Carbon Dance Classic

Neither of my girls danced last year and I've missed it so much.  They both decided they wanted to do dance and gymnastics this year and have absolutely loved it.  This past weekend was the Carbon Dance Classic.  Kadence performed 4 different numbers and Kinlee performed 2.  They both did amazing and and performed so well.  Dance Technica earned the Grand Champ award for the highest number of points.  Kadee took 1st in You Always Make Me Smile (Jazz), high gold in 5 more hours (hip hop), high gold and best technique in Dream Big (ballet), and 1st in Happy (tap).  Kinlee's team took 1st in I want you back (tap) and 2nd in Crazy Little Thing Called Love (ballet).  Their recital is in a couple weeks and I am so excited for the family to see how much they've learned and how far they've come. 

Connor went on the scout Spring Camporee overnight trip on Friday.  They went to the swinging bridge and he had a blast.  He won a really nice leather-man, flashlight, and scout handbook.  He slept in a tent all by himself and forgot the stakes, the wind blew that night and blew his tent over.  He said that was the only time he got nervous or cold.  Other than that it was a success and he can't wait for the next over-nighter.  One of his scout leaders, brother Wells, told me how well behaved Connor was and how impressed he was that Connor got up in front of the group to share the scout oath. 

Connor and Kinlee both got kudos club this week.  Connor's was from his Science teacher for making a positive effort and for doing well on his science test. Kinlee's was for improving on DIBELS.  They are all testing this week, Kinlee is doing DIBELS and end of year testing while Connor and Kadence are SAGE testing.  All the end of year activities are upon us and we have a crazy couple of weeks coming up.

I finally finished up the flowers I've been working on for No Grave Unadorned.  We ended up doing over 450 flowers! My fingers hurt but it feels so good to provide service.     
 

April Showers bring May flowers

It has been a wonderfully wet spring. I am enjoying the warmer weather, rain clouds, and the way spring makes you feel like it's a fresh start. This weekend the girls had their end of year gymnastics show to showcase what they've learned this year.   I was super impressed with their routines and am so proud of how much they've learned this year.  Matthew loves his gymnastics class too, but he wasn't part of the year end show.  

 I decided to help our local paper with their no grave unadorned project. Their goal is to have a flower on every grave for memorial day.  I thought it would be easy peasy and agreed to make 400 flowers, it has been a crazy amount of work!  I spent the weekend cutting the tablecloths to the right size, then had Sharon at work and the girls I do AmeriCorps with help me put them together.  I think I have about 100 left to do, but it has been a crazy amount of work!  I also agreed to put the flowers on the graves at the Wellington Cemetery.  I think it will be a good family service project.
 

The kids had crazy hair or hat day on Friday.   The girls were super excited to do their hair crazy, but Connor just wanted to wear a hat.  Geez, they get boring when they think they are too cool for things (haha).  I think it was a fun thing to do in the middle of all the testing.  Kadee has been super stressed about doing well on testing, I know she'll do great, but she is worried nonetheless.  I guess that's all I have for this week.  Here's to more April showers and only 5 weeks of school until summer break!    

Dallin & Kadence

Trent and Connor

Taylee, Kinlee, & Heber

Spring Concert

Kadee was student of the month for March.  This is the 2nd time this year she has earned the award.  This time it was for working hard and making a positive effort in school. 

This past Tuesday Kinlee asked her dad to bring Kilo in for show and teach.  This was the first time all year the kids got to pick what their show and teach would be, so she was very excited to tell about her new dog.  Kilo was very well behaved and Kinlee enjoyed telling her class all about our puppies, Kilo & Maggie.  We were too worried about Maggie jumping on the kids to bring her for show and teach, but her and Kilo are starting an obedience school this month so hopefully they can help us teach her not to jump.

  

This year's theme for the spring choir concert was through the seasons. The kids sang their favorite songs from the school year.  They started with Fall and went through each holiday and season until they got to the finale.  They also did some dances in the audience (YMCA, Cotton eyed Joe, etc.).  The kids did so great and I am always so impressed with how good they sound.  Matthew and Berklee sat together and were so stinkin' cute.  Matthew kept taking care of her and I caught this precious moment of him kissing her on the cheek.

Thursday Matthew had his preschool field trip to the dinosaur museum.  I couldn't make it because of my crazy schedule at the school right now, but he had a great time and lucky for me, my friend Sandy took a bunch of cute pictures.  His favorite thing was the great big dinosaur bones and he couldn't stop talking about how the dinosaurs would eat us if they were still alive today.  

  Friday we took a day trip to the zoo and to see grandma and grandpa Curtis.  The weather at the zoo was perfect and the kids had so much fun looking at all the animals and riding the carousel.  Matthews favorite animals were the spider monkeys and their babies, Kinlee loved the elephants, Connor loved the rhino, and Kadee loved the seals.  Rory & I loved the ice cream twist cone.  Saturday I volunteered at the Children's Justice Center Carnival.  Connor thinks he is too old for all that kid stuff, so he went to Landon's and the younger 3 came with me (plus Jocelyn, Ashlee's daughter).  There were several booths and bounce houses.  So while I worked the food booth, the kids had a blast going to all the booths to win prizes and jumping on the bounce houses.  It felt so good to serve and the kids had fun, so it was a double bonus day for me.        

Welcome to April

We had a great week. It started with Connor getting his tenderfoot ranking in scouts along with 7 badges. He has worked really hard in scouts and wants to have his Eagle Award by the time he is 15.   He is still having lots of problems with his pitching elbow.  I'm really worried about him.  He stopped playing ball for a month and has been going to physical therapy, but as soon as he started playing again the pain was back.  We were supposed to go to St. George this weekend for a tournament, but I don't think his arm can handle it so we are going to stay home and rest it and hope it heals quickly. 

Friday and Saturday we worked on putting in a sprinkler system for grandma Rhea.  It is quite the undertaking.  I bet Rory, his dad, uncle, and cousins, spent 12 hours each day down there trying to get it put in and it still isn't done.  

Maggie 6 months old

Kadee and Kilo- 11 months old

This weekend we welcomed a new dog to the family. Her name is Kilo and she is so sweet. Her owners were moving and couldn't take her with them so we decided to adopt her. Maggie was not sure about her at first, but she is warming up and I think they are going to be good friends.  Kilo has been good for calming Maggie down but Maggie is super jealous.  If any of us pet Kilo she is pushing up in between us to make sure she gets all the attention. 

We also celebrated Derk and Debbies 40th wedding anniversary. I planned a family dinner, complete with pork roast, crescent rolls, fruit salad, baked potatoes, and of course cake!  Everyone was there except Valyssa and Taylor.  We had a wonderful afternoon helping them celebrate their anniversary. What an awesome example these two are to their family.  I hope Rory and I are this happy when we've been married 40 years.  

Happy Easter

We had a wonderful Easter weekend.  It was super cold but we enjoyed
spending the weekend together.  Rory had to work the Jeep Safari in Moab,
so the kids and I hung out at home.  

The kids played with friends most the weekend (Kadee rode
horses at Baylee's all day Saturday), Saturday morning the girls and I
ran in the Health Dept Tobacco Free 5k (Connor had a sleepover
at Nana's so he missed it and Matthew had an ear infection so he
stayed home with grandma Debbie).  Sunday we had a wonderful church
service and then colored Easter Eggs, had a visit from the Easter Bunny, had an
egg hunt in the basement and went to Nana's for dinner.  

Kadee and Kinlee were such troopers for the 5k,
niether one of them complained and they both made it the whole way!

 

Rory's getting old

Yesterday was Rory's 34th birthday. I was going to get him a fabulous gift but his trip to the hospital cost us a small fortune, so I took him to dinner instead.  We had our awesome friends Jeff, Emily, Travis, and Sandy join us for dinner at Groggs for delicious food and lots of laughs. After dinner I grabbed our families favorite Cold stone cake (cheesecake named desire) so the kids could help Rory celebrate his birthday. Kadee bought him a mountain dew and rolos so I'm pretty sure his day was complete :) I found this quote that perfectly describes these people of mine: "they are the beat of my heart, the pulse in my veins, and the energy of my soul." They make my life complete and oh so wonderful. 

Early Easter Fun

We had a fun day with all the activities going on around town. We started at an Easter egg hunt at Wellington park first thing this morning, then to the St. Patrick's day parade, then to the home and garden show to look around and visit Rory (he was working the sheriff's office booth), after that we hurried to the wave pool for their egg hunt (Matthew won a super soaker!), went grocery shopping, and am finally home with my diet Dr. Pepper and leftover cake from Rory's birthday. Fun and busy day, I'm glad to be home.