"zat you santa claus?"

Today was one of those "paycheck days" you get once in awhile as a parent.

You know the days right? The day when your child reaches a milestone, or does something that makes you love being a mom or dad. One of THOSE days! A "paycheck day" makes up for all of the other days of being a parent that you want to pull your hair out and scream at the top of your lungs! So I got to have a "paycheck day" today and I loved it!!

Lyza performed "on the big dance stage" as she would put it. She had her Christmas Dance Concert with her dance group. Lyza has been more excited about this dance performance then she has been about Christmas. She performed 3 little dance numbers and did such a great job on all three. I was very proud that a two and a half year old could keep a lot of the dance moves for all three numbers in her head and sing at the same time. I was back stage with her the entire time and I am sure that I was 100 times more nervous then she was.


Here is a picture of Lyza we took on the stage before the performance.


Lyza got to perform with 2 of her cousins. Shalice's 2 girls Halle (pink) and Jaicee (blue).

I was back stage before the performance began. I couldn't find Lyza for a second...and when I did find her she was sitting in the middle of all of the "older girls." Why is it that little kids always want to be with the "big kids?"

This is still backstage before the performance began. Lyza is sitting with her cousin Halle. You can usually bet that if Halle is around, Lyza is pretty much glued to her side.

Lyza has such a great extended family. All of her Grandma's, Grandpa's, Aunt's, Uncle's, and Cousin's from both sides came to see her dance. Here is a picture of Lyza and her cousin Thomas. They are only 3 weeks apart and are considered the "twins" of the family. They love being together.

After the performance was over we took some pictures with the family and got to visit with Santa Claus. As you can see from the next couple of pictures, Lyza is not quite sure if she likes Santa Claus up close.

Santa Claus told Lyza to ask for a Visa Card from her parents. Luckily Lyza translated that to us as a Christmas Card. She kept saying that Santa was going to bring her a Christmas Card. Thank goodness for language barriers.

We were so proud of Lyza. She did such a great job dancing in front of such a large audience.

What a great way to start our Christmas week. We love you Lyza! You make us so proud!

Here is a very rough recording of part of one of Lyza's dances. It is taken off of our Digital Camera. We have a much better copy on our video camera. I will try and get that copy on the blog instead?

On this dance watch Lyza (the farthest one on the right of your screen) as she searches for her spot on the floor the entire time. I always tell her that she has to stay on her spot no matter what. We have to tell her so much because I don't want her to think she can just run around the stage and be a disturbance. Anyway, before the show started Shalice and I told her which spot was hers. Well, we actually told her the wrong one, but don't worry somehow she remembered the spot Shalice and I told her. So she is about 3 feet apart from the rest of her group the entire time. But she did stay on the spot that Shalice and I told her to stay on.