The Dance Recital 2009

This years Spring Dance Recital for Jenna and Melissa was a lot of fun! I think now that Jayden is getting older, and will mostly just sit and watch, it makes it easier to just sit and enjoy the show. I didn't get any close-up shots of Melissa, she had to be there early and then my camera battery was completely dead by the time we left. However, here is Jenna in her cute costume. And of course with her cute make-up and hair! {Which is one of her favorite things about the recital, that and they get a trophy at the end.}

Like I said, for the most part, Jayden was happy to sit and watch...

I know that alot of these dances you've already seen from the competitions, but I figured for posterity sake, I would include Melissa's dances here in the order that they appeared in the program. They started off with the show tune, which was titled "So you think you can dance" and was just a hodge-podge of different types of dances that the different competition groups did, and this was Melissa's group Hip Hop routine:

Jenna's first number was "Under the Sea". She is the last one in the line on the right. And like I said, Jayden was good most of the time, this just happens to not be it!

So here is a better look!

This is Melissa's Jazz number "Whine up" like I said, I've posted it before so I kept it kind of short:

Here is Melissa's Lyrical number:

This was Jenna's secong number called "Miracles" she is the third one from the left this time:

And the last number for the evening was Melissa's "Get Your Head in the Game"

Spencer's Class Program

Spencer's first grade class did an end of the year program showing off all the stuff they learned this year. And it turned out to be your typical first grade program. The kids go up to the microphone and you can't understand a single word they are saying, they go through ALL sorts of random stuff and they sing songs, (some a little louder than others). And you as the parent just sit and giggle through the entire thing because they do the funniest things. And if I were a better photographer with a quick finger I could have gotten it all! But here are the highlights: Spencer got to hold the sign for the KN song. They did three of the classes favorite phonics songs they learned this year and Spencer held up a picture of a knight. {Melany do you remember singing the A is for A-choo song in kindergarten? That's what it made me think of!}

Then there was Spencer's speaking part, above is the first part and below is the second half (thanks to my camera's ability to only catch 30 seconds at a time). The poem he is doing is Shel Silverstein's poem "Smart".

This was just a funny song that they were singing... I love how at one point Spencer points at his face to smile and then he realizes that is just his teacher telling the class to smile.

And finally to finish it off, this was the last song and I thought the dancing they did was quite funny! The song is about a space worm FYI.

Good job Spencer!

Jayden's new word

Steve taught Jayden a new word...

For those of you who can't understand it, it's "antidisestablishmentarianism".

Yum!

Spencer and his friend made some cookies the other day. They were an 'experiment'. They took a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe and then added some extra stuff to it, and I have to say, they turned out much better than any cookie I've ever made! From the picture you can kind of see the flour all over his shirt. It took us a good hour to clean up the kitchen when they were done. And it included a good scrubbing of the floor too!

Melissa's California Report

With the school year approaching the end, we have been busy at our house getting things all wrapped up. And one of the major things has been Melissa's state report. I am proud of her for doing the majority of it on her own. She would sit down at the computer figure all her stuff out, and then I would look it over when she was done. Then Steve would re-look it over because I am not so great with the proof-reading-type stuff. She did California for her report. Which was nice because I already know quite a bit about that place having lived there for my first 17 years. She was a little nervous before the presentation...
But when she got up there and got talking, she became a natural!
When she was finished, she said that she could have gone on forever, but they were only given 15 minutes and she took all of it. I tried to take some video of her power point part of the presentation, but as you can see, Jayden thinks the camera belongs to him, and it just wasn't working. Her power point was quite impressive. Things have sure come a long way!

Since you asked...

Since Lisa asked what the other 61 pictures were of that I downloaded, I thought I would oblige! There were 33 like this: 18 of Spencer practicing his Piano:

Two of Melissa's old art project from the 3rd grade:

I actually think Melissa took this picture. We had her go through all her stuff again this last weekend to see if she really wanted to keep it all, and sometimes when she decides she no longer wants it, she will take a picture of it just to remember it and I will stick the picture in her scrapbook.

And then there were 8 other shots of us sitting on my Mom's couch. Our ward is putting out a directory of the families with pictures included, and we needed a picture. This was the winning shot! Thanks Heather!

And yes, that adds up to 61! Thanks for asking!

A budding Photographer

I was kind of surprised when I went to download pictures from my camera and it said that there were 61 photos to download! Seeing as how I took my camera to my mom's yesterday for Memorial day and didn't take any pictures, I thought I would only find like 10 pictures. However, Jayden had gotten ahold of my camera again. Even took some pictures of Spencer practicing his piano...

Notice the great form!

Actually this picture got Spencer in trouble because he should have known better that Jayden can't play with the camera. And should have kindly gotten the camera away from Jayden. Because as much as I want a new camera right now, there are a hundred other things I would rather be buying.

Where has my baby gone?

I have to admit, for as much as a pain as Jayden can be sometimes, one area that I have totally lucked out on is his easiness for taking naps. I tell you what when this kid is tired, he is tired and he wants a nap. Many times, it is Jayden who will tell me that he is ready to go night night. The other day, I set a goal to get certain things done by the time Jayden went down for a nap so that I could 'play' when he was sleeping. I usually put him down at 1:30 and for some reason that day at 1:00 he was begging to go down for a nap. I told him that I needed to get some more cleaning done first and he started to throw a fit to take a nap! And being the fantastic mom I am I told him no. He had to wait until I got the family room picked up and vacuumed. To which he said, "okay!" and helped me pick up the toys.

However, this one area that he is EASY in, does not make up for the little escape job he did in the store yesterday. We were at the grocery store and I had one of the shopping carts with the police cars in the front for the kids to drive around in. I try not to stop for too long at any one place so that he will stay in the car, however at one point he jumped out (while the cart was moving) and then went running off down the ailse pulling sale signs off of the shelves. All the while laughing and thinking it was so funny that mom was running after him and just couldn't quite catch him all that quickly. So, I think after an episode {and there's always an episode} like that I deserve this.... Followed by only a few minutes later, this...

And yes, he's still in a crib. I know that he is almost 2 and a half, but I have no need to hurry him out of the crib, (no baby in waiting that is) so why rush? I know that as soon as he gets potty trained I will sadly have to put him in a bed, but I am in no hurry to rush that either. I think that I will just enjoy the fact that he's my baby as much as I can.

Why I haven't posted in a week...

Let's just put it this way.... I am a bad mom... My kids got majorly sunburned last week. You can still see a little of the rosyness under Jenna's eyes, but man, it was bad, and looking at them everyday, just made me so sad. You just don't think about sunscreen so much right at the first of the season. Jayden was probably the worst, he doesn't look as bad here, but it was so bad, his ears were blistered. I haven't posted because I didn't want to take pictures of my kids doing anything. I know, it's vanity on my part, but I could just imagine DCFS coming to my house and taking my kids their burns were THAT bad.

However, now we are in the peeling stage. And my kids are faithfully putting on sunscreen. Melissa has even been having me spray her with sunscreen before she goes to school because they are having a kickball tournament at school and they are spending a lot of time outside. So here's your friendly reminder for the summer: don't forget your sunscreen!

A late Easter post

Since we were driving home from Arizona on Easter, we didn't actually go to church on Easter. However, I did get the kids some Easter outfits and here they are... Of course Jayden's shirt only stayed tucked in until the church parking lot. Jenna (I know it isn't the typical "Easter" type dress, but the pastel colors kind of wash her out)

Spencer (and yes, the boys shirts match, except Spencer's is a lighter blue than Jayden's)

Here's Melissa. Only I should have gotten a picture of here cute shoes that she had on. She's growing up so fast!

And of course the group shot! I think this just might wind up in our Christmas card!