S.Y.T.Y.C.D.

While we were watching Wednesday's episode of "So You Think You Can Dance" they had a new hip hop choreographer on. We were listening to the choreographer describe the dance and then they panned over to the choreographer and much to our surprise and delight...it was Tessandra. Emma was lucky enough to attend a dance convention in March and her hip hop choreographer was Tessandra. She was Emma's favorite teacher that day. Emma was a little disappointed that she didn't teach them the same dance she learned at convention :)

WATCH OUT NIGEL AND MARY MURPHY!

The long week and half of dance is finally over with a very happy ending!

The first 2 weeks of June is always crazy for us with dance rehearsals, recitals, anniversary, twins birthday, dance try-outs and everything else that goes in between. This year in Emma's recitals she danced in 9 different dances and she was lovin' every second of it. She had dress rehearsals last Friday from 12pm until 7pm and then we were down there on Saturday for the recital from 10:30am and didn't get home until 10:45pm. (THANK YOU to all the grandparents for babysitting our boys in shifts for us!!) I was exhausted by the end of it but Emma she was only sad she would never do those dances again and wanted to do more!

Here is Emma in the only picture I took during the dress rehearsals doing Hip Hop.Here is Emma with one of the dance studio owners, Stacia (she is in an 80's rock costume, that is not her normal dress attire - ha ha).We had never seen Emma do tap or ballet before and we were so impressed. She made us especially proud when we watched her ballet, knowing how much she used to complain about ballet, she did really well and always remembered the little details that got forgotten by some of the other girls. My friend, Brooke, took some amazing ballet pictures of her!! (Sorry there is a lot of them, I couldn't choose my favorites but you're welcome for not posting all 87 of them - ha ha.)Then on Monday they had their big end of the year party at Sunsplash and she had the time of her life. Eli and I went too and my little buddy was in heaven. After I realized how responsible Emma and her friends were being, I loosened the purse strings a bit and let her leave my side and go off with her friends and they were always very good about checking in with one of us adults so we always knew where they were. It was kinda nice to let her be with her friends because she was loving it and then it gave me and Eli a chance for some one on one time and I loved it! I love that guy!!! Emma got her much anticipated trophy and wanted me to quickly run it out to the car before anything happened to it.

Tuesday was her day off from dance and then Wednesday we were back at the studio learning her new routine for try-outs. She really wanted to make the All-Star team this year. The All-Star team is the studios best team. They do not dance at half-time shows, parades or anything that we did last year, they only compete at competitions. They save their best dancers for this team because that is who is out there competing and that is who represents the studio.

Saturday morning finally came and Emma was so nervous. I have never seen her like this before. We said a little prayer together as a family before she went that she would relax and do her best. I watched her wait outside the door to go in before the judges. They get into groups of 4 and go try-out before a panel of 4 judges (the 2 owners and 2 people who don't know these little girls so there is no favoritism). I only wish I had my camera to have taken a picture of her to capture her whole demeanor. It was something that I have never seen before. I just kept smiling at her, giving her thumbs up and telling her how great she would be. The doors opened and she went inside. They keep the blinds closed so you have to find the perfect crack to stare through and I found my spot. That girl went in there and rocked it like I have never seen before. She had her big 'ol smile on, got her splits down all the way flat (that has been a loooooong time coming and she just got them a couple of weeks ago), did all of her technique things they wanted them to do and danced her little heart out! She came out a completely different girl from the one who went in there. She couldn't have been happier! I pulled her aside and let her know how proud I was of her (I was texting her dad the whole time telling him everything that was going on) and whispered to her that she got her splits down the best! She whispered back, "Miss Andrea (one of the owners) watched me the whole time and never took her eyes off of me!"

They post the results later that night at 8pm they say, but everyone knows it is usually before that. We kept checking the website all day long before Brylee's recital and Janette's baptism. At one point in the afternoon Emma decided she didn't want to get her hopes up so she said to me, "I don't think I want to make All-Stars anymore, I just want to be in Heartbreakers." I knew that wasn't true but I just smiled and said, "whatever you want to do!" (Ok, I confess, I got a text message right before Brylee's recital started while we were sitting in our seats and it said that they had posted the results. I wrote back, "crap, I am not home, can you look and tell me what Emma made?" They sent the magical message back, "she is in All-Stars!" Thank heavens the lights were out because I shed a couple of tears of joy, my baby had worked her butt off and tried her hardest and it had paid off!! I couldn't let on that I knew and I had to wait until we got home and could look on the computer together as a family with her dad standing there too.)

The big moment had arrived. The 3 of us gathered around the computer and I clicked on the lowest group, her name wasn't there. "That's weird Em, you aren't here....let's check the other group." We then clicked on the other group and her name wasn't there either. "Em, I wondered where your name is?" With a very concerned look on her face she turns to me and says, "can we call them? maybe they forgot to put my name on there by accident?" Then I click on the All-Stars, with the biggest smile on my face and tears in my eyes I turn to her and say, "Em, you've made the All-Stars!" I can't remember exactly what happened next but I do recall a lot of jumping up and down, high pitch screaming, Miss Em congratulating herself over and over and looking up and Jared and seeing the pride in his eyes for her as well.

We loaded the family up in the Armada and went out to dinner in celebration on her huge accomplishment. She has been on cloud 9 ever since and can't stop staring at her dance schedule. Emma, your dad and I couldn't be more proud of you. You worked soooo hard for this and wanted it so bad and you were able to achieve it. You are amazing. Keep up the good/hard work!

(there is a video of her recital on the side under the video section. I only showed a few of her dances because youtube only allows for 10 minute videos. I am not trying to make excuses but, these are taped from the dress rehearsals and the Hip Hop number they cut short at the last minute and that's why the girls look a little confused, the tap routine hadn't been practiced in 3 weeks and her teacher wasn't there with the right music or props or to remind them what to do, so don't judge based on this - the recital was amazing and the studio really is fantastic! I didn't even post her best dances.)

THE TWINS TURN TWO!

2 really?! My babies are officially not babies anymore and I am really sad about that.

My friend tried to take pictures for me of the twins but as you can see, 2 babies the age of 2 - not that easy :) But I still love the pictures because it totally captures their personalities.

Looking at each otherThe next few Tyler decided he didn't want to cooperate so he turned his back to all of us.Smiley Tyson and Serious TylerTyler is a hard kid to make smile. If he doesn't feel like it, he is not going to (he is stubborn like Uncle RJ and Grandpa Rodgers). But, when Tyler decides to let his smile show, the kid lights up a room! Here is a very typical Tyler face.Here is a very typical Tyson face, pretty chill and easy going.I took the kids to the summer movies today so we could do something fun for the twins birthdays. They both did really well, we made it through the whole movie. Tyson sang for about 20 minutes of it but we still made it. (Bless my Denise and Stephanie's hearts for putting up with us and for helping!) Jared came home from work early and took the twins to Krispy Kreme's to get their free dozen donuts each! The boys had one yesterday for an afternoon snack, one right before they went to bed and one when they woke up this morning but it took them a lot longer to eat this morning - I think they are starting to hit donut overload :)

This year we decided to have a very chill birthday party. Last year we had 96 people at their party so this year 9 people sounded much better, which really came down to our little family of 6 plus the grandparents. We opened presents, ate their favorite dinner spaghetti and had dessert! We bought the boys their own giant cupcake from the bakery so they could do what they wanted with it, they enjoyed it to the fullest!Right before it was time for bed they wanted another donut. (Tyson was introduced to corn on the cob and wanted to eat his second one before he ate his second donut).Happy Birthday to my babies! Life would be very dull without you two around to spice things up! We hope that as you continue to grow up you will continue to be as good of friends with each other as you are now. Thank you for always getting snacks for each other, sharing your sodas with each other, holding hands, hugging and kissing each other (with open mouths - ha ha) making each other laugh while you are in your cribs and wrestling the poo out of each other but knowing when to stop :) We love you two!!!

Tyler: 26.2 pounds and 34.5 inches tall
Tyson: 25.5 pounds and 33.5 inches tall

PS - I have been thinking about a way to make some extra money to help pay for Emma's dance and Eli's preschool and soccer...how about I go into the cake decorating business?! This is the twins birthday cake - its a giant cupcake - can't you tell?! ha ha!! Sorry babies.

10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

Every year for our Anniversary Jared and I go and stay at a resort in Scottsdale, just to get away for 24 hours and remember why we love each other so much. This year though, because we went on a cruise we decided not to stay anywhere.

For the first time ever we went to the Temple on our anniversary and did sealings. It was really neat to go back to the same room and do sealings were we were sealed 10 years ago to the day. I definitely wasn't as pretty as I was 10 years ago but I certainly wasn't as nervous this time around either! ha ha.

After that we went to the traditional Temple attendance treat for lunch and got ourselves Ned's. We ate it there instead of picking it up and eating it at my parents house. I don't think Jared has actually ever eaten his food inside that place before.

Then we went back home and exchanged gifts. I bought Jared some new clothes (which is what he wanted) and he got me what I wanted...a garmin!! woo hoo!! I swear this thing is going to help me shave some serious time off my next half marathon - mark my words :)Later that night I made reservations at a new place our friends recommended to us, White Chocolate Grill. It was very relaxing, quite enjoyable and delicious. it took us about 45 minutes to drive there - well worth the drive - but it will be one of those places we go to on a special occasion not just to get away for dinner for an hour :)

This first 10 years have been amazing and better than I could have ever imagined it would be.

LAST DAY OF 2ND GRADE!

Emma had a great last week of 2nd grade. One day her dad went in and with the help of another dad they did the JA Day together. Emma was so excited to have him come in and teach for the day. They ended up going out to lunch but because she has such a short lunch period, they ended up eating at Bashas in their little deli area.On Friday they had the traditional 2nd grade luau. Emma loved it. I enjoyed being able to go and help out. Each class came through Emma's classroom and sooo many of the kids knew who Emma was and seemed to really like her. I liked it when one of the kids said, "is she the one that always has her hair up?" Yup! That's my Emma, it is way to hot to wear your hair down AND she will come home like a scrapper if its not up and out of her face. (Here is Emma doing the beach blanket musical chairs - the boy who has a crush on her (according to his mom) beat her out of her spot).I put a sign out on the front door, "Welcome Home 3rd Grader" (like I do every year when she comes home with some streamers and balloons) and Eli and I opened the door and shouted hooray and she was crying. Lucky me and the drama. She was so upset that she won't have Mrs. Meyn any more, she won't see her friends anymore, Sabrina only has 2 years left there and Maddy only has 3 years left. Wow. Seriously?! After a good talkin' to things got better. Later on Miss Emma got in trouble for something and we gave her another little talk and it ended with her in tears saying, "why don't I just break something and die!" Then Jared looks at me and asks, "did she just start her period?" Seriously!!!! The teenage years are going to be horrible!!! Then all was better and she had her friend stay the night to start off summer on a good note.

SNAGGLE TOOTH NO MORE!

A week ago Tyson was outside with his brothers, dad and uncles when he fell on his head, yes directly on the top of his head on the cement. Jared came in holding him and you could tell Tyson had been crying but it didn't seem like a big deal and Jared didn't make it out to be. So the rest of us carried on with what we were doing. Then the uncles came in to see how he was doing and make sure he was still alive - they couldn't believe what had happened. Long story short, the only real damage to him was that his left front tooth had split right up the center and half of it was missing. We figured it was a lost cause and he must have swallowed it but Uncle RJ came in and found the missing part. (This is the best picture I could find showing part of his tooth, see the space and the sharp edge?)That night we took him to Dr. Parry to see if there was anything that we should do about it and he suggested we come in to see him tomorrow and he would try and fix it when all his patients were gone. We went down there and Tyson did OK. He was good for the first part and then it was all down hill after that. Needless to say, after pinning him down, holding him down, laying on top of him to stay down, we left with the same ugly snaggle tooth that we came in with.I decided oh well, not that big of a deal, it could be worse. But then the more I thought about it, the more I realized he would be like that for another 4 -5 years, yuck! Then, Dr Parry pointed out that he has a greater chance for a cavity right there and then that would result in the ugly silver tooth - IN THE FRONT OF HIS MOUTH!!! yuck. Something else had to happen.

A week later we decided to try it again, this time we went and his appointment was at 8am and he woke up extra early that day and was super happy. Right before we left for the dentist we drugged him up with a little Benedryl and he sat there in the car seat stoned all the way to the dentist.

He did fantastic!!! (Tyson and Dr. Parry) I laid down with him, he put the laughing gas on again and we decided to scrap the tooth piece that we had since there was another piece we were missing and just create a fake tooth on top of the real one he had left (I am not a dentist so I am sorry I am dumbing this down and not using correct terms).Tyson completely cooperated this time and his tooth is seriously amazing! You would never even know anything had happened. Phew, being the vain mother that I am, I can rest well tonight.

A NEW TEMPLE TRADITION!

With the dedication of the Gila Valley Temple and all the excitement of them canceling church (so we can watch the dedication live via satellite); and then actually having a child old enough to go, it got me really excited about the whole event. We were happy to have the opportunity to take Emma to the dedication and get to experience it with her. We bought for Emma her own hanker-chief and had her name embroidered on it with the dedication date. We think it will be a fun tradition to add the date of all the Temple Dedications she attends. Hopefully the Phoenix and Gilbert dedication dates will be added soon.