Serious Dance Moves

There is something most magical about your little girl and her very first dance recital ever. Like grin-from-ear-to-ear, seriously cutest thing ever, most adorbs costume in the world. I mean don't get me wrong...I love watching all my girls and I am that super, overly proud, think my girls are the best.. type of parent..but when it is your little, chubby 3 year old's first time up on that big stage and she performs the heck out of that dance with no tears, shyness or ounce of humility. Gosh..there might not be anything better..I mean could you die!

 Ok and if you really want a treat..go HERE I swear you will not be disappointed..well that may be the inner, unashamedly proud parent in me. But you should still check it out. The stepping at the first is hu-sterical. Like fer real.

 The girls..and I will admit I may have gone a little cray cray in the eyeshadow department. Listen I never claimed I went to beauty school. Phew..but with 4 girls I might need a few lessons.

And you gotta love a wardrobe malfunction..I mean what's a girl gonna do when straps are "itchy and buggin ya"
And on a side note, I did take pics of my other girlies..well my dad did. I put him in charge while I manned the video camera..and really when do dance pics ever turn out? 

Party On...

Obviously I never "planned" any of my babies..why else would I have 2 in October, 1 in November and 1 in December. Sheesh..this party planning is really cramping my style. I feel like it's all I've done lately. So we are adding another to the list. My little Sophie Grace just turned 6. Now... she was due on Christmas Eve 6 fast years ago (thank heavens for inductions..cuz there ain't no way this momma was celebrating Christmas in a hospital) So here are the specs of the big day...I needed to hurry and blog before the Christmas rush..

 The girl would live on Hersey bars if i would let her. Hands down her favorite gift!

 And these two are just 3 weeks apart and are inseparable

 We even invited a few friends over for a fun shin-dig. Where I was totally lame and we decorated graham cracker houses..again. But listen..give a kid some frosting and candy and literally they are good for hours...or at least until they run out of room on the house.

She had the best day..it was happy, happy, happy.  She had been counting down for over a month.

Facts of Sophie-
She was my smallest baby at 6lbs 7oz and is still the runt of the litter..she only weighs 3 more lbs than Maggie (who is 3 years younger..which prolly says more about Mags than Sophie..now that I type it)
Loves Subway sandwiches
Is amazeballs at head and hand stands..seriously, this girl has some major core strength
 Loves the color pink, barbies, lalaloopsy dolls, polly pockets..you get where I am going with this..
Is my brave heart..loves to wakeboard, waterski, and rollerblade (and we are thinking about snow skiing this next month)

Happy Birthday to our middle child and the best one a family could ever get. We love you!

Christmas Spew

We are ready for the Jolly Old Elf at the Belnap Household and boy have we been busy gettin' ready..

 We decorated our real as real can get tree. If you saw it now, you would see a bare half bottom tree..courtesy of the 1 year old round here.

The highlight of our Christmas season has returned from a long trip to the North Pole. Knobby, our elf has been on the look out for good behavior..although Maggie could care less..in fact she shouts "I don't want any presents anyways" when I threaten her that Knobby will tell Santa how naughty she has been..sighhh.

We made one of our Christmas favorites..rolo on a pretzel. Who knew something so easy could be so delish..and they are practically calorie free since they are so small and poppable right?

 Not sure how this picture snuck in here..but here's the scoop..see that big hole in the net..Yep, well Ellie (who is 10) rescued a polly pocket by cutting that there hole. Heaven forbid she try just pulling it out or even coming to get me..seriously Elle..(insert a head shake here)

And here I am being the neighborhood Martha Stewart (seriously? what got in to me) Anywho it was a ton of fun, decorating gingerbread (i mean graham cracker) houses. (and get this..i made 30 of them and used...that's right..a glue gun..brilliant right?) So we packed the garage full of kids, candy and adults and ourselves a part-ay! Merry Christmas Yo!

Another hunt...for Christmas trees that is!

 This is yet another one of those traditions that gets harder and harder it seems. And even as we drove up the mountain, and listened to the kids whine and cry and fight...my husband (the man who in the beginning of our marriage made it uber clear that we would never, ever have a fake tree) was adamant that this would be our last year hunting a real one.

Side note- Working for UPS has made him a total scrooge..the even later hours, working hours in the dark and in the snow..it has seriously done some Christmas spirit damage

But in the end, after driving up the entire mountain, picking 3 different spots (which included unloading and reloading all the kids 3 different times) and walking around in a spot that looked anything but promising, we found our tree.

 Chloe totally had it made as she chilled in a tube while I lugged her around..never mind that while packing all the kids snow crap i forgot my boots..so lets just say my Nikes were less than waterproof.

 Maggie wasn't about to let Chloe be the only free loader..she jumped in for a good time too!

 We were headed back to the car when Nate yelled at me to come check this baby out. Turns out it was darn near perfect. I told me to stop looking and chop that puppy down. Cuz we are cool like that..in and out and on our way..Unlike Nate's completely OCD bro who after stayed for 4 more hours and came home with one reject and one they decided to keep..sighhhhh.

And in the end, we weren't too tired or cold, thanks to donuts and hot cocoa. And we created some more family memories that hopefully the kids will cherish or something like that. Plus, we got this beauty of a tree and as soon as Nate got that thing in the house and smelled his hands all yummy like pine sap and needles..he decided that a fake tree wasn't such a hot idea after all...well at least until we repeat this whole thing next year! And I think this pic turned out pretty darn nice for a quick snap shot to please yours truly..so nice that it might double as our Christmas card photo too..Happy Holidays peeps!

Double Digits..What!

A few weeks ago, my little Ellie who is not little at all, turned the big 10! Geez the time is going faster and faster.

 Her dream gift...an electronic password journal...I mean what 10 year old girl doesn't need one of these?

 And instead of cake, this girl wanted a banana cream pie. She's a total fan.

Her birthday party consisted of about 10 crazy girls who were led on a crazy, scavenger hunt where they found great prizes at each clue. Talk about a clever, amaze balls rhyming, clue-writing mom..I still got it! (ok with a little help..thanks amb) But for real, I think I might go pro in the art form of writing clues :)

Happy Birthday Ellie
And here are a few facts about the oldest girl 'round here-
Is a size 7 shoes in ladies (following in the Christensen footsteps)
Fave Candy Bar- Kit Kat
Loves- Pizza and Chinese Food
Dances and practices her gymnastic moves non-stop
Super big help to me with all the girls
Extremely organized
Super tall and gorge!

Happy..Happy...Halloweenie

Totally so late on my Halloween post..but hey, better late than never eh? Plus I am only rewinding to post for posterity sake..so here goes.

 It's times like these when there are 5 kids screaming for help to help carve their pumpkins when I wonder why I do this to myself. Memories...memories...I have to keep reminding myself..cuz lets be honest it would be so much easier to forgo the seed and gut mess up to your elbows.

 For the littles though, I resort to those stick-in eyes and mouths..like a Mr. potato head but for the pumpkins..Chloe thought it was fantastic and stuck a million parts into hers.

 And then of course there is Mr. Perfectionist. Such concentration babe!

 And as for pics of the kiddos in their costumes..well lets just say we are glad to have the few we did get. It was rush..rush..get costumes on, put on make-up, fight over treat bags, answer door to those early birds. etc..etc..

And on another side-note, this pumpkin costume here has been a true gem in the Belnap household, outfitting all 5 children at one point or another..talk about getting my 18 bucks worth!

And Ellie changed her mind at least a hundred times..I am kind of a Halloween downer because I refuse to buy costumes for 4 girls when we have a gajillion dress ups to choose from. Ellie wanted to originally be a hippie but I vetoed the $35 costume and told her she couldn't spend  waste her own money either. So she ended up as this. A dancer. Wow we are original.

So there you have it. Another Halloween at the Belnap household survived. Oh ya..Connor was a whoopee cushion from last year and he is now at that point in his life where it is lame to trick-or treat with your mom, a stroller and 4 sisters (can't imagine why) and he was with friends all night, thus the lack of photos.
We made to about 10 houses and then called it a night. Happy Haunting y'all!