St George

We were able to take off for the Memorial Day weekend, escape the cold and rain, and enjoy some good times with good friends. Here are just a few pictures that I took while we were there (I took over 90, so this is just a few). Maybe if I have the time and energy to post more I will do that later. Lets just say we had a great time!

Here are the kids on the red rocks above the Dixie sign. They all had such a blast climbing around on the rocks!

This is a silhouette of all the kids on the rocks.

And of course the gorgeous St. George temple.

Dance Pictures

Last Thursday my girls had their dance pictures. They had fun getting all dressed up, and having makeup on. They looked adorable! Being the cheapo that I am I thought I would take my own pictures of them instead of purchasing them from the photographer. So, before I took them out for their pictures, I did a photo shoot myself with them. Here are just a few of the pictures that I took.

Abby was first. It probably helped that the older kids were still in school. Abby had a BLAST posing for me! I have a ton of just sassy poses from that kid! Here are just a few that I have edited.

See, what did I tell you? Sassy! I love her :)

I thought this one looked amazing in black and white.

McKenzie was last. Her shoot was a little crazy. I had to run soccer stuff over to Pug in the middle of it, them we had to hurry and finish before we had to leave for her studio pictures.

Such a beautiful girl.

And of course a black and white one.


I am starting to understand my camera a little more each time I use it. I am hoping to one day actually take a class and really learn. Until then, I will take 100 pictures just to have 10 good ones :)

Why can't they assign seats?

I love going to the schools and listening to my kids sing, talk, and watch them dance. I know how hard it is to get all the kids in the whole grade to sit down and do what they are told. I understand why they always have the tall people in the back and the short people in the front. And I understand why all the parents want to sit in or near the front. BUT being the mom of short people I have one complaint. If you have a short child on the front row, you CANNOT see them when you are anywhere past the 3rd row! We could see the top 3 rows of children perfectly when we went to Cameron's end of year program (oh and FYI I was there 30 minutes early). We could not see Cameron at all! Even when he was standing! The only way I was able to get this picture was to climb over everyone on the row to get to the isle, squat down (so as not to get in the way of others photographing or video taping), and wait. All I am asking is for those who have children on the top few rows, please be considerate of those who have short children in the front, and let them near to watch their kids.
Thank you.

That is Cameron, front and center in red, on the front row!

"I lost 8 inches in just 2 hours!"

So here is me on Sunday. Notice how long my hair is?

A view from the back...

Then today I FINALLY went and had it cut! I am donating it to the Pantene hair donations Beautiful Lengths, in memory of our friend Paige who died last year from cancer.
Here is my needed 8 inches! It is curling a little, but it is all there!

A view from the back.

And the view from the front. (Maybe I should have put on some lipstick :)

$20 up for grab

Many of you are aware of our up coming trip to Virginia/Dc area. My kids are beyond excited and are counting down the days until we leave. They also have been wanting to do a little extra in the chores department to earn some spending money. Cameron has been the worst with hounding me about what he can do to earn extra money. Here in lies the problem. I don't feel like they should be paid for the things I expect them to do anyways. I have come up with a few things- like cleaning up all the dog poop, weeding, and other things that aren't part of their weekly chores. But of course they don't want to do THAT! So, after a particularly BAD day I came up with this...
If they can not whine, complain, fight, throw temper tantrums or attitude, PLUS obey, and be kind to each other for a full 24 hours I would give them $20! That's it!
Okay, so day one. Cameron lasted 15 minutes before he lost it with his sister. McKenzie made it a whole 45 minutes.
Day two was much better. Cameron had gone 9 hours! McKenzie was about 7 hours. It was really sad about Cameron. If he had only hung on for about 2 more hours he would have been going to bed and slept for a HUGE portion of his time. Darn- I don't give second chances :)
Day three. Sunday- Mother's Day. Cameron and McKenzie were doing great, until it was time to go to church. Out goes Cameron before we even made it into the car. Out goes McKenzie before we make it over to the church.
Today is day 4, and yes, they have already lost it.
Apparently it is really hard to get along with you family and be PLEASANT for 24 hours. I have faith that they can do it. And every morning I will start their time over (the time is 7:00am- 7:00am). Until then I have 2 twenty dollar bills burning a hole in my wallet.

Pictures

After I posted the last entry I went back and edited a few of the pictures from the race. Here is what I have done with them. I think they turned out pretty good....

A 5k and kids fun run

This morning I ran a 5k race for a charity that is just getting started out here in EM. It is called the Cupcake Charity and they raise money for people who are sick, or have family members deployed, or any other need that they see. So, anyways I ran that this morning. The weather started out cold, but sunny. In fact as I was running I started taking off my layers (well, the gloves, hat, and sweatshirt). I made pretty good pace for me. I was the 4th woman through at a pace of 29:32. There weren't a whole lot of people there (maybe 40?), but I feel like I did pretty good. Afterwards they were going to have a mile fun run for the kids, but due to the snow they changed it to just a short sprint. I don't know what the distance was, but McKenzie took 1st at 1:01 and Cameron took 3rd at 1:07.

Here are just a few pictures from this morning.

Abby (obviously I DIDN't fix her hair before I left)

Me near the finish line. I don't look like I am running very fast (and I really wasn't at this point).

At the start of the kids run. I love how Cameron looks like he is just flying!!!

McKenzie nearing the finish line.

Cameron nearing the end. And McKenzie finished.

Abby is ready to call it a day. It was cold and snowing by the time the kids ran.