Ballroom Festival

Sienna had her first team match competition! Her school selected various students in different categories and levels to compete against other students in Jr. High ballroom programs around Utah County, then they competed against each other at the Ballroom festival. Sienna competed in the advance Samba group, there were three other couples in her group and her group took FIRST! It was so fun to watch her dance and yell out her number. The gym was PACKED with dancers. It is amazing how many kids in this county know how to ballroom dance, it was a lot of fun!First place ribbon and flowers from her dad!

This was during the freestyle dance with all the dancers on the floor. Holy Cow!

Mother's Day 2011

The reasons I am able to celebrate this holiday!!!!!!!!!!!!!










Chris making my Mother's Day dinner, one of my favorites-Chicken Tikka Masala. It was SO delicious!
My gifts from my kiddo's. They also gave me a new pink camera that I took all these pictures with.

The gift from the ward... Chocolate covered cinnamon bears, one of my favorites!
My mom and sis-in-law Amy getting ready to eat our tasty dinner.
To be honest the day wasn't so great in the beginning. My kids were awful at church and I left sacrament all sweaty from fighting with them, but things got better after getting a break from them and spending time in relief society (of course the cinnamon bears helped a little too).

Spending the end of the day with my own mom also made the day even better. I have a wonderful mom that I just adore and only hope that I can be as good a mom to my kids that she is to me.

Ooops.... drum roll please!

Wow, sorry to keep you all hanging about Sienna's BYU ballroom tryouts. If you haven't seen her post on her blog yet then let me announce SHE MADE IT! We are so excited for her! Her practices start at the end of June. I can't wait to see how her dancing improves over the next year. CONGRATULATIONS my sweet little dancer!

Ballroom Tryouts

Today was a long day. Sienna decided a few months ago that she wanted to tryout for the BYU youth ballroom team. Well today was the day! This past week she got together with the partner that she was going to tryout with, his name is Scotty. It was crazy being back on that campus, so many memories. She rehearsed in a dance room that Chris and I took a Folk dance class in when we were first married. Now my oldest was dancing in there.... where has the time gone?!

I was SHOCKED with how many kids were there trying out, well over 100! There were two teams that they were filling, each team has eight couples. That means that there were only 16 females that would make it onto a team. Not very good odds. There were so many great dancers, it really blew me away with how much talent was in that room.

Sienna was pretty nervous and excited, so was i.

We were about an hour early so that the kids could have time to practice. Unfortunately her partner was also dancing with another girl, so they had to share him. I felt like the other girl was being a 'partner hog' and Sienna is so quiet and shy she wouldn't go and interrupt them. I finally told her to ask one of her other friends to practice with her. His name was Harrison and he was on the BYU youth team last year. I think in the long run it was probably a blessing in disguise. Just frustrating that they had been practicing all week and just like that she had no partner.

Sienna was pretty flustered too. I had to calm her down and remind her that she just needed to relax and HAVE FUN and that it didn't matter if she made it or not. It seemed to help her.

It was a long, long day. Luckily Sienna was in one of the first groups to perform. She did AWESOME! I was so proud of her. No matter what the outcome is, I am so proud that she had the courage to tryout. We find out on Wednesday if she made the team.... keep your fingers crossed for us!

Scotty, Ingram (his other partner) and Sienna
She didn't want me to take this picture, hahaha too bad!
Lucky number 105....hopefully
Practicing with Scotty



This was just a portion of the amount of kids that were trying out. YIKES!
Lining up in numerical order, about to face the judges.
Partner #2- Harrison
Playing 'hand wars' to pass the time until it was their turn

Last minute instructions before heading into the judges
On deck
Afterwards we went to the infamous creamery for some yum yum ice cream!

The mean kid

What do you do when there is a mean kid in your son's preschool class? What if that same kid is also in his Primary class? What do you do when no one wants to play with this kid? What do you do if this kid has been telling their teacher's no and being disobedient in class? What if this kid is your son?

I love my son and can see the good that he possesses. I'm not blind. I know my child is far from perfect. He is on the spoiled side and loves to get his own way. He is also a four-year-old boy, who likes to play rough. But he has such a sweet and wonderful side... he is famous for randomly coming up to me and saying that he needs 'a hug on the neck' and gives my big loves. He is a snuggle bug and gives the best kisses. He tells me he loves me ALL the time throughout the day. He definitely has us wrapped around his little finger.

I know that he can be naughty and throw fits. I know this. I'm trying to work on ways to keep him from acting out and trying to find ways to hold him accountable for his misbehavior.

My girls NEVER behaved this way. They never talked back to adults and caused problems. I really feel like I'm re-learning how to parent with this little guy.

It is the worst thing to see your child sit inside and cry that no one wants to play with him. I've tried to explain that it is because he doesn't play nice and when he acts like this then other boys don't want to be your friend. He doesn't get it. He is just hurt by it.

This week I had three different phone calls from random people telling me that he is a challenge and it needs to be addressed.

I feel like such a failure to my son. My heart aches for my sweet little boy that just wants friends to play with. There are things that I can do better to help him and Chris and I are trying different things with him.

I just wish that others got to see the sweet side of my son that I get to see...

I hate this feeling.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Etiquette??? Or lack there of

Like I said in my previous post, I have been spending a portion of each day in the gym. I mentioned some of what I love about going to the gym, like the smell.... I know strange. It doesn't smell like sweat but instead it reminds me of bike tires, which I love.

Well, some things that I really can't stand about the gym are some of the people! Seriously, I don't know what it is with some of the people there. They think that they own all the equipment and they actually participate in 'saving' the weight machines. What?! How do you 'save' a weight machine? You either are using it or your not.
I was on the step machine (it had only been on it about 20 min) and a lady came up to me and demanded to know "how much longer are you going to be on this?" She didn't say it nicely, she was rude! I was so caught off guard I just starred at her for what seemed like forever.

I would never act like that to someone on a piece of equipment (or off equipment for that matter). I would patiently wait, just like I always do and then jump on after the person was done.

There have many MANY times that I have gone to use a machine and someone says "I'm using that", I look over and they are using a weight machine close by. What?! I don't care if you are in the middle of doing a circuit, you don't get to call dibs on four different machines at once. It's just rude. Period. The end.

It drives me bonkers!

Rude people in general make me crazy! It seems like I have to deal with rude people at work ALL the time. I don't get it. I was raised to be polite and kind ALL THE TIME, why do some people feel like they have the right to be rude and unkind to people? Rude people suck.

What motivates you?

I've thought about this question a lot for the past few months. I've really tried hard to find some self motivation to get myself back in shape. I'm tired of not fitting into clothes that I used to be able to wear. I'm tired of seeing 'dimples' in spots that are NOT cute and endearing. I'm tired of seeing a muffin top. I'm tired of not being a healthy eater. I'm tired of seeing others find motivation to become more active. I'm tired of watching the Biggest Loser while eating a big bowl of ice cream.

For the past few months I have had three friends inspire me with their fitness goals being made. Boy do they look incredible! Thank you friends for being my motivation!

Well I FINALLY just said to myself "quit whining about it and DO SOMETHING about it. So in April I started my new fitness goals. I found this awesome FREE app on my phone called "my fitness pal". It basically is a food and exercise journal and it is so helpful to record the things I eat and the exercises that I do each day.

I'm not on a diet. I eat what I want and just record my calories, once I hit my daily quota I'm done for the day. I have to admit that most days I really have to try hard to eat enough.

My main fitness goal is not focused on losing weight (surprisingly) It is to tone up my 'soft spots'. I have a pretty awesome weight lifting routine that I do almost every day and after one month I am happy to report that I can see a difference!

Even Chris said that he can tell that I am getting more toned. My pants are fitting better and my 'dimples' are becoming less noticeable.

More importantly I feel better! I love that part! I love the smell of walking into the gym.... it just gets my blood pumping. I love the taste of my protein shakes at the end of a workout. I love feeling the burn of pushing myself in one of my exercise classes. I love feeling sore the next day because that means that I worked hard the day before. I love that I still have another month before swim suit season hits :-). I love that I am healthier!

Kindergarten check up

Today Faze had his Kindergarten check up. Yes, that's right.... my baby is going to Kindergarten next year. When did my baby get so grown up???

Faze is terrified of going to the doctor. He always thinks that he is going to be getting a shot, well this time he was right. :-(

We did the urine sample at home and I told him that we had to take the sample to the doctors. When we got there he said "Momma, I will wait in the car and you take the peepee to the doctor". He was paranoid of everything, the eye exam, the blood pressure cuff, and don't even get me started about the finger prick. He is such a cutie pie though and was pretty funny.
This was after his finger prick, obviously unhappy!
Look at his face, so funny.
They had him write his name on a little card.
In this picture he asked me how everyone knew his name. I told him that I work with all of these people and that I told them. He told me that I wasn't supposed to do that, it was supposed to be a secret.
Coloring his paper and adding stickers to it.

Dr. Foster did a great job!
After the exam they took his picture to add to his card.
All done! Finally a smile.
His reward for being..... mostly brave. :-)