Swim Lessons

As I said earlier, my girls chose to do swimming lessons this summer. So starting on June 4 and going until the 14 we were every (weekday) at the pool. When I told Tsadakah that we were doing it at the Stansbury Park Pool which is outside, instead of the Pratt Aquatic Center in Tooele she got so excited! The girls talked about it for days!

It was pretty windy for the first week and they were so cold. They wouldn't do what they were being told to do so Mike, who got to be there quite a lot because of his work schedule, and I decided to buy them body gloves so that they could actually participate in swim lessons. I chose 11am class so it wouldn't interfere with the Children's Book Club that I am doing. The best part is right after is when public can swim so we stayed and swam any day that we could. It was so nice! I love this pool it is laid back and easy going! I love to feel the sun beating down on us while we swim too!

One of the days I met up with my friend, Jenn. She has a little boy (3) and girl (14 mon). She took these pictures. It was fun to have people to know and play with on that day! I hope we can do it again!

 Me holding MiKaylah in back. Sammy in front.

 Tsadakah. The first day of swimming at the pool my girls kept taking other peoples toys! It embarrassed me a lot and so that afternoon I took them to the store and made them buy water toys with their own money.

 MiKaylah. At first Eliannah wanted to use this swim suit because when she was wearing it we told her it was armor like a ninja turtle. lol She loved it! She told Tsadakah to hit her and they played that way for 2 hours.  :)

 Jaedyn and MiKaylah.

 Eliannah. She doesn't look like she is having fun but she did. She always wanted to stay and not leave. 5 more minutes, she would say! She doesn't like to look at the camera.

Love these little cuties! Tsadakah and Eliannah both struggled with jumping off the diving board. They had life jackets on and still needed to be lowered in by the instructor. Finally the last day Tsadakah did it by herself! I was so proud of her for being brave and doing something that challenged her. We will be doing swim lessons again in July so I hope that they will have even more fun and go even farther with their abilities! :)

Tumbling Show

Tsadakah had her tumbling performance May 30th. It was a fun day filled with anticipation. We went to the dress rehearsal and I caught up with my friend from Tooele whose daughter also took dance at Dancer's Edge. It was so fun to see Milly again! She is the kind of person who makes you feel happier and more at ease just for being around her. :)

 Isn't her pose so VOGUE!?

 She is so beautiful! I love my angel baby!

 We got ready with Arianne and her daughter which was so fun and reminded me of getting ready for school dances. We did hair and make-up while chatting and eating dinner together. Arianne brought a babysitter to help out with the little kids for the evening. It was such a good idea and so we enjoyed her company. She is a great girl!

 Opening poses.

 Running. Look at those pretty curls! Tsadakah is the girl in front.

 Prepping for her kartwheel.

 Prepping for her back bend.

 Bending...

 And over! Yay.

 My kids were stressing me out so much! Even with the babysitter there my kids were so naughty. I ended up being in the hall for the rest of the show after Tsadakah's number. By the time it was over i was so stressed out. That's why we took this picture back at home when it was all over. lol Tsadakah did get to go get ice cream with Arianne while I took the other 2 home to put to bed. :)

I made Tsadakah these paper flowers instead of buying fresh ones and she LOVED them. She thought that I was amazing! She is so sweet and easy to make happy. That is a good trait. I am so proud of her for the courage she had tonight.

MiKaylah Had a Birthday!

My little baby isn't a baby anymore! She is 2! Hip hip hurray, MiKaylah's had a birthday! We kept it low key and laid back. Her bday landed on Friday. We wanted to do something fun and spontaneous that didn't cost any money. hmmm. We went and got a Little Caesar's Pizza and went to the park. It was a really cold and blowing day though so we got out of the car, then we got right back into the car. lol I really don't like to eat with kids crawling all over me and the wind blowing my food all over me. Call me crazy.

 After her nap we did presents. She chose this one from Arianne first. It was so nice of her to think of MiKaylah!

 The girls got her some jewelry! Bracelets, necklaces, and rings.

 I got her books of course! We LOVE Fancy Nancy at our house!

  This is the surprised face that she made when a present was opened for her...yes she is still getting Tsadakah to open them for her. What a little DIVA!

 Mike got her dress ups, which she was over the moon about! She just loves them! She got Tiana and Tinkerbell.
 We were pretty much Caked out from Tsadakah's cake so we opted for doughnuts.

She is such a joy at times. She is so bright eyed and full of excitement. She is winning and charming! I am impressed with her strength and her knowledge. She speaks so very well that I am amazed! She is able to do so much that is asked of her. While she is in the terrible 2s and she does throw temper tantrums at times, she is clever enough to know then to draw the line. I can talk to her and reason with her more than any other 2 year old I have ever known. Her potty training  journey has been so amazing and I am so proud of her for her interest and abilities to take charge and do it!

We all love you so much you are definitely a miracle to us, a special star in our world and destined for our family.

Happy 6th Birthday, Tdsadakah!

 For the longest time Tsadakah had said that she wanted to have a Utes party. I thought that this was a great idea because I could easily combine it with Mike and MiKaylah's, but then a week and a half before she tells me that she wants to have a barbie party, just like her cousin, Moriella had. Usually we only do big parties with friends on the 1, 4, 8, 12, and 16 ages (at least that is the plan) But our good friends are moving at the end of the month and we wanted to have them over for a bye BBQ anyway, so we combined them. Above: Madison, McKenzie, Tsadakah, & Eliannah.

 Tsadakah came up with this idea to play hot and cold for her to fine each one of her presents. It was fun to see her plan it out and the kids LOVED hiding them and watching her find them.

 For her cake she wanted the barbie inside the cake. Did you know to do this takes 2 cake boxes?

 She has watched me plan Eliannah's party on paper to the last detail and she wanted that done for her too. She came in and started describing what she wanted her cake to look like and that she wanted an arch. I knew that cake wouldn't hold up and I thought of Rice Krispies Treats. We really like Cake Boss! Its our sow that we watch together!

 Eating cake and ice cream, looking at her new barbie wand.

 While we were talking to Brad and Denelle and having a good time, MiKaylah had gotten a  hold of the green food coloring. She got it all over her hands and the TV. Then she proceeded to walk up the stairs leaving a trail of hand prints behind. I love those little hands! Boy are they precious! It reminds me of that mother's day poem about how we clean these lil hand prints away without regard to how quickly they grow up! then on the poem is your child's hand print to keep and a keepsake forever.

Tsadakah is a spirit of peace and good will in our home. I got so lucky to have her as my oldest. She is my angel baby because she is so good right to her very heart, dear thing! She is so into art now days and she is always asking if we can do a craft today. She wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up. I imagine that she will someday design modest and highly fashionable clothes for Mormons. She loves the colors blue, and red. she is always wanting to help out and she loves it when I call her my little helper. She gets excited about cooking out of her Microwave Cookbook that I made her.

Happy Birthday, Angel-Doll! We love you so much!

The Last Week of School

With all of the car trouble we were having we decided to get a new vehicle. We bought a VAN! I am the first to own one in my family (out of all my sisters) and one of my friends first response was, "your old!" haha, but I don't care! I LOVE my van! It is so very very nice. I love the sliding doors and that I don't have to climb into the vehicle to put my kids buckle on. It is a tight fit into our garage tho. lol we have to be so careful backing out and had to re-arrange the tools and shoe rack. There is so much room and space in the van which is just so nice!

I took cupcakes to Tsadakah's class on Tuesday May 15th. She was excited to pass them out herself and all the kids loved it too.

On Wednesday I decided to be a great mom and take my kids to the park and have a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful day and right away we stopped on the bridge and fed the ducks, seagulls, and little birds some old hot dog buns. It was so beautiful and like something out of a movie. MiKaylah giggled and got excited. She had a had time with the concept of just throwing the bread to them and kept stepping forward to try to give it to them, which chased them away. lol
Eliannah was most daring indeed. She was very good at it and had a huge following after her. They came right up to her. She was throwing peices that I thought were way too big, though. *sigh!
Tsadakah was the perfect model of what was expected of her. She stood in the middle of the bridge and threw them to the ducks bellow in the water and she made her pieces just the right size. I think it is interesting how you can see the differences in their personalities in even something as simple as feeding ducks.
Then we went to the picnic tables and at our lunches. The ducks followed us there. :( It was no fun, until a nice man showed up and game my girls a whole loaf of bread to feed them! I was grateful for his kindness. This meant; however, that they didn't eat much of their food. :) We played at the playground for only a short time. These were the highlights of this lovely day.

On Friday Tsadakah had her last day of school! It was thundering and stormy all morning. She was supposed to have a field day and play fun games and get wet followed up with an ice cream party. I went to the school and it had stopped raining but it was overcast and the ground was still very wet. The first thing was a Show What You Know and Tsadakah did well. My kids were clingy which is new for them and I wasn't expecting. MiKaylah was sitting on my lap and I thought that I was feeling quite damp. I stood up in the middle of the performance and shot into the bathroom thinking that she peed on me. Turned out that it was just rain water that had gotten on her blanket as we were going inside and then she sat on it on me. lol

 Ms. Bodine.

She had a good time though and they moved the games inside to the gym. I wasn't really helpful for anything because my kids were so clingy and dependant on me. So I got a chance to talk to the other moms. They were all so nice! They all talked about wanting to get together for the summer. I really would love to, they are great women, and Tsadakah will love seeing the people who she grew to care so much about.

That same night we went to Joes Valley. We had so much room to pack in the van! My parents were there and soon my sister, Simcah, arrived. We set up tents and made a fire. My kids were in a hurry to go to sleep so we bundled them up really well because we knew that it was going to be COLD! They totally slept through the night, I did not. I was freezing. I really think that it was the coldest night of my life. Mike and my dad could top it, but for me, it was the coldest night.

The next day we had planned a work day. We painted the shed, chopped wood, leveled ground for tents to be put and raked. It looked great and we were happy to have done it. The food was good. (I always like camping food.)

On Sunday we had a good time hanging out and we planned to do a small family testimony meeting in honor of the Lord's Sabbath. It was a good meeting and sentimental group. I feel that my testimony was strengthened just for having listened to the Spirit and baring from the soul. There is something about being with people who love you unconditionally that makes it easier to bare all your soul. Sweet spirits were shared and a unity was felt...at least I felt it. :)

Then we had an exciting surprise! Mike's cousin, Ross, came up with three horses to ride. He let us ride them and it was so fun! Eliannah would not ride at all. Tsadakah rode twice on Black Jack and Bucky. She still talks about them and now she has named her stuffed animals the same. MiKaylah loved them the most! She was so upset when she had to wait her turn to get on. She rode with mommy on Salt and we even did some trotting! She did NOT want to get off and she cried a lot when we were done.

Then we fed them a bit. It was funny because I had brought some green apples that were pretty sour. When my dad took a bit he almost spit it right back out. lol. We thought that it would be perfect to give them to the horses, but the horses didn't even like them! hahaha

All in all it was a busy and eventful week. I love all the memories that we made! What treasures memories are! :)

Sweetest sincere compliment I received lately: telling my primary class why I forgot their chart I said, "I'm not perfect." A boy said, you BeaUtiful! :D