Dance Recital

The girls recently had their end of the year dance recital and it was so fun to watch! Both girls did good and remembered their dances.  Although, Oaklie didn't do her dance during the recital...hahaha. It was quite the sight to see.  She did it that morning at the rehersal, which is why i said BOTH girls knew thier dance.  Because, she really did.  I think it was really exciting for her that all these people were there to see her dance, so she just looked at them and rocked her baby. (they danced with dolls for their dance) At one point she even said, "Hi mom.." or something like that.  In Oaklie's defense, her class of little 3 and 4 year olds went 30th out of like 35 numbers.  They had to wait a really long time.  Which, if you ask me, is way too long for those little girls to wait.  So, by the time she got up on stage, she was tired.  It was still entertaining to watch! I bought a video of the night...it will be great blackmail some day.  Berklie's dance was really cute and she did a great job!  She was in a tumbling class this year as well, but because of her broken elbow, she wasn't able to participate in that.  She has gotten pretty good too, so it was sad that she couldn't show off her skills.  Berk's also earned the perfect attendance award for the year, which only a handful of girls got.  :) She was super excited about the medal that she got for that.
Anyway, I thought these pictures were adorable of the girls.  Next year Oaklie is going to take a tumbling class, no dance classes.  She insists that she just wants to do summersaults.  Which I am totally fine with!  Berklie will do a hip/hop jazz class as well as tumbling again.  It's fun to watch both girls improve and enjoy what they are doing.  I asked Berklie if maybe next year she would want to try out for competitive dance...she said...mmm, maybe.  We shall see if we are up for that.

SPring!

I feel like I've been waiting a long time for Spring this year..it took it's sweet time getting here.  I hope that it stays around for a while because this weather is perfect!  The kids can happily play outside for hours and that makes for one happy momma too and babies that sleep so good!  Can't get enough of it! Saturdays right now are our only free day.  The rest of the week we are watching baseball or softball...so when Saturday comes around, we LOVE it.  This Saturday we were gone for the morning because Mat and I were in Park City celebrating our 10 year anniversary, but the minute that we got home we went into the back yard and planted our garden!  Well, most of it.  We will wait to do the tomatoes until after Mother's Day.  I am hoping this year to can salsa in the fall.  I have been saying that for the last few years...ever since I burnt my last attempt. But this year, I am going to do it!  I love homemade salsa and to have it year round is even better!  So, that is pretty much what our garden is centered around this year with a few extra things.

 Oaklie was more interested in finding worms than planting seeds...

 Crew just wanted to find "polly-polly's".

Berk's Birthday

Since her actual birthday was a day before the Cinderella party, we celebrated with the just the family on her big day.  During the day we went to the park with some friends, ate some donuts and had a lot of fun.  She got to choose where or what we had for dinner and she wanted to go to Noodles and Company.  The kids LOVE the mac n' cheese there. Then we came home for some cake and bike riding time!  We love our Berklie, her sense of humor is the best and she is such a good big sister!  Love you Berks!

Berklie Bear is 6!

She has been patiently waiting to turn 6, I think mostly because of the party!  This year is her year for a friend party.  I tried hard to convince her to have her party at the Tooele Gymnastics Academy.  You can rent the whole place for pretty cheap.  This way I don't have to clean and clean again my house!  But, to no avail...she wanted what she wanted.  Shocking for her, I know.  Right.  She wanted a Cinderella party with a pinata and the Cinderella from Disney Land that we never found on our recent trip there.  I told her that would most likely not be happening, but the pinata, I could handle that.
I had so much fun planning her party and I had to tell myself a couple time to calm down, I might have been going a little overboard with my planning.  Just a little.  So, here is my tone down version of a (non-Walmart) Cinderella party!

 The girls spent most of the party, here at the table.  Which would have NEVER happened at a party for Carter.  We started by decorating crowns, then they ate dinner.  Berklie chose the menu, shells and cheese, princess meat and cheese sandwiches, (you can never have too much cheese according to Berklie) strawberries, cheese on pretzel sticks and pink lemonade! After dinner they made necklaces and then decorated cupcakes.  The cupcakes didn't turn out so hot.  I thought I was getting this great deal when I bought this Easter cupcake decorating set for like 75% off.  But, you really get what you pay for.  The frosting was like thick glue and didn't taste all the good either.  But, the girls had fun attempting to decorate.

 My friend made this cake for me.  I thought it was the cutest thing, and perfect for Berk's party.  When Berklie saw it though she said, why is that Barbie head sticking out of that cake?  It's a little weird.  haha!  Love her. She really wanted the cake from Walmart with the Cinderella toys on it.

 Cute girls eating some dinner!  Klara, Amber F., Brooklyn and Miya.

 Ashley, Berklie, Kamry and Bentley.

 After they made necklaces they whacked at the pinata, but I of course, got no pictures of that event.

The end to a successful night!  I was tired and ready for a big Dr. Pepper at this moment.  :)

Family Pictures

One great perk of photography is knowing other great photographers!  Back in November we got our pictures done from a fellow photog, Janice Jones.  I LOVE how they turned out and I had a blast doing her family photos in return.  I just wanted to show off some of these great pictures.

Daddy and his girls. 

I don't love this photo of myself, but it is adorable of Carter.

Sassy Oaklie!

An attempt to use props...lol

Love him!

Can't get enough of this cute face!!