DIXIE JAM

OK, so we headed for St. George for a Dixie Jam Dance competition. Mikes Dance company competed down there. We made a fun little trip out of it. The weather was perfect and Mom had all the food we could possibly eat! THANKS MOM! We got down there Friday night and ate tons of food right off the bat! We had crab salad, potato salad, relish trays, chips and salsa, chicken, orange chicken, fruit, and chips! Good stuff. The girls did a little swimming at the pool after we ate. We took Ash down with us. She is such a great person to have around! We all love her. After swimming everyone came back and showered and got ready for bed. Because we had Ash with us we had to improvise on our sleeping arrangements a bit, but we made it work. Me and Kurtis took the guest bedroom, Mike and Ash took the Den with the Hide-a-bed, and Steph and Sam used the eggshell mattress from on top of the hide-a-bed and slept in the living room. Hey they were so tired they could have slept in the bath tub and been fine. LOL. You can click on the pics to make them larger if they are hard to see.So we got up the next morning and I of course pulled out the chips and salsa for breakfast. Then john cooked everyone up a nice breakfast which he always does. He has my whole family hooked on turkey bacon. When we come down he knows to stock up on it! Then we got ready and headed on down to the Dixie Jam competition. Lots of people there, no seating (unless you wanted to watch the back of the dancers), and 170 dance teams. Mike had to be there at 10:45, then they danced around 1:00, then went back at 7:00 for the award ceremony. Her dance company took first place in their division. They did a great job!






They did alot more swimming in between competitions and after competitions. They gave the outdoor pool a whirl, but I think they decided the sun hadn't heated it up enough yet so they all went to the inside pool.


While the girls were swimming me and mom hung out in the exercises room showing off our grand muscles......ya right! LOL
One of my favorite things is to go down and play with my Moms moody cat Koda! That thing is so gosh darn cute that you want to love on it but he is not very lovable. But I keep trying! They just had him shaved. It's a good thing it got warm down there, cuz the poor cat was freezing without his fur!
We did alot of eating, relaxing and playing ball besides swimming when we could. Life was good! The weather was amazing!

We even got a chance to visit with Colby, Natalie and Trevin. That Trevin is such a character! He is so entertaining. He's sure growing up though! My favorite thing was how well he cleaned up the toys when him and Nat sang "clean up clean up". Natalie will you come and sing that with my girls and teach them how to clean up!
It was a good little trip and I'm glad we got the chance to go. It made me hungry though for warm weather up here! I hope the warm sticks around for a bit so we can all feel a nice change of the seasons. Got to love having four seasons don't ya! At least I do.

EASTER/SPRING BREAK

We Just had our Easter Weekend/Spring break Thursday through Monday. We had been making plans to go out west camping over this vacation. We watched the weather and worried abit, but when it came down to it we decided to go anyway and if we had to sit in the trailer all the time and just watch movies while it rained, well then that's what we'd do! And so we did, and it rained, but the kids didn't spend much time in the trailer watching movies. We had such a great time. We were invited out by Darin & Kim. There were about 9 or 10 different families out there in our group. Darin & Jameson always made sure we had a great camp fire to sit by to keep us warm. Kids didn't need the fire. They were busy playing in the sand pile, or having a game of baseball. When the weather would break and stop raining we would take a nice ride on the 4-wheelers, as long as we were bundled up well. Grandma P, Becky, Alan, & Brock came out one day to visit with their rhino. Alan was giving Mike's drivers ed lessons in the Rhino. LOL. We did a little buzzing around on the Rhino until the weather started turning off a little cold and wet then they packed it up and went home. It was fun to have them come out and visit. Because we had so many people up there we had to have to separate camp fires. The kids had one and the adults had one. We still all fought to get our peace of the heat. The kids got to have a Easter egg hunt. They thought that was great. We had our good camping food, like dutch oven dinners and tin foil dinners. We did our famous BIG breakfast on Saturday and Sunday. Which it is not really a big breakfast, but just bacon....(and yes Darin it was turkey bacon not real beef...lol) and hash browns and scrambled eggs done on the grill outside. It was so nice to have a break and get away and not worry about anything. It was tough to come home, but I guess I needed a real good shower anyway. I was beginning to smell hickory smoked. Well not that bad, I did cheat and ran home one night and took a real shower and freshened up. We cheat a bit. I guess that is whats nice about being a "NEPHI REDNECK".....we camp where we can still see our home......and we could see it. Course one of us had to run in every night anyway to feed the cat so why not sneak a shower in. But, in all seriousness getting out away from the hustle and bustle even if it is just across the way, was peaceful. Even though we were cold....we made do. Even know the bed is hard to sleep in, and I have insomnia issues if I don't have a TV to listen to all night, I made it work. I toughed it out and just did it because I needed the break, solitude, the peacefulness. Our family needed this time together. Yes it was cold, yes it was rainy, yes it was muddy......but it was an awesome getaway. I do love to go camping. Here are a few photos snapped here and there. Not to many, it was to wet to take the camera out a whole bunch.

This was looking down at our campground from up on the mountain a ways

Here was our spot

These were of the baseball game

Hey it's not raining, lets go for a ride

The BIG BREAKFAST

Easter Morn.

STEPHS A DOUBLE DIGIT NOW!

Happy Birthday to Steph! She is now 10 Years old. She was born April 8, 1999.

Double click the movie to get a better view. Blogger videos always cut the left side off.

My Singing Stephanie

For Christmas Santa brought Steph a Karaoke machine. She has been using it quite a bit lately. We are finding out that she just might be a little singer. Here is a video we did of her today. Notice the moving background...LOL.....better the moving background than looking into my messy closet! I thought her singing was really cute! She is singing Taylor Swifts "Love Story".

Confused

Ok, so I am a little confused! Isn't it April? I couldn't even get up my driveway yesterday morning. What's up with this? I am sooooo ready for spring!

New Hair Cut

Oh there is something so refreshing about getting a new haircut. I have been letting my hair grow out for over a year now, probably closer to a year and a half or more. It was just getting to a point where it wouldn't do anything. I couldn't even pull it up in a clip. So it was time for a change. I had my appointment today and whacked it all off. What a great weight off my shoulders...literally! Any hooo.....here is a before and after.

BEFORE


AFTER

Some Ketchin' up to do!

Ok, so we have had some crazy, busy weeks this last little while so there are things I haven't posted yet that I guess I better post. So I will do this all on one post.

For starters, a while back we had DR. SEAUS day at school along with crazy hair and pajama day. So Me and Steph dressed up for the part. Hey any chance I can get to go to school in my pj's well hey...I'M THERE! So here is some pics of this day.




Sam has had a few of her basketball games and has done well in them, unfortunately they haven't won a game yet but they still do a good job.

Mike quit taking guitar so that she could focus on drill team. She knows that drill we be keeping her very busy. She had a great time at Provita Show case where she was able to dance with her Emotion in Motion Dance Company. She had a few ooops in this dance, but she still does well. She landed her C-jump wrong, then her hair started falling out of her bun and distracted her. But she still kept smiling, and having a great attitude. They will be competing in St. George on April 18th. Here is her video clip of their dance at Provita Showcase.


Also at Provita Showcase they had Gev and his dance crew come. Gev was on so you think you can dance. He was also on High School Musical 2 and 3. He came and danced with the drill team. Emotion in Motion got to spend some time with them too. Here is a clip of Gev from SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE.



Here he is dancing with the drill team.



Here is some pics of Emotion in Motion Dance Company with Gev and his dance crew.

And this last pic is Mike's favorite! Just him and her. She said they were very nice guys and down to earth.

Also they introduced the new drill team for 2009-2010.



Ok on a traveling note....me and the girls took off for St. George last weekend. We did some spring shopping and just a lot of lazy time around at Moms house. We are all so excited to wear our new spring clothes, but the weather just wont cooperate! Whats up with that!

Mike talked in church a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to post her talk on the blog, but she flat out told me NO! So I have no idea where to look for it to sneak it on here so I guess I wont post it....Stinker child of mine!

On a personal note....I had my first mammogram this week. And lets just say that all those emails and jokes about mammograms are TRUE! OUCH....no more said on that.

Quite a few weeks ago I got to go see the construction on our new NEBO VIEW ELEMENTARY. As most of you know this is being done in the old Red Cliffs School. We got to see our new faculty room.......ok small for even a bug! So we all put in our opinions and they will be now knocking out some closets and expanding our faculty room so we can have some room to sit and eat our lunch. But there has been alot of new changes in there. It will be neat to see when it is all finished. I will have two computer labs at the new school.

March 27 was the day my Dad died. He died in 1992 from a stroke when he was only 50. I miss him much!

Ok i finally made a phone call to Missy W. about getting my hair cut. I haven't had it cut for over a year! I almost cut it off my self yesterday, but Kurtis wouldn't let me.....thank goodness. So Tuesday I go in for a new look. YAY

Ok, I think I am caught up know. I'll just leave you with one of my favorite quotes. (I'm still trying to figure out how to live by this.......not easy!)

It's a simple task to make things complex, but a complex task to make things simple.

Ok, it's Mikes turn to shine. I am so proud of her. Wednesday night she tried out for drill team. She did such a great job. Even with a hip injury she made the team. With lots of ibuprofen, physical therapy, heat and ice packs, she toughed it out. She has wanted this ever since she was two years old, and I am not exaggerating! It is true. Dance is such a big part of her life. She wants to thank all those who sent her flowers, balloons, gifts, and also those who came to watch her. We are all so proud of her and wish her a great drill team year! Go Mike!


Here is the lineup for the final judging.


Jake came to support Mike and brought her roses. How sweet!

Our house looked and smelled like a floral shop from wonderful friends and family who supported Mike.

Mikes tryout video.