A few shots from our piano recital

This year was the biggest recital yet. There were 24 performances, I think.

Gorgeous Abi! Doesn't she remind you of Cinderella?

I'm assuming this is her nervous face...

Two of about 5 attempts to get a "sweet best friends" picture. Fail! (But I kind of like these because they sums up our friendship pretty well. :))

The whole group!

2012 Piano Recital

Last night was our piano recital! This year Mom's students played, as well as one of her student's students! As somebody said, she has grandstudents now. :)

Everyone did a great job! And thanks to Dad for taking most of these pictures.

Before the recital 3 of Caroline's friends came over to do hair.

While Domino sat in the kitchen, contemplating life.

Mom opening the program with a few words.

Caroline and Abigail started the recital with a beautiful duet!

I'm bummed that I don't have pictures of everyone playing. Most of them turned out totally blurry. Dad did get some good shots afterwards, though:

*sigh* Are we the only family that can't get a decent picture together?

But they are kind of funny.

...like this one.

Awwww

"You look so pretty!"    "It's because my hair is in pigtails."

And, the annual group picture.

We then proceeded to eat cookies and ice-cream, and the camera got left on the shelf for most of it. :o

Flair at the Fair

 Title courtesy of Mom. I asked around for a title, and this is the only one I got...from anybody. An alternative title could be "County Fair, 2011", or something else creative like that. But we'll stick with her's. :)

 For this year's Grinder's Switch Idol (singing contest), my sister and two of her friends sang As the Deer accompanied by Mr. H. and his guitar. A lot of preparation went into this event, and they did a great job!

The name of their group is The Black-Eyed Susans, so one of their members, Mariah, got some black-eyed susans to go in their hair and on their shirts. It looked so great!

Caroline

Mariah

Anna

The guitarist!

This may be my favorite picture from the night!

He lost a tooth! In which Aunt Christy gave him a dollar. :)

*love* It was a very pretty time of day to take pictures.

We usually hate pictures of ourselves, so we had a good laugh when we looked at this one. "I...like it!"

Lovely Olivia

2 out of 10.

I failed to get a good picture of them on stage. But trust me when I say they looked beautiful and had great stage presence.

We ended the night at the Mexican restaurant with friends eating, talking, and laughing. It was a fun and memorable night, and I'm already looking forward to next year!

one week and counting...or piano recital.

This post has been a draft for a week now. But wait no longer, for here it is!

Last Friday Mom had a recital for her piano and voice students. It went very well, it's over, everyone did a great job on sewing dresses and playing and singing, and it's over!! Did I already mention that? Sorry. I'm kind of glad. Being in front of people is not my thing.

You can come up with a caption for this one.

 

Might interest you to know that at least 6 of these dresses were homemade!

 

I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!! And J's face kills me.

 

Lovely Caroline

"Posing like this is so awkward."

Our cheeks were hurting.

Daniel - without him, the whole night would have been a flop. He is SUCH a great sport!

My lifelong dream of getting a bouquet of red roses partially came true last week. I got TWO! Only 10 more to go. :)

Ciao!!

My Cry Ascends

For those of you who haven't had the privilege of listening to this album, I would highly encourage you to buy it - now!

My Cry Ascends is a collection of beautiful, uplifting songs sung by artists such as Michael Card, Steve Green, Nathan Clark George, and many other voices who have put together a masterpiece of old hymns with a different flair to them, and Psalms with amazing instrumentals.

Oh, and the Celtic feel that many of the songs have is really neat, too.

I hope that this CD will encourage you as it has my family and me. Click here to go to the website and download My Cry Ascends!

Lyrics of the week

One day when Heaven was filled with His praises

One day when sin was as black as could be
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin
Dwelt among men, my example is He
Word became flesh and the light shined among us
His glory revealed

Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming
Oh glorious day, oh glorious day

One day they led Him up Calvary’s mountain
One day they nailed Him to die on a tree
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected
Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He
Hands that healed nations, stretched out on a tree
And took the nails for me

One day the grave could conceal Him no longer
One day the stone rolled away from the door
Then He arose, over death He had conquered
Now He’s ascended, my Lord evermore
Death could not hold Him, the grave could not keep Him
From rising again

One day the trumpet will sound for His coming
One day the skies with His glories will shine
Wonderful day, my Beloved One, bringing
My Savior, Jesus, is mine

Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me) - Casting Crowns

"There's so much to be thankful for..."

"Thankful"

Somedays we forget
To look around us
Somedays we can't see
The joy that surrounds us
So caught up inside ourselves
We take when we should give.

So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be.
And on this day we hope for
What we still can't see.
It's up to us to be the change
And even though we all can still do more
There's so much to be thankful for.

Look beyond ourselves
There's so much sorrow
It's way too late to say
I'll cry tomorrow
Each of us must find our truth
It's so long overdue

So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be
And every day we hope for
What we still can't see
It's up to us to be the change
And even though we all can still do more
There's so much to be thankful for.

Even with our differences
There is a place we're all connected
Each of us can find each other's light

So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be
And on this day we hope for
What we still can't see
It's up to us to be the change
And even though this world needs so much more

There's so much to be thankful for

-Thankful, Josh Groban

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?