Mountain View HS Ballroom Company's 1st Concert

Andy is an amazing director of the MVHS Ballroom Company. This is their first concert put on by their company with a few guest performances from the Orchesis Dance Company. Garrett was in 7 of the numbers. Andy did a great job teaching and choreographing the ballroom numbers. It has been fun to see him work with the dance company throughout the year. I can tell that he loves it because he will work on things he needs to get done for ballroom at home (Usually he doesn't work on anything else at home because it is "work"). It will be fun to see the program grow. When we first moved to Orem we thought we would only be hear for 5 years. Now it has been almost 2 years and I think we may end up being here longer since Andy has put a lot into getting this Ballroom program running. 

Garrett is in the middle of the group dancing the Mambo.

Allana really was excited to see the concert, but tired too...

Grandma and Grandpa Anderton and T.J. came to see Garrett dance in the concert.

I can't keep my eyes open

These eyes are so beautiful, but Corinne can't keep them open for long in the morning. I've been trying to get Corinne to take just one afternoon nap instead of taking one in the morning as well. Today I took Allana and Corinne to Macaroni Grill for lunch. Corinne was happily sitting in her high chair and eating when her eyes started to flutter shut. I put my hand on her shoulder to support her neck and she fell asleep sitting up in her high chair! Then I made her a bed in the back of the MADSEN and I biked back up the hill with Allana cheering "You can do it. You can do it! You can do it, mom!"

Mission Impossible

Your mission, if you chose to accept is to plant a garden with seven people helping and having fun! You will plant cantaloupe, honey dew melon, watermelon, corn, beans, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, rhubarb, peppers, carrots, and peas... we accepted the challenge for one of our family home evenings to plant our garden. Here are the results:

Garrett worked diligently on making a "Tepee" for our peas to grow on.
Kristie laminated seed packets as garden signs.
Corinne and I supervised and took pictures and planted a few seeds.
Andy meticulously planted the peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and rhubarb.

Staci planted the melons and then just couldn't resist making mud pies.

Before long she was covered with mud almost anywhere skin was showing.

Staci was so muddy that we decided to turn her into a fountain for the garden...okay, we just made her spray off with the hose before she came in the house. It was pretty cold. I think she took a 2 hour shower to warm-up when she got inside.

I think we had a pretty successful night... garden planted... Mission Complete.

Four Happy kids in our MADSEN

This was the first time we had four little ones in the MADSEN. It was fun to see their smiles

as they rode. Then Shelley got a ride from Chris and then they swapped places. I think Shelley might have had more fun than the kids. Andy has actually given Allana, Corinne, and me

a ride to church in it a couple times. We'll have to post a picture one of these days.

Our new Minivan...well, a bike that can seat 4 toddlers!

We sold "Hal" our mini-van that we bought from Jolynn and drove for 4 months. We decided to buy this bike made by a company in Salt Lake City.

Corinne fell asleep on our first bike ride in the Madsen, so we made her a bed in the back.
Cute girls! They love riding in this and I am getting in shape riding around the neighborhood. We've taken 2 shopping trips in it, been to the bank, and of course the park!

Spring in Utah

Allana has been the best helper whenever it snows. She jumps for joy and runs for her shovel.
These pictures are from April 16th when we had yet another week of snow. Hopefully we will still have fruit on our fruit trees. It has snowed after the apricot, cherry, and pear tree have blossomed.

These are our cherry blossoms covered in about 5 inches of snow. There was about 13 inches on the ground.

I think Allana is shocked to see me being silly, jumping in the snow.

My Best Ice Cream Cake Ever!

Allana decorated a cookie sheet with the extra whipping cream. Staci and Kristie helped me decorate the cake with the chocolate whipped cream. 
I was going to cut the cake into a superman sign shape, but I got too lazy. Round was easy.
Happy 17th Birthday, Garrett!

Having Garrett, Staci, and Kristie live with us has some perks. For example...now there are 3 more Birthdays to celebrate this year. That means I have 7 chances to attempt making birthday cakes this year!!! Garrett's cake was a chocolate ice cream cake, with 3 layers of chocolate cake and 2 layers of cookies n' cream ice cream. We decorated it with strawberries and chocolate whipped cream. It was my best Ice Cream cake so far... but this is only my second try.

Our Poopy Day

We ran out of diapers completely, so this morning when Andy changed Corinne we put her in a diaper doubler (kind of like a maxi pad) and a pair of Allana's underwear. After she wet in our diaper creation, I took her diaper off and then ran downstairs to switch the load of laundry from the washer to the dryer. As a mother I have to multi-task, right? and it was only going to take me a second to switch the laundry.. I was going to run back up and find something for Corinne to wear for a diaper as soon as I was done...

...As I began switching the loads I heard Allana frantically yelling, "MOTHER! MOTHER! There's poop on my floor! MOTHER! MOTHER! There's poop on my floor!" I ran back upstairs and took Corinne to the toilet. She did not want to be there, so after I wiped her bottom I took her with me to the bedroom to see the damage. Luckily the poop was just the right consistency that it stayed perfectly in a cylindrical shape, and didn't plop onto the carpet. I picked up the poop with some toilet paper and carried Corinne with me to the toilet explaining that poop belongs in the toilet. Then I said "Goodbye poop!" as I put it in the toilet and flushed it. Corinne waved to the poop and then as it flushed out of sight she blew a kiss too.

Since we were out of diapers this time Corinne ended up in a pull-up.

Happy 1st Birthday Corinne!

Corinne is so little that when she walks or stands it looks super cute! When Andy put Corinne down to walk back to our table, it seemed like everyone in the restaurant stopped to watch Corinne. Her cute hair-do is compliments of her dad.

Corinne's birthday cake didn't taste as good as Allana's did, but it looked pretty cool. It was a chocolate cake with strawberry ice cream between the layers and cookies and cream whipped cream on top.

I think Corinne's favorite part of her birthday was probably riding in the cart at Target. She got to ride in the seats that say they are for ages 2-5 years old. She was smiling and kicking the whole time.

Happy 3rd Birthday Allana

Allana said that her favorite part of her birthday was "blowing out the 3" candle on her cake. Though I made quite a mess making the cake it turned out pretty good. We made chocolate animals, candles, and words to decorate the cake. It tasted really good too. I made a chocolate butter cake with buttercream frosting. I don't usually like frosting, but this was soooo good!