Last week of school

An update for the girl's last week of school….

 Sixth grade 'So you think you can dance' Show and contest.  The audience voted on their favorite.  Sydney was in Thriller and it WON! Great job, Sydney!  Paige Nelson is on left, she was in 'Happy'  Sage and Sydney were in Thriller :)

 Here they are finding out they won and then taking a bow

 Amanda won an award for Outstanding Academic Achievement.  Meaning she maintained a 3.7 GPA or higher her 3 years at Centennial and scored high on some national test.  Way to go Amanda!

Above, she is shaking Mr Williams hand and on her way to shake Principal Mr Hogge's hand

Notice her cute surgery shoe again…..she getting pretty fast!

 Here she is with Susie and Liz and Tanner LeBaron and I don't know the other kid.

 After this awards night, they had a 9th grade dance out in front of the school.  They don't do promotion, which is kinda sad. I remember that was such a big deal for Mike & me.  But, they had a great time at the dance and then just showed up to sign yearbooks today (the last day of school)

The sixth grade also had a dance, but this was on Wednesday.  The theme was Under the Big Top/Circus. Rachel Orison was in charge, so of course it was way awesome.  I helped decorate for a few minute before I had to go home to teach.  Then, I showed up to take some pictures. I thought Sydney would be mortified that I showed up, but she ran right up to me and told me all about the dance!

There was a 'photo booth' and I encouraged all the girls and boys groups that were good friends through elementary school to get a picture.  Some of them complied.  But, then they all disappeared so Sydney & Nate Conger could get a picture.  Nate is not her boyfriend, but they like each other. She went to his baseball game on Tuesday.  Heaven help us!!

L to R: Addy, Paige, Konnor Mann, Sydney, Nate, Zac Bingham, Josh Harwood, Payton C. and Cole Arbon

 Sydney and John Reeves (the kid likes her) and Addy.

Girls messing around!

Stout Memorial Day Breakfast!

Mike's cousins, Tracie Buys and Sterling Atkinson decided it was time to reinstate the Stout Memorial Day Breakfast paired with sawdust dig and swing jump contest.

 They had a great turnout!  Tracie planned for breakfast burritos.  I helped out by warming up the tortillas.  Breakfast went really well!  Then, it was time for the sawdust dig.  They put money and candy in sawdust and then let age groups go at it.  Above is Mike and brothers and cousins…..they are crazy, but Mike ended up with like $1.90.  All that competition for change! Crazy!

 Here's Brandon's group. Eliza is in the blue.

 He couldn't believe the mess and the craziness.  Just a handful of candy and a tiny amount of change.

 Here's Sydney and Maddie's group.  Some of the parents are out of control…seriously …. for change! Yelling at their kids, Picking them up and dropping them in the middle of the sawdust.  Good night...

 But, Sydney and Maddie ended up with some candy and a bit of change...

 I caught Amanda as she was diving for the pile right after they said, "Go!"  Bad foot and all, she was up for the fun!

 She hates touching change…she has a nickel allergy and we think that touching the change feels different to her….But, she was happy! And glowing a little in this picture :)

 Mike's cousin, Mike Stout, is behind Amanda with the red hat. He was my Fed Ex man when I was working at Cellular One on 33rd.  He'd come in and chat and take his break at our office because we were nice and fun and would chat. When I went to a family party with Mike after his mission and saw Mike Stout I said, 'There's my Fed Ex guy!"  It was a funny connection.

And the 40 something moms….see me and Kellie?  Jenna Ellingson was on the other side of me.  It was fun. I found a nickel and a bunch of candy……We went to the swings for the swing jump.  An Atkinson grandson won it.  There is even a trophy!  It was getting so hot by then, so we took off.  We ended up stopping by Jim & Renae's to grab something and then went to lunch with them and Doug & Cath & Kids at Hires.  We headed home after that because Mike had to fly to Denver that evening.  It was a fun and relaxing day!

More Brandon's birthday!

 Ohhhh look at this cute Bubba of a baby!  He was always so happy and patient!

 And now he is this handsome 9 year old!!

There is a change in personality at 9 years old.

I remember the girls getting sassier.  Brandon is getting funnier.  He has a great sense of humor that we are all learning to appreciate.  

Here's nine things we love about Brandon!

1.  He doesn't like to go to bed, but he doesn't sleep in-so it's necessary.  

2.  He has about 10 stuffed animals he sleeps with-we call it Brandon's village and he has to count them before going to sleep

3.  He likes to sleep with the ceiling fan on.  If it's not on, he gets too hot and then starts to sleepwalk.

4.  He's competitive at school.  He often did more Mastery homework pages so he could be number one.  He also powered through his times tables and division trying to be number one. I can't remember if he made number one, but if not, only second to Luke Kelley who went to Challenger private school for 3 years.

5.  He loves football, basketball and golf

6.  He doesn't like bugs or spiders or bees at all! If he sees a bug near the front door, he will go wait on the driveway until I come find him or he'll go through the garage.

7.  He gives great hugs!  He always reminds us of family prayer at night.

8.  He brushes AND flosses everyday.

9.  He loves to read, play the piano and play video games.

I really could go on and on.  He is such a fun kid and we love him so much! 

Happy Birthday Brandon!

Friends: Andrew, Garrett, Kolton, Luke Tanner, Will, Spence (red shirt back to us) and Ben

 Now, on to the party!I think we had 12 boys here and we played Minute to Win It games.  Crazy and chaotic!  Mike asked why we don't do it at another place…like Get Air…I told him with it being May, we might only end up with 3 boys and who wants to pay $150 for a party at a tramp place for just 4 kids.  It sure sounds nice though!

 Spencer in red shirt, Ethan and Will

Some of the cute friends…red shirt, Garrett, Luke Ben, Nick and Tanner

 Brandon made up this game. He called it Clay Pigeons.  Mike would throw a plastic plate in the air and the boys would try to it with a ball…tennis ball, football, random ball...

They all loved it and only a few of them hit the plate! Brandon did get a couple!

Really nice friends that gave fun gifts :)

Brandon turns 9!!

Add to the fun of this crazy month…..Brandon's birthday!!!

 We started the morning with balloons and streamers in his room and the candy poster!

 Then, the presents!  A Lego set and a cute hug for Dad

 And a golf club! Brandon likes to hit balls with Mike.  We just put him in some lessons for the summer.

 Mrs Backer's Cake - Yum! He wanted frosting for the filling...

 Amanda and I had to go to her doctor's appointment and then we ran straight to Brandon's class at school.  We did a little presentation on him for his birthday. Then, we ran home and had a friend birthday party!  Then, we had the grandparent's up for dinner and cake!  It was a busy fun day!

My Mom decided to do a selfie with my Dad! So cute!

Amanda's bunionectomy!

We discovered Amanda had this Tailor's Bunion (hereditary) in December. After snowboarding, she'd be in a ton of pain.  She couldn't run and after dance she'd have to ice.  

 Our doctor, Todd Flitton, told her she could just buy bigger shoes or get it taken off.  It was quite painful and she's only 15, so her Dad and I didn't want her to deal with this forever.  But, deciding when she could be out of commission with dance, soccer and snowboarding was a challenge.

 We made the decision to quit soccer.  She knew if she got kicked on that side of her foot, she would be in extreme pain.  She would just ice and ibuprofen after snowboarding.  She continued to dance because of her commitment to her teams, but iced and ibuprofen afterward.

 She continued on this path for the next almost 6 months….and after her Dance Showcase on May 12th, she was free to be gimpy for a few weeks!

 She was so funny coming out of anesthesia and gave us quite a few laughs.  Dr Flitton said everything went great and gave us instructions for home.  We ran a couple of errands and picked up lunch, but then got her home to her spot on the couch which lasted a few days.  Well, she actually went to school the next day because of some tests.  And then she went on Friday, too.  She went to a dance sleepover on Friday night and then she crashed so tired on Saturday when we got her home.  She never missed a day of school after this surgery and although her Dad and I worried, we were also proud of her.

Without the bandages.  We are about 2.5 weeks past surgery and she's working on walking without the boot (except at school-she needs the protection!) and after an appointment she has on Monday, we are hoping she can wear shoes and maybe do dance tryouts. If she can't tryout it's ok because we think the directors know what team they want her on.  This was highly stressful for her.  Add to that stress the stress of the last weeks of school and she was having major stomach pain…which added to the stress.  We had a bunch of tests run that came back normal.  We did some stress reduction.  We had Mike & out neighbor, Scott, give her a blessing one morning because she couldn't move because of the pain. After the blessing and sleeping an hour, she got up and went to school.  Along with her doctor, we decided to double up her acid reflux meds because we think all the ibuprofen from the past 6 months gave her a hole in the lining of her stomach…….full circle, right?  It's so hard to see your child in pain and not knowing what it is or how to fix it.  I'm happy to say that she's doing so much better! Even with the stress of tryouts, she's managing so much better.  It's amazing when you feel better what you can handle :)

Sydney Hip Hop Recital

Syd has been taking a rec hip hop class at Luv2Dance until she's done with Clytie and can join the comp teams at L2D with Amanda.

Her recital was on  Saturday the 10th.

 She had a solo at the beginning and it's called tutting.  She got picked from all the girls in her class!

 And there she was front and center the whole dance. It was a great dance and she looks good!

It will be fun to see what kind of dancer Sydney develops into next year.  I'm glad to have both girls doing the same thing this coming year.  Although, Amanda is having second thoughts about dance again.  Major drama on her team this year has her scared to death about tryouts next week.  She wants to go back to soccer because she never had drama with her team.  The drama happened with parents :) ha ha!  We'll see how things shake out next week.  Pray for the girls!

Last month of school….

Oh May is CRAZY!  I will be posting some updates of this last month of school….on the last day of school!

Sixth Grade Shakespeare Play

Sydney's group did A Midsummer Night's Dream

So great!

She was a narrator!

 Emma Olson and Sydney

 Sydney and Addy Clinger

The grandparents made it to watch her perform and then we hit Maddox so Jim could have his Maddox chicken since returning home from his mission. It was a little chilly, but Maddox in Layton only  has outdoor seating. We braved the chill and had a great time!

Easter and St George quick trip

 Round 3 of tubes for Brandon!  He got them in April 15th.  He's a trooper and threw up coming out of it, but he can hear again!!

Then, Thursday morning I got a call from my Mom. She and Dad are in St George visiting Bug & Kay and Dad had to be rushed to the ER late Wednesday night.  His hernia and his intestines were playing ball and that's not good.  After surgery, he was having a hard recovery. Darin ran down there on Thursday to be with Mom and sleep over with Dad at the hospital so Mom could rest.  I ran down on Saturday to help get him home.  When I got there, it didn't look like he'd get home until Monday. Then, after we verified that he could start solid food, he started getting better quickly! By Sunday late afternoon, we were on the road home!

 Car selfie while waiting for Mom to get the prescriptions filled.  We all felt he would recover faster at home and being able to sleep in his own bed would be the best thing.

 The only sad part about going to St George to help my parents was that I missed Easter.  Here are pictures from Mike & the kids.

We are so grateful that the drive home was uneventful and that my Dad's surgery had a happy outcome. His color in his face even looks better than before the surgery and I know he's lost some weight since.  Things continue to get better and better….