What do you do in the summertime?

Gotta love it!

Father's Day

What is the best gift you can give Jaysen for Father's Day?

An afternoon of watching golf in his Man Cave......

Happy Father's Day Jaysen!

Thirty, Flirty, and THRIVING

So, I had a birthday even though I told everyone that I wasn't going to have one. :0)
But, I must say that I have some pretty wicked awesome friends and family. Friday night I had plans to go out with my friend, Montay, for a fun non-birthday dinner. While eating some fabulous pasta at Tomato's we decided it might be fun to go to the movies afterwards. Well, instead of driving to the theatre, Montay started to drive me out to the country. She swore we were going to go to Jackpot and that her hubby, Rob, and Jaysen were already in Jackpot waiting for us. {That was my first clue that she was LYING!} But, I went along for the ride. Why not....right? Then, my dear friend, Montay, turned on the EXACT same road that you would normally go down to get to my grandparents house. When I asked her if we were going there she said "Maybe". {Honestly Montay, you are a CRAPPY liar!} Of course, when she turned down my grandparents lane and I saw oodles of cars parked outside their barn I realized what was going on.
There had been an EVIL scheme going on behind my back to make sure that I really DID have a birthday!

This is my "SURPRISE!" picture....look how EVIL Montay's grin is. PUNK!
What happened after that? The DJ showed up and we boogied down all night. Oh....and ate chocolate cake and cheesecake. It was wicked awesome!
My friend, Jenn, drove all the way up from Salt Lake to come and celebrate with me. I haven't seen her in over two years and it was so much fun to shake our booties together again {like in the good old days.....when I wasn't 30}

My grandparents even joined in on the festivities....

Thanks for letting us use the barn!

Yes, we even danced the Macarena. Honestly, I think it has been nine years since I did the Macarena. I couldn't even remember all of the moves....

Here are the slacker boys pretending that they can't dance because they are so ravenously hungry that they must consume mass quantities of MY chocolate cake. :0)

The Jaques family....Amy did all of the decorations. Thanks so much Amy!

Landon has some wicked awesome dance moves......seriously. He danced the night away with me.

Princess Mackenzee even graced us with her prescence. :0) I love how she's got the fork in one hand, but has chosen the more "Proper" approach to inhaling chocolate cake......using her fist.

Ben and Heather Bingham

Who was the mastermind behind this whole crazy thing? My dear hubby, Jaysen. He thought of everything from the chocolate to the cheesecake to the music and dancing.

And babe....I forgive you. :0)

Turning thirty isn't so bad with you around. Thanks so much for putting all of this together for me. I love you CRAZY!

Shriners Circus

The circus came to town last week and so Jaysen and I took Mackenzee to check it out. I wasn't sure how well she would sit through it after I found out there weren't any cool animals in it, but she was completely enthralled and didn't move except for when she dove into her cotton candy.

They had some pretty great performers in the show. I was pretty impressed with the mad skills these three guys had on the trapeze. One of them did a triple flip in the air before being caught by the other one and then being flipped back to his original swing. It was crazy.

There were lots of other performers as well, but Mackenzee's favorite was the pink dogs.
Yes, pink and blue poodles did pet tricks for us and Mackenzee was so thrilled! At intermission they let the audience come down to get their picture taken with the dogs {for a price, of course}. Given the choice between the inflatable Dora toy and the dog picture....Mackenzee picked the dogs. :0) Sadly, after the fact we found out that we paid $10 for a BAD polaroid photo. Oh well. Mackenzee was thrilled with it, so I guess that's all that matters.
Thanks for the tickets mom! Mackenzee had so much fun. And thanks for taking Landon with the boys. He loved it too!

Swimming Lessons.....Part 1

Yes, it's that time of year again.....but at least this year I don't have to get in the water with Mackenzee. Last year was the mommy and me class and this year, poor Mackenzee had to do it all on her own.

We have progressed since last year though! If you recall, there was just a "bit" of desperate clinging on Mackenzee's part last year. This year she got in there and splashed her little heart out. She "swam" with the assistance of her fabulous teacher Miss Ashley. Would she put her head underwater though?

Yeah.....not so much. She finally put her face in the water on the very last day of class because Jaysen surprised us by showing up and she wanted to show off for him.

The fun stopped there though.

The purpose of this class is to get the kids to learn to be safe around the water and to not be afraid of the water. So, apparently this means that on the last day of class each class member goes off the diving board. :0) They are hopefully supposed to show that they aren't scared of the water and to show that they know how to be safe in deep water. One instructor waits for them in the water under the diving board while the other helps the child to either jump off....or in Mackenzee's case....painfully lower her down into the water.

This is Miss Ashley telling Mackenzee how much fun she'll have......I don't think Mackenzee was convinced. She was screaming so loud.....Jaysen and I were trying to stifle our giggles. I realize that sounds bad, but poor Miss Ashley was trying so hard and Mackenzee would not budge.
Even at the end of the diving board....Mackenzee had such a tight grasp around Miss Ashley's neck that her little fingers had to be pried off.


The lifeguards were so good and didn't even get her head IN the water. And she lived....even though I'm pretty sure she thought she wasn't going to make it.

Even with all of this drama Miss Ashley gave Mackenzee the go ahead to move on to the next class when she goes again. I think we may give it a bit of time before we move on to that though.

We are currently on Part 2 of swimming lessons with Landon. He was immediately bumped up to the next class on his first day and has now been forced to swim laps and tread water. :0) I'll keep you posted on his progress....

One Fine Face

Mackenzee had her very first dance recital last night at CSI. She was sure that she needed pigtails in her hair for her performance because she wanted to look different from all of the other girls. So, with excess amounts of gel and lots of rubber bands, we were able to glue back her short hair into two ponytails. Of course, that meant the feather hair piece had to be split in two. I will tell you....she was the only one with pigtails and two feather pieces in her hair. She still looked just like all the other girls though. :0)

Mackenzee has been taking dance since just January, starting four months after the rest of her class. She has enjoyed every minute of it and would go every day if it was possible. I was worried about whether or not she would freak out once she realized she was going to be performing not just in her little dance studio, but on a huge stage in a huge auditorium. The worry faded quickly. :0) She had a huge grin on her face the whole time.

Her first dance was a tap dance to "On The Good Ship Lollipop". The other number was a ballet dance to a cute Sesame Street song "One Fine Face". This was her favorite dance overall and she would go through the steps at home nonstop. Sadly, her teacher Miss Cassia won't be teaching at the dance studio any more as she has moved to Pocatello with her family. I met Cassia just after Mackenzee was born and she has been such a great dance teacher for Mackenzee. After she starting taking her dance classes all I heard about was her friend, Miss Cassia. They all said goodbye to her at the end of the recital and it was a sad moment. I know that Cassia has taught at Julie's Jazzworks for 8 or 9 years now. She will definitely be missed.

After the show Jaysen and I were talking to Mackenzee about how well she performed and how we thought she was so big for being able to get up in front of all of those people to dance. She looked at me and said, "But mom, I was the best dancer huh." {She doesn't have a high opinion of herself or anything does she?} Trying to deflate her a bit I told her that everyone in her class danced good. Of course, I was overruled by an overly proud daddy who told Mackenzee that everyone might have been good but she really was the best dancer. Mackenzee liked his answer better.We've got a two week break here before her summer classes start. She's disappointed that she has to take a break, but I am relieved as we needed to squeeze in some swimming lessons for her this summer too.

We really are proud of you Mackenzee. You did a great job and were adorable up on the stage. I'm so glad you have found something you truly enjoy. Keep it shakin'!

Piano Recital 2009

Landon had his piano recital on Wednesday. As with any other type of individual performance, Landon got himself completely worked up and freaked out over playing his pieces from memory in front of everyone. I won't even get into the details, but let me just tell you....I was one frustrated mommy by the time the night was over.

Of course his freak out was for nothing as he played both of his songs great. He did a really good job, and honestly, I wasn't worried about his ability for a minute. As his momma...I've heard him play those songs FOR MONTHS now. The stinker is just so worried about messing up or not being able to be perfect in front of other people that he would rather just quit everything and not try. It's hard to watch him do this to himself, and my heart literally breaks for the kid.

Anyway....back to his performance. He played 'Rover Roll Over' and 'Just Jazzin'. This is his third year of playing the piano and his sixth recital.

Here is a group shot of the kids he performed with. Landon has had fun being able to take his piano lessons back to back with my cousin, Taryn. He's the one standing next to Landon in the glasses. Even though Taryn is my cousin, he was born just six months before Landon. This year, my mom asked me to play a two piano duet with her. It was called 'Waltz for Two Pianos'. I had to get my piano brain back up and running in order to pull it off, but I think we got through it well.

We're going to be taking the summer off from piano and hopefully by the time school starts back up again Landon will be ready to get back into the swing of things.