Spider man tumbling

Mitch's tumbling class

My cute Mitch- he did pretty good at the recital, but got a little mixed up at the end. I guess we should have gone to the dress rehearsal instead of the motocross races!- oops!

Mitch, Cooper, Elijah and Kaden Taylor- not sure who is who

Mitch and his cousins Cooper and Elijah

Last night was our last "Dance with Kids" recital. It is kind of sad because we have been doing this for the past 5 years. Savanna did tumbling and dance with Nancy and Mitch has been doing tumbling for 3 years now. They have loved it! Mitchel's class this year did a Spider man routine, it was very cute. Here are some pictures from it.

Dirt Bike races for young and not so young

Reid after the race covered with dust

That is Reid coming through another check point

Reid's friend Josh

The race is on- it scared me when it started because there were so many bikes to close together but as the race went on they spread out and it didn't seem as dangerous.

Reid before he started. I tried taking several pictures of him througout the race but I kept missing him because my camera is slow and he was going so fast!

Mitch on the motorcycle and Savanna on the 4-wheeler

Here comes Mitch

Savanna taking on the hill.

And Mitch

The starting line

Savanna and Mitch

Yesterday we went to Noise Park for some dirt bike races. They had two pee-wee races that Savanna and Mitchel participated in, and the regular race that Reid participated in. Our friend and their kids also participated in the race. The kids had a lot of fun, so much fun that they can't wait for the next race. (Darn-it, I was hoping they wouldn't enjoy it so much.) The kids race was about 20 minutes, and Reid's race was 2 hours long. They had a kids race before the main race and then another one after the main race.

For the first pee wee race Mitch rode the motorcycle and Savanna rode the 4 wheeler, and then the 2nd pee wee race they traded. They were both happy to get a chance to ride the motorycle. I was really glad that both of them were pretty cautious.

So all in all it turned into a really long day out in the cold, wind, rain, snow, hail, and dust. But Reid and the kids had a lot of fun. It was just Carolina, Treyton, Grandma Mickey and me that didn't have so much fun sitting in the car for most of the day eating cheetos. But it was worth it and fun watching.

Carolina's 1st steps

Tonight as we were getting ready for bed Carolina got motivated and took her 1st few steps, she was so proud of herself. It was so cute to watch, she also went from the sitting position to standing without holding onto anything. She is growing up, I can't believe that she will be a year in 2 weeks, my baby isn't going to be a baby much longer!

Oh and if any one was interested, yes I did find my camera. It was in Mitchel's toy box!

Savanna's first piano recital

Savanna took piano lessons for the first time this year. She has done really well , it has taken a lot more time from me than I had anticipated, but I feel that it is well worth it. This is a skill I hope she will learn well and be able to use through out her life. She played 2 songs at her recital. "A Dream is a Wish" and "Arab Dance" she did very well on her songs. She is very self motivated and I haven't had to push her too hard to practice each day. A quick shout out to her teacher, Natalie Peterson- she is great- thanks Natalie!

Ready for some changes

I am really looking forward to the next couple of weeks, piano recital, tumbling recital, kindergarten graduation, and the last day of school. But mostly I am really ready for the summer to begin. I am ready to be done with getting up early every day, not being so strict with bedtime, and I have to admit homework. (Although I am going to have a summer reading schedule for my kids so that we don't do any back-tracking.) Sometimes you just need something to look forward too, and these are it for me:

1-Summer baseball, Mitch will be doing T-ball (which I am helping coach-scary), and Savanna will be doing pitching machine. I always enjoy t-ball, it gets me out socializing with all our neighbors and the kids love it! I can't believe that this is our 4th year of t-ball.

2- Summer camping trips and family reunions. These are our forms of family vacations. Even if they are just short overnighters it is just nice to get away for a day or two. I am really not much of a camper, and I sometimes think it is too much work, but the kids love it and I know that it is worth the effort for the memories that we make.

3- Flowers in my flower beds. I don't have much of a green thumb, but I really enjoy planting flowers in my front flower bed and pots and watching them take off. Reid does most of the yard work at our house, but the one thing I do is the flower beds. I love the satisfaction I get from seeing them grow.

4- Kids spending their days outside playing. It is so nice to have my kids outside playing and wearing themselves out! I love to see them riding their bikes, jumping on the tramp, running through the sprinklers, and playing with the neighbor kids. Some of the best memories I have of my childhood is doing exactly that.

5-Waterskiing. I love waterskiing. Last year I had just had Carolina and I didn't dare do it having just had a c-section. So I really hope that I have the chance to get out on the water and do some skiing.

There are a few other changes I am hoping for. I really want to get my basement finished, at very least my kids rooms. I feel very blessed to live in the nice home that we have, but one thing I don't love about it is the kids rooms are super small. I really struggle with keeping their rooms cleaned up and organized because there isn't enough space. There just doesn't seem to be enough room in their closets for all their clothes and stuff. If we could get 2 rooms done in the basement we could move the 2 oldest kids downstairs and it would eleviate this problem. I don't know how we can make this happen on a limited budget, but I am just throwing it out there.

I am also needing to change things up a bit with my own personal habits, such as reading the scriptures on a more daily basis, instead of just hit and miss. I know that this will make a huge difference in my life. I also really need to be better at my diet, I was doing so well but in the last few months I have thrown all caution to the wind and you can tell in how I fit into my pants. it is time to get back on the bandwagon.

I did take some pictures of my kids rooms yesterday, I was going to do a before, and after picture. I took one of them while they were a total mess and then I was going to take an after picture when they were all cleaned up, but somewhere along the line I have lost my camera. I know that it is in the house somewhere because I didn't go anywhere yesterday and I took those pictures while I was cleaning. So I am going to exercize faith that we will find the camera since we have all said a little prayer that we will. I will keep you posted on that.

Mother's Day!

My kids- oh how I love them!

It was a great Mother's Day this year. Reid and the kids brought me breakfast in bed and got me a new (very much needed) frying pan. I felt very appreciated and loved. We got to have dinner with Reid's family and spend time in the evening with my side of the family.

On this Mother's Day I wanted to express my gratitude for the great blessing I have of being a Mother. I know that not everyone has that opportunity, and I feel so lucky to have 4 healthy children that make me so happy. There are days that I feel so overwhelmed and I get to feeling sorry for myself because I don't get to do the things that I used to be able to do, and that my time is not my own, but I wouldn't trade the opportunity to be their Mother for the world. I am so lucky to be married to someone that treats me so great and that loves me despite my flaws. I also feel very lucky to have been raised by such a wonderful Mother, I feel very blessed to have my Mom in my life and that she is one of my best friends. Happy Mother's Day!

3 down 1 to go

After at least 6 months of offering rewards, encouraging, begging, tears, temper tantrums (from both him and me), and just plain giving up Treyton is finally potty trained. It has only been two days, but in those two days he has gone from not trying at all to taking himself to the bathroom several times a day without me even really reminding him at all and even going #2 all by himself while I was running on the treadmill.

I told him on Monday that if he didn't get potty trained he would not be able to go to Boise with us next month for our little trip we are taking. I told him he would have to stay home with Grandma while we stayed in the hotel and went swimming and he would miss all the fun. This shook him up a bit and he went from refusing to put on underwear to putting them on and doing it no problem. Today we had only 2 small accidents and they were really only half accidents because he only got his underwear a little wet before he stopped and realized what he was doing. I really think we are done with diapers for him! I am so excited, now I only have 1 more child to potty train!!! Hurray!


Sorry, I had to take a picture of him doing it, he was so proud.

Carolina was so happy about it she called everyone to tell them. Look how cute she always sits with her feet crossed like that, I love it!