Proud Mama

This past week was the week of our end-of-school-year programs and recitals.  I have learned something about myself.  I am a CRY BABY.  Yes, I freely admit.  It's these "firsts" for my children that just get me all choked up.  It's actually really annoying.  I never really know when it's going to hit, either.  All of the sudden I just well up.  Can't I just sit and enjoy without leaking from my eyeballs?!  Guess not.  The girls are learning to just look at me and say, "those are happy tears, huh mom." 

First off was Allie and her Kindergarten program.  She was so excited to dress up nice for her special day.  Here she is waiting so patiently to start.  I love it when she gets a cute little grin on her face and tries so hard to be coy and not smile big.  And the Kindergarten program just wouldn't be complete without the little girl in the top right picking her nose:

My favorite little number was when they showed their muscles while singing an alphabet song:

Her teacher put together a darling slide show at the end with pictures from throughout the year.  They sure grow a lot during this year!  My almost first-grader:

Congrats Allie Rae!

Next up was Kenna's tumbling recital.  She decided she wanted to take tumbling this year and has really done great in it.  She has improved quite a bit.  I hope I can sway her into continuing with tumbling again, but she is leaning towards ballet.  We'll just wait to see what next year brings!

All of my pictures turned out less than great, but here she is on one of her passes.  I hate to brag, but this little lady has some good form.  Go Kenna! 

The final bow with all the dancers and tumblers:

Kenna with her cute teacher, Marki:

My two oldest ladies (one of whom dressed herself for the occasion.  You go ahead and see if you can pick her out):

And lastly was Kenna's first grade program.  Each of the children made a mini-me to display.  Kenna wanted to show she is a tumbler:

Pretty much the cutest little first grader around!

This one was a little poem about teeth where each child held up a giant tooth with the number of how many teeth they've lost on it.  I love how there's everything from 0 to 9.  Kenna sits happily at a 4.  But that's okay.  The longer she keeps those baby teeth in the longer we can delay inevitable appointments with the orthodontist.  Yes, a glimpse into how my vile mother mind works at times. 

"There's no one quite like me!"  Hope that cute little face there knows how much we love our one and only Kenna D.

With her teacher, Mrs. Carney:

Way to go Kenna D!

And lastly, let's not forget a special performance from the youngest member of the family who is quite proud of her recently discovered standing skills.  Complete with a clap!

Yay Lexi!

Growing

Since Miss Lexi Lou is so close to her first birthday and really has outgrown her baby carseat, we decided to give her an upgrade. 

One last ride:

TA-DA!  She's a big girl now!

Nothin' but love for this delightful little lady.  Even if we still haven't upgraded to piggy tails yet.  Hopefully they will soon grow too!

Niner

This month Jacob and I celebrated our NINE year anniversary!  Way to go us!  This year I took it upon myself to plan a little (much needed) overnight getaway to celebrate on the weekend before.  We had two young women who are sisters in the ward come to stay with the kids and they did a great job.

I got a little flyer in the mail a few months ago about the upcoming shows down at the Tuacahn Theater in St. George.  They actually have some great shows, and I saw that the comedian Brian Regan was coming to town and I decided it would be perfect!

We headed down Friday night and started off the evening with a lil' dinner at the Texas Roadhouse.  We stopped to check in at the bed & breakfast I booked.  It was an old, restored pioneer house and was so fun.  Then we were off to the Tuacahn.  I LOVE going to the Tuacahn.  The backdrop of the red rock canyon is so beautiful.  The show was hilarious, we laughed so hard.  He really is a funny, funny guy and is refreshingly PG.  Even when he got off script a few times he worked it into his show and was so darn funny.  And since we didn't have kids to get to bed, we stopped in at Dairy Queen for a little ice cream after!
 
Here we are the next morning out on a little balcony attached to our room enjoying a beautiful spring day:

 

It was also the same weekend for the St. George Ironman.  Part of the race path was right along by our bed & breakfast, so we walked over to watch for a bit.  On the left side of the picture is the bikers coming down the road.  Then just around the corner they got off their bikes and started their run.  The right side of the road was for the runners starting to run up.  It was so fun to watch for a while.  Some crazy serious athletes!

It was such a fun little getaway.  I'm ready for another weekend getaway with Jacob.  Here's to nine more years!

Not So Fun Run

So the girls had a little fun run at school a few weeks ago where they had to get pledges to earn money for however many laps they could run.  Since mom set the paper aside and didn't send them to venture out and seek pledges from the neighbors, I alone was pledging.  Just how it goes somedays....

Anyhow, the day of the big race came and Me, Ty, and Lexi headed down to the school to cheer on the girls.  With so many kids on the field, I couldn't find Allie's class and missed the beginning of her run.  I finally spotted her, but as she was coming around from her first lap this is what I saw:

Allie is the first one wearing the purple shirt.  Slowly walking, her face down in her hands.  She was so upset and wouldn't tell me what was wrong.  So there I was kneeling next to her on the field, little Kindygartners running past us.  The whole time while trying figure out what was wrong I was trying not to be a cry baby myself!  Sometimes I find myself fighting little mom tears at the most random times.  Finally another mom told me that at the beginning of the run she tripped and got trampled a bit.  It just ruined the whole thing for her and I could hardly get her to do anything.  Allie sometimes just gets so sensitive over things and I really never know what things will send her over the edge like that.  Poor little lady.

Here is Miss Kenna on her run (she's on the left in the jacket).  Fortunately she didn't get trampled and her run went off without a hitch:

At least I got in one good lap with Kenna while poor little Allie sat down and kept her hands up to her face the whole time.  Where is my clone when I need it?

They ended the run with a popsicle, but as you can see it still took a while for Allie to decide she was going to smile again.

I guess we can't win them all.   

Weekenders

Hey, Britt, it's been awhile and you've gotten behind on your family updates...

I know, I know, it's a bit daunting.  You have a gazillion pictures to post.  Yes, gazillion.  Possibly an exaggeration.  But you'll be so glad you did it someday....

So whaddaya say, should we do it?  Ready?  Ready....

Sometimes you just have to relish in your crazy self!  These pics were actually from Our California Weekend in April.  We headed to California to hear our dear friends speak in Sacrament upon returning from their mission to Africa.  So we loaded up in the van the early evening of April 18th and headed on our way.  Yep, April 18th.  My 33rd birthday.  We know how to par-tay!  I spent the morning cleaning and packing.  Of course every birthday is not complete without birthday dinner at KFC in Mesquite, Nevada!  That's just how it goes when you're traveling with hungry tots.  We drove as far as Barstow the first night.  Thanks to Miss Tippy Toes for getting all our bags to the room:

The next morning we packed up and headed the final 2 hours to Huntington Beach, Califor-ni-a. 

Here is the girls' preferred method of traveling:  DVD under a blanket.

Ty man would spend hours on the ipad if we let him:

 And Lexi gets left out on the travel picture it looks like.

But don't forget this handsome hunk of van-drivin' love!  I need this picture to have actual, solid proof Jacob does in fact drive the van.  Perhaps only once or twice a year.  He avoids being in the van if at all possible.  Where is his sense of adventure?  Trucks and tractors are overrated.  The minivan is where it's at.

We stayed in Seal Beach with the daughter of our good friends.  She and her husband were so incredibly kind to give up their master bedroom for us!  They have the cutest little twins you ever did see who are just a few months younger than Ty.  The kids were in heaven having toys and fellow munchkins to play with.  When the twinners and Lexi went down for their afternoon nap, we decided to walk up the street to the beach.  Ya, you read that correctly.  We walked....up the street...to the beach.  Heaven!  On our way:

We had just a bit of time before dinner to get acquainted with life in the OC:

The waves caught Ty once or twice and he wasn't so sure about them.  They all loved running around in the sand.  It was no surprise our plan to not get wet quickly went out the window.












Another photo for the record books here:  Jacob with his shoes and socks off.  It is a very rare occasion.  I think he takes his shoes off about as often as he drives the minivan.....

Needless to say this guy doesn't own a pair of sandals or flip-flops.  It's very alluring though, I had to chase quite a few bikini-laden ladies off the beach. 











We made our way back from the beach in time to clean up and head out for dinner.  It was a big family gathering where we celebrated 3 April birthdays.  So fun!  Here is Ty on our way in to dinner with the twins.  So. darn. cute!

After dinner, we decided to head for a drive along the Pacific Coast Highway.  It was so beautiful as the sun was going down:

And apparently Lexi didn't come on this trip with us....poor little lady didn't get any pictures this day!

The next day was dedicated to spending some quality time in the sun.  This time we went to a place called Mother's Beach where there weren't the huge waves to worry about.  It also had a playground, so it was perfect.  The kids let loose and loved it!  Sand, sun, seaweed, boogie boards...what more is there, really?

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Needless to say, some members of the company were pooped:

We had to revive and get our second wind so we could spend some time at (drumroll please) ChuckECheese!  Ty found the basketballs and that little dude was in heaven:

The girls have been talking about ChuckECheese ever since our last visit to California, so they were excited to go back.  What more is there to life than to get your picture taken with good ol' Chuck himself?  Not much.  And really I have no idea who the random little chap is next to them.  Guess we just have that sort of appeal.

The next day was Sunday where we enjoyed a beautiful Sacrament meeting and heard about an amazing humanitarian mission experience in Africa.  How often we forget how truly we are blessed.  We followed it up with lunch over at their house.  Looks as though I was all photo'd out because from here on out the camera is MIA.  Yep, the whole reason for our trip and it's the day I didn't get any pictures.  Some days I'm doing good just to brush my teeth, you know? 

Sunday evening we headed back to Barstow, then finished the ride home on Monday.  And seeing as though I wasn't quite ready to let go of the birthday celebrations, I may or may not have drug my little family through Caesar's Palace in Vegas searching for the Cheesecake Factory.  It may or may not have been delicious.

A great weekend for sure.  Insert contented little smiley face here.