that's exactly what we did.  The girls woke up Matt by saying, "Happy Father's Day Daddy," and brought him out to our picnic.

Excited to wake up Daddy

Getting our picnic blanket all set.

Picnic Time!!

After our picnic we played and relaxed a little bit.  Then we headed to Costco for a quick trip.  One of Matt's favorite things is going down EVERY aisle and seeing what all is there.  Usually I am in a hurry and want to just get what we need and get out of there.  But since it was his day we went down all the aisle's he wanted to.  Pretty special, I know ;).  When we got home from Costco Gramma and Grampa were here so we had lunch (a new pasta recipe that turned out very good) and opened presents. 

Decorations the girls made, they even made special placemats.

Banner made by Tatum

Open your present Daddy

The Best Daddy

The Best Grampa

Fun!!

After present time we headed over to Uncle Adam and Aunt Lindsey's house for more family Father's Day fun.  We got to swim, open presents with Papa and have an amazing dinner.  We had so much fun being together as a family.

The Best Papa

Daquiris by the pool

Fun with Grampa

Camdyn dunking

Tatum in the hoop?!

Double dunk!!

Camdyn and Uncle Doo Doo playing Shuffle Board

We had a perfect weekend and a wonderful Father's Day.  The girls and I are so very blessed to have such extraordinary men in our life.  We have the absolute BEST!!

Recital- Cirque de Soleil by Dance Connection 2

Tatum started dancing in August and this weekend it was finally time for her very first dance recital.  Tatum and her dance friends have been working super hard with Mrs. Peggy the past few months on their dance Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.  The weekend was so much fun and we are so proud of our dancing girl.

Last weekend was recital pictures.  We were a bit rushed and ran into the studio just in the nic of time because the photographer was running way ahead of schedule.  Luckily being rushed didn't affect Tatum at all and she smiled bright and looked so cute!!

Tatum's Dance Class

Recital Picture - Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

Thursday was dress rehearsal out at Queen Creek Performing Arts Center.  I had been telling Tatum for a while that she would get to wear special lipstick for recital, so I went out and got her a red and a hot pink lipstick to choose from and she was very excited about that!!  Dress rehearsal was crazy.  There was so many students and so much going on!!  I was anxious to see how Tatum would do on stage.  When we first walked into the auditorium Tatum had a bit of a mini freak out because of the noise.  That made me a bit nervous that she wouldn't like the noise when she was dancing.  So we had a little chat about the music being loud and how it would be fine and we crossed our fingers hoping the noise wouldn't be too much for her.  The girls walked out on stage and they did their dance and my goodness we were so super proud of our big girl.  She did so awesome at dress rehearsal, we couldn't wait for the big show!!

All ready for dress rehearsal

Dancing time

1,2,3,4...

Checking out the lights

So fun!!

Toe tapping

Shake that booty

Tell the people what she wore.....

Ta Da

Saturday morning was RECITAL DAY!!  We all woke up so excited for Tatum's big day.  Tatum woke up in a great mood ready to take on that stage.  Tatum had so much of our family come out and support her for recital.  Recital was at 11am and the girls were the fourth number to go on.  As soon as Tatum took the stage I got all teary eyed and enjoyed every single second of watching her dance.  All of the girls looked like they were absolutely loving being up on stage and soaking up their star moments.  All of the performers came back on stage for the finale and they all had balloons and glow necklaces.  Tatum thought that was just so great.  I went back and got her after the show and she was just so full of happiness it was so awesome for us to see!!

Beautiful Girl

Ready for Recital

Mommy and Tatum before the show.

Tatum and McKenna

Tatum after the show, she was AMAZING

Tatum and Mrs. Peggy - such a perfect teacher!!

So many flowers

Our little dancer!!

After recital we all went to Tatum's favorite place to eat, Chick Fila.  It was fun all of us being there talking about recital and how proud we all were of Tatum!!

Gramma and Tatum

Nana and Tatum

Aunt Lindsey and Tatum

Tatum and Grampa

Camdyn playing

Tatum on the slide.

I am so happy that Tatum loved her first year of dance and her first recital.  Hopefully she will continue to love it and want to dance forever!!  We are so very thankful that Tatum had Mrs. Peggy as her teacher.  She truly is a wonderful teacher and such a perfect fit with the girls.  We are a little sad that Mrs. Peggy won't be Tatum's teacher next year but Ms. Lisa will be fun too!!  Dance Connection 2 is an amazing studio, my Mom and I went back Saturday night to watch the company show and it was absolutely breathtaking.  The choreography was out of this world and the company is just so incredibly amazing to watch.  I got goosebumps so many times while watching the company members, I feel so lucky that our girls are surrounded by so much fantastic talent!!  I really hope our girls love dance and want to continue growing and performing.

So proud of Tatum!!!!

Nap time!!

Tatum and Camdyn

I am not sure how we got so lucky with our girls, but Tatum and Camdyn really are so wonderful.  They amaze us everyday just by being themselves and we love them so much.

Camdyn is so fun and is now talking non-stop.  She tries so hard to say words and is starting to get better.  Now she can say Hi and Bye (with a wave of course), Mama, Dada and No.  No is probably the cutest thing she says because she says it while shaking her finger, wonder where she saw that!!  She is on the move constantly also.  She can run from one room to another in no time at all.  She understands us very well.  If we tell her to go give Daddy something or go put this note on the counter, she just walks with a purpose and does what we asked her to.  She is starting to get better at cleaning up toys and her things.  Camdyn basically loves to do whatever her big sister does.  If Tatum is reading, next thing we know Camdyn is reading.  If Tatum is dancing then Camdyn will dance too.  Camdyn is always making us smile with how super cute and happy she is!!

Tatum is amazing.  The things she loves most right now are dancing and reading.  She loves to be a "teacher" and read to all of us about 20 books a day.  She just looks at the pictures and describes them, or the books that she knows because we have read a lot she can say by memory.  My favorite book she reads to us is called Mommy Hugs.  It is about different animals and how they hug their babies.  It is so cute because Tatum will "read" the page and then hug us how that animal does, like a Monkey pats her baby for a hug, an elephant wraps her trunk, and a kitty licks her baby, that one is definitely funny every time!!  Tatum is such a wonderful big sister and just a wonderful person to have in our family.  She is so caring about everyone and is always wanting to make sure we are all ok especially her little sis.  Tatum is always there for Camdyn when she needs to her to play with her, to give her hugs and to help get her ready for bed.  Tatum is getting really good at writing.  She is the only one in her class that can write her name without help (bragging) and can write all of the letters with help.  She can write Tatum, Mom, Dad, Cam, and Doo-doo without help.  Just working on the rest of the family now!!  But she does know what letter everyone's name starts with.  We are so proud of Tatum and all she does.

Dance parties are a daily must in our house.  Everyday we turn on Pandora and jam out.  It makes all of us smile and the 4 of us love dancing like crazy and running around.  It is a good way for us to end the day before we head upstairs to do bath and settle in for the night.

Just a quick little update for our family journal on how our kids are doing.  What a lucky Mommy I am to get to have these little love bugs in my life everyday!!

Katie's UofA Graduation

A few weeks ago the whole Kahler family made the trip to Tucson for the weekend to watch Katie graduate from UofA.  It was so fun to watch her and hear all that she has accomplished in her 4 years of college.  Katie truly is amazing and we could not of been more proud of her.  Tatum had a great time looking up to cousin Katie, she is such a great role model for our girls!!

We left on Friday morning and headed to campus.  Obviously I went to ASU because I did not know how to spell McKale and instead of going to the McKale center we ended up at the Mchale's house, oops, silly me!!  After our minor detour we got to the arena and got set to watch Katie.  At this graduation she got to sit up on the stage and be recognized because she is such a smarty pants and got a million awards!!  We were so proud of her!!

Katie and Tatum before graduation

Katie and her cheering section

After the graduation we went to our hotel.  We stayed at Casino Del Sol and we are so glad that we did.  The hotel was so nice and we really enjoyed it.  We decided to take the girls swimming and the pool was awesome!!

Splash pad fun!!

Play time

Dancing on a stage

Shake it!!

The 4 of us.

We had a nice dinner that night and got to spend some time outside with the whole family enjoying a nice evening.  The next morning we got up bright and early to get to the University Commencement.  Tatum was so excited to buy Katie some flowers to give to her and held them the whole time.  Both girls fell asleep as soon as the lights went down and the speeches started and they woke up just in time for the ending.  So I would say they both did really well that day!!

Tatum and the flowers.

See Katie?!

Proud Family

Cousins!!

Alex and Katie, they are the cutest

Tatum giving Katie her flowers.

We got to go to Katie's apartment and have a nice lunch with all of her roommates and their families, it was great.  Other than the fact that Matt got really sick and spent the entire rest of the day and night in bed.  No fun for him!!  On Sunday we headed home with a stop at Eegee's for lunch.  Great ending to our little weekend. 

So PROUD of you Katie!!