Month of May

Nationals at Lagoon

Hailey's clogging team made it to nationals this year. It is the largest clogging competition in the world. Her team danced 2 dances; mary mack and disco remix, each dance took 3rd place. She also competed in a solo and took a 1st place! Of course, we all love it when they get to go to nationals because that means we get to play all day at Lagoon! We arrived on a friday night and stayed in a "daddy travels so much we get FREE hotels." We went home on a Sunday. It was a great weekend.


Memorial Day Weekend

We never go camping over memorial day weekend. Too many people, and we hate crowds. But as I looked at our summer weekends, there wasn't any free ones, so I booked a camping trip over memorial day.
We took our trailer to Baumgartner campground. It Is a beautiful place outside of Featherville on the beginning of the Boise River. We read a book together! I grabbed Peppertide from my bookshelf and started to read it to the kids on the 2 hour drive to the campground. We were all hooked and ended up reading the book each night before bed and a little during the day as we laid around the trailer. We finished it on our last day there.
We also hiked a lot and wished we had some 4-wheelers as we watched all the other campers ride the beautiful trails. But we didn't let that get us down...we unloaded our running shoes and filled them up with our feet and took off for a 4 mile run! Chloe brought her bike and we all took off together down the road, even Hailey and Caden. Needless to say some made it 4 miles and some didn't.
We also got up early one morning and soaked in the natural hotsprings there. It was lovely.
We played Uno each night and that was a blast. The best part was being together and watching Coelton go through texting withdrawl. Although it was very amusing at 2am when Hailey woke us up looking for the "camping glasses". We realized that she was half asleep looking for the flashlight!




Look who learned how to ride a 2-wheeler

We took off her training wheels and she took right off!


Preschool Graduation

All the kids wore their preschool t-shirts that Mrs. Hart made for them and their adorable caps. Chloe learned a lot this year and is very ready for Kindergarten.



Look who's 40!

We had a lot of fun celebrating Joel's birthday. On his birthday I hung a big banner outside. The girls wrote a scavenger hunt for Joel to find all his gifts. Hailey especially spent a lot of time writing it and making sure it all rhymed. The girls also made Joel a shirt that said "I'm 40". He walked around with a inflatable cane that said he could hit anyone who teased him about his age. He took full advantage of that. The boys blind folded him and put him in the truck and took him to Fast Lanes where some of coelton's friends met them. They all rode the race cars and had a great time.
The next night I took Joel to Fudruckers, where a few friends were waiting to surprise him. We then took in a movie and smoothie afterwards. Great fun!

Mother's Day

I always love waking up on Mother's day and realizing that "Hey, today is mothers day...I get to be pampered a bit today." I use it to my advantage as I watch my family pick up messes, cook dinner and do the dishes.
I always get breakfast in bed, and each of them include a card to me on the cookie sheet with my food.
I sit in bed and read the cards as I eat. It's so fun. This morning we all sat in my room on my bed and floor all morning laughing, talking and wrestling. My heart took a picture. It was a great start to a terrific Mother's day.
My 5 year old came into my room while the rest of the family was getting ready for church. She saw that I was still in my PJ's and said "Mom, since you get to do whatever you want today, are you going to church or not...cause if you stay home I want to stay with you. All's they give you at church is bread and water."
We had a nice talk about the sacrament and that even on Mother's day mommy chooses to go to church.

I miss my own mother a great deal, and hope that she realizes what a wonderful Mother she is. I know that she is watching over us and she is still my mother, even though she is not here physically, I feel her near. Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Prom 2009

This and That

I'm about a month behind, but thought I'd sit down and get caught up. We have been so busy with this and that. Our April FLEW by!!

Visitors
Joel's parents came to our house for a visit. It was nice to spend a few days with them. They came over general conference weekend. We went bowling and Grandma made a fun bunny hutch with the girls.



Kids stuff
We are at the thick of track season. Coelton has been running a lot, and LOVES it. He is trying to find a summer job, with no luck. He also took the ACT test and did pretty good.
Caden is busy mowing lawns and working for a 4.0. (almost there...he has an 88 in one class.)
Hailey is in the middle of competition season for clogging. She has 2 done and one to go...(nationals at Lagoon) She is working hard with her team and they are a great group of girls. Their big "clog classic" show is next month.






Spring Break
Our spring break was low key. We hung around here and did yard work and some cleaning. We tried to get out and go somewhere each day. One day we went to Caldwell and went swimming in the new indoor swimming area at the YMCA.



Dance Festival
In January I was asked to be the ward dance director for the youth 14-18. We just participated in a 6 stake regional dance festival on the 25th. Each stake learned a different dance. Joel and I taught our ward the New York Hustle. We also taught them a dance that the entire region performed for the entrance/finale number. Both our boys performed in it and it was truly a wonderful experience. There was about 1500youth who danced.




Orlando Florida
Joel is the president of the internal auditors in Idaho and was invited to a convention in Orlando. He invited me along...since Sunday was our 18 year anniversary! They put us up in a Disney resort hotel called The Beach club. We were gone 5 days and had a great time. while Joel was in meetings I read my book while laying by the pool and I took lots of walks around the Disney Boardwalk and properties. It was nice to have some peace and quiet and do nothing at all. When the convention was over we went to Universal Studios. We rode the mummy ride about 8 times. We also went to Epcot. It was beautiful weather with 85 degree temperatures. And so far, I think we escaped the swine flu. Dad came over to stay with the kids and he did a great job keeping everything rolling and the kids all taken care of.