5th Grade Square Dance

Every year at our elementary the 5th graders put on a square dance performance. Oakley has been talking about it since they started practicing in January. She came home a couple weeks ago telling me that "today was the day we had to find our partners and we only had recess to find one or they would assign us one." This super cute, super sweet little guy named Baylor asked Oakley during recess to be his dance partner. She was so excited that someone asked her - she is so shy I know she wouldn't have asked anyone. And, she was happy it was Baylor. They were moving so much and so fast it was hard to get any good pictures....Oakley is the one in the black shirt and white skirt with her back towards us and Baylor is the blue plaid shirt.
Here are Oakley (second to end on right) and some of her best friends and all their partners.

I LOVED the square dance. They performed around 10 dances and they were all super cute!! I LOVED the words the callers used in square dancing, things like "go home with the gal you came with" and "swing the one you adore" or "promenade your little lady." It was such a fun night and she was a little sad that it was all over.

Great Job Oakley and Baylor!

Diabetic Anniversary

I can't let this St. Patricks day come and go without posting about our diabetic anniversary. It was 5 years ago today that we spent all those hours in the doctors offices with our precious little 5 year old. It was a difficult day and has been a very interesting 5 years. It was hard today to realize that Oakley has now had this disease for 1/2 her life. It breaks my heart that my sweet girl has to have this trial in her life. She is so strong and amazes us everyday as to how she just pushs through day after day not ever letting this disease slow her down. We love you like crazy Oakley and are so very blessed to live in a time that we have the modern medicine needed to care for you!

My Hate List....

I HATE, HATE, HATE this time of year. There are three things that I hate the ABSOLUTE most of all the things I hate about this in-between-Spring-and-Winter-time. The first being....

MUDDY BOOTS!

The pile seems to get larger and larger. FARM + RAIN/MELTING SNOW = EXTREME MUD! I have already thrown a few pairs of kids shoes away that were so destroyed by mud they were not salvageable. Ugh!! You can't tell in the picture, but the day I took the picture I actually mopped and vacuumed the porch! See why I hate it SO VERY MUCH!!

The #2 thing I HATE, HATE, HATE about this time of year is that the cows are constantly getting out! I HATE chasing cows! They start pushing the fences because they can start tasting the grass on the other side and they get out OVER AND OVER again. Usually because this is also the time of year Ryan gets busy I am left to chase them alone....HATE IT!! This morning the bus driver sent Oakley back in the house to tell us there were cows out on the road! Ugh!!

#3....I HATE how dirty and dead everything looks. Now, I know some of you live a little south of Idaho and so you are wondering what I am talking about, but....if you have ever seen Idaho in the beginning of March YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN! The lawns are brown and covered in the crap you didn't get off them before the snow landed in September.:) And the sides of the road are covered with peoples garbage and dead weeds. It is so gloomy! Ryan keeps telling me to give it a few weeks, and I know he is right, but what do I do with the nasty mud, naughty cows, and super gross yard until then!:(

Clogging Competition 2011

We had our 1st clogging competition of the year this past Friday. Oakley did 2 dances and 5 solos and did a GREAT JOB!

This first dance is called Country Rock Star and she is the 2nd from the left. They have these super cute guitars that they hold for the first few minutes and then shoot them through their legs before they really start dancing. They also have the super cutest rhinestone guitar belt buckles! They got a 1st place on this dance! Yay!!
The second dance is called Trashin The Camp (from the movie Tarzan) and is a cute, cute dance. They also got a 1st place on this one too....which means NATIONALS HERE WE COME!!
In this dance they are holding hot pink wooden spoons and have these little tin backpacks on their backs and they use their spoons to hammer on their neighbors backpack. SO CUTE!!

The video below is one of the solos Oakley performed. It is of her and Lara - one of the girls that is in her group. They both got off just a little - they said the music speed wasn't the same as they had been practicing to. Oakley got 3 1st places and 2 2nds on her solos. As long as she gets atleast 1 first place she gets to perform all 5 at Nationals again. The way they judge solos is you are just judged on yourself and how well you know the dance. If you do it perfect you get a 1st, not perfect but pretty good a 2nd and not know it at all a 3rd. So....yay for her! I LOVE watching her dance and I am SOOO PROUD OF HER!

Room's Finally Finished

BEFORE: Ugly peeling paintable wall paper....
BEFORE: Old and not so super cute dresser....(This dresser actually came to me from my great-grandma Josie's home. The story I got about it was that it was given to her from a furniture store after her home was re-built because her old home went in the Teton Dam Flood. I have had it since I was a little girl and decided it was still in good enough condition to go in my little girls room....after a new paint job that is.:)

AFTER: This is her new purple wall....the words say, "Once upon a time there was a princess." She put the stars around it, and she LOVES it and that is what is important!

AFTER: This is her new pink wall. The picture that you can't see very good is her temple picture that she picked out. She also got a new bulletin board for all the "stuff" she is CONSTANTLY taping to her walls.

And these are the new striped walls. The black lines down the sides of the stripes are actually black beads and super cute up close. I LOVE the way the dresser turned out with a new piant job! Perfect for her room.

So....not worlds best room, but DEFINITELY better than it was and like I said, she LOVES it!

Hmmmm....

Laiklie: Mom der was a bumble bee in my nose.
Me: Really?
Laiklie: Ya, don't worry.....I picked it out. (PAUSE).....it was on a nuger. (aka buger)

Laiklie's Green Thumb

A few weeks ago Laiklie brought this little paper cup home from primary where her "sweetest teacher ever" helped her plant a seed. I always HATE when the little paper cups come home with seeds in them because my kids always have such HIGH expectations and to be honest with you.....I SUCK AT KEEPING PLANTS ALIVE! I mean, truthfully, I am terrible and have a black thumb for sure. I kill every plant that comes into this house and I always feel HORRIBLE when it is my sweet little childs long awaited plant from the paper cup that I kill.

This time though, Laiklie has LOVED this little plant to life. She has watched it grow and change everyday and just babies it along. I KNOW it is at that point that I HAVE to move it from the sweet little paper cup to something larger with more dirt or it will for sure die, (this is usually the part I hate and hence, the plant dies) BUT I wanted you to see how well I've done - with Laiklie's help - so far! :)