Melissa & Taylor's Sealing

My niece & nephew, Melissa & Taylor were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on their 2nd wedding anniversary!  I'm so proud of them!  Melissa asked me if I would take some pictures.  I've never done anything like that before, so I was kind of nervous, but it ended up being a lot of fun!  Steve took some pics of me "trying" to act like I was a photographer. :)

Here are some of my favorites...

Steve took the two pics above...I "edited" them.  I think we make a good team! :)

Steve and I have been married for over 9 years!

Our Rings...

Ballerina Monkey

Kaitlyn was a monkey in this year's ballet recital.  First off, I have to say that she totally looks like she's levitating in this picture!!  Nothing was photo-shopped :) she's sitting on a ledge.  This was Kaitlyn's 2nd year in ballet.  The recital was beautiful.  There was a live band with folk singers that wrote the music to play along with the dancers.  The theme of the recital this year was "Pixie Dust".  There was Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Wendy, John and Michael, along with monkeys, crocodiles, cats, pirates, mice, fairies, and so much more!  Kaitlyn was just part of one song, "Pop Goes the Weasel", but each class danced to their own song(s).  In Act 2 instead of the band they had a full, live orchestra play! They also had a performance of Peter and the Wolf, and then in Act 2 the older girls dances were based around the Zodiac signs.  It made it really interesting (and sad) as in the the second to the last dance the older girls were dancing on point shoes and one of the girls completely passed out on stage!  She was out for several minutes, not moving.  Come to find out this happens once in a while to this girl and she's okay, but it sure seemed scary!  It made for a long recital.  I love watching the girls dance and listening to the beautiful music.  It's quite the production!

At the end of Kaitlyn's dance all of the other dancers left the stage and she had a "solo" moment as she shrugged her shoulders, tilted her head, and lifted her arms.  At home she would practice and do the movement as she said aloud, "Whatever".  She did a great job!

Cruise to Ensenada

I went on my first cruise!  Paula, mom, Natalie, Lori, John, Mylie and I cruised to Ensenada.  Or as John liked to call it, "The Cruise to Nowhere".  I left Thursday afternoon and drove to Las Vegas with my mom & sisters.  We spent the night there, then drove the rest of the way to California on Friday.  It was a Carnival cruise and left Friday night and came back Monday morning.  We had a lot of fun eating lots of food, playing games, laughing, and enjoying each others' company.  Me, Natalie, and Lori sang karaoke with a live band!  We sang "Since You've Been Gone" one night and "Rollin' in the Deep" another night.  It was a lot of fun!

We had the cutest animals every night when we came back to our room.  This was my favorite!

Kindergarten Graduation

Here's a snippet of one of the songs the Kindergarteners sang at their graduation program...

Mother's Day

 I was really spoiled this year!  Steve and the kids had presents for me to unwrap right when I woke up, followed by breakfast.  I got several cards from Kaitlyn that she had secretly been working on for a few days, Utah State pajama pants, and a Blendtec Blender!!  I'm pretty excited about this!  I can't wait to actually start using the wheat we bought for our food storage.  You can grind wheat in it, and of course I'll be making lots of smoothies!  I made one with spinach and fruit in it and the kids loved it!  Steve has also been working hard to "re-do" my garden area.  It's now 4 raised rectangular beds made with railroad ties.

After church I took a pictures with the kids.  I love being their mom!  I feel so blessed to be the mother of such wonderful children. 

 I am so thankful for my mom!  She's such a great example to me.  I love you, Mom!

 We went to my parent's house for dinner.  There was a mean game of Red Rover following dinner.

 Logan about to head to the other side...

 He was going so fast he face planted...

Then he just ran right into his uncle Mike's arms.

Steve and I decided to go hike Adams Canyon for a Friday night date.  Kaitlyn & Michael had gone to see cousin Sara in a play with their grandma & grandpa Terry and some of the other cousins.  We borrowed a backpack for Logan and headed up Highway 89.  We started on the trail at 7:00 pm and I was hoping to be hiking out as we watched the sunset.  Steve had been on most of the hike with the YM previously, but never to the waterfall.  When we reached the first small waterfall we thought we had got to the top.  After taking pictures and spending some time there, we asked someone if this was the main waterfall and they said no.  The sun was starting to go down, but we headed further up the canyon.  We had a little bit of a hard time finding the trail, but finally made it to the big waterfall!  Steve was so nice as he moved rocks in the stream so I wouldn't get my shoes wet. Even though it was hard to see as we hiked out in the dark, it was a lot of fun just to hike and talk.  Logan was really good, hardly even made a peep!  I don't think Steve and I had been hiking together in a few years!  That's something we used to do all the time and I hope we can start doing it more.

Art Night at the School

 

Kaitlyn showed us some of her artwork and the stories she's been writing in Kindergarten.  My favorite was the story about being eaten by a shark!