"Pale Storm"....

Tonight we had quite the storm. It even starting hailing! I have not seen wind like we were having in a while. I was worried about the new paint on the house and Matt was worried about his car that was parked outside. I had some of our bikes out and random things cluttering his side of the garage that he parks on. Then Matt mentioned that it was a little scary because these are some of the conditions when a tornado hits. So we start putting everything in the garage in it's place so we could hurry and pull his car in. I couldn't believe how loud the hail was against the garage. The kids got a little nervous seeing us rush around and when they heard Matt say tornado they really started to panic! So when Matt finally pulled into the garage we came in and both Luke and Emma had their 72 hour kit back packs on! :) Emma said she was ready for the "pale storm". How cute is that...they were prepared! It seemed to calm them once they had the back packs on...If ye are prepared ye shall not fear!

New Home!!!!!

OK we didn't get a new home, but it feels like it! We had our house painted!!!!!! Here in Florida it is a necessity every 10 years or so. Not only because your house starts to look faded and gross, but also the stucco starts to crack and then if hurricanes hit you can expect water intrusion. Our house was starting to show the cracks and we decided it was time. I had the hardest time picking out a color. How do they expect you to imagine your house with a color that you are looking at on a piece of paper that is 1"x1"! IMPOSSIBLE! So after making a couple of trips to the paint store and buying about 4 different quarts of paint I finally decided on a color. I think I was driving Bob, our painter, CRAZY! When I took Emma with me to the store to pick the color she said, in a very serious way, "Mom, can you please have him paint our house pink because for my next birthday party I am going to have a princess party and I want our house to match." Funny little girl! So Lori and Brad can Emma have her next party at your house? :)

OK so I forgot to take a picture of the house before he painted so this picture is of when we first bought the house. Since then we have made many changes including taking out that huge ugly palm tree out front. :) And luckily the previous owners took the cactus with them :)

Tada! Here is my beautiful new home!

My handy man/husband put up these beautiful new light fixtures! I was so proud of him! He also put in our landscape lighting! I didn't know he knew how to do all these projects! THANKS MATT!

Dance Like There's No Tomorrow

Dance Like There's No Tomorrow was the theme of the recital tonight. Everything went great. It was held at the local high school, Timber Creek H.S., and the girls felt like celebrities up on the big stage. I abused my privileges a little and when I got there early I reserved the very front and center seats for Matt, Luke, and my neighbors Liz, Nicholas and Brooke. :) There were only 4 seats there so I even pulled up an extra chair :) Gavin was home with a babysitter.

Emma's dance stole the show. They were so cute out there and the audience laughed and applauded at their cute hip shakes, kick line, and the way they exited the stage in a line holding on to the girl in front of them and then they shuffled backwards while waving. Very cute!

All my dance classes did great. I taught 5 classes this year. I felt so bad for one little girl because she had 102 degree fever the night before and threw up all night and so she was unable to perform in 2 of my numbers! Poor thing! All that work all year and purchasing 2 costumes and you never get to use them!

At the end of the show all the girls get to come out from backstage and sit in the front below the stage and they get to watch the teachers number. It is so fun to have all the girls there yelling for you! It was a great night. AND Matt remembered flowers! :) Afterward we went out to eat with our friends the Lopez family, their little girl Kennedy was also in the recital (you can see pictures of her in Amy's blog. Carver, Luke's little friend and Emma's future husband, said Emma's dance was called "Baby Legs". :)

Watch Emma's Dance Video

They had all kinds of crafts, games, and a t.v. with the live show backstage for the kids. Here's Emma working on her crafts.

Here I am with a few dance girls backstage...I actually don't know the first two but then there is Maddie and Abby Hillis and then on the other side is Kennedy Lopez and one of the girls I taught Arianna. I had to wear a formal dress at the beginning of the show when Lori introduced us. I was proud of my Goodwill find (Goodwill is like the D.I. for all you westerners) it was only $10! I just had to mormonize it :) Now I have a gown to wear on a cruise! HINT HINT MATT! :)

Luke and Nicholas dancing in front of the stage after it was all over! It's contagious!

I think this is how Luke felt after 3 1/2 hours of dance recital!

The moment we've all been waiting for....RECITAL!!!

Today was the dress rehearsal for our recital which takes place tomorrow. It is so fun to teach, but it's even funner (if that is indeed a word) to have a daughter in the recital!!!!! Emma is so darn cute! I don't know which she was more excited about...wearing make up or dancing on the stage. She is in a real make-up phase. I always find her sneaking into my make up and putting it on or she gets chap stick and pretends she is putting on lipstick. She looked so beautiful out on the stage. She's always a count or two behind, but she executes each move with the cutest precision! She's definitely a stand out! I was going to have Matt come get Emma after her class practiced, because they were at the beginning of the evening, and I knew I had to stay till all was said and done. But Emma wanted to stay with me....so we were there from 4:00 this afternoon until 9:30 tonight! What a long day and she was perfect the whole time. Not even one complaint! She loves watching all the girls dance and had many critiques to tell me. She had her little lunch box of snacks that she took around with her and she didn't leave my side the whole time. I would stand in the curtain and dance with my girls in case they forgot or needed help and Emma was right there in the curtain with me. I think she felt special that she had a "backstage pass"! After we were done with everything we stopped and got ice cream on the way home. (Thanks to Matt's sister Julie's cute blog that talked about she and her little girl stopping for ice cream after her recital. )She was so exhausted that I didn't think she would finish her ice cream without falling asleep. She can't wait for tomorrow because she is sure her daddy is going to give her flowers after she dances :) (Hint hint Matt!) LOL So we will report in tomorrow and let you know how the show went! We even got a babysitter for Gavin so that Matt and Luke could watch the whole show! Tune in next time for the play by play!

Emma's class is dancing to Baby Face and they are going to steal the show because they are so darn cute in their little tutu's

They even do a cute little kick line in their dance! (I don't think I could use the word cute enough!)

Class pictures. Back row from left to right: Ellie, Holland Hope, oops forgot her name, Emma, Olivia, Chapel. Bottom row from left to right: Erin, Isabella, Abby, Victoria, Arianna.

Exhausted in the dressing room after a long day!

Nothing like ice cream!


I think I can, I think I can! (She is falling asleep with every bite!)

Memorial Day

A day off???? Then we're going to the beach! We had seen online that there was a beach here in Florida that was voted the #1 beach in the U.S. So we decided to check it out. ACTUALLY we never made it to that beach, instead we ended up at a beach we know and love...Clearwater Beach! It was just so crowded on the way that we knew the #1 beach was bound to be even busier and you had to take a ferry to get to that one and you could only stay for 4 hours. But it was fine because we had a blast at Clearwater. It is a little bit longer of a drive then it is to go to the beach we usually go to (Coco Beach) because it is on the gulf side of Florida, but it is well worth it with the white sand (so it doesn't burn your feet off), it is cleaner, and the waves are smaller so Gavin could actually sit in the waves. Sure he would get knocked down every once in a while, but he was laughing his head off every time a wave hit him! There was a bounce house water slide set up there and so Luke and Emma got to go down that a few times. The highlight for Luke and Emma was when they made some friends and they were digging in the sand. They made these 3 holes that they filled with water and acted like they were their lakes that were connected by rivers. Gavin sat in the middle of the lakes and splashed and laughed as they dug around him. I have decided that sand is Heavenly Father's play dough for the kids so the adults can sit and relax at the beach. :) While they were digging Luke says to me "Mom this is so much harder then it looks!" (Drama :)

As we were getting packed up for the day to leave we noticed everyone on the beach was pointing and looking out into the water. We looked out and there was a dolphin out there that would kind of jump out of the water so you could see him pretty well! It was amazing! At first I think it freaked everyone out because his back fin looked like a shark fin and so everyone was out of the water in no time! I was excited though because I have always wanted to see a dolphin in it's natural habitat!

After leaving the beach we found a restaurant called Columbia that was overlooking the water! It was wonderful food and I ate WAY TOO MUCH! But what a wonderful day!

At one point Matt buried Gavin's legs and he couldn't budge!

Here they are in one of their homemade lakes

Here's the little girl that helped them.

This little boy on the right of the picture helped too and it was so funny because when he would bring the water to dump in he would just throw it in there and Gavin was constantly getting splashed in the face! But he never even whined about it!

When the kids went to ride the bounce house slide Gavin and I stayed back where we were camped out and he laid in our little tent and I laid out next to him. He was so relaxed as he laid there and drank his bottle and then his little feet were playing in the sand letting it go between his toes. I love baby feet!

Emma wrote her name in the sand!

Annual Fathers and Sons Campout!!!!

We had a ball at the campout. Luke had a bunch of his little buddies there and they spent the entire time chasing spiders, chopping wood with big sticks, climbing trees, digging in the dirt, playing in the fire, and swinging glowsticks on the ends of string around in the air. Does that sound like paradise for a 6 yr old kid or what?! Meanwhile, Dad sat around, shooting the breeze with the other brothers from the ward, playing with camping equipment, drinking root beer, trying to make sure the boys didn't light the campground on fire. We had so much fun. I love that Luke likes to go outdoors and camp. Definitely something that I look forward to every year, just as I did when I was a kid. It was always so fun to get out and away and spend some time with Dad and the rest of the ward. I loved to play softball with all the older guys in our ward and just have a ton of fun memories. Sometimes I still can't believe that I am actually a father now and I have a son (and soon 2 sons) old enough to go with me. Am I really 36 yrs old???? Yikes.

The night was a bit sticky, what with the Florida factor, but I had my battery-powered fan going all night and it worked like a charm in our HUGE tent. I think I got the award for the biggest tent in our ward. It gives me comfort that if we are ever homeless, we will have that tent - - did I mention that it is HUGE?

Anyway...good times had by all at the Father/Son campout. I love to see Luke having a ball. He sure is growing up.

Anyone need a babysitter? Emma's free!

Thursday I went to the temple with some of the sisters from Relief Society. We have a monthly Relief Society temple trip planned and then one of us from the Relief Society presidency stays back and babysits for any sisters that have small children. I went this time and left Gavin and Emma with my friend Jessica Martinez. She also had her 2 small children: Suzanna (12 months) and Sam (3 years), and another friend's 2 children: Alex(3 years) and Elisabeth (2 years). So yes Jessica had her hands full! Emma was her little helper. When I came back Emma was up to the table "reading" to Sam. Jessica said that all the little kids wanted to hold Suzanna and Emma was the only one that was allowed to! Suzanna is the cutest little petite baby that I can't help myself and I want to pick her up when I see her so I can't blame the kids! :) Here is a cute picture of the little babysitter Emma! :)