The Dance Recital...

The day was finally here for the big dance recital! The girls have been so excited about their dances, the costumes, make-up, the stage etc. I took the girls back stage, got them all situated, took pictures and then sat down in the audience to enjoy the show with Todd, Allyson, Jonny and Melody. As the recital progressed, I started to get more and more disturbed by the costumes and more alarmingly the way the girls were dancing. Luckily for us, Katy was a pirate in her dance and Jillian was Belle. Their dances were cute and not immodest. I couldn't believe that the parents of the older girls (even the 12 & 11 year olds) were on board with what was going on. There was way too much shaking of everything and in general making the kids act older than they are. After the dress rehersal Katy told me that some of the girls had immodest outfits on. I told her that dancers have to wear leotards etc. so it is ok. Woops- I was wrong! In one of the dances, the older girls were wearing saloon looking costumes without the floofy skirts. Are you kidding me? It looked like they were wearing neglegees!!!! Not to mention they were dancing around like ladies of the evening. The straw that broke the camels back was the three year olds coming out in swimsuits with a towel velcroed around their chest. They looked cute, but half way through, they ripped open the towels and shook their hips and such. I'm not exaggerating--ask Melody! I had the girls registered for the summer session, but called and took them out. All 6 girls from the neighborhood decided to quit after the recital! If this is how the dance world is, I think we may be going the sports route wtih our girls! If I do ever put the girls in dance again, I am going to the recital first and doing a lot more talking with the ladies in charge before hand. This place was recommended to me by people I know, but aparently I need to do the investigating myself! The good new (sorry about my rant) is that the girls were darling, they had a great time, and both of them are going to use their costumes for Halloween! We also have video presentations available for anyone who is interested. Katy and Jillian will gladly watch it with anyone anytime!

Spring Break in St. George!

I am so behind on my blogging, but I still want to tell about the fun times! For Spring Break we went to St. George. Some friends asked Todd to play in a golf tournament and we wanted to go camping somewhere anyway, so we deciede to take the trailer and go there. That same week, I talked to Lori Cluff (my friend since grade school who moved to St. George recently) to tell her we were coming and she asked if Todd sold all his lots or what was going on with that. Anyway, she said Carter's boss might be interested in buying them, so Todd gave him a call. They had their golf meeting and it seemed like they could work together. Todd told him we were going to St. George and he offered to let us stay at his condo/house at Coral Canyon. I felt dumb at first, but we took him up on his offer. It was so nice and much bigger than our trailer. They had fun trails to bike or run on, a nice pool and clubhouse and it was on the golf course where Todd was plaing the tournament!

Anyway, the kids loved it! We got to visit Lori and actually all the Bowen's(they were all there too), and the Ruffners (the guy Todd is building the Park City house for) were also there, and the Revells who were playing in the golf thing all had kids for the girls to play with. Mom and Dad also came down for 2 of the days, so we were never lacking for something to do. We swam at our pool the first day while Todd played a practice round. Ruffner called later to ask about the house and we realized they were also in St. George at their new condo (which just happened to be where the Revells were staying). He said to come see it so we went and ended up having a bargeque with them. His wife is really nice and loves all of the dumb funny movies we all love, and our girls were instant friends with thiers! The next day we swam at their pool with the Ruffner kids (above)and then went to the golf dinner at Tony Romas. When we got back to the house Mom and Dad were there and heading out to Aunt Fae's in Virgin.

The next morning Todd went to the last day of the tourn. and the kids and I headed to Virgin to visit Aunt Fae and go to the town pancake breakfast. This was a big step for me--I don't drive anywhere weird usually. Dad gave me good directions and a map so we made it with no trouble. We loved seeing Aunt Fae's artistic and unique house! She is such a wonderful host and so loving to everyone. At the breakfast the kids did a t-shirt coloring contest and found a friendly dog that they fell in love with! Then we headed with Nana and Papa to Zions. We rode the Bus thing and decided to get out at the last stop and walk on the trail that goes down to the river. Papa taught the kids how to skip rocks, and now Allyson is always picking up "skipping rocks" where ever we go! She doesn't quite grasp the idea that they needed to be flat and such! The kids loved the friendly squirrles and Jordan had fun taking pictures.

It is getting harder to entertain everyone on these fun family trips as the kids get older. Jordan wanted to go to the nike outlet and the go-cart place, and I was running out of steam. Luckily, Todd was done when we got back from Zions, so we met him at the condo place(after stopping at the outlet) and went to Fiesta Fun! We miniture golfed, did bumperboats and the go-carts....as if we hadn't had enough fun already! After that, we went back to the Revell's condo for a barbeque and the Jazz game! That was a very fun and slightly exhausting day!!!

Our trip ended the next morning as I cleaned our guest house, washed the sheets and we headed home in the rainstorm. It is so nice to be able to drive a few hours in the cooler months and find warm weather. It makes me want to have a condo or something there someday. It may help with Todd's seasonal depression to be able to golf year round! Plus it is on the way to California and such...Grandmother and Grandaddy had the right idea!!!

I forgot to mention that before we even got out the front door to start the Big Fun, Allyson decided to give herself a haricut! Luckily Star next door has a salon in her basement and helped us out with an emergency fix. She cut the chunk out of the front side, so if you strategically place a bow or ponytail, it looks ok. Anywho, above is what the new haircut looks like, when she isn't looking like an orphan child!

Food Follies and Fun

Since Emily and Melody take pictures of their food adventures, I thought I would share some of ours! First Jillian has discovered the Nick Jr. website. After playing some sort of game dealing with muffins, she asked me if she could push the button that says "print here for a muffin recipe". I said sure and she printed out and colored 3 different ones. We decided to make the chocolate muffins because I had all the ingredients (they actually just look like cupcakes, but taste much better!) Success! She was so excited to deliver some to Todd in his office and share them with the kids.

Next, was a Mother/Daughter achievement day activity that involved cake decorating. I thought a pink and green and brown one would be cute, so I mistakenly made the Martha Stewart cake which is delish, but not so pleasing to the eye. I forgot that I always have a hard time making the layers not lopsided. This time was particularly bad...pieces stared falling off. Katy said it was fine. She thought we could put some green frosting and make it look like a hill or something. She wanted to put a chocolate chip in the middle so it would look like we dug a hole to plant a seed! I thought I would spare her the public humiliation of having the worst looking cake and went to the store for a cake mix and some frosting in a squeeze can with fun tips. On the way to the activity we picked some blossoms off our bushes and trees and this was the result. She had a great time and was proud of what she created! Can you believe I didn't even have to go to chefery school and I can bake like this? Too bad Emily didn't come a few weeks earlier.....we may have gotten a better award than "Best Smelling Cake!"

Happy Easters to All!

Here are some pictures for those of you(I guess this pretty much includes everyone) who never see us at church-they do clean up nicely don't they! I hope you all had a nice Easter/Cami's B-day! If you haven't watched Nacho Libre yet, do so immediately and look for the priest's comment about Easters. I can't say Easter without the S anymore! I hope it is not sacrilidge!

I Survived-And Loved It!!!

I did it--and I survived! Saturday was my first attempt at a triathalon sprint. This is a picture of my friend Heather Walker and me just before the swim. (She is a seasoned triathlete and marathon runner). It all started last summer when I decided to get a road bike. I needed to do some cross training to mix up my workouts. I also started swimming laps. For Christmas, Todd gave me a trainer for my bike so I could ride inside during the winter. So, when my nutritionist friend mentioned that the Icebreaker Sprint was coming up I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. I trained harder, got the outfit (very important to look the part!!) and did a strict pre-race diet. The diet is designed to clean you out and then build up your proteins and carbs. Before I got there, I felt really intimidated and I found out that I couldn't use my Ipod on the run! With the run being last, I was afraid that would be problematic, so I convinced Mom to come and do the run part with me. But when I got there, there were people of all ages, sizes, and skill levels. I was number 202 which meant I had to wait a while for my turn to swim. They start with number 1 and another person starts every 10 seconds. Apparently either people don't actually know their swim time when the register, or they lie about it because I kept getting stuck in clogs and couldn't get past people. I couldn't go my hardest in the swim, so I didn't even feel winded when I got out. Next it was off the the 12 something mile bike! The hardest part of the bike was the hill at the first of the 6 mile loop. We had to do that hill twice on the bike and then run up it at the start of the 5K-yikes. It was great to have Mom with me on the run because my legs felt pretty noodley when I got off the bike. It was hard to tell if I was running too slow because everything feels slow compared to the bike. I told Mom just not to let me walk. I wanted to run the whole thing, and surprisingly, I never felt like I wanted to walk. It actually all went faster than I expected and I felt great afterward! Todd was so proud of me! All day he kept saying how proud he was and he told everyone we saw (which was a little embarrassing). He took all of these lovely pictures of me in all my glory and was at the race the whole time. It really helped to have my cheering section there to keep me going. I did feel like I accomplished something that I have been working hard for and it was a good feeling! Heather and I got our free massages afterward, and we also got a free one before the race. The guy said I need to stretch more-oops, I guess I will get working on that! So, my time at the end was 1:22 which was better than I expected. I was 7th in my age group! It is really cool how they time everything and break it all broken down. I did the swim in a disappointing 7:11, the bike in 40 minutes(better than anticipated) and the 5K in 28 something. The rest of the time was in the transitions. Anyway, it was so fun and I will surely do another one-maybe with Mom or Chad and Laura next time!

I am a Happy Mommy!

Sometimes as a mother my kids amaze me. Sometimes I'm amazed that a child of mine would do such a naughty thing, or such a cute thing etc. But, this weekend I was just happy to be Jordan's mom! To make a long story short, several of Jordan's friends have little "girlfriends". Let's bear in mind that they are in 6th grade for crying out loud. Anyway, one of the girls in our ward decided to ask Jordan to "Go" with her. Since when did girls do the asking? Her friend called our house and when she asked Jordan if he would go with Shelby, he said NO! The friend was annoying and kept calling and being silly. Finally, Jordan called the girls back and asked to actually talk to Shelby. He explained that he thinks they are too young to be "going" together and that was the reason he said no. I was so glad that he didn't feel pressured by his friends and stood up for what he believes in. It turns out that Shelby was feeling pressured by her fiends and was glad that he said no. I couldn't believe that he took care of the whole thing by himself. Shelby's Mom said that Shelby was so embarrassed because the other friend was being so annoying, but Jordan was such a little man about it that it made her feel better. He is really growing up! I hope he continues to be a nice boy and make such mature and sensible decisions as he enters the "armpit of the earth" next year in school. Also, as a side note, we measured him today and he is only one inch shorter than me now! Yikes!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My dear blogger friends, I know I have neglected you all! Part of the reason is that I haven't been able to bug Todd about helping me put the video of Jonny and Katy dancing on here and that was going to be my next exciting blog. Also, I have been helping Todd with his bookwork whenever I can. Alas, he is a little stressed right now so I don't want to burden him with my computer issues! Anyway, today was the "Green Party" in preschool. Sad that both Mom and Lili are out of town so I get all the left over green treats that the kids brought (chococlate mint rice crispies, dirty popcorn, grapes etc.) Of course the kids were a little extra excited today, but all went well. It's hard to believe that there are only 2 1/2 months left of school-crazy!
The big news this month is that I am going to attempt a tri-athalon sprint! It is on March 24th in American Fork. It is a 300 swim, 12 mile bike, and 5K run. I have been either running and biking, or running and swimming about 4 times a week. Lately I have tried to do my biking first and then run so I can get used to that weird feeling in my legs. I usually like to get the running over with first in my workout since it is the hardest for me. I am also trying to make Mom do it with me, so everyone work on her! She swims, bikes and runs every time she works out, so she should do great! Plus, she will probably win a ribbon or something because what person in her age group is in such good shape!
In other news, Jordan's basketball team lost their first game in the tournament, so we are done for the season-is was a sad sad game! Now Jordan has a break from sports until baseball starts in May. Katy just started indoor soccer which is her first experience with city sports! She is also going to try out softball this summer. So far only Jordan has played any sports, so we'll see how this goes having other kids games to watch--it should be fun. The other day I was announcing that we were going to Katy's game and everyone was taken a back! Katy said "I like that-Katy's game instead of always Jordan's game!" I guess the girls don't get quite as much attention for their extracurriculars since they only have 1 or 2 dance recitals or whatever a year. It will be fun to pay a little extra attention to the middle child!
Anyway, happy St. Patty's day on Saturday! I hope you all have delicious green dinners!