The Big Recital

This past year Mickell took ballet and tumbling at Excel Dance Studio. She loved being able to go with a couple of her friends. The end of May she was able to show off all that she learned at a recital. She was in 3 different numbers... the opener, a ballet number and a tumbling number.

She did an amazing job!!! Here is Mickell before the recital in her opener costume. There were four different elements in this dance. Mickell was water.

Here she is in her tumbling costume. They danced to "Wipe Out" and wore these cute old fashioned swimsuits...
I don't have a picture of her ballet costume because it was the middle number. But, it was a bronze leotard and a really big tutu.

Here are a few pictures during the recital. I'm really wishing we had a zoom lens. Mickell is the person that the girls are holding up...
Mickell is laying down on the right of the picture...
Kell had quite the cheering section. Grandpa Sillito (Grandma was at Kayla's recital), Grandma and Grandpa Whipple, Leslie, and our family were all there to root her on.

Grandpa Whipple was moving the car so we didn't catch a picture with him

I realize we almost lost Mickell in this picture, but it's the only one we have with Grandpa Sillito

This is Tanner's "I've had just about as much makeup, tutu's, and hyper girls as I can handle in one night" face...

May 16, 2011...

a day to remember!!! Cute Hailey finally lost her first tooth. She was the only one in her class who hadn't lost one and was feeling the pressure. Hailey's tooth had been loose for quite a while. In fact, her permanent tooth was almost completely grown in behind it. The poor girl has a mom who dry heaves when she even sees her kids wiggling their teeth. So, I was of no help in trying to get it out. And to make matters worse (or better, depending on how you look at it), Hailey inherited my strong roots. So, that little bugger did not want to come out.

When the tooth finally decided to give in, Hailey was beaming. For some reason, I always get sad when my kids loose their first tooth. Nothing says that my little kid is becoming big to me more than those massive huge permanent teeth that take over my sweet little innocent child's mouth.

Thank goodness that gap is so cute or I might have cried.

Hailey was so excited to put her tooth under her pillow for the tooth fairy. Little did I know what drama would ensue in the next 24 hours. To start out with, Mickell came to me wondering why some of her friends get $10 and presents from the tooth fairy and she only gets $2. I got a little dizzy when I heard the $10 part. What on earth is the tooth fairy thinking. Does she realize that each child has a mouth FULL of teeth.

I guess the tooth fairy didn't make it to Hailey's pillow until early in the morning. Hailey said she woke up when "he" put the money under her pillow. She said that "he" had a really big hand (which I'm pretty sure "he" does). Anyways, she is now terrified of the tooth fairy. She refuses to put her teeth under her pillow... sacrificing any money she might get so that "he" will not come visit her again. Darn tooth fairy. What was "he" thinking.

Four!!!

I swear I just blogged about Hailey's fourth birthday. Crazy. So so crazy.

I don't think there's much that beats the excitement of a little kid on their birthday. Ashlyn had been anticipating her birthday for 364 days! She didn't understand why we couldn't go to Disneyland again for her birthday this year. Thank goodness swimming comes in as a close second to Disneyland on her favorite things to do.

I usually buy gifts for my kids as they come on sale throughout the year. I had all of Ashlyn's birthday presents bought back in January. However, at the last minute (her birthday morning at 7:00 AM) Baylen and I decided to get her a bike instead. We had it waiting downstairs for her when she woke up. Thank goodness she likes to sleep in. Baylen was able to make a quick run to Walmart with time to spare.
Seeing Ashlyn on such a big bike made me realize that my little baby is not so little anymore.

Ashlyn spent the morning riding her bike around the neighborhood. A little later I took her over to Boondocks to use her free unlimited pass. I couldn't convince her to do Boondocks instead of swimming. But, I also couldn't let a free pass go to waste. So, she got to do both. Lucky girl.


In the afternoon we had grandma and grandpa, Emily and Bailey over for cake, ice cream and presents. Ashlyn was really excited for them to get to our house because Baylen changed our door bell to "Happy Birthday to You."
Then we met Cherice, Raylee and Jackson at Clearfield Aquatic Center for some much anticipated swimming. Ashlyn is a little fish. She loves swimming and is sometimes a little too brave in the water. She had so much fun being there with her grandma, grandpa, aunts, and cousins.

Every hour the lifeguards make everyone get out of the pool for five minutes. Poor Bailey was beside herself. She did not understand why she couldn't swim. Not even a sucker could console her.



We sure love our little bug. She is so full of energy, personality and excitement. Happy fourth birthday, Ashlyn!

Mom's day!

Nothing beats waking up on Sunday morning to the sound of Baylen telling me to keep sleeping because he's going to get the kids ready for church. Music to my ears!!! I was super spoiled this mothers day. I got to take a nap after church and didn't have to step in the kitchen once.

The kids were all super excited to give me the cute presents that they made for me at school. Ashlyn kept giving me hints all day. She was so cute. She would say things like "It's square and has a hole in it. It starts with a p and has "icture frame" in it."

Hailey drew me a picture of the two of us and framed it herself
Tanner and Mickell both made me purses out of scrapbook paper and then made different things for the purse. Here I am listening to my paper I-pod...

Crazy Hair Day and Dinner Guests

Tanner and Mickell had a crazy hair day for fourth grade. They were both super excited to show their wild sides.

Boyd and Terry have basically been world travelers the past several months. Because they were going to be gone on a Caribbean cruise over mother's day, we decided to invite them over for dinner to celebrate before they left. We took a few pictures while they were here that I thought were blog worthy :)



They were going to be gone for Ashlyn's birthday, too, so grandma brought a birthday cake for dessert!

Easter

For the first time in our married life, we spent Easter at home this year. It was very strange, actually, having to think about putting together an entire dinner. We had a great day, though!

Because we have church at 9:00, our Easter egg hunt started super early...
We were in such a rush that we didn't really get pictures!

After church we made resurrection rolls and went to the temple to take pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes. Unfortunately, Baylen had the camera set on raw. So, until I figure out how to change the pictures to a different format, this is all I have...
You'll have to trust me that we ended up getting some cute ones.

Later that evening we had a BBQ (I know, not traditional Easter food) and then watched Tangled. Baylen was suppose to be to work at 7:00. But, they put him on call and he ended being called in at 10:00. It worked out perfectly to be able to spend the evening as a family.

Easter Eve

We had our annual Easter party at grandma and grandpa Whipple's house on the day before Easter. It was a lot of fun, as always!

The kids loved dying eggs with their cousins...

I understand now why Hailey's hands were nice and blue for church on Sunday :)
Then we had a fun egg hunt that grandma and Leslie put together for the kids...


Baylen loved having models that weren't sick of smiling for the camera...

Ari
Bailey

Raylee
Of course we had our egg cracking contest...
Grandma won the coveted trophy this year!!!

Ashlyn remembered our robin's egg lipstick from last year and insisted on getting a picture ("because that's what we did last year!" she said.)