Taylor advances to a LIFE Scout!

Taylor was excited to advance to a Life Scout at the last Court of Honor. He has earned almost all the required merit badges for his Eagle Scout as well. If everything goes smooth, he should have his Eagle Scout in the next 6 months. Great Job Taylor & his awesome Scout Master!!

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Anamarie first Soccer Practice

Anamarie experienced playing soccer this year for the first time. Her team met at the Filly Park across from the American Fork Rec. Center for their first practice. She had a great time kicking the ball and scoring goals, but her highlight was pausing all soccer related things so she could sneak in another pose for me while I took pictures. Her coach was even trying to talk to her and she completely ignored him to pose for another shot. Anamarie and her good friend Ava also posed for another shot. Her coach is Tyler Shelly and I am the Team Mom. It's been so cute to see her do something new.

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The Nose Picker

Brett is addicted to picking his nose. While hanging out with my crazy kids tonight, I managed to catch his "Nose Picking" many times :)

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State Science Fair Beauty

Round 1 - School Level: Madison's Science Project "Double Rainbow All The Way" wins 1st place in her category at Deerfield Elementary. She and 15 others out of 130 students recieved 1st place honors and went on to compete at the District Level

Round 2 - District Level: Madison wins 1st place again. She and 50 others out of 250 students move on to compete in State held at the BYU campus.

Round 3 - State Level: Madison makes it to State which was held on the campus of BYU. This all day event allowed her to miss school so she could present her project to Science Major's. She did recieve 4th place along with a cool trophey and $15.00. What a little smarty pants, we are so proud of her!
 

Madison get's awarded 4th place by BYU's Cosmo

Madison's 4th place award

Madison's official check

Madison's participant program

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Brett's Basketball Shoes

Uncle Kolby took this little video of Brett playing basketball outside in these pretty shoes. Brett's new favorite past time is playing basketball on the real court outside. On this day, he snuck outside in the cold to "shoop" some hoops when Kolby caught him barefoot. Kolby told him to go inside to get some shoes, on and he came back with one of his shoes and one of Anamarie's. So cute.

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Anamarie Reading Her "Scriptures"

Anamarie has convinced herself that these are her scriptures. I can't seem to figure out the correlation between As a Man Thinketh, and the Book of Mormon, but apparently she knows. It's so cute to watch her create verbiage that comes from the real scriptures. Too cute.

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Flash Allstars Nationals Competition in Orlando Florida

Madison's Flash All Stars Cheer team took first place in State which gave them the opportunity to compete at the Nationals Championship in Orlando Florida. They competed twice on Saturday, (March 12th). Normally they do one competition on Saturday and the second one on Sunday. But, because her coach believes in keeping the Sabbath Holy, she didn't want to compete on Sunday, so both were on Saturday. Talk about taking a stand and standing out, because out of all 50 states, Utah & Indiana were the only 2 states who didn't compete on Sunday. With 40,000 cheerleaders competing against each other, it was very nerve racking for these young girls. At a Nationals level they have rows of professional cheer judges watching every move they make, and docking simple errors. Madison's team did amazing on their first competition, but because of exhaustion and nerves they had some big mistakes on the second. The judges score 20% on the first and 80% on the second; so they didn't score too high. They win a huge trophy and placed 9th in the Nation for their division, but they should have gotten so much higher. Maybe next year :)

1st Competition Video:


2nd Competition Video:

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Madison's Special Birthday ~ The SLC Temple!

Madison turned 12 on March 8th 2011. She had one simple request; to go inside the Salt Lake City Temple. Brady and I knew this would be difficult with her mandatory cheer practice that same day because of Nationals in Florida that week; but we made it work. She packed a bag with her church clothes beforehand so she could just get ready in the car when we picked her up. As she begins getting dressed, she announces that she forgot her church shoes. I told her she was going to have to wear her gym shoes because if we went home we wouldn't make it on time which could jeopardize our night our entire night. She then says she left her temple recommend at home too. This not only made it easier for us to decide what to do, but it saved Madison from embarrassment.  So, I called the temple and asked if we could push our appointment to 6:30 and they assured us that we could do so. Excited that this was not a lost cause, we hurried home to get Maddy's important things and started on our way. In the car we studied all about the temple history. The SLC Temple was the 4th temple built. Although it was the second temple to begin construction it took 40 years to complete, 3 other temples were completed before. Construction began in 1853 and completed and dedicated in 1893. We also learned that the temple walls are 9 feet thick with solid granite. We learned about all the symbols on the outside of the temple and the representation of the spires on the top. Angel Moroni facing South East represents the direction in where Christ will come. So much history with this temple! It made it more special for Maddy when she got to go inside. She was taken back by how "clean" everything was. After our time in the temple we went to Chili's for dinner. We surprised her with a new present there; an iPhone. She couldn't believe it. It was a great night that we will always remember.

 

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Brettsie's Pretty Shoes!

Brett loves to wear shoes; especially ones that aren't his. He loves clonking around in mommies shoes.

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District Science Fair Beauty

Round 1 - School Level:  Madison's Science Project "Double Rainbow All The Way" wins 1st place in her category at Deerfield Elementary. She and 15 others out of 130 students recieved 1st place honors and went on to compete at the District Level

Round 2 - District Level:  Madison wins 1st place again. She and 50 others out of 250 students move on to compete in State held at the BYU campus.

Round 2 - District Level Pictures. Madison Advances to State Level

Madison with her step cousin Tyler Whimpey. Both advance to State.

Madison with proud little sister; Anamarie.

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William's first sugar rush!

All of our other babies were sipping milk shakes when they were just 1 month old, but I wanted to break this bad habit. At 8 months old, William discovers SUGAR and red vines licorice,  and discovers a whole new world :)

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