Elementary Christmas Concert

Franklin Elementary had their 6th annual Christmas concert last night.  This was seriously the best elementary concert I have ever been too.  It echos the wonderful concerts that Mrs. Parchey put on at Eisenhower Elementary back in my elementary school days.

Marcella had a solo!  Please be patient, if you decide to watch this video, I was figuring out my camera.  There's one song called "A Time For Love",  then a long break and then Marcella finally sings.  It is a very sweet solo called "I Have Lost My Jingle Bell" by E. Gilpatrick.

Emily had a short solo at the beginning of one of the 4th grade songs.  The piece is called "The Peace Carol" by Bob Beers.

Audrey had a solo for the 3rd grade class.  Her song is called "The Magic of the Night" by Enya Brenna and Roma Ryan.

All in all, the Gagon's were very well represented at this years Franklin Elementary Winter Festival Concert!  I'm hoping our next round of concerts I'll remember the tripod so we don't get sick from watching the videos!

Olivia's Christmas Orchestra Concert

Olivia's Orchestra Concert was Monday the 12th.  She had 4 pieces to learn this year and participated in 2 orchestras.  This is one of her pieces. 

This orchestra is formed of 6th and 7th graders.  She was required to try out and made the cut.  They call themselves 'Strings at Sunrise'.  The members of this orchestra meet on Tuesday and Thursday mornings before school starts. She is becoming quite the musician!

Meg Elizabeth Turns One!

 Happy Birthday to Meg!  I was talking to Todd a few weeks before the big day and mentioned that I wanted to do something special for Meg's Birthday, but couldn't think of a special theme.  Since she is girl #6, we've covered just about every pink party theme you can think of.  Todd came up with the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  Love it!  It's Meg's very favorite song right now!

 So, I made spider cup cakes.  I found this idea on someone's blog.  Soo cute!

Meg seemed to like them and all my other girls thought they were super awesome.

These next few pictures are just for bragging purposes...

 There's a few curls back there!

Check out the spider headband...

Meg didn't really like having a cupcake on fire sat in front of her!

 And she really didn't know what to do with it too.  But as soon as she tasted it, she was excited.

 It took her forever to eat her cupcake!  First she pinched off all of the icing and thought that was it.  Her sisters just laughed and laughed!  They showed her to eat the cake part too.  Meg actually liked the cake better than the frosting, but she also just pinched little pieces off! 

Yum, she doesn't eat cupcakes like that anymore.  She had a cupcake that next day and just shoveled it all in as fast as she could.  But it sure was funny for her birthday!

 Ooooh, yah!  It's present time!

 Her sisters were quick to show her how to play with her toys.

 And of course we ended the fun with a bath!

 Meg LOVES to stand on one foot!  So funny!

 Bath time's always more fun with a couple of sisters!

I can't believe our Little Meg is already one.  She is such a wonderful, happy part of our family!

Glasses?!

Rylee Jo got the first pair of glasses in our family.  We've noticed for a long time that sometimes her right eye crosses towards her nose.  We finally went to an eye doctor that we feel comfortable with and the diagnosis for now is that she's nearsighted.  The optometrist explained that crossing eyes are a result of either a focus problem (nearsighted or farsighted) or an eye muscle problem (something you're born with).  Because of her past medical history and surgery, there is a possibility that her eye crosses more because of a muscle problem.  But an eye surgeon won't look at a patient until glasses are tried out.  So here we are, wearing glasses.  She'll be wearing these for the next month or so, and then be re-tested and go from there.

She LOVES her glasses (so far).  She LOVES that they're pink!  When I told her this morning that we were going to go pick up her new, pink glasses, she was soooo excited!  She ran into her room after her bath and said, "I want to wear pink to match my new, pink glasses!".  She's do darn cute!

11 months!

 Meg was 11 months on the 7th.  I can't believe she's only a month away from her first birthday.

 She is officially 'cruising' along the furniture now.  But she's not really standing on her own.  I'm really not pushing her to do anything at all.  It all comes too soon anyway!  Don't ya just love the warm up suit and sweat band!!?

 Her favorite song these days is the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  Every time I sing it she claps her hands and she's starting to 'wash the spider out'!

 She loves to play peek-a-boo now!

 PEEK-A

 BOO!

She thinks she's so funny and clever! Our baby's growing up!

Olivia's 12!

 Olivia turned 12 on Friday!  Can you believe that she has officially graduated from the church Primary Program and is now in the Young Women's Program?  I can't!

 Olivia also decided against a regular birthday cake and chose chocolate chip cheese cake.  Could our years of surplus birthday cake in November finally be over?  I hope so, I loved making yummy desserts this year instead of buttery, crisco icing cakes!

Olivia is such a wonderful girl.  We love her so much!

Emily's double digits!

 Emily turned 10 on Thursday!

 

I can't believe how long her hair has gotten.  She's talking about cutting it and donating it to Locks for Love.  We'll see if and when that happens.  She's really likes being able to braid it and all that fun stuff.

 Now that Meg has gotten a little bigger, Emily has had a lot more fun with her.  She's so good to play with her in the evenings when I'm cooking dinner.

Emily is not a birthday cake fan.  For her cake she chose a chocolate chocolate chip bundt cake.  Can't say that I blame her, I love that much better than birthday cake too!  Happy birthday Emily, we love you!