Happy Feet!

Tonite was Greta's first "official" dance recital on the big stage! Her group was called Happy Feet, and they were dressed like little frogs with tutu's and did a tap number to a Kermit the frog song. (I say official, because we missed her show last year by about 2 weeks because we moved, it was very sad.) anyways, to say she was excited is an understatement for sure! These were the things(according to her) she was most excited about in random order:

- Dancing on the big girl stage

She did SO good! i'm not just saying that. The kids all came out in a line and were a little late getting to their spots before the music started, but Greta picked up what they were supposed to be doing right away, and was shuffle stepping her heart out! SO cute! i was beaming, and so was she:)

- wearing mommys makeup

I did her makeup and told her that she couldnt peek until i was done and that it was a surprise. She could hardly stand it. When i let her look she gasped and said, "Oh mommy i look so beautiful!" it was really cute, she actually seemed shocked by the fact. One thing i learned putting stage makeup on Greta...i'm gonna have to keep a close eye on her as a teenager, yikes, she liked it WAY too much!

All dolled up, ready to go. She has those Crazy eyes kids get when their REALLY excited about something!

- having "extra" curly hair that bounces

we have only been letting her hair continue to grow until this recital was over because they were supposed to have hair in a half pony tail, curly. It looked really cute, but now we BOTH cant wait for the big CHOP next week! It was funny during her dance though, i noticed she kept flipping her curls back behind her shoulders whenever she got the chance:)

- Having her best cousin Kaiya, and Aunt Nicki, and Grandma and Mommy in the audience to watch and cheer

The timing this weekend was really bad, Gretas class was supposed to perform originally on WEd. night so Dick would have been able to come before he left to vancouver for the weekend. Then they switched the schedule and he ended up being away tonite. Sad. but Greta had her other family fan club, and sweet Kaiya sat thought 19 hundred dances and we didnt get out of there until 10:30, poor thing! Greta was beaming though that she came to watch her, so nice to have the support of family!

-Watching the "Big Girls" do some of their dances

This was probably her favorite part!

All in all it was a great night! I am so proud of my little girl for doing a great job! It brought back a LOT of memories, of dance in general, and the dance "world", how much i LOVEd it and made so many good good friends, and also how crappy the yates is. Come ON lethbridge!!

** oh, and you'll notice i have NO pictures of her in her costume because they are Nazi's and dont let any parents NEAr their kids backstage, even for a quick photo. lame. we'll just have to wait until we get her real pictures i guess.

the first 15...

It always seems like May is a really busy month for us. Not too sure why, but the first half of the month this year has definitely been eventful.

Some highlights...

*Ozzie started sleeping in his Big Boy bed, in preparation for him to share a room with Greta asap. He had NO toubles with the change, actually welcomed it, and looks so cute and big now when he goes to sleep.

*Mothers Day weekend was LOVELY! My cousin Maray who lives in utah had called a month ago and said she would be coming up to Calgary, for the "Time out for Women" conference with one of the presenters. She asked if my mom and i and nicki would like to come and have reserved seats and sit with her at the front. So we left on the Friday night (without kids) and got to enjoy a fantastic conference and VIP seats which was really nice. I really learned a lot of things at the conference and it was a much needed, spiritual uplift, and a great 2 day event! We even snuck in a little IKEA, and lettuce wraps from Joeys on the way home. Perfect!

When i got home late saturday night i found some beautiful purple roses and some homemade cards on the table from my DH and kids. It was very sweet!. On Mother's day Sunday, i woke up to waffles and sausages and OJ for breakfast, and had a great relaxing day with my family! (only regret, is i have no pictures)

* Joseph Smith stopped by our Family Home Evening the other night, which was a special treat! He shared his experience of restoring the Gospel with the kids. And Greta was VERY excited!! She asked, "Joseph, what did you do with my daddy?" she was very believing, and ozzie was right into it too. Good Lesson Daddy! ...i mean, Joseph...who knew the Justin Bieber wig would come in handy more than once?

*Spring has SPRUNG!!! finally. We have been spending a LOT of time outside, bike rides, wagon rides, and best of all the kdis have been LOVING the trampoline, jumping together, at the same time, no fights, or crying. truly a miracle! I think its mostly due to ozzie who finally understands the fact that its ok to fall down when you are on the tramp.

* Finally... quick as it has gone, it also has seemed a long time coming for Greta to have her 5th birthday. She's seen her cousins and a few friends turning five for the past little while and has been wondering when it is her turn? I, on the other had have been looking forward to it. Greta is kind-of an old soul in a lot of ways, and her turning 5 and getting ready for kindergarten next year just seems right.

the day before her birthday she had lots going on, it was her special day at pre-school, and she asked for pink and purple cupcakes, which i of course complied to and they were very tasty i must say. Then she thought bringing some of her things from Disneyland would be good for show and tell. She did a really good job, and was quite captivating:)

On her actual Birthday, (the 12th) she got to have waffles for breakfast which are her favorite, and then we opened a few presents from the family. She had been asking for a scooter since last summer and so after a very long winter, we finally delivered. She is actually really good on it already, and was so excited to have a new pink helmet too! Ozzie gave her the Rapunzel barbie that sings songs from "Tangled" which she loved, and we rounded out the gifts with a few new summer clothes.

It was GORGEOUS outside that morning, so the kids spent most of it in the yard, and then we got to go to henderson park in the afternoon and play with friends. It was a perfect way to spend her birthday. Greta has been lucky to have really good friends that just have happened to move close by, which is so nice. She was giggling her brains out with Elias, and for anyone who knows Gretas laugh, it was pretty stinkin cute. I just loved to see her so happy on her special day!

Finally on Friday the 13th(EEK) we planned a Tangled birthday party for Greta at the church with 12 of her close little buddies. thats right, i said 12. We couldn't leave anyone out, and she has a lot of boy friends, so we had to keep a gender friendly theme, and so it was.

I'd spent some time planning the party, but as usual, at the last minute theres always a billion loose ends to tie up. I thought i might go crazy. But all in all, it was a great party!

The kids colored tangled pictures, made "pascal" from the movie, played pin the nose on Flynn Rider, and some relay games then spent time jumping on the bouncers my brother and sis n law generously provided. It was an evening party, and so we had lots of snacks, and then an attempt at rapunzels tower surrounded in cupcakes. It did NOT turn out at all as i had planned, but thank goodness for Dick's wisdom in the engineering department, and nicki's skewers, it was able to stay standing long enough to sing Happy Birthday!

Greta had a blast, and of course we rounded out the event with a pinata, which i'm not gonna lie, i'm not a huge fan of. But Greta REALLY wanted one, and was so excited when she got to help me fill it up with surprises and candy.

The kids were really good at the party, and hopefully everyone had fun! After clean up, and hometime, it realized i hadn't sat down AT ALL in aprox. 12 hours. So needless to say, i payed for that one the next day. I still have a slight birthday party hangover, if truth be told. but it was all worth it for my little girl!

* oh and really LAST but not least, we gave ozzie a much needed head buzz, and he looks so cute and old now, should have done it months ago!

Here's to the next 15 days, and then its JUNE, yikes!!! this baby is coming faster than i could have ever imagined, I'm. Not. Ready.

Easters

We had a great Easter weekend! nothing major going on, but the weather FINALLY was decent so we tried to take advantage as much as possible.

Dick had friday off and we spent most of the day trying to catch up on chores and our 9 million projects around the house. Then on saturday we were able to go to henderson with our friends the Guenthers and stay for like 2 hours because it was so nice out! un-heard of so far this spring. the highlight of the afternoon was walking along the edge of the lake and Greta discovering some "lobster claws" as she called them. which in actuality, they were the remains of all of the dead cray-fish that had been eaten by the birds...sick. nasty. i was gagging. but all of the kids thought they were SO cool, and each of them had hand fulls of little pinchers, they even found some almost complete dead body carcasses. seriously, how do kids think that is cool?

Easter morning we enjoyed some bunny time, and a few extra large hidden eggs around the house

.

They loved these wind up chicks and bunnies i found

the extra large eggs were a big hit too, they are still playing with them, and make pretty nice hats i think!

Then it was go go go, the rest of the day. Unfortunately, sundays can be like that sometimes. I had to teach my reg. sunday school class, and then gretas primary class immediately after. Greta had to give a talk on the Resurrection, and Dick had all of his regular church meetings, plus he had to do tithing. So needless to say it was a very busy Easter Sunday. The kids however looked ADORABLE in their Easter outfits, i must say!

We got to relax at my mom and dad's after for the BEST easter Feast of my LIFE! seriously, my mom makes turkey dinner like no other. I've never had gravy so good, never. Nicki made the stuffing and brought some divine buns, and we rounded things out with some Acini de pepe salad, and sweet potatoes that we're basically dessert. yikes. so, so good. Like i mentioned it was beyond beautiful on Sunday, no wind and warm. So we let the kids get in one last easter egg hunt behing Grandmas house and they loved it! Ozzie was pretty good at finding the hard ones, and Greta had her game face on trying to find as many eggs as fast as possible! We actually saw the "Easter Bunny" run accross the green strip before the egg hunt, which was cute cause Greta asked "where is she gonna keep all the eggs? she doesn't have a basket?"

love this one of greta

The whole gang, the only pic with everyone looking up and not at their eggs!

After the kids were in bed that night we got to spend some much needed downtime, and watch a beautiful video on the life of the Savior. It was a perfect way to end the day! Dick was back to work on monday, but it was so nice just to chill and spend some time together as a family, and enjoy the holiday! Happy Easter!

Egged

So we did a super fun FHE last night and i thought i'd share because there's a few more days until Easter and maybe someone might need a fun activity to do this week!

I stumbled upon a website that honestly i can't find anymore, (i HATE when that happens) it was a link off of a blog or something. anyways, i loved the ideas on there and found this one about "egging" someone. So basically it's like a "Heart Attack" but with eggs. You just pick a family or neighbor to "Egg" run around their yard hiding eggs for them to find, leave a cute little note saying "You've been EGGED!", ring the doorbell and RUN!

The main reason i really loved this idea is because we did this sort-of thing in my family growing up quite often. My mom is big into "pixie-ing" people with things, and doing it anonymously. And i remember many different' occasions doing her drop-offs for her and loving the feeling of being a little scared of getting caught, and the glory of the get-a-way!

So we've been trying to focus on the real meaning of Easter all month for FHE, and it's been going pretty good, but last night after a short lesson on Service and helping others...(like really short, opening song, prayer and 2 scriptures) the kdis helped me fill up some eggs with treats, we picked our families and away we went to Egg some houses!

I WISH i had some pictures, it was really cute/hilarious! If someone was watching the four of us pile out of the van with our Easter baskets, , trying to keep ozzie sort of quiet and NOT open all the eggs he was hiding, telling Greta not to be scared that even if we got caught it was ok, and then the finale....Me, 6.5 months preg-town, ringing the doorbell, and then "Running" away! Hahaha, oh man, it would have been hilarious, i can't stop laughing even thinking about it!

anyways, all in all, good family fun! On the way home, Greta said, mommy, i LOVE doing service, especially when it's scary! So go EGG someone this week, before it's too late!

oh, and here's the printable

http://www.box.net/shared/0tlaqte5pe

overheard...

while hiding in a fort together...

G- hey ozzie, wanna talk about some secrets?

O- ya, sure!

G- ok, you go first. tell me about you life, and your dreams.

O- um...um...i'm the bad spiderman, and you're the good spiderman.

G- oh really, that's cool. ok, my turn....i took my kinder egg from grandmas house and ate it in my room, it was Soooo good!

just wanted to document their cuteness. the end.

The BIG 3-0!!

Richard turned 30 this Saturday, and I wanted to make it really special for him!

The preparations actually started months ago when i tried to decide what to get him for a gift. I don't know about YOUR husbands, but mine tends to always want semi-expensive technological devices, and just orders them for himself and says, that can be his birthday present. ANNOYING! So i wasn't about to let that happen this time. I banned him from buying or ordering anything, and started to think. I really wanted to surprise him with a little man-trip somewhere just to get away from windy lethbridge, and give him some time off from work/ family/ church pressures for just a little while. So after considering many options, I decided the best thing would be a Golf vacation to Vancouver where he could see his family a little, golf with some good friends, and enjoy a change of scenery that wouldn't cost a fortune!

Anyways, so with those plans more or less taken care of, I helped the kids make some cards, and we delivered cupcakes to his office staff, and balloons, and lunch on the day before his actual birthday. The kids were so cute and excited to pick out a special balloon from each of them. Ozzie picked one with cars on it, and Greta picked blue stars because daddy likes blue the best. They were so excited to deliver everything and i loved seeing their little faces light up when they get to do service!

Saturday was his actual birthday, so I got up and made waffles, which for a never make anything-other-than-toast-or-cereal-for-breakfast type of mom was a big deal. And he does LOVE waffles! Then after opening a few small gifts, and looking out the window at the ridiculous snow storm we stayed low for most of the morning and enjoyed playing the Michael Jackson experience game for the Kinnect. Dick is a huge MJ fan, and is pretty stellar at the game already, even though it's super hard. good gift from the kids:)

Waiting patiently for the waffles to be ready

Present time

We spent the afternoon out at the Childrens festival, which for Lethbridge was pretty good. I was actually shocked they even had anything like this here, (it was the first time) but the kids had a good time. they had baby chicks and bunnies as part of the petting zoo which ozzie was thrilled about and has been asking to see. And Greta was mesmerized by the dog show, she couldnt believe that dogs could jump over things so fast and run through tunnels, and do so many tricks. it was pretty sweet.

Ready to go out into the blizzard

My mom came over to babysit at night and we were able to go out to eat with some good friends and family at a new restaurant called PLUM. It was fun to get out and try somewhere new, without kids spilling on you, or eating all of your food(ozzie) or asking to go pee a million times in the nice bathrooms(greta). Oh and they had a mars cheesecake that was heaven in my mouth. just sayin.

Finally to round out the three day event, i made some DELISH birthday cupcakes that we took over to my moms for dinner tonite, and we were able to have cake and chill with my whole family.

Phewf...i'm tired. But it was all worth it to say happy Birthday to the best Husband and father a girl could ask for. I love you babe. Happy,Happy,Birthday!!!

oh what do you do in the....??

never ending wintertime? when it wont stop snowing or being windy everyday?

ok. its not that bad. but i seriously feel like we still live in saskatoon sometimes, this winter has been SO long for me for some reason. anyways. here's some pics of how we've been spending the (hopefully) last few- stuck inside- days of almost spring:)

playing spiderman and island girl

jumping off the bed onto every blanket/pillow we own

ozzie is getting some sweet air in this one

okay last one- the split jump

modelling new gumboots

dreaming of days we can wear them outside

drink in unison from matching sippy cups while making stare faces

horsey rides when daddy comes home

clearly a really soggy diaper makes this way more fun

We also took a spontaneous trip to Great falls this past weekend to get the grump out of me mostly. We stayed at a new Holiday inn express with a sweet indoor waterslide and kid area. oh and don't be fooled by ozzie's sad face in this pic, he was beyond thrilled the entire time, he was just mad i was blocking the tv. We also found a restaurant called Salad Creations, and fell in love, our whole family loves salad! and of course we got in some shopping, mostly stuff for the kids room, but a few trinkets for the baby and some yummy new fabric for me to dive into. All in all, Good hotel, good food, good shopping, it was a much needed get- the heck out of lethbridge- away!

other than that, i'm DYING for some spring weather so i can get on with the my 90 projects i have planned between now and the baby coming. the list goes like this:

a) finish sanding and painting the kids 10 dollar beds that i got and put them together so ozzie can finally get out of his crib

b) paint and decorate the kids room and the babys room

c) sand and paint the awesome vintage dresser i found

d) finally hang our family pictures in the Living room before we have to change the pictures in the frames

e)make a baby quilt and maybe a new nursing cover( yikes, i'm not a sewer) but i have good instructions on the tutorial so we'll see how it goes

f) if time and my sanity allows-potty train the ozzie

oh and here's the first and potentially last pic of my prego belly@ 25 weeks. i'm not counting down yet, but it ain't gonna get pretty from here on in. i'm predicting biggest baby yet....shudder.