Sammy's Dance Recital

Sammy had her dance recital a couple of weeks ago.  I think she was glad when it was all over. She hasn't been sure whether she likes being in ballet, so this year has been a challenge. The dance was to the song "A Dream is a Wish" from Cinderella. She really did well for her first recital.  Megan was a sweet sister and decided that she was going to buy Sammy some flowers with her own money.

End of the School Year

I'm a little behind on some of our events, but wanted to post pictures from the end of school. The girls did really well this year.  Megan earned the citizenship award for her team. It is an award that is given to one girl and one boy from each team of 120 kids.  We are so proud of her because it shows a lot about her character.  Sammy got an award for learning all 300 sight words that they were supposed to learn.  It was a lot of work, but she is becoming an excellent reader because of it. 

Sammy with her teacher, Mrs. Stamps

Sammy's Kindergarten program.  It was called Bugz.

Megan's last choir concert.  She is on the top, in the middle.

Megan is 12!

Yesterday was Megan's 12th birthday.  Other than the fact that my age tells me that it is indeed possible, I can't believe that I am old enough to have a 12 year old child. I have spent the last couple of days going through pictures of her and wondering where the years have gone.  She is such an amazing girl - she is everything I wished I was when I was her age.  She is friendly, confident, smart, pretty, talented, adventurous, fun, outgoing, and the list goes on.  I often grumble about dealing with her emotions and attitudes, but we truly are so lucky to have her in our family, and we love her so much!

Since I was going through all of her pictures, I thought I would post birthday pictures of Megan through the years.

Megan had a birthday party this past weekend with 2 of her 3 best friend from school.  I took them to the movies to see "Prince Caspian". Afterward we went to dinner at Pizza Hut.  We came back home and the girls went swimming for awhile.  Then we came back and did a chocolate fountain for dessert.  The party was a sleepover, so they went upstairs, and we didn't hear from them the rest of the night.  I truly think that parties get easier as kids get older!  This one was a piece of cake!! We celebrated her birthday quietly as a family yesterday.  Her main present that she wanted was a Rip Stik, so she was excited to get one.

In case you don't know what a Rip Stik is, I posted this video of Megan riding one.  It's a 2 wheeled skateboard, and Megan is really good at it. Mike tried riding it too, and after several tries, and one fall, finally got the hang of it.  I however will not be attempting it!

  

Gateway to the West

Last weekend we decided to take head out for another adventure to a city we had never been to before - St. Louis.  This time we went with 4 families that are friends of ours.  It is only a 5 hour drive, so we were able to be there for 2 days.  We split up and traded off going to the temple and watching each other kids.  We also visited a really fun children's museum called the Magic House.  The guys went to a Cardinals baseball game, while the girls went shopping.  We also got in a little swim time at the hotel, and did a big group lunch at a restaurant (there were 28 of us!).  The last thing we did before leaving was go down to see the Arch.  It was awesome to see something that we've only seen in books.  It was huge and very impressive.  The trip was a lot of fun and we really had a great time!

16 Years of Marital Bliss!

I want to share with you some events that took place in the year 1992:

• George H.W. Bush was President of the United States - Bill Clinton defeated him in the Presidential election later that year.
• A Winter and Summer Olympics was held that year in Albertville, France and Barcelona, Spain.
• Johnny Carson retired from the Tonight Show and was replaced by Jay Leno.
• Silence of the Lambs won Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
• Miley Cyrus was born.
• And most importantly, on May 23rd we were married in the Logan, Utah Temple!

Mike and I met in September 1991 at Ricks College.  We were in an Interpersonal Communications class together.  On one of the first classes of that school year, we ended up sitting next to each other during class and started talking.  At the end of class Mike said to me

"Maybe we should do something sometime", but didn't say when "sometime" might be. I wanted to give him another chance to ask me out, so I saved a seat for him the next time we had class.  At the end of class he did indeed ask me out, and drove me back to my apartment. Our first date was the following Saturday.  He was an hour late, and I thought I had been stood up.  We drove to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and wandered around the downtown.  We had dinner at Pizza Hut, and then went to see Terminator 2.  After that first date, we were pretty much inseparable.  We got engaged Christmas Eve, and were married in May.  

It's hard to believe that 16 years have passed since that day.  I don't feel like we are old enough to have been married that long.  I think we keep each other feeling younger than we are.  We have had our ups and downs over the years, but our love and marriage have grown through it all.

Time for an Update

It's been brought to my attention that some of you might be getting tired of my Earth Day post. I guess that it is probably time for an update of the past few weeks.  I do have a couple of excuses in my defense.  About 3 weeks ago our computer decided to crash.  We had it happen last summer, and paid to have it fixed.  This time we decided that rather than put any more money into it, that it might be time to just give in and get a new computer.  Of course it couldn't be just an easy trip to the store to buy a new computer.  Mike really had his heart set on a computer that we had to order (an iMac for any of you computer experts).  Once it finally came I practically had to make a reservation to schedule just a little time on it (you know how men are with their new toys). 

The other thing that has kept us busy was having Mike's parents come and visit us for 10 days. It was so nice having them here.  The kids enjoyed being able to spend time with them.  It is like a vacation for me - the kids don't want anything to do with me.  They also helped us get our yard in shape for the year - now I just have to keep it watered and weeded (ughh!).  We got to celebrate Grampy's birthday with him, and Mother's Day with Grammy.  It was a great visit, and we were sad to see them leave.

We are finally getting some nice weather, so the kids took advantage of it on Saturday and pulled out the swimming suits and made their own water slide.  It was great to spend some time outside.

This past weekend was Megan's dance recital.  We left the guys at home - they don't enjoy watching 2 1/2 hours of dancing.  Megan did so well - she is really a great dancer.  I will post the video of her 2 dances after Mike gets them downloaded.  

Happy Earth Day!

As I have written about previously, Mike and Megan went on a camping trip a couple of weeks ago. It was a retreat that Mike's company sponsored in which they talked about "sustainablility" and what type of carbon footprint we are leaving. I have to say that Mike has never been into the whole ecological thing, especially where the global warming stuff is concerned. But the things that they talked about that weekend made an impact on him, and as a family we are trying to do a few things to be more ecological friendly. And so in honor of Earth Day, I am going to share a list of easy things everyone can do that will have a significant impact on the environment.

1. Skip a car trip each week.
Skipping a weekly 20 mile trip represents less that a 10% decrease in the average American's driving and can reduce your weekly carbon dioxide emissions by more that 18 pounds.

2. Eat one less beef meal each week.
Livestock currently consume 70% of America's grain production. Grazing accounts for 800 million acres of U.S. land, and 18% of all water consumption is devoted to producing feed for livestock. If only 1,000 people take this action, we will save over 70,000 pounds of grain, 70,000 pounds of topsoil and 40 million gallons of water each year.

3. Don't eat shrimp.
For every pound of shrimp caught, over five pounds of marine life is killed, including endangered sea turtles. If only 1,000 people stopped eating shrimp, 12,000 pounds of sea life would be saved each year.

4. Declare your independence from junk mail.
Catalogs and other direct mailing account for 5.2 million tons of waste each year, and only 19% are recycled, leaving over 4 million tons to clog landfills. Call unwanted catalogs and asked to be taken off their mailing lists. To be taken off pre-approved credit card offers, call 1-800-353-0809.

5. Replace four standard light bulbs with energy-efficient compact flourescent lights (CFLs).
Not only will this reduce the emission of carbon dioxide, it will also reduce your electricity bill!

6. Move the thermostat 3 degrees.
Heating and cooling represents the biggest chunk of our home energy consumption.

7. Eliminate lawn and garden pesticides.

8. Install an efficient showerhead and low flow faucet aerators.

Even Megan is a believer, and this is how she looked when she left for school today (look at her shirt and bag)!