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.

Read More

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:

Read More

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.

 

Read More

Brettsie's Pretty Shoes!

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

Read More

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.

Read More

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 :)

Read More

New Beginnings

What an incredible night it was for Madison.We attended the New Beginnings Program at the Church in honor of all the new Beehives that will be coming into Young Women's this year. The highlight was the slide show that Anne created of all the new incoming Beehives. It was a beautiful slide show showcasing each girl from birth until now, put to the most beautiful music. Madison was the last one in the slide show leaving a lasting image of her beautiful face. She is sooo excited for Young Women's that she's not counting down the days until her birthday, rather how many Sundays left before she's in YW's; which is only 3 Sundays away! I can't believe I have a little girl who will be a YW soon.

All the new Incoming Beehives

Maddy & her BFF; Kaysha Marie Jensen

Our little girl is growing up!

 She's so beautiful!

Read More

The HUT

I was feeling very adventurous one day and decided to throw all the rules out the door with this one. We collected a mattress, blankets, pillows, chairs, stools & duct tape for this awesome hut. I created this in the theater room in the basement, so that I didn't need to "see" the mess, I mean hut. Brett & Anamarie were in heaven as we diligently expanded this small hut into a hut mansion. Anamarie decorated the inside with her webkins stuffed animals, books, drinks and popcorn. I mounted my ipad to the inside for them to watch their movies; they had a blast!

Read More

Princess Brett

Anamarie's creative spirit has lead her to beautifying her little brother with dresses, headbands and bright makeup. Brett has even grown to enjoy this past time with his sister. I hope this doesn't having any negative lasting effects on him; but isn't he so cute??

Read More

Taylor and his friends dancing together

It's a Saturday night, and what better to do than dance. Taylor and 3 of his close friends had a blast dancing to SOS, Michael Jackson, and many more songs. They informed me that they are getting "prepared" for the Valentines dance that's coming up in a week. I must say, they were better then I expected. By the way, they had no idea I took these videos of them, and they are all over YouTube & Facebook right now. Teeheehee; I love embarrassing 13 year old boys.

Read More