Teacher Appreciation

Back on April 9th our stake hosted our annual Teacher Appreciation night. This is a wonderful event that Public Affairs is in charge of. If you don't know, I'm the Community Affairs specialist for the stake so I had a big hand in planning it. The event is so fun. All of the seniors in the stake have the opportunity to nominate a teacher who was particularly infuluential in their lives and then we honor them with a nice dinner and awards presentation. One of the main goals of public affairs is to form relationships with influential people in the community and some of those people are teachers, principles and superintendants (among others). Well this year was a huge success as our keynote speaker was Dr. Jim Christiansen, Douglas County Schools Superintendant. It was awesome and he had so many wonderful things to say about our youth specifically. We've been trying to get him to come out for the event for a few years now so it was awesome to have him there. And as a result, three out of five principles came as well. It was really nice to be able to mingle with the teachers and to hear about how much they have influenced the lives of the youth in our area. I decided that if we ever end up moving, I'm going to try to start a similar event wherever we end up because it's so nice to be able to tell the teachers thank you for all of their hard work, because it's not said enough!

Quote of the Day

'Because right now, this is a job. If I advance any higher, this would be my career. And if this were my career, I'd have to throw myself in front of a train.' -Jim Halpert, The Office

Three New Posts!

Read on because there are three brand new posts with lots of pictures! More to come tomorrow!
Coming Attractions: My Dance Company, Teacher Appreciation, Well Check, weired weather, March Madness and.....ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER!!!!!!

The Easter Bunny Came Too! (Lot's of pictures)

We had a wonderful Easter this year! Carson's parents came into town which meant a trip to 'cuddle cakes' (IHOP) every morning for breakfast, a fun movie and a great easter egg hunt! We took Siobhan to see Horton Hears a Who which was so fun. She actually sat still for about 3/4 of the entire movie! I was surprised. And she loved it! About three days later, her and I were eating lunch and she turned to me and said, 'I like Horksy Who' (That's what she calls it) and said that he's coming to her house and that she was excited!

Carson's mom and I did some shopping which was a lot of fun. We got some great deals on clothes for the girls at Children's Place and got them stocked up on some fun things for the coming spring/summer months. We also died easter eggs for the first time, and Siobhan really dug that!



The Easter Bunny came and brought some fun stuff for the girls. They got matching outfits for the summer, some stuffed animals and Siobhan got some Little Marmaid panties! She was so excited! They also got their pretty Easter dresses, shoes and bows! Grandma and Grandpa gave them some fun toys and each of them got a talking character from Ratatouille. Needless to say, Siobhan was so excited!

Carson's dad has always prided himself on his easter egg hiding abilities so he was really excited to hide some for Siobhan and she was so excited to open some up and find a few bucks tucked inside. I'm surprised she even knew what it was to be honest. We usually don't have a lot of cash lying around, but she sure knew exactly what it was and that it had to go in her pocket!

Spring Break

Well, obviously none of my kids are in school right now, so most people probably would think that Spring Break doesn't mean anything to me. But I was had a whole week off of teaching and rehearsing (due to Easter) so I was so excited to get to spend lots of time with the girls. I had just gotten over my aweful ear infection so I was feeling great! We filled out time with dance parties in the mornings, doing art projects and even made chocolate covered raisins and marshmallows (thanks for the tip Kara, Siobhan loved it). And as you can see from the picturs, she had more fun getting dirty and eating said chocolate covered raisins. It was so much fun!

The Leprechaun Came!

I wanted to post this weeks ago, but life got in the way....Oh well. We decided that we wanted to go semi-all out for St. Patricks day this year. So we all got or had something special to wear that was fun a green so we were all covered in that respect. I also decided that 'The Leprechaun' was going to make a visit to our house. So I cut out a ton green foot prints to put all over the walls and windows to make it look like a leprechaun had walked all over the house while we were sleeping. It was a trick that my teachers did when I was in elementary school. Siobhan loved it. But she loved even more that while she was taking her nap, the leprechaun came back and brought her treats in the form of gold wrapped peanut butter cups, green wrapped andes mints, sprite (it's in a green bottle), a green scarf and a book about leprechauns. She thought it was the coolest thing. But I have to say that I was very disappointed with the St. Patricks day selection of goodies at Wal-Mart. Oh well. We also decided that it would be fun to have green eggs for breakfast ala Green Eggs and Ham which Siobhan just recently discovered. Yeah, they were gross looking and I think that next year they're going to be scrambled. When Siobhan came into the kitchen in the morning, she noticed that the Leprechaun had been walking on the cabinets and the fridge and she was very concerned that he was going to eat our food. I assured her that he was just looking around and that he wasn't going to. Everytime we talked about she would say 'Wrecacaun (that's how she says leprechaun) don't eat our food.' So cute! I also meant to get pictures of all of us, but the camera died when we were at Carson's pot luck at work and then I forgot so you'll all have to use your imaginations!

Fierce, Tranny, Hot Mess

So, if you're wondering about my title, it's all in response to Project Runway and the spoof that they did on SNL. Hilarious! I was mostly happy with the outcome of the show. Everyone knew that Christian was going to win, but I wish that Chris March had the chance to show a collection instead of Rami. I thought his was may more innovative than Rami's and way more fun. That being said, I thought that the runway show and finale was awesome. SNL did a spoof of Christian that is hilarious! He's played by a girl in the first place (who does a spot on impression) and all (s)he says through the whole skit is 'Fierce, tranny, hot mess' or variations. If you have a chance, look it up on YouTube. You will not be disappointed! It's awesome!

Potty Training has been going very well. We had our first 'dry' night last night which made us very happy. But I did have to wake up at midnight to take Siobhan to the bathroom. Oh well, at least I didn't have to wash the sheets today. We're also getting more comfortable with going #2 on the potty. We're still working with the Chick-fil-A bribe and it seems to be working. We've only gone twice so we're not breaking the bank or anything.

I've been really sick for the last few days and it has made my life miserable. I even skipped dance rehearsal on Saturday morning which I never do but if you had heard me, you would have thought that I was about to die.

I'm not sure if I have posted about Audrey's teeth, but she had two of them! I forgot how cute it is to see a baby with two little front teeth. She's not quite crawling yet, but she's gotten really good at turning herself in circles in order to get where she needs. Not rolling, just doing a 360 which somehow inches her closer to where she wants to go. It's really cute.

And now for some pictures.

Sisters! (I think Audrey looks like me when I was a baby)

Audrey playing

TV watchers

Siobhan 'helping' dad cook

Siobhan making 'salad'...if you can't tell, the ingredients that she's using are Ranch Dressing, Mustard, a can of vegetable broth and two measuring cups. I would really hate to taste that salad. (pay no attention to the launry on the floor waiting to be folded)

Audrey and her farm toy

Cute girls!

And by the way, has anybody watched America's Best Dance Crew on MTV? I'm not too much into hip hop mostly because I'm not that great at it, but can I just say that I really like Kaba Modern and Breaksk8. Those are my two favs. Last week was Michael Jackson week celebrating the 25 anniversary of Thriller. Kaba Modern did Thriller and it was amazing! Breaksk8 did Beat It and it was awesome. Go on YouTube and check it out!