Ballet

Sometimes I wonder if I am trying to live vicariously through my kids. I have always loved ballet and dreamed of being a dancer. Anyone who knows me knows that I am so hopelessly uncoordinated that it will only ever be a dream. My daughters on the other hand have been showing some serious potential. My girls love to dance and despite the handicap of having me as a mother they actually are good at it. They have been in ballet for about a month and I love to watch them. Ava already shows so much poise and talent it amazes me. She loves to watch ballet and already knows some of the positions and how to show emotion while dancing. I love watching her. Alea really seems to love tap dancing. I was worried about her dancing because unfortunately she has inherited her mothers lack of coordination, but she has really taken to tap dancing and ballet. She is so serious during class and you can see the concentration in her face it is adorable. I asked her the other day what is her favorite thing to do in ballet class and she told me that she likes the stretching the best. I had to laugh because it seems like such a silly thing to like to do but I am glad she likes it.

The great annual campout 2011

This weekend we were able to go camping with friends. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends and to get together once a year to go camping. It seems all year we are counting down until we go camping. It all started many years ago before any of us were married. In fact we had all just started hanging out. By we I mean Me and Adam and our friends Mike an Jarom. We all went camping together and have continued to do so but now we are all have spouses and some of us have children and we have added new friends.This year we went to Mud lake. Adam and I found this campsite a couple of years ago and we love it. We were able to rent the entire campground for a great price. We had privacy and didn't have to worry about intoxicated fellow campers. We had the entire place to ourselves. We had 8 adults and 6 kids camping this year. We were able to test our dutch oven cooking skills and went on a great hike that exhausted us all. I love spending time talking around the campfire. I truly have amazing friends that I can really relate to and had some very great conversations that made me feel uplifted and hopeful. I could not help but be amazed by Heavenly Fathers wonderful creations. The mountains the lakes the meadows of green grass and wildflowers. I was able to sneak away with Adam for a few minutes and watch the stars. They were so amazing. While Adam help me in his arms and we were both mesmerized by the infinite amount of stars we were able to see. I had a moment where I realized how happy I am with my life. I have an amazing husband and two special daughters. I am happier than I have ever been....but enough of the sappy stuff..While at dinner last night we asked the girls to tell us their favorite part of camping Ava instantly said crafts!(much to Adams dismay). This pleased me greatly. I tried really hard to find all the kids fun things to occupy their time and it looks like I succeeded. We asked Alea what was her favorite part of camping. She said "Sleeping" Adam and I both looked at each other and started laughing..Alea has not ever been good at going to sleep. She has hated it even as an infant and has developed many techniques to keep herself awake. She will often scream I don't want to go to sleep and I am not tired even though we know she is. After we were done laughing she also said she really liked going on a walk and watching the fire and shining her flashlight in the dark. It was wonderful to spend time with my family and very good friends.

Avena Elisabeth

Ava brings me such joy. I don't know what I did to deserve such an amazing child. From birth Ava has been a very sweet baby. The nurses in the NICU would comment on how she looked like an angel. Because Ava was born early and was so tiny we were told she would have developmental delays and to not expect her to be doing the same things as other children her age. She proved everyone of the doctors who said that to us wrong, not to brag but Ava is the most intelligent four year old I have ever met. She has been very verbal and vocal since birth She She said her first word at 2 months old and it was Daddy. I know it sounds crazy but Adam and I both heard it. We had to take the girls to a physical and developmental therapist at 8 months to check for delays and to determine if she would need help to catch up with other babies their age. The PT told us that we had a genius on our hands and that she was not behind at all. In fact she was ahead of other babies her age . She constantly amazes me with the things she says and thinks of. She is reading and writing at 4 and truly enjoys it. She said her first sentence before she turned one. She said "Iwant adrinkofwater" Ava loves to sing and has an amazing ability to memorize songs. She knows the lyrics and tune to a song after hearing it only a few times. She is always singing or humming to herself and it is music to my ears. When I picture Ava in my mind all I see is her incredible smile. Ava has the most amazing smile I have ever seen. Pure joy emanates from her face. She melts my heart many times a day with her beautiful smile. Her giggle is contagious and I don't think there is a person who can resist her charm.

Bread

I love bread. I am a carboholic! I love to make bread and have been working on making bread for my family. Why buy it from the store when I can make it myself? baking bread brings back great memories for me. My mom taught me how to make bread when I was a kid. I have very fond memories of working in the kitchen with my mom. She would rip off a peice of dough and let me make shapes and then bake it in the oven along side the loaves of bread she was making for us. My mother learned to make bread from my fraternal Grandma: Grandma Fay. My grandma passed away from breast cancer 5 months ago. I loved that women and her sense of humor and whenever anyone talks about her, her homemade bread is always mentioned. She made the best loaves of white bread you could ever imagine. One of the greatest compliments she gave me before her passing was to tell me how good of a mother and cook I was. She said she was very proud of me for making my children's food from scratch and not taking the conveniant pre packaged route. After she passed away my dad gave me all of her baking pans. Her bread pans are old and dark and if I had seen them at a thrift store I would not have gave them a second glance but I swear they are the best for baking bread. They must have been perfectly seasoned over the many years she made bread. I made bread yesterday and used her pans and the bread was perhaps the best sanwich bread I have ever made. It did not stick to the pan at all and came out wondefuly soft and fluffy. I can't help but think it is my dear grandmas love coming out from the bread pans. I don't think I will ever be able to bake bread again without thinking of my wonderful Grandma.

3 hot chicks

The newest addition to our crazy little home is three baby chicks. Much to Adams dismay I purchased three chicks last week. I plan on raising the chicks for eggs. Alea and Ava are very excited and have named the chicks Happy, Smiley and Chick-e-chick. They have survived the first week and that is what I was the most worried about. They are growing bigger every day and Smiley ate her first bug while playing in the yard and It made me more excited than it probably should have.

Commitment

I am going to try to write on this blog more often. I am a horrible speller and even worse when it comes to punctuation. I am quite imbarrased by this fact and am afraid to even let people know that I have a blog. I am hoping that anyone who reads this will not judge me on my punctuation and spelling and hopefully this makes sense.