2nd Anniversary!

Last Tuesday was Steve and I's 2nd Anniversary! Last year was my turn to plan our anniversary activities and so this year was Steves. I think that maybe since we got married on the luckiest day ever (7/7/07) our anniversary could be cursed or something! If you remember last year, all of my plans went down the drain.. go read it in the archives.. Well, Steve had WONDERFUL plans... they were so sweet! He took Lilly to Matt and Laurens while I got ready. He wasn't ready yet so I expected him to come home and have to get ready and then we would go after that. It took him a while to come back.. I couldn't figure out what he was doing. Finally I got a knock at the door. I went to answer it and it was Steve, looking very handsome! He had two big beautiful flowers... one for each year! He wanted to revisit our first date. It was so sweet! We went Lazer Tagging on our first date so we went there on our anniversary. We walked in and it was COMPLETELY empty. Not a soul was there except the guy that owned the place. It would be really stupid to play a game with just the two of us, so we decied to sit there and wait to see if more people would show up. Meanwhile we called a bunch of people to see if they wanted to come lazer tagging, but we couldn't get anyone to come. The owner got a call saying that he would have a group come in at 9.. it was 8 then. We decided to wait. We had a good time there.. it was actually pretty fun. We talked and ran around.. crackin jokes and giggling... the owner even let us play 3 free games of air hockey! Steve kicked my butt all three times. Finally 9 rolled around... no one showed.. 9:05... no one... 9:10... nada... finally at 9:15 we decided to call it and move on. We went to dinner at Macaroni Grill because Steve thought that on our first date we ate pasta... I had to ruin it for him and tell him that we didn't eat dinner on our first date... and that we didn't have pasta till a few weeks after we had been dating. It was still delicious! Our waiter was very kind! He gave us a cake and gave me a flower... it was very sweet! As for gifts, Steve bought us some really fancy sheets! Which was good cause we were still sleeping on the same nasty target ones that we bought when we were just barely married and completely broke! He got me a few other things too... and I got Steve.... drum roll please...... INCUBUS CONCERT TICKETS! It cost a pretty penny but Steve is really passionate about music and he hasn't been to a show since before I met him. I felt like it would be really good for him to indulge in his passion again! He was very excited about them!

Some Picture:

We were so sad... Nobody wanted to play with us!At Macoroni Grill the table cloth is paper and they have crayons so you can draw on the tables! I like this picture cause you can tell yet another disaster of the night. Steve was putting some balsamic vinegar in the oil for dipping bread when the top came off and balsamic went EVERYWHERE! It was pretty awesome!

Best 4th ever!

I love having the 4th on a Saturday because not only do you have the day off, but you have the whole weekend to celebrate! I didn't have school on Friday but Steve still had to work so we started off our weekend with the Bountiful Rec centers pool...They a have a pirate ship! Sarah's kids had a blast and Lilly and Olivia just loved hanging out in the sun and splashin in the pool. Lilly and I have gone swimming a few times and she just loves the water. We just sit in the shallow end and Lilly splashes and Mommy wishes she could get a tan! Maybe someday.... So anyway, sorry I didn't grab any pictures... I had my camera, but I was too busy playing with little girls and boys to snap some photos. So after that we went to Sarahs house and hung out for a while. When it was time to leave, we ended up standing outside my car for like, 3 minutes.. and in those 3 minutes I was eaten alive by mosquitoes. I'm allergic to them so right now my ankles and calves are REALLY swollen and super itchy. I'm going crazy not to itch them right now.

So the next morning Steve, Lilly and I drove up to Kaysville again to watch their parade. The kids had so much fun! Watching parades with children is SOO much more fun than without. The boys got lots of candy and Lilly got to have a little bit too. She wasn't afraid of the sirens or anything. I did cover her hears though cause I want her to be able to hear things later in life! The best part of the parade by far was that there was a float sponsered by Old Navy. We were at the very end of the parade route and so all the floats either were out of candy by the time they got to us, or realizing they had way more than they needed and throwing it out like crazy! Well the Old Navy float were giving out bouncy balls and apparently they only had one left. A lady walked up to Steve holding Lilly and said "This is the last bouncy ball and I'm giving it to your daughter because she is wearing an Old Navy dress!" We thought it was seriously the coolest thing ever!! I'm going to keep that bouncy ball forever!

Getting ready for the parade to begin!

The girls!

My baby and me!

Eating candy! I love patriotism!

Our Family!

Taco Time beads!

"The" Bouncy Ball!

So after the parade we went home for lunch (Albertsons chicken and hot dogs! What else are you going to eat? It's 4th of July!) and then naps. We were all really tuckered out! That night we went over to Sarahs neighbors for a barbeque and more swimming. They made the best desserts EVER. I'm totally making them. You get marshmallows (any kind - regular, strawberry, caramel...) And stick a stick in them, dunk them in dipping chocolate and then roll them in any kind of crumbled candy. My favorite one was the caramel marshmallow rolled in Oreo... It was seriously quite possibly the best dessert I've ever had! Then we headed out to the street for some awesome fireworks. Steve and I brought a big box of them, the neighbors had a few and their other neighbors contributed 2 big illegals. We opened with the smaller of the illegals. 13 "vertical rising" fireworks shot in the air. They were pretty cool! Sarah's other neighbor is a fireman and his wife came out and yelled at us... but that didn't stop them. We lit all of the other fireworks we had brought. All while Wyatt sat next to his "girlfriend" holding his ears VERY tightly.. didn't like the noise... Noah sitting next to his friend, the girls constantly lighting and putting out endless amounts of sparklers, Steve trying to get his lighter to work so he could get in on the pyrotechnics more, Sarah and my mom freaking out about the bigger illegal firework to follow, Brad and his friends making off color jokes that we hoped the kids didn't understant, and me freaking out about mosquitoes! Lilly and Olivia were tucked away fast asleep in Sarahs house.. not even a peep from them even though there were really loud noises coming from the street! Once all of our fireworks were done, we started debating whether or not we would light the big one. It was scary because we were trying to figure out what it did, but the only thing it said on the box was "Shoots flaming balls."We took a vote, and thanks to Steve's loud and enthusiastic voice... We lit it. And boy did it shoot flaming balls... it seriously looked like a professional show. 30 giant popping fireworks. They were beautiful and right above us. We were PELTED with ashes.. some of them kind of hurt... It was totally worth it though.

The next day we took it easy. Relaxed with the family, watched some Tour de France (CANNOT believe Lance Armstrong is back and frankly not too happy about it... I mean I kind of understand... but really... what's he trying to prove?) Lilly walked around with Brad for a while, and then We had a delicious spaghetti dinner which Lilly loved!!

Of course she was covered so before we went home we put her and Olivia in the bathtub. They are almost the same size so when you look at them, it doens't look like there is that big of an age difference. But when they got in the tub Lilly was splashing and standing, and doing all sorts of things, and to me she just looked bigger and older than Olivia... FINALLY! haha. She is such a "shrimp boat" as Sarah and Brad would say!

Then once all the kids were in bed asleep and Lilly was ready to go home, we finished up the night with a few comparisons... I think Brad might win... what do you think?

I love my famiy! Thanks for the great weekend!

All by herself!

Yep... Lilly is trying SO freakin hard to stand up by herself. She loves it.. or maybe just loves my reaction when she does it! I love it but it's scaring me like crazy.. she's only 9 months old!



So just as a little update, Lilly had her 9 month appointment and she is now 16.36 pounds. Just barely fitting into size 3 diapers, and 27 inches tall. She is jabbering and crawling, and getting into everything and seriously the cutest girl you have ever seen! The doctor said that at about 10-10.5 months we can start transitioning her to whole milk... which scares me a little cause of allergies, but really excites me cause formula is so freaking expensive. He said that I don't even have to buy baby jar food anymore cause as long as what I am eating is small enough or mashed up enough, she can eat what we are eating! She loves her spaghettios and her mac & cheese! She loves bannanas and strawberry's and avacados and little peices of sandwhich, and she loves chicken, and REALLY loves rice. She likes her potatoes and she REALLY loves some Ice cream, although that is a rare treat. Lucky us, no allergies!
Steve is really hunting for a new job. He really hates working nights and we decided that when school starts it would probably be better for us all if he worked days. His job won't let him switch so he is on the hunt! If you of you hear of anything good opening up let us know.
I'm doing amazing. I had finals for some of my classes and I am pretty sure I did well. I'm still dancing, and now I'm taking a dance conditioning class, which I'm so excited for cause I need to lose the rest of my baby weight and more! I'm getting ready for my summer intensive in August and starting school again in the fall. (by the way if you haven't heard, Alexis and I worked it out so that I can still teach 1 day a week.... YAY!)

To the dancers....

Since I have returned to school, I have been pleasantly surprised at how fast it has all come back to me. My knee is working as well as it did before it was injured, I am a much stronger dancer than I was before, and definitly more consistant. UVU has a ballet company called Repertory Ballet Ensemble (RBE) and last years director is my ballet teacher over the summer. She has expressed to me several times that she wished I would do RBE in the fall, and how she would love to see me give all that I can to this "2nd chance" I've been given at dancing. It started me thinking....This was my dilema....

School is VERY time consuming as a ballet major. I am barely a full time student and already going to school from 9-3 every day. After that a few times a week I would teach! This was going to be hard for me since I can't bring my beautiful baby with me to either of these activities... but it was going to work... Just barely... but it was. When this whole RBE thing came up... I blew it off right away. There is no way I could fit that in cause it goes from 3-5 every day. But I kept thinking about it and the thought just wouldn't go away that there was a way I could do the company. About a month later, I sat down and prayed about it because I just wasn't sure about my life and what I was doing. After a good long prayer I realized how I could make it happen. Like a punch in the stomach.....I would have to quit teaching.

All of a sudden I was hit with a choice... Teaching or Dancing. Steve and I talked and prayed and talked and prayed, and worked out mock budgets and checked on day care and talked more and prayed more and after a very intense, life changing week... I decided to dance.

I know it came as a huge shock to everyone at FCDA. I feel awful for springing this on everybody. Trust me... this is not what I intended to happen. After all of that thought, we figured that it would be a more consistant, healthy schedule for Lilly and Steve, and that I can spend the next three years focusing on my family and gaining experience and knowledge so that when I am REALLY done dancing I can be a better teacher.

Dancers at FCDA - I'm very appreciative of all your notes and messages. I wish I could write each one of you a letter explaining how you have really made these last 2 years special, but i can't. You guys brought me joy every single class (yes.. even when you would make my head spin cause you all wouldn't stop talking!!! haha)!! You all have so many special qualities that tell me that you are all capable of amazing things. Some of you are very graceful, some of you are smart, some of you are freaking workhorses... You have no idea what you are capable of if you follow your dreams and WORK HARD at them. Please don't give up until you have reached the stars!! Maybe by the time you all are in college I'll be your teacher there! (I can hope right?)

Alexis - Again, I apologize for springing this on you... I wish it all could have worked out to where I could have stayed. I am so glad I have had the opportunity to work for you. It was a pleasure. You are honestly the best studio owner I've ever met. I hope someday I can run a studio half as well as you! I've enjoyed working for you as well as your friendship! Your an amazing teacher and a wonderful mom!

I will finish teaching the summer classes and then we have our summer intensive. If you weren't sure about going.. PLEASE come! At least to a couple classes! I want to see all of you again before I leave for good. Anyway... Love you all! Good Luck in your journeys and wish me luck in mine!

Hyper!

Lilly had a little bite of cake the other day and she was HYPER! She did this for a good hour straight!

Memorial Day Weekend

So it's been a while since I've posted... so watch for several to come soon!

Steves brother Brandon and his wife Heather came up for a quick visit and it was so much fun to catch up and see their freakin adorable son Will! Will is about 5 or 6 weeks younger than Lilly so it's lots of fun to watch them! They are so similar!

On sunday we got to take a little walk down to the park and Will and Lill (hehe) got to swing together!

This is the side of Heather... She's such a good mom!

That night we basically just fed our faces. Lilly sat on my lap and decided that she wanted to eat what I was eating.. She made a huge mess but it was so cute I just let her! I don't let her anymore though.. especially when it's something not so good for her! Anyway, we got a video of it cause it was so funny...

Lilly and Will ate together too... Yeah I know she doesn't have a bib on.. she was messy anyway... it was already over.

So after that long day the babies took a bath together! We covered their "parts" for the picture (yes, we used an octopus and a crab), but if you want to watch the video, be prepared for some baby nudity... :)

On Monday we got to go to a barbeque! Delicious food and great people!

Lilly loved the watermelon.. but she pretty much loves everything that we eat and give her!Yeah.. That is Steve grabbing Brandons bum... he just can't get enough Brandon!

We Love Steves Brothers!

FCDA's Concert

FCDA had our spring concert on May 20th. It was CRAZY!!! The date of the show changed a few times, and so we didn't get to have a dress rehearsal in the covey center before the girls performed. It was pretty crazy, but very good! My classes did a very condensed version of Sleeping Beauty... I always love doing these short little ballets cause it's not just about the technique... I like to see the girls acting! They laugh about it in class, but on stage they actually do a really good job! We did our first pas de duex, which turned out pretty good once Sammy got over dancing with a boy! Kirk did our prince and he did a great job because he's a ballroom dancer... it helped a lot cause he had good rythem and good posture! The only bad part was the finale... we only got to run in a few times all together so there was a little hesitation on the cues, and there were some costume hang ups, and just some timing issues, but really it was just the ending... everything else went very smoothly and I was very proud of my girls!!

So Steve and Lilly made their debut on stage! Steve and I played the King and Queen and Lilly played the baby Aurora! Steve and Lilly were out in the audience and Steve thought it would be fine to let Lilly suck on the program, which was bright pink. Lilly's costume was a white onsie and a pink tutu... needless to say, her white onsie was no longer white... Which was ok...I kept her close to me on stage so it was just fine! Steve was really good on stage... he only had like 1 practice. Anyway, after their performance they were pretty tired!

I got to dance at the concert too... it was a lot of fun.. I haven't been on a stage performing for a long time, so it was kind of weird and a little unnerving, but it was a lot of fun!

Holy cow!

Ok so it's been a while. A lot is going on! First of all, Lilly is a crawling maniac now. She doesn't army crawl anymore, she is already crawling on her hands and knees. Blows my mind! I have a video of the first time she started crawling like that, but it's on my phone and I don't know how to get it off. About a week ago, she also started kneeling, which I didn't think would be very much harder, but it turns out when they start kneeling, they can pull EVERYTHING out and onto the floor! And not only that, but she figured out that if she kneels in her crib she can see out into the living room, so she has since learned how to keep herself awake and cry at us. It is seriously the saddest thing! She hardly ever sleeps... This is how it happened!

And yesterday, she decided that she could pull herself up to standing in her crib. And today she decided that she can pull herself up to standing just about anwhere something is the right height. Car seat, couch, tv stand, you name it... It is really cute though!! I can't believe how big she is, yet still so little! 7 months old and 14 lbs 13 oz. My little baby doll! This is a video of the 3rd time she stood up by herself.. Excuse the dripping wet from slobber onsie!

School is going pretty good! I'm so glad I went back! I'm learning so much! The first day wasn't so good... but progressively it's getting better! My knee hasn't hurt me one bit so let's hope that keeps up!

CDA had their concert today! It was REALLY good! All my dancers did such a good job! Makes me sad cause I love my girls! I'm gonna miss them so much! I made these tutus for them so enjoy the pictures!

Back to school.. I got my lunch packed up, my shoes tied tight.. I hope I don't get in a fight...

A couple of days before I went back to school for my second year of college as a ballet major in 2006 I broke my knee really bad. I severed my ACL, and tore my medial meniscus. I had to have a nasty surgery and LOTS of physical therapy. I still went to school... sort of... but it's kinda hard to pass your dance classes when you can't dance. I got really bad grades and at the end of the year I decided that I needed some time off to recover from this injury. Since I got bad grades, I was uneligable for financial aid... which was a must for me to go to school.. so I just decided that when Steve was finished with his school and we were settled and had money and stuff, I would go back to school for something.. I didn't know what because I couldn't imagine me doing anything else besides dance... But I thought I would have time to figure that out. I got 2 jobs teaching dance which I LOVE with all my heart! I absolutely LOVE my students and I love watching them dance. However something inside me thought that my time was cut short.. I wasn't supposed to be done yet... I still had a lot left in me! My students will tell you that any opportunity I get to dance with them.. I take it.

About 3 weeks ago, I had a feeling, an impression, a thought... I really want to go back to school. A thousand thoughts filled my mind after that.. Theres no way I could actually dance like I used to, I'm a mom now, I'm too old, can my knee take it? And most of all... could I pay for it. I couldn't get this feeling out of my head that I needed to go back... I talked to Steve about it and we decided to pray. We both knelt down and prayed and Steve got the impression that as long as we still had plenty of family time it would be alright for me to go. So I called the financial aid department to see what we could do. They said that I needed a ton of letters, documentation, reccomendations, all sorts of things before the government would fund me again. So I went on a wild goose chase for like 2.5 weeks getting all sorts of papers and letters and stuff. I went to the financial aid office about 4 times, applied for financial aid, admission, and I registered. I just found out on Wednesday that they were going to give me another chance. I got financial aid, I'm registered for classes and I start on Wednesday...

This has all happened so fast... but I have such good feelings about this. I know that I'm not going to go on Wednesday and expect to be able to dance as well as I used to... I know it will take some work.. but I can do it! Steve isn't going to school this summer and he still works at night so Lilly will be with Daddy in the morning, and then we'll have some family time before Daddy goes to work. Then me and Lilly get to just hangout for the rest of the day! Whats really going to be crazy is the first few weeks cause I'll still be teaching until around the middle/end of may.. I'm gonna be crazy busy, but I have a wonderful husband who is going to pick up some of my slack... Anyway... I'm really excited!!