Hannah...Our Little Traveler....

Hannah is becoming quite our little traveler. After dance recital she went for a week and a half with her cousin Brennan to fly to their Grandpa and Analee’s house in California. They had a great time going to the movies, playing games and showing off their talents for such willing grandparents. They spent a lot of time in the pool too. July 4th weekend they also had the opportunity to visit Grandma Pam and Uncle Matthew. They had a great time doing crafts, swimming in the hot tub, and being silly. Thank you all for the fun trip. The kids have such great memories of their special vacation.

Annual Dance Recital Time....

For those that know us well this is a CRAZY time of year for us. There is a lot that goes in to having a recital. It is a major event. The week consists of:

* A 6+ hours of dress rehearsal, * Running last minute to buy new tights, *Packing up anything and everything that kids might need, *Friday night of a 2 hour recital, *Saturday 2 recitals with a small break and needing to be there early the day is about 10 hours with cranky kids and a toddler!!

Not to mention that I manage and orchestrate the purchasing of food and the running of the snack bar. (The dance Troupe’s last fundraiser before Nationals) while Tim is Head Usher during the recital. Needless to say the girls did a wonderful job and we all survived. Here are a few pictures from the recital. Many of our family members joined us on Saturday night to watch the show. Thanks Mom, Pops, Dad, Analee, Chris, Sally, Aaron, Jessica, Corey and Brennan for joining us. Hannah did an acro routine to the Madagascar’s theme song and Marissa did 6 numbers. The theme this year was “Come Fly with Us”

June 2009 continued...

Here I am trying to do as quick as possible catch up session. I keep this blog as a way of remembering our family events so I have this need to catch up on my blog posts.

Happy Fathers Day Honey. (Yes it has been that long since I have blogged!) We love you daddy so much. We spent the day together. Daddy got a big breakfast and then we decided it would be fun to go bowling. The first game was great and we even let daddy win! We tried to get through games and quickly discovered we should have stoppped at one game. Melt downs started and Aidan kept running away. When we got home the girls made daddy homemade cards and he spent the day playing with them. That evening we had our family over for a big dinner. It was nice spending a great relaxing day together. Thank you for being such a great daddy and wonderful husband. We love you soooo much!

Happy Birthday Grammy

Tonight we celebrated "Grammy's" birthday (my mom). We had fajita's, yummy salsa, a lots of desserts. We had fun while the kids ran around and we visited. Grammy also got a few presents. Some presents are useful, some are just fun date nights, some sentimental and all very wonderful, but the one that topped the list was..... Ashlyn and Hannah's gifts. (ok so maybe not, but they did have the most creative). The girls wanted to "make grammy gifts". They spent time making cards and drawing pictures. Hannah made her a card that told her how everyday of the year she is loved by everybody in our family. With cute drawings of her with Grammy. Ashlyn had to one up her sister and gave her 5 cards each with writings (that are letters that don't spell anything) and pictures. They then on their own got into the gift bags and tissue paper and "wrapped" their gifts. Nobody knew until she was opening it. At the bottom of the bag past the wonderful cards were Ashlyn's thoughtful gifts. She gave her the flower food from the flowers we gave Grammy the other day we forgot to give it to her and the flowers are now dead. Ashlyn also gave her an almost empty bottle of hotel lotion, her used chapstick and her compact. We couldn't stop laughing it was so cute. Definately the most loved gift. Sorry no pictures I forgot again.

9 Years....

Tim and I celebrated our 9th anniversary this week. I can't believe how the time has passed. I have a wonderful husband and am the luckiest girl around. Here are 9 things I love about my husband (in no particular order):

1. He shows his family such unconditional love all the time.

2. He is my best friend and confidant.

3. He truly is a wonderful father.

4. He shares in the household duties including diapers, meal prep and cleaning.

5. He is such a hard worker and works hard to provide for our family.

6. No matter how tired he may be he still doesn't complain when I ask for help with one more thing.

7. He is still so snuggly.

8. He makes me feel special and beautiful even when I don't feel like I am.

9. He is still SO HOT!

This weekend we were able to get away to the Pointe for what should have been a bonding time for us to reconnect. We had a fabulous weekend, but we both missed our kids (see number 3) so we had the kids with us for half of the weekend. My lovely sister, Jessica helped us out bringing them back and forth and watched them, so we could have the best of both worlds.

We enjoyed our weekend and had a chance to reflect on the important things in our lives. Marriage isn't easy, in fact sometimes it is hard and takes work. We too have had our share of stress and problems, but we continue to work through them. Happy Anniversary Honey, I love you so much. One picture is of us this year at the Pointe. The other is our 5th anniversary we spent in Maui. The oldest picture I could find of us together on on the computer.

Hannah is "Trustworthy"

Each month at Hannah's school they award 1 child from each class that has demonstrated a particular "Character Building Block." The nominations come from the teachers and staff. Hannah was awarded the Trustworthy award. She was very excited to get her award in her assembly. She received a bronze metal, certificate and a pencil. Her teacher said, "She can always count on her for being honest and making good choices, and if ever their is a conflict she can count on Hannah to tell the truth about the situation." Congratulations Banana we are so proud of the beautiful little girl that you are.

Marissa's Dance Competition

Last Saturday Marissa had another dance competition. She participates in 2-3 local competitions and 1 National competition each year. This competition had some very talented dancers and great competitors. Marissa's Senior Troupe competed 8 dances. They took Top 1st for 2 of their dances and 1st for the other 6. (the scoring goes Elite Top, Top 1st, 1st, etc.)They did great as a group despite not receiving any overall awards. (They strive to be in the top 10 awards for their overall acheivments.) The mini's did receive a "Judge's Favorite" for their overall acheivement and it was their first time competing. Great job girls! (I was a slacking mom and didn't take any pictures. Not that their wasn't time at the 12 hour competion just didn't think about it. So until next time....)