My Little Gymnasts

Jaysen was finally able to come watch the kids at gymnastics last night and so I was able to finally get some photos of them.

Mackenzee has been doing gymnastics for almost five months now. Her class learns the basics about stretching and somersaults and balance and coordination. It's amazing how such little kids are able to grasp the concepts and actually do some of the things by themselves after such a short time. And I love being able to do this with her as it's a Mommy and Me class. It's been so good for her to do this. But, be careful! if you ask her to do "Peter Pike" or "Suzy Stradle" she will expect you to do it with her! ;0)




Then there's my stud Landon, who started doing this in June and in just two short months has learned so much. Miss Leann keeps the classes small so the kids are able to get more attention and one on one time from her, and because of this he is cartwheeling around the house and doing handstands all the time. Again, the class is great for coordination and for the older kids, real strength building stuff. He's doing bridges, which are hard for him because of his lack of arm muscles ;0) and jumping the vault. This class has surprised me in how much it has affected Landon's confidence. He is willing to try more things now and bouncing back a little quicker if he doesn't do it perfect the first time, which used to really frustrate him.

This was proven last night, but his confidence resulted in all of us having a big scare. They were working on the vault at the end of class and he was doing amazing. Not needing any help to do the basics like the stradle pictured above, or the "cowboy", which is where both legs go over one side like you were jumping a fence. So, Miss Leann started them working on front handsprings. With her as a spotter he was doing really well. We were all really excited for him that he was going for it without fear. Well, one of the main rules is that you have to wait for Miss Leann to say go before you start running to the vault. And Landon must have thought he could do it all by himself, because he took off running, jumped on the vaulting tramp and went for it! Unfortunately, his arms were bent, which is bad, and he crumpled head first to the floor landing back on the trampoline. Freaked me out! Luckily, he had tucked his head to somersault like a good little gymnast, and landed on his back and not his head, and so all he's ended up with were some scratches on his very sore back. But holy cow! Your worst fear.....
Anyway...we LOVE gymnastics. It has been so good for both of the kids. And we LOVE Miss Leann. She does such a good job.

Good times

So, we had my family reunion this last weekend up in McCall. I had never been there before. We stayed in some "mobile cabins" and so were able to hang out and have a great time.


My mom, older sis Melanie, and myself chatting it up during one of our mealtimes. We ate A LOT!!!!! As usual.......





Landon went to the lake friday and Saturday, though I only went on Saturday when the rest of the family was able to go. I was so proud of Landon for going on the tube. He was too scared to do it last time he had the opportunity, and normally shies away from anything he is uncertain about. But, my aunt Tammy PROMISED him that she wouldn't let him fall out, and if by some accident he did, his life jacket would not let him drown. So, he went for it and had a blast! He went with my cousin Madison on Friday, and then with his cousing Talon on Saturday. Too much fun!

My camera battery died just after boating on Saturday, so I was unable to snap anymore pics. I am going to have to do the pestering and retrieving from my family to get the rest. ;0) The ones that will be fun to have are from when we went ice skating Saturday night. My family went with Tammy's family and had fun. Well, except for Mackenzee. We started out good. They even had the cutest little ice skates for her feet. ;0) I tried to skate her around on the ice while holding her hands in front of me, but I'm not a good enough skater to be able to NOT fall when her ice skates bumped into mine. And, since we weren't allowed to carry her while we skated (for safety purposes) it proved to be difficult to get her going. Oh well! It was fun though, as I haven't gone ice skating since high school. And, I haven't forgotten a thing. Olympics here I come! :0)



And....when it was all over...this was what the trip home was like. ;0)

In all seriousness, we all had a blast. Kudos to my aunt Tammy for planning this all for us!

Hallows or Horcruxes?

So, I finished reading the final installment of the Harry Potter series this morning at 1:00 a.m. It's done. I won't ruin it for any of you, so I won't talk about it to any extreme lengths. But I am finding myself let down. After all of these years, and all of these books, I was expecting something truly creative and amazing from Ms. Rowling. Though the entire book was good, and captured my attention (enough to read it in three days!), it was the final chapters that I'm feeling let down by. The last big battle. Maybe it was because I was reading at 1:00 in the morning... I don't know. It was almost as though I already knew it all was going to end this way, and was honestly hoping for something unexpected. Which is what got me about book 6. Oh well!

I'll still watch the movie though! ;0)

Harry Potter Mania!

Okay...so I just got home from watching the 5th Harry Potter movie at the theater. Very good stuff. For all you fans out there, they did leave out some of the good stuff from the books, but Jaysen couldn't tell the difference as he hasn't read a single one of them. ;0) With the books being roughly 600 pages each as we reach the end of the series, I know they probably had a hard time deciding what to include into a two hour movie. I'm wishing they had saved more time for the big battle at the end where they all ended up in different "rooms" at the Ministry of Magic fighting different dark wizards. But, that's okay.

I am now SOOOO pumped for the seventh book to come out next week. I can't wait to buy my copy and hole up in my room for DAYS staying up until 2 am every night till I get through it all. This is the end of it all. Does Harry die? I hope not.

For those of you that haven't read the books, you need to start reading!!! JK Rowling is such a brilliant author. Such imagination and creativity. It's amazing how she has been able to come up with all of this. And kept it going for this many years. By the time the last movie comes out, we'll have had a decade of Harry Potter. ;0) Not that I'm complaining. She could keep going for all I care. I know I'd keep reading!

Adorable

We had Mackenzee's 18 month pictures taken about a month ago (they were taken late as she was already 20 months old, oh well!) and we got them back last week. So excited with how they turned out!

My mom sewed this adorable blue gingham dress for her for Easter, and we had the pictures taken at the rose garden at CSI. I had never been to that part of the campus and it was so pretty! A great backdrop for summer time photos!

Anyway, just thought I'd share a couple of them with you. I can't believe my baby is going to be two years old in just a couple of months. Makes me so sad!

By the way, if any of you want to use this fabulous photographer she gave me a handful of these pass along cards to share. Her contact information is on the bottom. She is a "capture the moment" photographer and I just love her. This is the second time we have used her, as we had her take our family portrait last November as well. She will go anywhere you want to take the pics, including your own backyard, bedroom, whatever....And she lets you just be yourself and snaps pictures as you go.

In the end you get pictures that are just perfect. You can check out her website too

http://www.jrandallportraits.com/

You might see some familiar faces there!

Hot Stuff!!!

What was the #1 song on the day you were born?

Go to this website and find out!!

http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm

Mine was "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer.....I think that really says something about me, don't you????

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a pretty full day. We went out to Buhl to the Sagebrush Days parade with my parents and grandparents. Talon is still here, so he and Landon were able to hang out again. Mackenzee loved watching the horses, which she called cows and was so sure they were, that she mooed at them.

After that we went to my grandparents house for hamburgers as we were all famished. And since it's the 4th....you have to BBQ right?

By then it was naptime, so we took Kenzee home and left Landon with my mom so that he and Talon could play together some more.

Anyway...obviously that night we did fireworks. We had the best of both worlds as we were able to see the CSI fireworks from my mom's front yard, and still be able to do our own at the same time. Good fun! The boys had lots of fun with the fireworks. Jaysen let them help light some of them. So, they were extra excited that they got to be a little more hands on. Mackenzee LOVED the fireworks. She clapped and yelled in excitement. It was more fun to watch her than the actual fireworks. ;0)

I hope you all had a spectacular day celebrating our freedom and independance. Something we all usually take for granted at some time or another. Happy 4th!

Snakes!

So, as I was browsing through the paper this last Sunday, I noticed that they were having a showing of 'Mingle in the Jungle' Tuesday night (tonight). I had heard from my friend, Alicia, that it was prety good and thought that it would be fun to take the boys to it. In the end, it ended up being all of us (Papa, Nana, Jaysen, me, Talon, Landon, and Kenzee) that went.

Kenzee, of course, couldn't sit still and so Jaysen ended up roaming around the Herrett Center with her. That is until they brought out the big Boa Constrictor. ;0) She was amazed. It was awesome to see her reaction to it.

The boys were restless as well as they didn't really care too much about the "scientific" part about snakes and reptiles, they just wanted to touch them. Sigh. Oh well. I was amazed that they actually let the kids hold and handle the snakes like they did. The speaker actually plopped this one on Landon's back before he could say otherwise. I'm not sure he would have done it if the guy hadn't though. ;0)

Talon, on the other hand, lifted it right off of Landon's shoulders when I asked him if he wanted me to take his picture too. He was all for it. Picked it up and draped it right around his neck. Holy cow!!!! No fear. What do you do?

Now, Mackenzee wasn't sure about the whole touching thing. She was interested, but took it slow. She let me take her right up to the really big boa constrictor that the speakers' assistant was holding, but she had to take her baby doll with her. ;0) She just stared in amazement at first, until I took her hand and touched it to the snake before she had a chance to jerk it away. Once that happened, she didn't mind touching it and was able to pet it a couple of times.

Not sure if it was a good idea to get these kids to handle snakes. Knowing my luck, one of mine will find one and think it's okay to just pick it up and lug it around and get bit or something. Sigh.

Anyway...all in all, the kids had a good time, which was the point. And I have now finally been to the Herrett Center. We will definitely have to go back and take in a show sometime.