MY FIRST BAKE SALE!

Today was my first adventure in a bake sale! I never did do one as a kid (at least I don't remember so if I did, I am really sorry mom). Emma and Maddy have been dying to make some money and they weren't quite sure how to do it. First, Emma wrote up a super cute sign for everyone to come and get manicures and pedicures for a dollar, I told her that we were not good enough to charge for that. Second, she wanted to teach dance lessons to little girls, I told her sorry on that one too. Then she agreed to go to grandma's house and do work there for some money, but when she went there they ended up shopping, playing and sewing instead. Finally we came up with the idea to have a bake sale.
Today was really the only day we could do it so we had it today, despite the 113 degree weather. It worked out perfectly though because all of our little kids were gone at a little day camp so it was just the two girls at home. They stayed up till 10:30pm last night baking cookies, mini cupcakes and rice krispy treats (truth be told, Steph and I made everything, the girls played with Eli but they at least did do the rice krispy treats themselves). Our husbands thought we were crazy and that we should just give them the money and save us all this time and effort, but since they really wanted to work and we wanted to create a memory for them, we did it.
The next day we headed off to our prime bake selling corner of Gilbert and Ocotillo and set up camp there. We got there about 10:30am and opened for business at 11am. We had our first customers and they got the ball rolling for the girls right when we opened. The girls were pumped! We had someone loan us better shade than what we had, we had a friend bring us all drinks to keep us cool (who comes to a bake sale and brings you a treat and buys treats from you? Amazing!) We had so many great people from the ward come by and support our girls, we couldn't thank them enough! We even had half a dozen strangers pull over on the side of the road and purchase from them. It really meant a lot to us!Maddy even came up with a little song in honor of the bake sale: "My hands are really sticky. but our bake sale is so pretty. I hope they aren't that picky because my hands are really sticky!"When it was finally over (2 1/2 hours later) and we had packed it all up and counted all the monies, the girls couldn't have been more thrilled! They wanted enough money to go and have a girls day together before school started and they certainly earned that. Now their only problem is how to spend it :)
Even though it was really hot, I would gladly do this again. Emma learned that you have to work hard for your money, she gets to pay tithing for the first time and it really showed her how much everyone loves her and Maddy!

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!

So I am a little late in posting this - oops. Emma has a great teacher at school and is lucky enough to loop again with her and she is so excited about that. Since Chandler is year round school, the kids have to go back to school for 2 days after Memorial Day. The learning is over by then so Emma's teacher does a special "Camp-wanna-be-****" (sorry, I don't want people knowing what school my child goes to, she is too pretty and I don't want her stolen, ha ha!) Anywho, they make tents, have a a campfire lunch, receive care packages from home, write letters to their parents and tell them how camp is going, etc tons of different activities and they even have a class talent show where every child is encouraged to do something. Seeing as how the school wouldn't let her do her solo, her fun teacher let her play her song in the classroom and she rocked it there. When I came in to watch one of the parents even told me that their son had come home and told her how Emma was so good and she steals the show! She was super excited about dancing and she did a great job, all the parents were really impressed with her. She got straight A's of course and had an excellent 3rd grade year! Way to go Emma!

3 YEARS OLD!

We have survived the twins for 3 years now or is it that the twins have survived all of us for 3 years?! hmmm. Either way, holy crap my babies are 3! I suppose when the other kids turned 3 I decided they were officially not babies anymore, but these guys are my babies and I think even when they leave on missions, graduate high school, get married and have their own babies, they will still be my babies.
The night before their birthdays I got out the stuff to decorate and Eli was so cute and wanted to help and immediately ran and put away Emma's DSI so he could decorate with me, he NEVER puts it away until he is told to. Eli even colored/scribbled a sign for them and put blue on there for Tyson and green on there for Tyler since those appear to be the boys favorite colors.
When they woke up the next morning Eli and Emma brought them out to a big pile of presents all wrapped up and they quickly dove in and started unwrapping.While they were playing with their toys, I grabbed their birth certificates and headed off to Krispy Kreme for my 2 dozen free donuts and yes, we ate all 24 donuts but it did take us 24 hrs to do so :)(We found Eli pouting in his room because he couldn't play with the twins new toys, ha ha!)Next we were headed off to Basha pool to go and play. I hesitated doing this knowing that Tyson would love it, but Tyler would hate it and it was both of their special days. In the end Basha pool won because I couldn't come up with anything else to do. Eventually Tyler got brave and then went buck wild in the water with the other kids. We only stayed 2 hrs because even though it was 97 degrees outside for whatever reason the babies were shivering so we left.
They got their new beach toys and filled them up with water and played out front while Jared washed my car, then they had lunch and took a nap for just over 3 hours.Finally we woke them up so we could head off to dinner. We went to Joe's Farm Grill and the boys ran around outside while we waited for our food, its the perfect place for our family to eat, they don't have to be totally quiet and still, everyone enjoys the fresh air and the food is pretty dang good too. We finally made it home at 9pm and put the boys to bed.The next day the birthday celebration continued. Papa came over and brought the boys some presents and then later that night we ended up having the 2 grandmas over for dessert since grandpa was home sick. The boys played and played all night long. It was a great birthday weekend!

11 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

Well, it wasn't our best anniversary, ok it was our worst, but that's ok, we still love each other :) Every year we go away for the night and stay at a resort except for this year and 3 years ago when the twins were born 3 days later and my sister left on her mission a day after. Next year, back to our tradition of staying the night at a resort, far from regular life and just hanging out together. We still went to dinner and a movie, but that's basically it. If you say 11 years it seems like a long time, but if I look back on our lives together, it doesn't seem like a long time. I remember our wedding day perfectly. We have had a great life together and I look forward to forever with this man.

RECITAL 2011!

I am exhausted. Who knew recital weekend would kick my butt so hard, I am not a choreographer, dancer, booth seller, nothing. Just a mom who has to stay there all day and do 17 costume changes and watch her kid dance. My feet are killing me and I am dang tired, I guess I am old.

Friday we had dress rehearsal for 5 hours and Saturday we were down there from 9:45am - 9:30pm. We rotated through babysitters all day, starting with Grandma Jensen, then Rj and Jen and ending with Grandpa and Grandma Rodgers. We ordered party subs for lunch to feed all the sitters and pizzas at night for the sitters. I am very excited about it because that was our food today as well :)

Emma did a great job as usual. She never disappoints. She has so much energy and could have danced a lot longer. She is growing so much as a dancer and I love to watch how far she has come. We got some extra tickets this year so we were able to invite out a lot of supporters for her. All of her grandparents came, the Sly girls came, even her school teacher came. Her BFF danced in the recital this year too so her family cheered her on along with my cousin's family who were there to watch their daughter. We had front row seats, best seats ever. I am sorry I didn't get pictures of everyone who came, I kinda dropped the ball big time after the first recital, oops. Emma had to be like all the other girls and get the trendy new feather in her hair, I guess instead of congratulations flowers, she can have a feather :)Way to go Emma, you sure did make us proud! (For the sake of posterity, here are the dances she did: Money (jazz), Never Fully Dressed (jazz), Eternity (lyrical), Grease (production number), When I Get You Alone (tap), Kissing Dolls (ballet), Toy Story (hip hop), Fireworks (contemporary), Blow (opener).

GRAD, GRAD, GRADUATION...

day is finally here, we learned so much the whole year through, graduation's here! My 2nd child graduated from LMNOPreschool with Ms. Nikkii! She is such an amazing teacher who really gets our kids started off on the right foot. (I am sorry Eli, that it has taken me so long to do this post, but I was wanting your dad to put up video and I guess I will just blog without it - of course it's not his fault, I haven't asked him to yet, ha ha).

This year's theme for graduation was Circus Clowns. All the kiddos had to enter in doing a special clown trick, Eli walked in backwards, so tricky :)Then they sang a few songs to us...next they put on their clown noses and sang to us...they each had to do a special circus trick and Eli was the fire jumper (before we left for school, he told us he had to wear his shoes (not flip flops) so he could jump through it)...All the ladies want a piece of EliMs. Nikkii put each child in the spotlight and talked about them for a couple of minutes, he was so nervous with everyone looking at him...then she told everyone what each child's favorite class cheer was, Eli picked the "roller coaster" cheer...mostly I posted this picture because I thought he was so dang cute and I just want to squeeze him...Allie, Braxton, Felicity, Eli and KennaAt the very end of the graduation, Ms Nikkii played a video she made with pictures taken throughout the year of the kiddos. It always makes me get a little watery eyed to see how much they have grown and how much she does for them. WE LOVE MS NIKKII!!!We love you so much buddy and Ms. Nikkii that we can't wait to send you back to her school in 2 months! Actually you are pretty excited to because you keep asking to go back already!