Oh...How we love clogging!

Ali's clogging recital was last Friday night. This is her 3rd year, and she is very good at it. We love her teacher. She comes up with some very cute coreography. We had to talk Ali into taking it again this year though. She's sure she wants to try ballroom dancing, which she may enjoy, but we can tell everytime she starts to clog how much she enjoys it just by the look on her face. So, we made it through this year and we'll see what next year brings. This is the picture of her costume for her dance to "A Dream is a Wish". It was a cute dance and she said she liked it the best out of the 2 she did this year. She'd kill me if she knew I was saying this, but look at how skinny she is. We had to stitch up the back of this skirt in two places, and she still had to pull the belt tight. It puckered up a little bit, but what can you do. It was already a smaller size than she usually wears!

This is the costume for "I Don't Dance" from High School Musical. I really liked this dance. The prop it a bat, and they did very cute things with it. She loved that she got to wear a hat as part of her costume too.

Well, that's about it for the recital. We sure thought she did a great job and are SO proud of her. As a side note, I thought I'd let everyone know that I also clogged at the recital in a ladies class. I love taking the class, but was not so thrilled about performing. It's over and I didn't mess up, so I guess I can't complain.

Well, pack meeting is tonight, so I better finish getting it ready, and my baby is sad so I guess it's enough for today.

Paige's Concert

Last week Paige's 1st grade class had a year end concert. It was filled with singing, dancing, acting, and narration. Jody was able to leave work for a little bit to come with me and see Paige perform. She was AWESOME! She danced with a boy named Mason who was quite a character. I thought she handled herself well by just grabbing on to him and pulling him along. Sometimes we women have to do that with men!

This is a picture of Paige's leading role as Little Bo Peep. She is obviously looking through her spy glasses to find them. What a sweetie she is! We really enjoyed her concert and are very proud of her.

Now, a little update on some happenings. Danica turned 8 months on Saturday, and for her birthday she got her 2nd tooth. She looks very cute with those two little things sticking up when she smiles. She also eats finger foods on her own, says mum as much as da da, and squinches up her nose at people she's not very familiar with, or just whenever she feels like it. We sure love watching her grow!

Tyce is as busy and full of questions as ever. He often says things that crack us up, but I'm so bad at remembering them all to share with everyone. He had the flu this weekend, but is now feeling better. I hope it doesn't go through all of us!

The three older kids headed out the door today for their last week of school. They will only have a half day on Thursday, then it's on to summer time fun.

Jody had a busy weekend. They worked cows and got many of them taken to their specified places for the summer. The kids LOVED being out with him on Saturday and Monday, especially because they got to ride the horses after they were finished working. Kaden has become quite a good rider. He goes with Jody to help and I was impressed with his riding SKILLS!

As for me, this is another busy week with softball practices and games to attend, coupon shopping to do, pack meeting to plan, prepare, buy awards for, and pull off, orthodontist appointments, laundry, dishes, cooking, toilets that MUST be scrubbed,..........You get the picture! Wish me luck, I'M OFF!

Shumway vacation to...Salt Lake City

We're traveling back in time again for this post, we just don't have to go quite so far back. For several months now, the Shumway family has been planning a trip to the Hogle Zoo in SLC. We all got our hotel reservations, (at a place with a pool so the kids could swim as well), then we just waited for the day to arrive. Our scheduled departure was May 15th, so you can imagine my excitement when on May 14th Jody said there was a possibility of him having to work on Saturday along with all the accounting dept. to finish up the annual budget. Well, I packed him hoping he would be able to some how pull it off, and about 10 minutes before 4:00pm he called to tell me he would not be able to go. A little heart broken, I tried pulling myself together because the kids were going to get home from school any minute. I called Jody's dad and asked if I could please follow them because I had no idea where the hotel was. Thankfully I was ready to go, because they were just about to leave, so the kids got home and off we went, all missing Jody from the start!

We got there and went straight to the pool. Danica did not enjoy her first swimming experience for several reasons. First, it was past bedtime and she was SO tired. Second, the pool was pretty chilly for her tiny little toes. Third, the echoing volume in the pool was SO loud you could hardly talk to your neighbor without yelling! We ended our swimming session a little before the pool closed, but I had had all I could take for one day!

The next day we headed for the zoo! It was a beautiful day and the kids all had a great time. This is Danica enjoying the zoo from her ride. She did GREAT, and I really needed that, so thank you baby girl!

Here are some of the older cousins. (I didn't get the youngest 4. ) We all had lots of fun, but I don't remember actually looking at too many animals myself, because being there without Jody, I was always looking for my kids counting 1..2..3..4 all day. I'm glad #5 just went wherever I pushed her. We rode on a small train, and also on the big carousel. I wore the kids out completely, and then headed home.

(Ali is in the brown shirt in the back left, Kaden is in the red shirt, Paige in the pink shirt, and Tyce in the blue stripes)

We got home some where around 6:30pm, and we still beat Jody home although they told him he would only have to work until noon. He worked at least 12 hours. Happy Vacation to him. Oh-well, we may just have to use that as an excuse to finally take the family vacation to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone that we wanted to do last year. Now all is said and done we had a WONDERFUL time, and thank you to all the Shumway family for your help!

Mother's Day Visit

I am SOOO far behind it is going to take me several blogs to catch up, unfortunately I can only make up one today because the last couple of weeks at the end of school are BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!
If you will now just travel back in time with me to Mother's Day weekend... We had a huge treat in that Jody's mom got to come stay the weekend with us, and we sure loved having her. We did a lot of sitting around and talking, and the kids did a lot of showing off. Linda brought gifts for everyone, and on Saturday night the kids all dressed up in their new shirts and we all went out to eat at our favorite local Mexican restaurant.

It was neat for Jody to have his mom here for mother's day, so he grilled up his favorite London Broil dinner after church for all of us. It was as FABULOUS as ever. Thanks Linda for coming to see us, it is always great to see you. We love you and really enjoyed having you here!

It's Here

I've been busy lately, so I did not get this posted last week but, it's here, Danica got her first tooth last Thursday. She was so good about it that it kind of surprised me to feel it barely popping through. I can see the next one coming, so it won't be long before it arrives as well.

We had a great mother's day weekend. Jody's mom was able to come to Utah from San Diego with a friend, so she came to see us. It was fun to spend time with her again and my kids had such a great time showing off for her as usual.

Kaden had to speak in Sacrament meeting on mother's day, and he did a great job. He was very nervous but it didn't show until the end when he forgot to say Amen. I guess that's alright seeing how he along with the whole congregation were a bit thrown off anyway. The little boy who was to speak right before Kaden got up and started his talk. He was going along fine when he all of a sudden stopped, turned to the Bishop, said something, dropped his papers on the floor and ran out. No one really new what to do. We all chuckled a little. They had Kaden get up and give his talk, and then when he got done the little boy was back, so he got back up and said, "Okay, I'm back!" and finished his talk. I guess he had to go to the bathroom REALLY bad and the only alternative to going was just not an opption! We all got a real chuckle from it.

A Random Blog

I am calling this a random blog, because I have several things all in one. First is another Tyce funny. The picture below is of Jody's trophies from winning the sumo wrestling at our ward party. They are, as you can see, very expensive and beautiful. We have had them sitting on a shelf in the kitchen, mostly because we set them there and then forgot about them. Yesterday, Tyce and I were talking about them being dad's trophey's, and Tyce said, "which one is dad's, the one that looks like Hannah Montanas dad?" I laughed very hard. The one on the right with the beard reminds Tyce of Billy Ray Syrus. Do you all see the resemblence? These next two pictures are of my adorable little girl. I have found that I quite like taking pictures. I'm not good at it by any means, but I have found the kind of expensive camera that Jody just brought home one night to be very nice. I think it takes pretty good pictures.

This next picture is one that I have been wanting to take for a long time. My mom gave Danica this cute towel when she was born, and we all love the way it looks on her. Even Danica always looks to the bathroom mirror every time we get her out of the tub. Isn't she beautiful!!!

Well, tonight is Ali and Paige's first softball games of the season. I will try to remember to take my camera along and get some pictures to blog. Ali's coach told her she may be one of the girls to pitch in the game, and so she's a little nervous, but very excited. Paige did not play last year, and is a little anxious about playing against another team. I know they will both do great, and can't wait to watch. Hopefully we have nice weather.

Paige's Cheer Recital

This is Paige right before we left for her recital on Tuesday. She looked so cute. We have seen a real difference in Paige's dancing this year. She relies more on herself than her friends and teacher. She knew what was next, and a lot of times had to help her friends get in the right place in time for lifts. Before each dance, (they do 2), they do a cheer. This one is of Paige yelling the cheer. They always do jumps and cartwheels, and they are so cute!

It's a little harder to tell which one is Paige in this picture, because you mostly just see her feet. You guessed it, a mothers nightmare, my daughter is the one they lift up for all the lifts. I might feel more confident if it wasn't 7 year olds lifting her, but the teacher is so good to teach them all exactly what to do. I missed the best part of this lift, because after they are held there for a few counts, all the girls in the air lift one leg straight up. Paige did an amazing job at her recital, and we are so proud of her. If you all remember, she did all of this with a TICK in her head! Argh!