Hanging out at the Hotel

The kids do enjoy watching the girls dance competition. They especially loved Peter Pan, it is ten minutes long and I don't think the three youngest moved an inch the entire performance. But overall it gets to be a little long for them. They had the most fun hanging out in the hotel room. Austin and Katelyn thought they were so clever when they climbed into the closet to watch a movie. Kyle was so tired he fell asleep while I was getting Brinlee ready. That night Jason took them swimming while the rest of us waited for Brinlee's award ceremony. All in all it was a good weekend.

Videos, finally!!

Here is Brinlee's Solo, this was the perfomance from a few weeks ago.

Here is Kelsie's Solo, also from a few weeks ago

Here is Rachel & Brianna

Brinlee's Hair

For Brinlee's Solo we put her up in a pretty "up do", like someone going to prom. Her Aunt Jamie did it the first time, but was out of town this last weekend. Jamie showed me what to do, but Brinlee wasn't so sure I could pull it off. But I did it, and I think I did it rather well. Brinlee even admitted that I did good. I sent pictures to Jamie in California, just to make sure.

Another Dance Competition

This last weekend was spent at another Dance Competition, this one was in Bountiful. Kelsie and Rachel started off on Thursday, they did excellent. Kelsie got a Ruby award, which is 1st place and Rachel and Brianna got Emerald, which is 2nd place. We stayed the night in a hotel because Brinlee competed on Friday. Brinlee got a Diamond which is a High 1st place award. Then on Saturday Kelsie and Rachel competed with their teams. They got a Diamond, Category Winner, Best Costume and 7th overall for Living Room. They got a Ruby and 10th overall for Party. Then they competed their production number Peter Pan for the first time (which was only finished a week before they competed) got a Diamond and 1st Overall. Rachel is Micheal in Peter Pan, she looked so cute in pj's, and Kelsie is an indian. They did such a good job. No cameras were allowed in the auditorium, but pictures will be up on the professional website later this week. I'll post the link when it is available.

Poor Kyle, he didn't stand a chance!! He loved every second of it, though, what can I say.

Happy Birthday Cassie!

We just wanted to wish Cassie a Happy Birthday!! We are so glad to have you living so close to us and it has been fun to get to know you better. You make me laugh everytime we talk, and I love that. The girls are so exited for your party!! Hope you had a great day.

Happy Easter!

We hope everyone had a good Easter! We are grateful for the sacrifice our Savior made for us, the true reason we celebrate this holiday.

Easter Picnic & Coloring Eggs

We had a great Easter. Saturday was the family Easter Egg Hunt and Picnic. Then that evening we colored eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide.

Highlights from the picnic:

* We had yummy KFC for lunch.

* Kelsie thought she was too old to hunt eggs, so this year she hid them. She had so much fun, maybe a little too much fun, some of the eggs didn't stay closed when they were placed.



* Grandma got everyone cute buckets. They loved them.

* We had 484 eggs to hide and everyone was able to hunt for 25 eggs each.











* There were two rabbits at the park, I'm sure they are going to be on a sugar high by now. The kids had fun chasing them and getting them to come out of the bushes.



* There was not enough wind to fly our new kites, but Austin and Kyle had fun trying anyway.





* We learned a new lawn bowling game, the guys and Rachel had fun playing it.

* The biggest hit of the afternoon was the bubble machine. They ran and ran through the bubbles and didn't want to stop.










Coloring Eggs is always a highlight at our house. Notice all the work shirts on the kids, that is probably their favorite part, well maybe not Kelsie. We colored about three dozen eggs and only a few got broken in the process.

Week in review - 3/22

This week wasn't quite so crazy, but still really busy.

* We had a rental truck (that is the biggest thing they had) all week, but we finally got our Expedition back on Friday. It has a new battery, alternator, gear mechanism, locking mechanism and driver seat motor. They had it all week and still forget to fix the air conditioner, so it will go back in a few weeks.

* Austin had to have a root canal, he was a trooper and didn't complain at all.

* Jason went on a field trip with Brinlee to the art museum at BYU. This was their favorite piece, do you remember the stamp that looked like this from a few years back.



* Austin, Katelyn and Kyle (mommy went too) got to meet the Easter Bunny at Kidstop on Thursday. The teacher asked Katelyn to go first but she got a little shy, so we were all surprised when Austin said he would go first. After Katelyn saw Austin being brave she was next in line. Kyle was a little nervous when it was his turn, but sat right on his lap. They sang him Easter songs and laughed at the funny way the Easter Bunny danced. It was a lot of fun.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I have always loved St. Patrick's Day!! I love the color green and that may have something to do with it. Our tradition has been to have a green dinner and/or sugar cookies with green frosting of course. This year because of a crazy dance schedule we opted just to decorate cookies, we weren't all together to do it until 8:30 p.m., but we did it. Kyle loved the frosting and the sprinkles and didn't want to actually eat his masterpiece, however licking was OK (it is still sitting on the counter). How cute is that. Katelyn and Austin came home from pre-school with green hats, of course we had to take a picture. I hope your day was lucky.

Week in review - updated

Last week was a crazy week. Here is everything in a nutshell.

* My Activity Days girls finished up their service project. We have made 20+ newborn and preemie hats that we are donating to a local hospital. Brinlee even joined in on the fun



* We spent $500 on Austin's baby teeth, he seems to no enamel on his teeth and his baby teeth were in really bad shape. He goes back in two weeks for more work. On the positive side, he was a champ. Didn't move in the chair while the dentist was working, and he had to have one tooth pulled. His cheek was swollen for a few days, but he is doing much better.

* Austin had his first visit from the tooth fairy. He walked around with his $1 for two days, it was so cute.



* Brinlee and Rachel both got 100% on their spelling tests.

* Kelsie got her braces off, she is really happy with her smile.

* We are having non-stop dance practices for Kelsie and Rachel to learn their new dances for the Peter Pan production. Rachel even has more practices, since she is a main character.

* Jason and I have been using any extra free moment to get all the paper work and questions filled out for our new software, (we are hoping it will make my job a lot easier). It was a huge relief to get it out by Fed Ex on Friday.

* The other free minutes were spent getting 11 layouts done for the scrapbook store. They should be available for sale in the next few weeks.

* The most exciting news is that everything seems to falling into place for starting construction on our new house. We met with the bank and we will know for sure this week. The permit is ready. Now we just have to figure out when the power will be extended to our lot. Once that happens then we can get our permit and the funding.

* We started trying low fat/calorie meals from My Girlfriends Kitchen this week. They do all the preparation work for you, all you do is pick it up. We have tried three meals so far and have loved all of them.

* Jason, Kelsie and I all got new cell phones. Jason needs a new one to work with the new software and got a Blackberry (he hates it). I'm giving him two weeks, and I hope the two have a better relationship then they do today. I needed one that had better sound and was easier to text message. Kelsie got one because the one I picked had a buy 1 get 1 free offer. She was elated. We got the new Rumor and I love it almost as much as Kelsie does. I got green and Kelsie got white.



* The Expedition started making funny noises Saturday night when Jason and I were on our way home from Easter shopping. We went to PF Chang's for dinner, as well, yummm! Sunday morning it wouldn't start so we all piled into the truck to go to church. After dinner we jumped it, then it wouldn't start again. So it went to the doctors this morning. We know it needs a new battery, that has to be done before they can test anything else.

This next week looks like it will be crazy as well, and I can't believe Easter is next weekend.

No Videos

Ok, after trying all day yesterday to upload the videos from the competition, I finally figured out why I was getting an error. I guess Blogger had a blackout on Saturday and their servers are still recovering. So all those who are waiting patiently, and not so patiently, for the video will have to wait a little longer. I got the photos on the blog, but had to do it a different way, so that will have to to be enough for now. I'll keep trying.

Kelsie Solo

Kelsie's Solo was beautiful! She did such a great job. I was a little nervous because of her knee injury in December we just got it finished. But I didn't need to worry at all, she did wonderful. She looked amazing and I still can't believe how fast she is growing up. I am so proud of her and most importantly, she was happy with her performance.


She took first place as well and both of her team dances took first. It was a great competition for her.

Rachel Duo

Rachel and her friend Brianna did wonderful on their duo. It was so cute and they took first place as well. Both of their team dances took first and the studio took a the high point total in the advance division which they competed in. It was a great competition and they represented the studio well.

Brinlee Solo

Brinlee did awesome on her solo yesterday. She kept telling me and her teacher that whe wasn't nervous and to stop asking her about it. Although now she admits she got a little nervous when she got out on stage. She rushed the first few counts of her routine (I think because the nervousness hit), but she added a spin and caught right up. She was amazing. She took first place and got a trophy, ribbon and a tiara. She is truly our little queen.

I loved this photo of her, she is such the performer.

Grandma's Quilt

Grandma Washington made this quilt for Kyle (she finished it a long time ago, we just finally took the time to take pictures). He loves it. I'm just to afraid to ruin it, so it is in his closet for now. Maybe I'll get over that soon. He loves the trucks, cars, airplanes etc that are on it. He points them out and is so cute.



I was sitting on the couch after dinner and Kyle brought me his quilt and sat next to me, he made sure I was covered as well. Then we played peek - a -boo with everyone. He is so much fun and I don't know what I'm going to do, he is growing up way to fast.