First Piano Recital

Jalen and Baylie started taking piano lessons in August. They had a students only recital in December and in March they had a recital for parents. I was so happy to have kids that play the piano! They both had their music memorized.

Notice the socks.

Jalen kind of freaked out and I was afraid he would back out at the last minute, but he did great and played his song perfectly. 

Baylie has had her song memorized for a long time and can play it perfectly. But in the recital, she got ahead of herself and messed up at the end. She was so disappointed, but I was still so proud of her. Her teacher told her that she did the right thing because she kept playing and finished the song.

All the students.

So shy.

Jalen's performance

Baylie's performance

I'm so proud of my budding musicians!!

Cinderella

A while ago, I learned that a local high school was putting on the play Cinderella and they were also having a tea party before the play. Some of my mom friends decided to take our girls. 

Maddie Bushman is a young woman in our ward. She was the stage manager for the play. Baylie loves her.

She also loves her sister Annabelle who was dressed up as Elsa for the tea party.

Me and my girlfriends.

Waiting for the play to start.

Moms and daughters

Trying on the slipper.

Wicked Step Mother

The Queen

Wicked Step Sister

Cinderella

Prince Charming (his real life step mother was Baylie's 4th grade teacher)

We didn't realize we were wearing the same leggings!

I love spending time with my girl.

Sweetheart Dance

This year the school had their second annual Sweetheart Dance. It is a fun night for parents and kids to dance together - although our kids seem to prefer dancing with their friends.

Jalen and his friend Aliyah. They spent the entire night together.

Baylie and her posse.

Our sweet friends the Courtneys. 

 Family photo 

With Mrs. Turner

My amazing friends. I am so blessed to have so many amazing women in my life.

April Alsup, me, Yasmin Baltzegar, Esther Courtney, Michelle Burgess, and Jesse Harley

It was a sweet Sweetheart Dance.

Grammy & Granddad Come to Town

We were so excited to have my parents come for a visit. They are missionaries at the Palmyra Temple in New York. We got to visit them this summer, but haven't seen them since then. The temple was closed for two weeks so they came to see us and get warm. It is freezing in upstate New York!

On Valentine's Day, they came to the school to eat with the kids. They were a little late getting to the school and when they got there, Baylie was crying because she thought they weren't coming. One of my friends caught this tender picture of Baylie hugging my dad.

Before long, all was well!

And Jalen soon joined them. The kids were especially excited when Grammy and Granddad came back to check them out a little early.

My mom taught third grade for many years and she loves to help my kids with their school work.

Normally we do a lot of sight seeing when my parents are here, but they were so tired, they just wanted to relax. The kids and I stayed home from school on Friday. We stayed home most of the day, but did take a drive to the Columbia temple. It's under scaffolding because they're redoing the grout work.

On Monday, the kids and David had a holiday from school, but I had to go to meetings. Such a bummer! They all went to the zoo. We have such a great zoo.

My parents were here almost a week, but the time went by way too quickly. I love my parents so much. I'm so grateful that my kids have such a great relationship with my parents. I wish we could spend more time together. Nothing is more important than family.

Super Heroes at the State Museum

In February, a teacher at the school who has worked with Jalen on his reading and knows how much he loves reading gave us tickets to the superhero exibit at the state museum. I thought we'd stay an hour or so and we stayed more than three. 

Wonder Woman costume

 Superhero cutouts 

Jalen was super excited to see the exhibit.

Superman

Trying to crack the code to the safe.

Batman's car

The Tardis  

Batman 

Walking between two sky scrapers.

The Hulk

Shooting things with lazers powered by hand motions.

Jumping

Iron Man

Hang Time 

Mini heroes

Wind tunnel

Hero in hiding

Batmobiles over the years

This was interesting. We've discovered that Jalen has a condition called  Raynaud's. His hands get very cold. This think was something that when you touched it, the heat from your hand would leave a thermal hand print. Not only did Jalen not leave a hand print at all, if he put his hand on top of someone else's handprint, it would make it disappear.

Speed test--Jalen was very speedy.  

David was speedy too.

Reaction test. I was awesome at this, but David ended up beating me.

In the booth

We had never really explored the museum. We decided to check some of the other areas within the museum and it was amazing. We will probably get a family membership because we had a great time and definitely want to go back.

Replica of the Huntley submarine that was sunk during the Civil War.

They had some sword fighting demonstrations going on and we thought this guys outfit was cool.

It was a really fun day and we look forward to going back.