Father's Day

I figured I should probably do a tribute to Michael for being a fantastic father. He loves his kids and wants to spend time with them. He is a great storyteller, fun to play with, and keeps us all in line (in a good way). We decided to get him a charcoal grill, but we have not used it yet. I think I will have to make it a goal for this weekend!

What a smile. He is really this cheerful most of the time. I think he is already imagining the steaks he can grill up soon.

These kids love their dad and were so excited to give him his presents. Laurel even earned enough money to buy her dad a really nice card from the store.

Springville Parade

Once again I am really behind on blogging. The kids were in a parade in June for clogging. The boys rode in the trailer and the girls took turns clogging along the way for the people lined up. It was pretty hard work, but they did a great job. Michael and I were assigned to walk along with the cloggers and pass out candy to the parade watchers. It was actually a lot of fun.

The boys started clogging in June. The clogging teacher offered free lessons to any boys that were interested for the summer. They seem to be enjoying the lessons and are a lot of fun to watch.

Yard Work

With the arrival of Spring comes the return to yard work. It is amazing how it is never finished. We have a corner of our backyard where we had a huge pine tree taken out a year ago. We wanted to move one of our garden boxes to this area because of the direct sunlight. However, the root below was a major obstacle. Michael spent two Saturdays removing other extensions of the root and finally worked at the one below. I asked him, "How long do you think it will take to get it out?" Michael responded, "About 2 hours." Well about 7-8 hours later and with help from Richard, it was finally out. They were extremely sore and tired and so was I. While they worked on the root, I pulled weeds and planted our other garden areas for 7-8 hours straight. Amazingly, the work goes on and on, but with the help of lots of rain we are seeing our garden grow. The work that started last year with the addition of the playground, removal of the cherry tree, and lots of wood chips, the backyard is starting to come back together. Maybe someday we will have it just how we want it or maybe that's not possible.

The happy workers are overjoyed to finally have this root out. This was definitely back breaking work.

Preschool Graduation

Another milestone has come for our family. Evan graduated from preschool last week. He will be going to Westridge Elementary in August for Kindergarten. He is such a sweet boy and loves to learn new things.
Auntie came for a visit and was able to attend Evan's graduation. The kids absolutely loved having Auntie in town. Laurel and Evan cried their little eyes out when she left. I am so grateful for a sister who gives my children so much love. Their lives are better because she is involved in their lives.

Evan with his proud parents. We are so lucky to be Evan's parents. Jonathan is ready to escape in the background. He will attend this same preschool in the Fall.

This is Evan with Teacher Tracy. She is a fantastic teacher and Evan really loved her. Jonathan is excited to have her for his teacher in the Fall.

The theme for the month of May was Reach for the Stars. They not only learned about space, the planets, and stars, but they were the "stars" for graduation.

Last Day of School

Today is Laurel and Lindsay's last day of school. I am happy to announce that they both passed and will be promoted to the next grade. They work really hard at school and we are proud of them. Laurel brought home a folder/portfolio of her work since the beginning of second grade. I was reading some of her assignments and was amazed to find one about me as a medical transcriptionist. It was done in the first, second, third, etc., format. She started with, "First, she had worked for a company for a long time and then she got fired." (Not true, I left because they did away with independent contractors and wanted a lot more hours than I could do)

Her next point was, "Second, she got a new job but she quit because she could not understand." (I actually resigned because I had to work a set schedule of at least 4 hours straight and this did not work well with my 4 kids. However, I had often complained about how hard it was to understand the dictators who had thick accents.)

Her next two sentences are, "Third she has gotten a better job. Fourth, now she is happy with her job because she can understand better." (Of course she meant that I can understand the dictators I have now better because they all speak English without an accent).

I have to wonder now if her teacher thinks I am not very bright and do a crummy job as a transcriptionist. Oh well, the school year is over today and I cannot do any explaining to redeem myself! I can't complain because Laurel does a really good job with writing and she told the truth as she understood it.

More Clogging Videos

Here's the mamma with the two dancing girls. They worked super hard to get ready for this competition. Their teacher told me on Thursday that they are doing really well. I am just glad they enjoy it and are getting some good exercise. I love my little girls. They are the bestest (as Jonathan says).
Here are the boys doing their favorite activity, waiting. Really, they hate the waiting, but they are pretty good sports, and we try to bring enough snacks to keep them happy.

The day of the girls clogging competition was also our 11 year wedding anniversary. Don't we look like the happiest married couple you have ever met? Sorry about the sarcasm it is just that kind of morning. I thought our anniversary would be just a regular day of attending a competition and then coming home to all be together. Michael made reservations at a nice restaurant where I really wanted to go. The food was delicious and we had a great time talking without any interruptions from little ones.

Finally, just two more videos from the clogging competition. The second video is a little shaky, but Evan was on Michael's lap and trying to grab the camera.

Clogging Competition Freestyling

The girls had another competition last weekend at Taylorsville High School near Salt Lake. This time they tried something new. The did freestyling. This requires the dancer to put together clogging steps and perform them for a few minutes alone. They stand in a line and are called up one by one to perform their dance. Until now we had avoided this one because it was terrifying to the girls. When they first started clogging a year ago, they could maybe do one step or two and run back. As you can see from the videos they did very well. Some kids just froze, but they both dance the whole time. They each earned a first placed for their freestyle dance. I will do another post later with some of their solo dances. I am amazed at their coordination. I am not sure my coordination has even been this good.