Sunday, May 31, 2015

Motherhood

Happy Mother's Day! I was not a girl who grew up fantasizing about being a mom. I was a tomboy. And I was good at school. I dreamed of becoming a dentist, and having kids seemed like a fun side job.

And then I had Brandon. 

And my worldview changed more abruptly than I could have imagined. I immediately wanted to do everything that I could to focus my life being the best mom that I could.

The Relief Society Declaration teaches that "We find nobility in motherhood and joy in womanhood." That is how I feel! I love being a mom to Brandon, Whitney, and Caroline. I love the lessons that I learn and the joy that I find in serving them.

And I'm grateful that I get spoiled every year on Mother's Day. :)






Sunday, May 24, 2015

Talented

Miss Whitney decided to audition for her school talent show this year as a group tap dance number. All these girls take dance with Miss Shelley and she choreographed a super cute number for them.

Practicing in the hall before tryouts. 

Group hug and prayer.

They are such a cute group of girls and we were thrilled to hear that they made the show! (Whitney also tried out with a ballet solo, which didn't make it. But that optimistic girl chose to focus her excitement on the number that was chosen, rather than being bummed that her other number wasn't. Love that.)

Show time!
In the "green room" with the other talented kids 

Ready for their turn on stage! 

Whit's bestie, L, was one of the MC's.
They'll be attending different middle schools next year.
I'm trying not to think too much about that.

The teachers were the first number.
So fun to see a different side of them 
outside of their classrooms.
 Whit's teachers: Mrs. E and Mrs. H

Care Bear's teacher, Mrs. D. 

The principal and assistant principal.
Gooooooo Team!

Then it was turn for our girls!
It was such a fun number and they did great!
I'm including two videos.
This first one is from dress rehearsal.
Whit forgot her tights that day.
And some teachers walked in front of my camera.

But at least you get a decent view of the girls.

This one is from the night of the show.
Fun to hear the crowd excitement in the background.

So proud of Whitney. She has really progressed as a dancer this year. I've loved watching her grow. And I'm happy that she enjoys sharing her talent, too!

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Soccer girl

This spring, Caroline decided to give soccer a try. She was put on the Sun Devils. The coaches are great and the other girls are, too. The bad thing? They practice on Sundays. Boo. I e-mailed the director to try to get her switched to another team, but he never responded. Double boo. They also practice on Wednesdays, so she made it to half the practices. The other lame thing about this season is that they scheduled two of her eight games over spring break, while we were in Florida. And she was sick for one other game.

So, while she missed out on a lot, she did so well in the games and practices she made it to!

Off she goes!
She was SO excited for her first practice.
She could hardly contain herself.
And it didn't disappoint. 
She loved it.

She is in a girls-only league.
And they keep score.
So, it's a little more serious.
And not so much, "Everybody plays!"
Her first couple of games,
she spent a lot of time here.
On the bench.
She didn't seem to mind.
(Maybe her parents did...)

She was happy when it was her turn to take the field!

Unfortunately, she wasn't very well prepared for game play.
Her coaches had told her to stay on that corner of the goal box.
And she is good at following directions!

She would kick the ball if it came right to her.
And it did a couple of times. :)

After some private coaching sessions with her Dad,
she got the hang of the game.
She almost always plays defender.
And she is GOOD.

She is aggressive and will go right after the ball.



And her team is GOOD, too.
They went 6-0-2 (ties) in the regular season.
Woo hoo!

She's in the age bracket where they have an
end-of-season tournament.
Exciting!
We had a bye the first round and
automatically got to play in the semi-finals.
We won that game and got ready for the championship.

We played Cotton Candy, a really good team.
(All the other teams had cute girly names like Purple Dragonflies...
how did we end up with the Sun Devils???)
Anyway, it was a very intense game.
Some of those soccer moms are WAYYYYY too passionate
about 7-year-old rec league games.
It makes me sad to hear the things they yell at their kids.



Caroline took a ball to the face in the second half and had
to sit out for a little while. I was afraid she wouldn't want
to come back in, but she bounced right back.

 The game was tied 3-3 as time was winding down.
But we managed to score before time expired.
And the Sun Devils won it all!

 Yippee!
What a fun end to Caroline's first season!

 Trophy time




One of her little besties even came to watch.
And a sweet mom made those posters
for all of the girls!

Celebrating with frozen yogurt.

Can it get any better than that? Undefeated and league champions in your first season? Here's the crazy thing...Caroline tell us she doesn't want to play soccer next season. What? Why? "I don't know. I just don't want to." Yet, when Andrew asked her what she liked about playing soccer, she told him, "Everything!" We don't get it. We're hoping she'll change her mind before fall sign-ups. :) In the meantime, she has set up a small shrine in her bedroom with her trophy, shin guards, and cute yellow soccer socks.

Monday, May 4, 2015

What April Looked Like

I had a service guy come clean out my dryer vent.
He taught me all about fire safety.
And gave me his no-longer-serviceable fire extinguishers
for the kids to experiment with.

Awesome!



Caroline's shout out to her Hispanic heritage

The first pedicure of the season

Ready to road trip!


One of the yummy new recipes I tried:
Greek salad with tortellini.
I loved it.
Too bad not everyone in the family did.





Another new recipe:
chocolate mint brownies.
Oh my deliciousness.

Love the spring green popping everywhere.

Perfect weather for sidewalk chalk art

Lunch with Bea

Our sweet sister missionaries
heart attacked our door.

Skate night


One of Whitney's awesome birthday gifts--
a knitting loom that is amazing!

Sunday afternoon board game








I LOVE fireworks that explode into shapes,
like this star. 

Sure sign of a successful day at Disney. :) 

BayMax 

My crazy girls didn't want to stand in line to get their picture
with Cinderella's carriage! I almost waited in line without them. :) 




See that hippo swimming with the fish? Cool. 


B is taller than Mickey!
Who do they have in there? 

Daisy was a bit over-affectionate for Whitney's taste.

Still side by side. Awwww...so cute.