Down Syndrome evening with Santa

My brother Jess, decided to do the same eagle project my brother Bret had done last year...he put on a FABULOUS evening with Santa for the utah down syndrome foundation. It was a wonderful and magical night! It was so fun seeing all our friends and meeting new ones!
Kacen, Bree and Nonni sharing pretzels as we were setting up
Adrie breaking in the dance floor

The kids testing out Santa's chair before he arrived
Santa's little helpers
Papa Mike, the MC
The man of the night, Jess

The kids got to "fish" out of Santa's bag for gifts

Bree was so grumpy, until she got her turn with Santa. So when we tried to get her to take a picture with cute Tommy she wouldn't have it
Me, BRee, Kelly and Tommy
The kids also got to make count down to christmas chains
We got to see cute Jaxon and is cute newly adopted sister Arina
The dance floor was a hit!

Bree was REALLY obsessed with Santa! That's all she wanted to do was sit and talk to him. She even got her picture on the front page of the paper with him!

Bree and Lyla
THe story behind the dance:

So Jess and this girl Berkeley (who has down syndrome) were crowned the winter formal royalty at their high school but due to miscommunication, Berkeley's parents were not aware that she had won and so her parents missed the assembly where she was crowned. Then because Berkely was escorted at the assembly by Jess, she thought Jess was coming to take her to the dance and so she sat in her room all night waiting. When actually it was a girls choice dance and Jess had gone with someone else. Well, Jess knew something was wrong at the dance when it was time for their spotlight dance and Berkley was nowhere to be found. So the next day he called Berkely's mom to find out the story and was so heartbroken over it all that he decided to invite her to this party and let her be the queen of the night! They were announced as royalty and they had a spotlight dance! When Jess told me of this plan I was in tears! I was heartbroken for this girls parents to have missed such a big moment as this and then at the same time I was crying because I know how wonderful I would feel to have a young man do this for Bree and honor her! I pray often that Bree will find good friends throughout school, and that she will have young men like my stud brothers to watch out for her! So it was a happy ending to the sad story! Berkely was the dancing queen all night and she was just beaming through it all! It was so fun to watch her!



Jess' girlfriend Eliza, and Kyra and Adrie
Once Bree got some Santa time she was happy as could be and was dancing up a storm
Lyla enjoyed the party too! It is so fun to get to share these things together!
Bree adores Lyla
Bree, and I and Summer and Jayne

Making new friends is not hard for these kiddos

After the party Bree got some good alone time with Santa! She even got to show him her "some" (dad's phone)

She even set it on the floor and turned the girls dance routine on and did the dance for Santa!

It was a fabulous evening and we had a great turnout! I only wish I would have been able to take more pictures of all the cuties! Thanks to my brothers for putting this on the last two years! It has been wonderful!