Taylor's Band Concert

Taylor had his 7th Grade Band Concert tonight. The band sounded great and Taylor had a blast performing! He really likes his band teacher Mr. Schmidt. We are so glad that Taylor wants to continue playing the trumpet. He is really getting good at it. Good Job Taylor!

Violin Performance

Haley and Abbey did a great job at their Violin Recital. They each did a group number and then each did a solo. It is so fun watching our children work so hard and seeing their hard work pay off. They were both well prepared and had both their pieces memorized. We are proud of them!

Abbey's Group Performance

Haley's Group Performance

Abbey's Solo

Haley's Solo

Hey Now.......You're an All Star!

Taylor has been playing with the Desert Hills 7th Grade Border League Team this year. They had a perfect season! Today, they participated in a tournament at Pine View Middle School!

The first game we won in double overtime! We had about 30 minutes to grab lunch and then be back for the 2nd game. It was another nail biter! We won it with a buzzer shot lay up! Because we were behind schedule, those poor boys had only about 10 minutes before the championship game! Our boys again played an amazing game, but came up short! We lost by 1 stinking point in overtime! Our team was the only team that had to play 3 consecutive games like that!

Taylor got a lot of playing time! He played almost the entire game for all three games! We were so proud of him and the effort he put into this tournament! He is such an amazing athlete! We don't know where he came from! He was really upset afterward, but we thought they all did a great job! Good Job Taylor! We are proud of you!

Haley's Dance Review!

When did my little girl grow up? Tonight looking at these pictures, I realized my little girl is turning into a beautiful young lady!

Haley had her first Super Stepper Dance review on April 18th. Haley loves to dance! She had so much fun dancing at her dance review this year! She had her Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin, Grandma Houston, and her Mom, Dad, and Sister all there to watch her. (Taylor stayed home with the two little boys so we could enjoy it as well! Thanks Tay!) Haley had the biggest smile on her face the whole time! It was fun to see her doing something she loves so much!

Haley was introduced and escorted by her Dad!

She also got an award for having a perfect 4.0 GPA....Beauty and Brains...What a combination!

We sure were proud of our beautiful daughter tonight!

Haley and Abbey both tried out again this year, and they both made it, so next year we will have two beautiful girls dancing in Super Steppers!

Spring Break 2009

It has been a while since my last post, so I am playing a little catch up......

For Spring Break this year, the kids and I spent a few days in Beaver with my parents. The kids always have such a fun time. I wish we could spend more time up there.

We must have spring fever, because we decided we would try to go up to the Ranch.....It was a little early in the year still and we didn't quite make it because of the mud and snow. We went as far as we could and stopped and had a quick picnic and let the boys shoot their guns for a minute. We took Grandma Houston with us and we still had a great time. We can't wait to get up to the Ranch soon! It is one of our favorite places!

We also had a work day at the farm....My kids are great workers when they want to be! We worked our little guts out, but ended up having fun at the same time! Taylor's highlight was starting the huge bomfire from the big pile of tumbleweeds!

Who knew that you could have such a fun Spring Break without spending a lot of money? Sometimes it is a blessing to have to pinch pennies! We had some great family bonding time this week!

Happy Birthday Trevor!

Our little "Trev" turned 4 years old on February 7th.
He really wanted to have a birthday party, so I finally caved in and agreed. He had nine of his little buddies from our neighborhood. It was so fun seeing these cute kids interact with each other. I think poor Trevor was a little overwhelmed. He was pretty quiet through the whole thing. Maybe next time, we should keep it to just a couple of his pals.

He wanted a dinosaur party, so that is what he got. They played bowling for dinosaur bones, pin the horn on the triceratops, made dinosaur tracks in playdo, and played musical dinosaurs. Then, he opened his presents and they ate cupcakes. The finished it off with a dinosaur egg hunt and watching a volcano erupt. Four year olds are so adorable and think everything is fun. I love this age! Trevor is still thanking me for the fun birthday, so of course all the work is so worth it!

Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin came down that night for cake and icecream!

Happy Birthday Trevor! We all love you!

A Happy Moment

I was looking through some pictures today, and realized that I have very few of my little Tyson smiling. Although he is mellow a lot of the time, he is still a pretty happy little guy! I took my camera and tried to take some pictures of him this morning while Trevor was at preschool. As you can see, he didn't want to cooperate, but at least I can prove that he is a happy little guy! I had a fun time chasing him around the house trying to get him to pose for me.

While we are on the subject of Tyson, he has mastered getting out of his crib. The past two nights, he has woke up several times and snuck into Mommy and Daddy's bed. I know it is a terrible habit to let him get into, but he is just so darn cute, it is hard to tell him no. He definately gets away with more than he should. We sure love him to pieces!

New Years Day 2009

We have a tradition of going to play in the snow for New Year's Day. We went to Beaver this year and had my parents go with us. We played for hours and had so much fun! We are all sad to have to get back to school, work, and life. We have some great memories of our holiday season this year!

My Little Cowboy

The picture is really bad for some reason, but I wanted to post my cute little cowboy entertaining us on Christmas!

Happy New Year 2009

I wish we could have the Christmas and New Year Holiday all over again. I so enjoyed every minute of it this year.

For New Years eve, we had a fabulous time! For the past several years, we have planned a New Years eve party with the Houston's. This year, I didn't get one planned, so I figured that we would just spend it with our little family. After talking with my mom, I realized that they didn't have plans either, so I invited them down. I mentioned it to my sisters thinking for sure that they would have other plans on such short notice, but they didn't and both of them and their families came down as well. My family doesn't get together nearly often enough. We had a great time. We enjoyed pizza and spent the rest of the night playing games, battling it out on the Wii, laughing, and enjoying each other.

What a wonderful way to ring in the New Year!

Christmas 2008

Our Christmas was wonderful again this year. We always enjoy having my parents come down and spend the night. I think I get more excited than the kids do. I woke up at 5:30 am and could not go back to sleep. John finally said, "Either go wake up the kids or Shut up so I can go back to sleep" (What a Scrouge)! He doesn't share the same excitement on Christmas morning.

Haley finally called up on the intercom that they were awake, so we hurried down to turn on the lights and get cameras ready.

The kids must have been good this year, because Santa tipped his sleigh over again at our house.

My parent's had breakfast with us and then went on their way to visit my sister's and their families. We invited John's mom out for dinner, and then Marcia and Thayne and their families came out and spent a few minutes with us. We had a wonderful Christmas!

There are just too many pictures to choose from, so I put them in a slide show instead! The hit this year was the new Wii that Santa left for our family. We have spent hours together enjoying it. I think John likes it more than anyone!

Christmas Eve 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! We started it off by going up to Beaver for Christmas Eve. We always have a great time there! The kids all performed for us. Taylor played the piano and Haley and Abbey played the violin. Trevor got shy and wouldn't sing, but Tyson shook a bell while his cousin Tanner sang jingle bells.

Taylor just finishing his piano piece.

Haley & Abbey playing "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" on violin.

Tyson and Tanner performing "Jingle Bells" (With a little encouragement from mom!)

Cousins singing "Could I Hold the Baby" for us.

Cousin gift exchange....Trevor got a new sword from his cousin Tanner!