Pinocchio and the Promposal

I had the opportunity to play the part of Pinocchio in the production of "Shrek the Musical"! I was literally one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had! This show tops all previous shows I've been involved. I was able to experience being a significant role for the first time! The whole show was just a show of laughter and fun. Basically the whole experience was a party and not only was I able to live in a fairy tale, but I was able to bring a fairy tale to life. It was just so much fun! And I was able to rock my new nose job. I was also involved in multiple dance numbers throughout the show like a Duloc performer for Farquad, a backup singer/dancer for the dragon, and one of the 3 Blind Mice during Donkey's song, "Make a Move".

The cast

Lord Farquad had to have been one of my most favorite characters! (I'm the performer in the far left)

3 Blind Mice

Lastly, I couldn't miss sharing my promposal by one of my best friends, Conner! It was adorable. He and my friend Evan wrote a song for my friend Rylee and I. They suprised us after a dance and brought us into a classroom with 2 chairs, a guitar, and a piano set up. Throughout the song they took turns singing certain portions of the verses. Conner sang some memories and inside jokes we have had, and Evan did the same to Rylee. In the chorus, Conner sang, "Natalie" and Evan sang, "Rylee" and they both sang, "Will you go to prom with me? We are pleading on our knees". Literally the CUTEST THING I HAVE EVERY EXPERIENCED! We were a little speechless concluding the promposal but my answer was YES! ;)

Here's the Promposal song!! The song is at the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trIVhq5oz2g&feature=youtu.be

I responded to prom by "heart attacking" his house with candy and this message. Basically I wanted to make it clear that my answer was yes........

Ball Rescue & more

Bennett became a little too curious with one of the heating vents and decided it would be fun to throw 3 balls down it.  He immediately told me the balls were down there when I came into the room.  There wasn't any way I could reach them, they were too far.

Sam had to become creative and put together a couple of different vacuum tubes.  We were successful and have all 3 of the balls again.  Right when we finished, I think Bennett was anxious to throw them down there again.  We will have to try to avoid doing that again. At least it wasn't the toilet. (Fingers crossed)

Other happenings around here, dad & mom came to visit!!  We had a lot of fun with them here.  Mostly just hanging out and playing.  We even got in a game of Hand & Foot.  Dad & mom were very busy visiting all the family members in the area.  We live by so many people on both sides of the family.  Here are a few pictures from the visit, mostly just of Bennett and Lottie.  I am not very good at remembering to take pictures of other people.

Bennett and Lottie were obsessed with dad's no gravity chair.  They loved taking turns sitting on it.

St Patrick's Day

Ned & Gloria's backyard was so much fun to explore.  It was a perfect night that we were even able to eat outside.

I just love this pic with everything blurry in the background.

Lottie loved taking breaks from putting all the wood chips under the playground onto the steps going up to the slide.

Let's just say Bennett was sad that m&d were leaving.

Right after dad & mom left we went out and bought a kite.  Bennett thought it was the best thing ever and could have stayed outside forever even though it was cold and windy.

Lottie was not so impressed.

Oh and exciting news!!  We are going to Utah to visit over Easter/General Conference weekend.  It seems like it has been forever since we have been there but it really has only been 3 months.  See most of the you then!!

Amelia turned Five!

 Amelia had a birthday! I think this girl is the best little girl around. She is just a delight. So sweet and so wonderful. Her newest thing is "I hope you have a good time!" That is what she says to us when we put her down to bed. She is so sweet.

 I think we look alike in this one.

 I took Amelia to Kindergarten registration last week and we got to tour the school. She got a little antsy during the tour, which was led by 4th graders who happened to be very thorough. But we loved her school and she is getting excited to go to the big school after summer.

 Small detour to talk about these cuties. Oscar doing his evil eye that he often gives strangers. But he does not break. And it is not usually accompanied by a smile. And below, my current favorite picture of Maya.

 This picture is the best. I asked them to pose for a picture and Maya loathes pictures so much sometimes, that she went boneless. Ha!

 Amelia decided to clean the house today for daddy. She picked up the toy room, her room, the kitchen table, and the family room. She even went around with the hand vac and spot checked each room. Life saver.

 She is very sweet with her friends. Quiet and reserved, but just so kind and excited about her friends.

 She and Maya play barbies for hours on end. They are up playing barbies right now when I put them to bed over an hour ago. I love to hear their imaginations go wild.

 But Amelia's most favorite thing to do is crafting. Coloring, drawing, stickers, scissors, glue. Our table is constantly covered in "projects". And we love it so much.

 Amelia is very logical. We talked about cutting her hair and her first reaction was no way! And then I told her it would be cooler in the summer, easier to brush through after swimming, and that it will grow back. I asked her to think about it. A few hours later she said, my hair will grow back mom? And decision made, we cut her hair.

 She is sporty. She loves to run and do races with Juan and Maya. She is great at catch and riding her bike. She loves to try anything new that is active.

 She loves to laugh. She has this fake laugh that just cackles on when she thinks Oscar is doing something cute, but then it turns into a real laugh because she always makes me laugh. 

 She is funny! She has a dance she does where she rolls her arms and kind of hunches over and moves from side to side. Can't explain it, but she does it to make us laugh or if she won something. She also lip syncs in the car, and rocks out while she does it. I love to watch her through my rear view mirror.

 And some other gems from the last few weeks:

 Park pictures!

 Girls on a mission.

Girls night out to see Cinderella!

We just love our girl. Happy Five Amelia!

First quarter happenings!

I'm finally going to do an update!  I know don't faint away.

I woke up on Sunday, March 1st with Benja snuggling next to me.   He asked "what day is it?"  I replied that is was Sunday and he said "yes! March 1st 19 days until my birthdays!"   The rest of the day he proceeded to be a bear like a little kid does when they are over excited.   On Monday he woke saying "it's March 2nd, 18 days until my birthday"  he again was crabby that day.  In my head I am thinking. this is going to be a very LONG month.   I finally told him if he kept acting like this I was going to have to take birthday presents away.   Maybe that is where the whole you better be good for Christmas came from, over excited kids!

Benjamin loves kindergarten once he arrives at school, he hates waking up to be there by 8:00 a.m.   He has a good teacher and he tries really hard to get his name in the good book.   He played basketball in Nov. And Dec. and loved it.   Mom and dad got to come to a game and he even scored.   He thinks he is as big as his brothers and is always outside playing basketball in the driveway with them.   Only when he scores it is 3 points and when they score it is one.  If anyone touches him he calls a foul and gets to take 6 shots.  I am pretty sure he thinks he is in charge, perhaps he is a bit.

Caleb and him are both in the musical Little Mermaid that will be performed the last
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday afternoon of the month.   Ben is actually just in Sebastian's choir which is some preshow music on Saturday.   Caleb is one of the Chefs and does a great job with his part even if it isn't large.   He really likes it.  Caleb also sang a solo in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. He did such a great job with his awesome high voice. Many members stopped him and told him he brought tears. It was very nice.

Caleb has also been doing basketball and ballroom.   Paul coached him in basketball, it was a bit of a rough season as almost half of his team had never played before, but they still had fun even losing every game.    The ballroom competitions have been fun even if they do take a lot of a Saturday.   He scored really well on his cha cha at UVU which is his competing dance this year.   They also have to know all of the dances because they go on and a dance is drawn for him.   The first competition he drew tango which he is also pretty decent at.   At UVU he drew fox trot which is not one of his strengths along with mamba.  He has his BYU competition this week which is exciting because we were not sure if our team would qualify.   Caleb is competing in the new comer swing for sure but we won't find out if there is more until Wed.   They will take the sixth graders over fifth graders so we will see.

Caleb also just did the school spelling bee.  When they were doing the grade one it was down to the three who would move on to the school bee.  They kept going back and forth for 20 minutes at which time Caleb realized he was going to miss recess so he misspelled a word on purpose seeing no point since the three already made it.   The school bee was sad, he misheard his first word and was out.  Although he did spell the word he thought they said correct:)

Spencer who is an amazing helper also might be the death of me!   He is finally growing, last Sunday he was barely a smidgen taller then me and the this Sunday he is very obviously taller.  How does that even happen?  Spencer also likes to cook for our family.  He loves to cook chicken, the problem is he is too busy.  He played on our school basketball team, it is the first year our school has done sports.   Their team had so much heart it was fun to watch.  He played starting the end of October at the same time as futsal and then indoor soccer.   His rec team started basketball in January, they did well and made it pretty far.   They finished up last Friday.  We finish up his second round of futsal next week, we also finished up the two in door practices a week for soccer.  It is funny because the weather has been so nice that they really could have practiced outside most of the winter.

I thought this would be my slow week before regular season started next week with no basketball this week.    WRONG!  His coach wants to make sure they are ready next week so he has added three friendly games a long with the two indoor trainings and a futsol game or two.    Crazy is all I have to say!

Joshua has also been busy.   He has been playing rec basketball which is really competitive by the time you are a jr. And sr.   The boys make there own teams and it is a big deal around here.   He has a really good coach who happened to be in the same mission with Paul.   He is a good coach and Joshua's team made it to the semi finals before they were out! Joshua is still an awesome rebounder.

Joshua also did masterworks at the end of January.   We were able to pick up mom and bring her.  It was amazing.  The top choirs in utah county with a professional working with them.  It is kind of like all state from our day.   He is now working on festival and they have state competitors coming up.   We have a concert in March to show what they will be competing with.

Sadie seems to be doing great and boy do I miss her.   Sometimes I feel like I live in a boy only world!

I was really sick with pneumonia most of January.  Since February I have been well more days than not so that is great!   We spent time with mom and dad around dad surgery and a little after but then our lives were taken over and we haven't been around much.   We won't be at the family dinner this month because the third Sunday is when my family does their dinner so this update might even be good for the Utah people.  I can't believe Joshua will be 17 and so close to going on a mission.

Right after their birthdays next week we will demolish the kitchen and start the re do.   Sorry this is so long!   I love reading your updates.

February Happenings

I have spent almost every free moment I have in front of my fire in my basement. I am becoming a shut in.

Natalie performing in "All That jazz" at City Hall.

She is growing up too fast. So beautiful!

Nat has decided to cook a dinner for us once a week. She made us pull apart pizza (like monkey bread) on Valentine's day.

The snow is coming up to the windows. It is overtaking us all!!!

AHHH!

Carley and I joined Nat and her friends for snowshoeing at the beginning of vacation. It was FREEZING! Wind chill -1.

Hiked to the top of Milford

We could barely feel our fingers and toes.

Nat, Conner, Rylee, Evan...such great friends.

Kevin and Zack went on a winter camp. Zack said this was a freaky feeling being buried alive. The snow is really heavy and he could not get out.

Dug a hole in the ice and jumped in

Then ran as fast as they could to the sweat lodge they built.

Oh boy Zack! What are you thinking? Kevin did it too.

Carley put Taz's coat on and took him for a walk. He was so excited to get out of the house.

She sent flat Stanley pictures to her cousin Ryker in Arizona.

We finished the Book of Mormon! Yay!

First time skiing for Carley. She said she loves it so much, it is now her new favorite thing. It was a sunny day and beautiful out.

Riding the magic carpet up the bunny hill for 2 hours straight...FUN!

Riding on the chair lift...on her way to her first big down hill slope

Zack was so nice to her this day. He taught her his moves.

So much to love about Carley.

I get to coach Carley in volleyball every Saturday. It is our time together and we have so much fun. She got her jersey and her favorite number is 8 so she was so excited to get #16. 8+8. Yay! She is really catching on and becoming a good little player. 

Our February has consisted of 6 snow days and an evacuation because part of the roof at the school collapsed. We have been out on vacation for a week. Not sure how the kids are even learning anything. Maybe March will be less Mad. It is snowing again right now and we are supposed to get 3-6 more inches. I think I may go insane. Not sure how I am going to make it through this winter. I have a feeling it is going to be around for a while. I hope everyone else has had a great February. Brooke turned 20 and we celebrated for her by eating party pancakes and red velvet cake.

Happy Birthday Brooke! We love you and miss you. We love you all! Good bye to February. There are parts of you we will not miss.  😉