Dancing Queen

I love Thursdays. Why do I love Thursdays? It is certainly NOT because they are by far the busiest, most hectic days of my weeks. It is not because I stress all day and try not to speed as we rush from;

1) dropping kids off at school at 7:50am, then get to my friends house at

2)8:10 am where we rush to get the kids settled so we can work out for ONE hour before

3) leaving her house by 9:15 to rush Livee to dance by 9:30 and stay for Cami's at 10:00 then

4) rush to store to buy doughnuts- a post dance tradition- then

5) rush to Oakhurst for story time at library by 11:30 then

6) stop at grocery store because we only go to Oakhurst twice a week (if at all possible) and so we need to do our shopping, then

7) take friend and her daughter home and DROP them off, no staying to chat, then

8) MOVE MOVE MOVE to pick up kids from school EARLY at 1:45 so we can

9) Stop by our house, run groceries in, grab water and snack and guitar for kids then jump into the car again to

10) make it to guitar by 2:15 where we happen to have our Bountiful harvest veggies dropped off at our guitar lessons at 2:30- so while the older kids are doing guitar I am loading up veggies and returning boxes. When guitar ends at 3:00 we

11) stop by dads office to drop off 2 of my kids, then Gloria and I jump back into the car and run to pick up 3 other girls from our area and run BACK up to Oakhurst where I drop Gloria off for Activity Day girls, while I study my New Testament (the only time during this oh-so busy day that I have to fit it in) then 1 hour later the girls are ready to head home, we have to stop at my friends house (who lives inbetween my house and the church) to pick up Cami from friends house, drop off neighbor girls and then make it home between 6:30 and 7:00. We eat our dinner as fast as we can, Gloria starts her homework while the rest of the kids start getting ready for bed. Then, at 8:00 I have my card club (once a month) or girls come to my house to make cards (1-2 times a month) and then at 10:45 at night when I get home I CRASH into bed and say thanks that Thursday is over!!!!!

So, why do I love Thursdays? Look at the pictures of my little princesses! They love their dance class. They smile and twirl and laugh the whole time. It makes me happy to see how happy they are. I do love Thursdays.

side note: not EVERY Thursday is like this, we only have Activity Day girls twice a month and Card club once a month and Thursday night- card group 1-2 times a month. And sometimes I don't go to library, I just let my friend take the girls up. So, it is not always this hectic. But, lots of times it really is :)

Family Time

One of our favorite past times as a family is spending time outdoors. The kids especially enjoy riding around our property on our quads. So tonight, after dinner and homework were finished, we jumped onto the quads and went for a family ride. When we were finished riding, no one wanted to go back inside, even though it was bed time and the kids were promised ice cream before bed (because they did a fabulous job on their report cards). So, we played for a bit more outside and enjoyed the nice weather. We are really so blessed to have such a nice piece of property and to be able to use it.

The kids brought home their report cards today and, of course, they both excelled in every subject. We are proud of their hard work. And it is a lot of hard work. They both come home diligently every single day and do their homework. We study spelling words while doing hair, driving in the car and during dinner. The kids worked hard and we are so proud of them.

Cold weather clean up

Today the weather was wonderful!! We had a beautiful 70 degree day. It was a great day. The kids and I decided to head out and assess the damage done by all the storms that we have had recently. Thankfully there were only 2 major trees that fell. We will need to get out the chainsaw and cut them up and put them in our burn pile. We also got most of our giant burn pile burned up today. We have not had a lot of burn days, or non-rainy days to get it done, so it feels nice to have that out of the way. The girls loved walking all over the property with me and kept posing for pictures. It took us an hour and a half, but it was so enjoyable that we could have done it for another hour if it wasn't nap and lunch time. I am looking forward to warmer weather and spending more time out doors.

Presents from Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa Kendall sent us a fun package last week. It contained PAINTS!!! I rarely let the kids use paint. I don't like the mess!! But, on that particular night I didn't really care. So, I sat all the kids at the table (no table cloth!!) and let them paint. They painted for over an hour and really enjoyed it. It made me feel a little guilty about not letting them paint more often. They really had fun. Thanks Grandma!!!

St. Patricks Day

This year on St. Patricks morning, the kids woke up and found that leprechauns had visited their rooms. There was a trail of gold money from each of their beds leading to new socks, necklaces and even a green mug. No one at our house got pinched!!

Fondue night

Last week we had fondue night. I made some cheese dip, some tomato dip, ranch dip and chocolate. We cut up our bread, veggies, fruits and pasta and put some toothpicks on the table. The kids really enjoyed eating "fondue style". After we were done with everything, Cami found a new way to use her toothpicks!!

Gray's cut

The other day while daddy and the kids were out swimming, Olivia took the spray nozzle (that goes on a hose) and threw it at Grayson's head. Poor kid. He gets more injuries on his head than most kids!! He was really brave. Good job, Gray.

Tubby time

The other day Olivia and Cami were being awfully quiet for a long time. I finally went to find out what they were up to. Cami had filled up the baby tub and put Olivia in it. They were bathing Olivia! They were so excited by their new found activity, I couldn't help but grab my camera and snap a shot before I cleaned it up!! My baby loves her tubs.

New Hair

This is a bad picture, but it is the only one I've got. I have been really bad at taking pictures lately. I just have so much to do. I feel a little over-whelmed.

When I went to Utah to drop my kids off before our cruise (thanks, again- Michelle :), I decided for the first time since Gloria was born to -yikes- color my hair. It is fun to change things up a bit every once in a while. I have always felt that coloring my hair was not high on my priority list- and maintaining? No way do I have time for that!!! But, the kids are getting older, and I am getting more adventurous. So, I thought, Why not?!! My little sister looked so cute in her hair color, I asked her to do the same to me (my little sister is a hair stylist). Here is the result. Matching hair color. This picture was snapped on her cell phone, but it is the only one that I've got. I don't know if I'll color my hair again, but it has been a fun change!!

Zip Lining

Here we are in Honduras. It was so beautiful there. By far the prettiest place we visited. He zip-lined through the jungles. It was a BLAST!! It was pretty. And high. Did I mention High? There were 13 big- long zip lines that we zoomed across. It was a lot of fun. Our guide asked my mom and I if we wanted to ride upside down (they were very friendly- and if you know my mom, she is the most friendly person you'll ever meet, they called her "momma"), we said yes. It was crazy scary, but so cool. We loved it. At the end our our tour, they were carting people back to top in this little truck. We were lauging so hard. We didn't get a picture of what it looked like with us all in the back of the truck. Some of the people were standing, and we were squeezed so tightly. We all linked arms in the truck and roped our arms around all the people standing in the truck.... it was a little scary. We were going up and down bumpy hills and at points we were worried that we would lose a member of our party!! But we made it. After the zip lines, Travis and the others wanted to go swimming in the beautiful waters off Honduras- but by now you all know my feelings on water- so I rented (yes rented) a chair on the beach for $5 and sat in the shade enjoying my ipad while the others enjoyed the water. It was a perfect day. Probably my favorite!!

Dancing girls

Liv and Cami are in a dance class. I was really hesitant to start them in dance classes because they are so young, and it just adds more "business" to our days. I try hard to not add unnecessary things to our days, because we are so busy. I really tried to not enroll them, but these 2 girls are dancing queens. They love to dance. The LOVE to dance. All day long, they ask for music and they dance. So, when a class popped up at the perfect time for us (it slides right into our schedule- we like those kinds of happy coincidences), I couldn't help it. I enrolled them. They LOVE it. Dance class is the highlight of our week. The girls wake up nearly every day asking if today is dance class. We started Cami in October, but Liv had to wait until she was 2. So she didn't actually start until January. Liv is in the 2-3 year old class, which meets right before Cami's class. Liv is the youngest in her class, and the most advanved in her class. She knows all her positions and has already memorized the performance dance. The teacher told me that she is so advanced that she would like to move her to the 4-5 year old class- just for the first 15-20 minutes as her attention span is still that of a 2 year old. I have not had her join to the 4-5 year old class because I really like keeping the time divided between the 2 girls. Olivia gets so much attention from all the moms and girls there because she is so flippin' cute. All the moms love watching this little 2 year old do the dances that the big girls do. I don't want to take away from Cami getting attention in her class. So, so far I have kept her out of the big girls class. Here are a couple pics from both the girl's classes. Enjoy- I always do! It's the highlight of my week.