The Musical Weekend

Mike's students performed "Schoolhouse Rock" at the beginning of November. I meant to blog about it sooner, but we're just always crazy around here. The opening night of the play, I covered a shift at the grocery store for one of the cast members so that they wouldn't have to miss. While I was there, Anna fell off of a chair at the babysitter's and broke her arm. Who knew tea parties were so dangerous? My friend who was babysitting didn't realize she was that hurt. Anna's such a sweetheart, she doesn't always show her true emotions. She stayed up all night crying and saying "hurt." Once I figured out what was hurting, we spent the next day at the local clinic and the hospital getting x-rays and a cast, so we didn't make it to the second night of the play as planned.

I had told another cast member that I would work for them on Saturday, but due to Anna's broken arm, I was able to get someone else to work that night and I got the chance to take the kids to the musical.

It was a great show! The kids performing were obviously having a great time with their singing and dancing. They're a bunch of characters. Madeleine's favorite part was when the "scary bear" came out, which due to budget constraints was really the school's badger mascot costume. She kept asking when the bear would come out again. My favorite part was the "Adjectives" song because I remember it from my childhood and the girls that sang it were funny and animated. Anna's favorite part was running out into the hall and flirting with Elvis. Henry's favorite part was taking a nap, which was nice for me because the girls kept me really busy.




















These girls really love their daddy and are very proud of him. After it was all over and cleaned up, we stopped by the cast party and dropped of some Snickers Apple Salad. I give this year's musical 2 thumbs up. It was really fun, the voices were great, and it was the perfect length of time for a crazy mother of 3 really young kids to survive.

Trick or Treat!

The whole gang... Claire the Pink SuperGirl was holding Henry the Skeleton while surrounded by the witch twins, Abbey the Storm Fairy was behind her with her mummy friend, Emma the Husky Wolf was helping to keep Anna the Easter Bunny in the picture, and Asher the Dinosaur was sitting so sweet behind Madeleine the Pink Fairy on Paul and Jenny's spooky porch.

Here's one of our sweet Anna by herself. This costume really fit her personality and she loved to rub it on her face and tell us it was soft.

Our Henry the Skeleton asleep in his carseat. Lately he's been either sucking on his fingers, or sucking on his pacifier with his favorite fingers stuck in the middle of it. I love this boy!

Anna the Easter Bunny and Maddie the Pink Fairy playing at the piano.

Madeleine playing the piano, but missing her wings! Oops!

We had a lot of fun this Halloween. We went trick or treating with Paul and Jenny's kids and their friends because we conveniently had Dr. and car appointments in Utah County on Halloween.

I loved watching Madeleine trick or treat this year because she was so into it. Sure, sometimes she was too nervous to say "trick or treat" until after they closed the door and she had her candy, but I was proud of her "trick or treats" and "thank you's."

Anna went up to a few doors, but we had to go up with her and I felt like it was silly. Even though she loves candy, Anna didn't really care about the trick or treat part of it, so she spent most of the night in the stroller with Henry.

We have way too much candy in our house right now. I filled two gallon freezer bags and hid them in the pantry for Mike to give to his students when he needs a bribe, and we still have a bowl full on the counter.

Our Halloween started stinky because we had to leave at 5:30 in the morning to get to all of our crazy day appointments, but ended good because we had great family and yummy food. Thanks to Jolyn for getting me to my appointment while the car was getting worked on, and to Paul and Jenny for letting us crash (probably literally) at their place once again.

Church Halloween Party and Anna the Artist

We went to our ward Halloween party on Tuesday night. The kids will be wearing different costumes on Halloween, but I still wanted to document these costumes. Madeleine has been super excited about this leotard hand-me-down that I think is from Paul and Jenny's kids, so we decided to have it be part of her costume. I should add that her hand-me-downs from Abbey, Claire, and Emma are very much loved by her because she loves those girls. I threw together a little skirt for her with scraps of fabric and things I had around the house. She was a ballerina, Anna wore Mad's old witch costume, and Henry was Captain Adorable. He had a yellow blanket as a cape, but this was after the party, so the kids had ditched a couple of their costume pieces by the time I got their picture. Madeleine is really into Halloween this year and being spooky. I love that she's getting to be a kid. I also love that Anna absolutely adores Henry. So, this morning the girls were happily coloring on the ottoman in their jammies and I ran upstairs for something and when I came back down Anna was undressed and coloring on her tummy with markers. I got the camera and took a picture because she's just my cute little artist.

An introduction

I decided that it's finally time to start a blog about our little branch of the Reynolds family. Here is a little introduction to us and what we're up to.

I stay pretty busy taking care of these kids, cooking, and cleaning. I've decided that I'd like to go back to school and finish a degree, I just don't know for sure what that degree should be. Any suggestions are welcome. This week I've been thinking that an awesome job would be a high school librarian. I've recently realized how much I like to read (I've gotten more of a chance while nursing Henry), I think it would be fun to learn more about research, and teenagers crack me up. I've always thought that I would have some sort of business, and I have new ideas all the time, but never enough of the green stuff to get them in the works. Maybe some day...


Michael is the music teacher for Wayne High School and Middle School. We just got back from taking 3 of his students "up north" to participate in the All-State Choir. Michael collaborates with the drama teacher in the production of a musical each year. This year, they are performing "Schoolhouse Rock". The musical is in the beginning of November, so hopefully I'll be able to see it without the kids so that I can blog a full review. :) He is also working on his master's degree in education through Utah State University. We are very proud of Mike and the progress he is making to create a music program here.


Madeleine is three and has a very strong personality. I've noticed recently that she has an extremely vivid imagination. She loves coloring, painting, and playing with playdough. She also loves to dance and can't wait until she's old enough to go to the local dance studio next year. Madeleine is very social and loves making new friends everywhere we go. She loves to be outside, go for long walks, and play at the park.

Annaleise is one and a half and super sweet. She loves her "ba-baol" (bottle) and her "me" (binky). We really need to get rid of the bottle but she's just so sweet when she asks for it that it's hard for us. She learns new words every day and loves to repeat people when they talk. My favorite thing is when she sings the Strawberry Shortcake song. She absolutely LOVES Henry and smothers him with affection all day. Anna also loves her daddy, animals, baby dolls, and anything that is soft.

Henry is a month old and so far pretty serious and sweet. He just started giving us little grins. He is constantly hungry and is already about to outgrow his bassinet. I don't know what else to say about him other than we're just so happy to have him in our lives and are excited to see his little personality develop.

That's us in a nutshell. Hopefully I'll have something fun to blog about soon.