Our little Dancer

Avery had her ballet/dance recital last night and she did great! We are so proud of her for learning her dance moves and listening so good to her teacher during class. She loves her teacher, Ms. Laura. 

She told Ms.Laura after the recital, "You danced so good, Ms. Laura! And you danced with a boy!" 

Madisen was so excited to see all the dancers and had such a great time dancing on the side of the room that she told us she wants to join Avery in dance class next year. 

Before Avery went up on stage I took her around the building and took these cute pictures of her.

This video is hard to see, because the girls are so bright from the light, but Avery is supposed to be the second dancer out on stage but she somehow became the third dancer..haha! Also, towards the end of the dance, it's hard to hear what's going on in the video but Avery just then realizes that she is in the wrong spot and the little girl in her dance class is on it. Avery tells her, "That's my name on that spot." haha! Overall it was a success....no one fell down, got hurt, or cried. Success! :) Good job Avery! We are so proud of you.

 "You danced so good, Avery!" :)

After the performance we took the girls for ice cream at Braums! 

Emily was pretty tickled to have her own cone...

 Emily was so into her ice ream, it was quite funny.

Beautiful girls with ice cream on their noses. ;)

I am of Worth....and so are you!

Last weekend I drove up to Oklahoma City with two friends from my ward and we met up with my best friend, Kimberly who lives 15 minutes from Oklahoma City to go to Time Out for Women! I have never been before and had such a great time.

Hillary Weeks preformed several times and did amazing! I love her voice and I had no idea she had such a great sense of humor too. She had us all laughing so much. It was so fun sitting by Kimberly and talking, laughing and joking around like old times. Whenever we get to see each and hang out I always feel like myself again. She helps me remember who I am and let's me bring it out!

The speakers were awesome! I enjoyed everyone of them. Especially the last speaker, an older woman by the name of Mary Ellen Edmunds. She was hilarious!  And the spirit was so strong when she was speaking and I felt it so strongly that the flood gates opened and I couldn't stop crying!

She talked about how Satan and his followers try to HIDE our identities and keep us from knowing who we really are. We need to remember who we are; We are daughters of God and we are of worth. Of great worth.

I have struggled with this my whole life. I am always beating myself up and I often forget who I am. I struggled as a teenager tremendously in some aspects. I think many wouldn't believe that and many have even said that I was very outgoing and friendly, and can't believe I struggled with confidence or self-worth...but deep down I never felt good enough. I got made fun of for my looks countless times and to this day I still find myself  "hiding" from the world, afraid to get hurt. Satan has tried to HIDE me and my identity for years, and I have been working hard on this lately to not let him.

So I felt this talk was especially for me and it was exactly what I needed to hear. I am of Worth. And I need to remember that always!

Me and Kimberly...isn't she gorgeous?!

Jessica, Janna, Me, Kimberly

Hillary Weeks performing one of her many popular songs.

After the conference we walked downtown Oklahoma City to find a place to eat. We went to Coach's, which was a great place overlooking a baseball game. It was pretty cool and the food was so good. You can see the baseball field behind us.

Thanks girls for a great time!  I am so glad we did this!

Mini Photographer in Action.

These are the images I found after Emily had gotten a hold of the camera. Remember she loves anything electronic, so she probably had a blast with it giggling and all, I am sure, until I realized it and had to end the fun by taking it away. Mom always has to be the "bad guy". (I got her her own camera, a toy camera for her birthday, so now I don't feel so bad.;)

ceiling fan in action.

Emily's eye ball

 Emily's messy face and flaring nostrils.

Stuffed dog, camera cord and tiny feet

Emily's lap/pants

Peek-a boo! There's Madisen. 

Kitchen rug, and Madisen and Emily's feet...again.

This is about when I came in to see what was going on, as Madisen took the camera away from Emily. She wasn't too happy about that as you can see. 

Madisen running away taking a picture of herself.  haha!

Easter Weekend...

 Happy (LATE) Easter everyone!  We had a great weekend. Ryan's dad and his wife, Trudy flew from Colorado and stay with us and we had a great time with them. We went out to dinner twice, played games, went to the park, had a Easter egg hunt, they took the girls to Mickey-Donald's (that is how Avery says, McDonald's) and to the movies to see Rio. I am sad that I didn't get a lot of pictures however while they were here. Or any pictures of the girls on Easter in their new dresses. Such is life. But it was so nice being with them and seeing family. Thanks Dad and Trudy for coming and seeing us! Maybe next time Dad you will have better luck at beating me in Liverpool...maybe. Good try though. :)

Dad and Trudy brought the girls gifts for their b-days! Emily and Grandpa playing with her new learning electronic book. Thanks Dad and Trudy!

Here we are leaving to go to the park and taking a tour to see all, 5 miles of Greenville! 

Playing in the sand at the park.

Thanks again for a wonderful weekend! We Love you!

The Strength of a Child.

I was helping Avery get dressed the other morning, and as I took off her night gown she stopped, and said with a serious voice, "Mom. Look how strong I am." And then did this striking pose for me....

Wow.

Of course, I had to get the camera. I asked her real seriously, (as I tried to hold back my giggles), "Avery, I need to get a picture of you showing off your muscles again. You are so strong. Will you show me again?"

Pretty incredible huh?

6 years old!

 Happy Birthday Madisen!! (April 21st)

For Madisen's B-day I took cupcakes to her class. Her teacher, Ms. Belcher and her class sang to her and it was really cute. My brother,  Randy came and stay with us for a few days and was able to come to her class party too. 

Emily sure enjoyed the frosting on the cupcake.

And later that day, Avery took Madisen's B-day stickers she got from Uncle Randy and put them all over her mouth. Madisen wasn't too happy about that, but at least it kept Avery quite for awhile... haha!

Madisen got spoiled. She was really excited about the gifts she got, a puzzle, a new dress, a dog, money from Grandma and Grandpa Newman, play dough set from Nate and Erin, a dinosaur egg and dinosaur poop( the poop was playdough, that had fish bones in it. Guess the dinosaur was a carnivore! haha! Madi was so excited to watch the dinosaur egg crack open and out came a Pterodactyl)  from Grandpa and Grandma Hodges. And a few other things. Yep, she and Emily got spoiled this year!  And she is really excited that she is now 6 like the other kids in her class. We love you Madisen! 

Happy Birthday Emily (and Ethan)!

Our Birthday Girl... (April 19th!)

She's got grooves.

She's totally hip.... "wazz up?"

She's got the moves.

She's got mommy's make-up.

She's very sweet.

She's got a cute bum.

She's a real treat.

 And if you add it all up, she comes to the right sum!

I don't rhyme very often as you can see.

 I am terrible at it. 

 You learn too much about me, 

and the sorry state of my wit.

Yet, I thought I would try.

And see what I could do,

But not before I asked myself why?

Why am I so askew?

(This post is not about poetry...but I wanted to write a poem for Emily as I have done in the past with my other kids. I was always terrible at poetry in High School. I always envied those that could rhyme really well, but I keep trying!)

I can't believe our baby is TWO!! It's hard to believe Emily and Ethan were born two years ago. Time has gone quickly. I sometimes wish I could turn back time and enjoy the moments with them again when they were born even though it was very difficult, it was such a joyful time as well.  Emily is doing great! She is not talking a whole lot yet, but understands so much and still loves figuring things out and loves playing with anything electronic. She has a sweet demeanor and can be very bashful. Yet, she also can be real independent and stubborn. She is a cuddle bug and loves to sit on my lap and be held. She loves when I read books to her and she LOVES playing outside. If she could have her way, she would be outside all day long. She's loves to eat chocolate, chicken, and salads.

She is about 22-23 pounds. Tiny and petite but that doesn't stop her.  She sure knows how to stand up for herself and get what she wants with her sisters. 

We Love you Emily!!! And we miss you Ethan!!!

General Conference

It's Conference Weekend!!!

I always look forward to Conference and the things I can learn from it.

Make sure to check it out here if you missed it!

Go Fly a Kite!

We went and flew kites a few weeks ago and had such a good time, that I suggest to everyone to do with your kids. It was really fun and I haven't flew a kite in years!! Since I was young-er. It was a great activity. The kids loved it. And it didn't cost much at all! And they were so worn out afterwards that they went to bed a little early and what parent doesn't enjoy a night to themselves?! haha!

One Eye- Beauty.

Avery and Madisen were watching "Sleeping Beauty" that I picked up from the library. This movie is one of my favorites but it has a few scary scenes from when the witch turns into a dark fire- breathing dragon and tries to kill the prince! I saw Avery from across the room and asked her if she was scared and if she wanted Mom to turn it off. She hesitantly said, "No. I'm not scared." While never looking away from the screen.

 But this is what she was doing....

Do you believe her?

As if seeing with only one eye will make it less scary. :)