Ballet week - Fine'

Thursday's performance was attended by Dad, Mom, Brandon, G & G Arvy and Grandma Gib. Gpa Gib was in San Fran. The girls did a beautiful job again. This recital was really great! I especially love that they get to dance to live music. Afterward, Mike wasn't feeling well, so he took Brandon home to go to bed. Mike's parents were ready to go home, so that left the girls, me and Grandma Gib. We headed to Iggy's in Ogden and enjoyed a fun night together!

Locks of Love

Sydney wanted a haircut for summer. I told her to wait until after the ballet recital. So, just before I left for girls camp, Nicole chopped it off! It's so cute! She cut off 10 inches! I love how our girls chop their hair and then immediately start growing it out again....I think it's the shock of going from super long to super short.....but I'm glad they embrace change.

I'm also proud of them for donating their hair to Locks of Love. They have great hair and I'm sure it makes great wigs!

Pretty Ballerinas

Where has June gone? I really feel like I need a week off to breathe! But, since that never happens, let's review ballet week! Luckily, both girls were in the same recital this year. Clytie has added one more performance per cast because they have so many students. Parents weren't able to get tickets to see their own children perform! I liked it because it gave the girls another opportunity to perform. Sydney is in the middle. Monday, we had staging rehearsal. This means full make-up and costume and come at your assigned time to block your dance on stage. Then, a couple of run throughs with recorded music and then you are done! Sydney was first. Her dance was cute and true to form, Sydney knew her dance backwards and forwards. She's such a cute little dancer. Sydney and her dance partner

The final pose. Sydney is on the back row on the left with her arm raised. We are allowed to take pictures without flash at this rehearsal. It's pretty strict!Out in the hall, a little closer view. Sydney is back row second from the left. Her bff, Abby, is on front row, third from left. Other girls in our neighborhood include Lucy K, middle row right-behind girl standing. Hannah B front left. Maddy W to the right of Abby behind Gracie-front. Cute girls!

Beautiful Amanda!

We had a couple of hours to kill until Amanda's rehearsal, so we headed to Aaron and Michelle Flowers new cupcake shop in Ogden - Vintage Cupcake. It's so darling! We sat and ate cupcakes and chatted with Aaron and Michelle. It was fun for me and the girls.....Brando was sick of sitting around by then and couldn't wait to leave!

Amanda in the middle

So, back to Amanda's rehearsal. Halfway through, Holly H took Brando and her daughter, Ruby Jane, to her Mom's (who lives in Ogden). These two were born a month apart and love to hang out together. When we went to pick them up, we couldn't get them to leave!

Amanda also took a jazz class with Clytie this year. They did a dance to the Beattle's Help. Cute costumes that I'm hoping she'll wear for Halloween this year! She's upfront....fifth from the left.

Here's a picture of the girls before they went to the second night...dress rehearsal. Only the dancers go to dress rehearsal-meaning the parents cannot come watch. I'm telling you...pretty strict. It makes for a long week, but it's a lot of fun, too.

Wednesday night was the first performance and I just went solo. I ended up stitting next to Alan and Taya Johnson from our ward. Their daughter, Zoe, is one of my new Beehives and she is a beautiful dancer. It was fun to chat with them, watch the show and congratulate each other on such beautiful daughters ;) I also sat next to a man that as we chatted, we found out he is the assistant coach on Amanda's new comp soccer team. Small world.

Watch for another post!

Brandon's tooth!!!

Brandon's not too sure about this....

I'm very far behind on blogging, but also very tired as I just returned from girl's camp. Since I can't quite update the last 2 weeks right now, I thought I would post about Brandon and losing his first tooth! I cried a little.

It started to get loose about a month ago and I told him not to wiggle it ( I don't want him to start losing those cute baby teeth!). Then, his friend, Spencer told him not to wiggle it. So, I guess I decided I should tell him that it's ok to wiggle it and it will be great when it falls out (was that a clear sentence?). Soon, it was super loose. So much so that he couldn't talk!

When Mikey got home from work, he pulled it out! Brandon was really excited and he looks so old now!

Week in Review

I am going to try to sum up our summer by weeks. Sometimes the everyday stuff gets forgotten and since this is my journal-I wanted to add a few of the mundane!

Our first week out of school was filled with job lists, piano lessons, swim lessons, Amanda babysitting for neighbors and friends! Sydney took a week of swimming lessons with her friend, Abby. She had a great time, even though I had told her she didn't have to take lessons anymore. These were one-on-one lessons, so Sydney's teacher and Abby's teacher had the girls race across the pool using different strokes. Sydney did awesome! She could beat Abby in everything, except the breast stroke. She had great form! Well done, Syd!

We visited Krispy Kreme for free donuts for grades! Always a favorite!

Sydney and Abby had a lemonade sale! I love how they do this any chance they get. They are very creative with their marketing. They grabbed the ward phone list and told whomever would answer to come by for some lemonade and also asked them to leave a tip! Who's kids are these? (They didn't make this much money.

I found out a few days later that they raided my change jar).

There were many 'late nights' that resulted in Amanda having a nap a couple of times this week! Maybe she's having a growth spurt!

Brandon dragged out a bunch of his Star Wars toys and has been playing with them for hours! Hooray for no schedules!!!

I taught piano 2 days this week. I had to call many of my students to remind them of the new summer times. Like I said before, no schedules! :) But it's so nice to be teaching for only 2 days during the week.

We visited the orthodontist to get Sydney's retainer adjusted. I took Amanda to the dentist where she had NO cavities! Oh, that reminds me that I owe her $10. We pay the kids if they have no cavities because it's cheaper than having to pay to get cavities filled.

Any incentive to motivate good oral health!

We worked in the garden and cut some of our beautiful peonies to bring some color into the house! Who are those cute kids?!?!

And, I finally cleaned my wood floors!!! YEA!

Week one is in the books...This next week is filled with ballet recital, etc.,

so I'll post some fun pictures soon!

Go Amanda Go!

Amanda just made it onto a competition soccer team! She will play for Shock in Wasatch Soccer Club. She knows 3 of the girl already and is really excited! We are proud of you, Amanda!

End of the school year

We had to work on Amanda's science fair project while on vacation because it was due on June 1st! A lot of parents had problems with that fact. I got to talk to the teacher who is the parent/teacher liason and let her know we didn't like parent projects that close to the end of school (this was in addition to their 'invention convention' and 'autobiography' Anyway, here is the finished project! She did a great job!

On the 2nd, Amanda had an autobiography presentation that Mike attended while I went with Sydney's class to the zoo! Here is Sydney's group, Addi and Kennady with Sydney in front of the tiger. Then we stopped and I bought them ice cream sandwiches (which made me a cool mom) where we met up with Kennady's mom, Terra. It was a fun day and I enjoyed spending the time with Sydney. We ended our zoo time with a visit to the current exhibit-nightmare creatures. We saw spiders, snakes and bats-which by the way were not in a cage!!! Bleh!

I took Sydney home and didn't send her on the bus or back to school. We picked up Brandon from my Mom's house (thanks for tending Mom!) and stopped for a treat at Cold Stone. Bring on summer!!

The last day of school Amanda was attending one party and I went to pick her up for another party. As I was driving along an empty country rode, I guess I got going pretty fast and sadly, a police officer was also driving on that same street! He followed for awhile, I'm sure to make me nervous and then pulled me over! Amanda got so nervous! I told him that I was sorry I was going fast and that I'd never had a ticket in my life! He said, "Let me see your registration." When he came back, he said that I hadn't signed my registration and that it's required by law to sign it. I thought he was going to ding me for that and speeding, but he told me that he would cite me for failure to sign and that way he's done his job, but he can give me a break, too! No speeding ticket! Bless him! It made a memorable afternoon!

Grand Canyon Adventure

While in St. George, Mike had the idea to drive a couple of hours to go see the Grand Canyon! It was a pretty drive through the Kaibab Forest, although there must have been a recent fire. So, many burned trees and there was still snow on the ground in places! When we got to the Grand Canyon we took a short hike and then the kids were starving. There is never good food in National Parks and we ended up spending a wad of cash on some soggy deli food. Mental note: Pack in our own lunch!! When we told the kids we were going to do more hikes, our two blondies about passed out. They were already tired, but they came along and most of the time were very pleasant. We had a great time and it was a great way to spend the day! When we got back to St. George, we stopped at Smash Burger because of the good review the Jensen's gave it and it was really good!

Our family at the Grand Canyon. I was hoping for an awesome family picture against this beautiful background, but check out Brandon's face.
Beautiful girl!

Sydney showing Amanda how much she loves her!

Making our own scenic stop. Great views

The girls and I hung together on a short hike and goofed around while Mike & Brandon took the speedy route. When we were through and I noticed B & Mike at the car I told the girls to run because Dad would leave us! Sure enough, as we were booking it back, he started to take off.

The kids all thought Dad was so funny!
In the above picture, Sydney is a very loving sister and Amanda doesn't really feel the love anymore!

Goofing off....

Tree huggin'

The girls making their 'sad the forest burned' faces. They were cracking me up!

I love these boys!

Another view of the river. You could see the rapids from this far away! We tried to give the kids perspective and explain to them that the river is a lot bigger when we stand next to it.

Our awesome 5 year old! Love that smile!

Gorgeous!

Sweet kids

A little man that was sitting under a tree waiting for his family, jumped up when he saw us and offered to take our picture!

Angel's Window. See the river in the background?

Brandon was tiring out, so he got a shoulder ride from Dad! Little did we know about the fit Sydney was about to throw! I think we wore them out!

My cute family looking down at the Colorado River!

Memorial Day St. George Style!

We decided to go to St. George over the long holiday weekend. We left on Thursday night, crusing into St. George about midnight. Our friend, Reed and his girls (Kiersten and Max were at her brother's graduation) went down earlier on Thursday. It was so nice because he did some grocery shopping and we didn't have to run out early the next morning for anything. Reed actually got up and made us a big old bacon and egg breakfast! Nice!

Then, we packed up the kids and headed for Snow Canyon. First, we hit the Lower Galoot rock which we love to hike all over. The kids were set on catching a lizard while we were there. Reed's daughter, Mikaela, is a lizard expert and even had cages for when they bagged a lizard! The first one they went after was pretty smart and hid in a bush (yes, there are bushes on top of this petrified rock!). Then, as they raced up and down the rock, Sydney spotted one! They all came running and Mike ended up catching it for them. They were so excited! They made this lizard a condo with sand, rocks and plants. His name was Snowflake (because he was found in Snow Canyon), but later changed to Snowball. This lizard was the greatest find because then we didn't see Sydney or Mikaela for 3 days! They babied that reptile. Brought him potato bugs to eat. Held him. Changed his water every 5 minutes. Fantastic! We did make them let him go before the Laws left. Brandon, I guess, said a few words at the ceremony like, 'He was a good lizard. We will miss him.' Priceless!

We then stopped by the campground, found picnic tables and a fire ring. The boys got a fire started and we roasted hot dogs and had s'mores. It was great and everyone had a fun time!

Then, off to the sand dunes! The kids favorite! Although, now the sand was HOT! We were there in April and it was perfect. What a difference 6 weeks makes. We could only stand to walk a little way, but the kids wanted to be buried still, so the Dad's accomodated!

Back home for some yummy bbq dinner and day one was in the books!

Saturday, we got up and the kids just played with the lizard! It was a relaxing morning. We did have to work on Amanda's science fair project. Here is Mike & Amanda getting grass stains on the fabric samples. Then, we went downtown to the water park and played around until around 3p when we met Darin & Elise Jensen & Fam at the movies to see Shrek 3 or 4...what are we on? And then Pizza Factory for dinner! Jensen's were staying at a hotel in St. George, so it was really fun to see them and get together. I just have to say that our waitress got a $37 tip on a $50 bill that night because Mike & Reed were fighting about who was paying. I was going to grab at least a $20 off the table, but Mike said no way! I keep telling myself that she probably needed it more than we do and hopefully the good karma will come back to us!

Sunday, Reed got ready to leave because he had to pick up Keirstin at the airport in SL. We had a great time with them and the kids were sad to see them go! We decided to drive the 2.5 hours to see the Grand Canyon! I will put that trip in another post!

We left Monday afternoon trying to get to my Mom's for a bbq that night at 6pm. We stopped in Cedar City because they now have a DRIVE-THRU cafe rio! Rock on! This is TMI, but Brandon has been needing to pee urgently and frequently, so that made the ride home eventful! We love St. George!!!! It was a GREAT weekend!