Bye Winter, Hello Spring

Spring is just right around the corner. The sun is out past 7:00, the weather is warmer, and we are over here celebrating that Winter is behind us!!

We took Bella on our hike. Like the princess she is, she needed to be carried part of the way. We called it a puppy carry, rather than a puppy walk. 

Church ball is almost done. Tyler ended up having to coach this game, and I'm sure he was giving them a great pep talk. Caden is clearly the smallest for this game, but he scored a lot of points against the bigger kids. 

Church ball can get pretty intense and one game there was a little bit of drama where one of the kids and parents made a fuss because they thought one of the kids on the other team was older than he was saying. The kid was crying and the parent threatened to leave the game. And if you know who I am talking about, you would know that this reaction was totally out of character for this family that is in our ward. I was watching and I thought, "seriously, this is church ball! It's just a game!" Anyway, our neighbor Randy Wright is in charge of it all and when he finally got the kid and the parent calmed down, he had to talk to all of the kids about good sportsmanship and at one point he said, "Everything in life points back to Christ... even church ball" and I literally thought I was going to laugh out loud! Anyway, it was the highlight of my  night... and we learned a lot about some people in our neighborhood!

Caden has been working on his coding Legos and built this cool robot. Bella was a little bit afraid of it and couldn't figure out how it was moving. 

One day a week I take my mom with me to run errands so that my dad can have a break. My mom is having a more difficult time following directions, so this particular day I told her to get in the passenger side and when I got in the car she was sitting in the back. She said, "Is this where I'm supposed to sit" and I just didn't have the energy to get out of the car to move her to the front seat, so I said, "ya, that's great" and drove to our next stop. I got a good picture and a good laugh out of it. Sometimes laughter is the only thing that keeps me going because the sadness of it all is just too much to bear someday. 

The kids were watching a show and we thought Caden looked exactly like the actor. Caden even has the side eye and smolder down!

Spring Choir concert time. We went to the kids' middle school choir concert. Caden did great in boys choir. Makayla is in choir this semester, so we got to stay for both choir concerts.

Brynn is in choir at the elementary school. She goes to school early twice a week to practice. The choir was so cute and Brynn and her friends did a great job. The theme was showtunes, and my favorite song was "We go together" from the movie Greece. 

These cute girls conspired together to convince all their moms to go to dinner after the concert. Smart girls because it worked. 

My parents bought a new car! 

Colton turned 16 years old this month. He's showing off his "new to him" car which is totally going to be a chick magnet, because who doesn't love an old man car? (It was Tyler's Grandpa's car, if that gives you a clue as to why it is so funny). 

We celebrated Colton at his birthday party and Brynnie ended up winning the family basketball game. She even beat out reigning champion Ryan! Maybe Brynn should look into a career in basketball instead of dance? 

We gave Colton this blanket that had pictures of Brad Pitt because we know how much he loves Brad! Gag gifts are the best. 

Look how cute my spring nails are!! I am so ready for spring. 

To kick off spring break, Tyler and the kids hosted "Family Olympics". Each kid had to come up with an activity and we were scored points. We had a great "Is it play doh" competition, created by Brynn, an epic hide and seek event, hosted by Caden, and a "Create a funny power point" competition created by Makayla. We also played air hockey, x box games, and foosball. The winner of Family Olympics was Caden and Makayla who both scored an impressive 44 points. 

Competition Season is Here!

It's my favorite time of the year where our Fridays and Saturdays are completely booked and we get to spend all day at dance competitions. And if you think I'm joking, you're wrong. I truly love competition season and watching our girls perform onstage. 

Brynn has 3 team dances this year. Her Lyrical dance is called "Head under water" and her costume is stunning. Her jazz is called "Spicy" and let me tell you, these girls are exactly that... spicy! They all have so much sass. Her hip hop dance is called "This is Hop" and it is so creative and fun. 

Makayla is in 4 dances this year. Haiden choreographed 3 of her 4 dances, so you know how good they all are. Hip hop is called "Demons of Despair", lyrical is "Dream on" and it is so good because it's like organized chaos and then suddenly they're all together doing a move. And her jazz is called "It Girl" and they all have so much sass and class in this dance. Her only dance that isn't the best this year is her contemporary dance called "Chasing Cars". 

The Synergy showcase was great and we have the best cheering squad to support our girls. 

Then it was time for their first comp. Makayla is doing a trio this year with her best dance friends Harper and Avery called Mean Girls. But these girls are anything but mean. They are the sweetest girls and they are all so supportive of each other. But they also know how to play the part on stage, and they totally pull off the part of mean girls as they dance. Their first time competing this dance and they got 2nd place!

Makayla competed her solo and she did amazing. She was so nervous for this solo because she was competing against some of her school friends and some of her teammates. Her dance was amazing and her emotion was unmatched. Makayla got 1st in her division and judges choice! Then when they did the overall awards, she placed 4th overall in the intermediate category!!

Saturday was team comp day and all of the dances did so well! Brynnli's hip hop dance placed overall in the beginning category and in the junior division. Her Jazz got overall in the junior category, and her lyrical got high gold. 

Makayla's hip hop got 1st place and judge's choice, lyrical got judge's choice, 1st place and 1st over all. Contemporary got high gold, and jazz got judge's choice and 3rd overall. 

Synergy totally swept this competiton!

Time for another solo. I love that the girls have Haiden as their choreographer. She comes to all of their comps and calms their nerves before they go onstage. Brynn took 2nd in this competition, but she was up against a dancer that probably shouldn't have been in the beginning division. 

At this competition Makayla was performing on the stage and Brynn was in the gym. They stage dances were running on time, but the gym had some music problems and were running about 30 minutes behind. We watched Brynn perform and then headed over to the stage to watch Makayla. Haiden took Makayla backstage to get warmed up and we were taking pictures of Brynn when Haiden called and said Makayla was going on stage right then! We ran in the auditorium just as she walked on stage. She didn't even have time to warm up or run through her dance before she performed it, but guess what? Like the true professional dancer she is, she went onstage and rocked it flawlessly. Haiden said she wasn't even nervous when they told her she was on next. 

Makayla ended up winning 1st in her division and best costume. And Brynn won 2nd in her division and best showmanship. 

One last solo comp for the month. This was Brynn's chance to compete against her teammates. She tried to throw some of her more difficult tumbling and didn't land it, so she ended up getting 3rd this competition, but she did such a great job and her facials and sass were so good. 

And we even took a little break with Daddy for some Mexican food for lunch. 

We love watching our girls perform onstage and can't wait for the next competition.