CJ's birthday, mothers day, gardening... and stuff!

What a title!!... that's what we've been up to... the end!!

Just kidding!
Ok, so CJ had another birthday! The big 3-2! I think every year I make a point of saying how much I enjoy his birthdays because then, for almost exactly 3 months I am only a year older than him. Probably something that only gets to women... and only a few at that, but hey... it is what it is, so I will enjoy it for a little while longer! We really wish he had been feeling better and able to enjoy it a little more, but the end may be around the corner. As of the day of this post he only has 3 more days until he meets with a specialist at the U of U!!!
Anyway, here are some memory keepers of the family trying to make daddy's birthday special (we even locked him out to decorate... but I don't think we got any pictures of that)

Kailey made him a cake at school

He got to use the very special plate the Jessie-Bob made us for Christmas. And the stuff in the pan... hamburger slop... of all the things I make... that's what he wanted... and it was his birthday... so I did it. Its actually hamburger stroganoff... but when we could have had it with REAL meat in it... it gets renamed hamburger slop!

And he got a fruit "cake" it was actually a pie... of fresh fruit... but you can see who was the most excited... AND who got the first bite!

I think daddy had a pretty happy birthday!

Then we had Mothers day... well, I had mothers day. They cooked and cleaned for me... and got me a beautiful bowl of flowers that I was able to plant out front. I am very grateful to be a mom, and I am grateful for the time I get to spend with my wonderful family. I am grateful that, for the most part, we get along so well, and enjoy being in each others company. I am grateful for the patience of my children who have the gift to make even difficult times better. Heavenly Father has truly blessed me with many, many wonderful things, and my family is certainly at the top of that list. I don't have any pictures of my special day... because I guess I am the one who is always holding the camera and... it was my day off!!!

Gardening.. oh how I have longed for the days I could garden!!! This year.. thanks primarily to a group of fantastic people from church... I HAVE A GARDEN!!!! My friend Allison and I are actually doing it together. Its the first year for both of us, and we figured it may be better to learn together than have 2 dead gardens... so... first things first...

this is our fabulous Bishop rototilling our yard... GARDEN!!

This is 2 hard working women building a fence
and this is the planted GARDEN!!!

Now I am just going to eagerly await the little sprouts to shoot up and confirm all the hard work that's been put into this! We will hopefully have corn, carrots, beans, peas, tomatoes, broccoli, onions, beets, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini (yellow and green), and 3 other kinds of squash... PLUS in another spot I planted pumpkins, melons (that's what the package said... MELONS), cantaloupe and watermelon! It will be SO exciting if all of it comes up... but I would be happy with just a few things!! This will be great adventure because already we don't have a sprinkler that waters the whole thing without moving it 6 times (literally... that is NOT an exaggeration), plus our hand sprayer lost the ring that seals it to the hose, so if we use that we end up showered... we'll get it figured out... its all part of the fun!

Ash has a dance recital coming up in June, then we are headed to Spokane for at least a couple of weeks! (That's another reason I couldn't do a garden by myself!!!). After next week the kids will be out of school and summer will be in full swing!!!

The LAST Dance Competition!

Oh how I have loved watching Ashlyn compete this season! It has changed her in so many ways! She has grown so much mentally and appreciates so much more in life. She has truly found her passion, or one of them, and it has come in the form of a beautiful natural ability!

On Saturday we had the last competition (isn't it funny how as a people if we are involved in something, even if from the sidelines, we refer to whatever that event is as "we"??!)! The competition was at a place called Lagoon. In Spokane I would most liken it to Silverwood. We were all excited. We had discount passes, parking passes, the works. Ashlyn was dancing at 9 and 11, so that would leave the whole afternoon for fun! YAY!!!
THEN.... we woke up... rain... pouring down rain. POURING!!! I'm being slightly dramatic. We actually knew the night before that it was going to rain and made plans for CJ to stay with Kailey and Canyon, since we had to be out the door by 7AM... and did I mention RAIN?!?!
HO-LY SA-MOKES!!!! It was insane!! POUR-ING!!!! ANDDDD being in the pre-7AM hour... did I even THINK to grab the umbrella when we walked out to the car in the pouring rain??? NOPE!! I sure didn't!!! Thankfully I grabbed an extra jacket (duh??? why???) that we threw over our heads to WAIT IN LINE for the tickets and WALK the block to GET TO the ticket booth AND the area where the competitions were held. UGH! OK, OK, enough of the dramatics... EXCEPT... our feet were totally SOAKED, to the point (after SEVEN HOURS!!!) that the prunes on them were actually hurting! 0% body fat Ashlyn was freezing... it was crazy!

Anyway...
we made it to the pavilion area, and found the dressing room. By the time Ashlyn's team had to be there the competition had only been going for an hour, so the dressing room wasn't too bad (it was later that it was packed and every inch of the floor was a puddle, and smelled like sweaty dancers, and rain... we told eachother we all smelled like wet dogs). There weren't a ton of people there... yet. She got changed, we found her team, AND a spot to park it until it was time for them to line up. The pavilion area was thankfully kind of like a barn/warehouse room, so the area we were in was covered, which also made it very crowded because... it was raining... have I mentioned that?? So, the girls head to line up... via outside, in their little dancing footwear called foot undies. Realized they went to the wrong side, came back in... via outside, went to where they were supposed to line up, but weren't sure that were they were supposed to be, went BACK OUTSIDE through a different door, disappeared for a few minutes, and came back inside... line up... and danced...



Needless to say their foot undies were soaked, and didn't do much good for anything other than slipping around. At one point Ashlyn almost fell flat on her back, that's when you don't see any dancers on the video because I was watching her... but not through the camera. She ended up being fine and...
THE TEAM WON BEST ALL AROUND for this dance in their division!!

Here is their second dance..



Despite the music being started before they were ready....

THEY WON FIRST for this routine!!!

Good job girls!!!

We are finally all dried out and warm... we didn't end up getting sick or anything even!!!
I truly enjoyed the time I got to spend with Ashlyn. Its hard to get individual time with your children, and now, somehow, I owe Kailey a couple of Mommy/Daughter days too.

Ashlyn's company recital is on June 11th, we will actually see her get to dance ballet!! We cant wait... she can because she hates ballet... but she doesn't realize how beautifully she dances either. We are hoping that next year we will have the finances to have her do a solo at these competitions. Its definitely something to look forward too.

Just So I Don't Forget

Children are so beautiful and innocent and the time passes so quickly:

A conversation between a 5 year old and a 3 year old concerning personal prayers:

K: Canyon, you know when Mommy reads stories? Can you see the stories in your mind?
C: *thinking* YES!
K: After you hear a song can you hear it in your mind?
C: *thinking* YES!!
K: When you say a prayer can you think of it in your mind?
C: *thinking* YES!
K: Canyon, that is how you say your own prayer in your mind!!

This happened a couple of weeks ago and ever since I will see Canyon pausing while doing something, he will then go on to tell me he just said a prayer!

A couple of days ago Kailey came out of her room:

K: Mom, I just said a different kind of prayer
S: Oh really? Whats a different kind of prayer?
K: A "Mary" Prayer
S: Thats nice Kailey (slightly brushing her off, because I didnt really realize what she was saying)
K: Ya, instead of saying "Our Dear Heavenly Father", I said "Dear Heavenly Mother"

I didnt find out the content of her prayer because I was so beside myself that she even considered doing this. SO Sweet.

Each time CJ and Canyon play there is some sort of dramatic climax. It usually goes something like this, for example:

CJ: Alright Canyon, time for me to throw you in the lake!! *picking him up*
C: No Dad!! No!! *laughing*
CJ: Lets go... off to the lake!
C: But Dad, NO!!! *still laughing*
CJ: *carrying Canyon over his shoulder*
C: But DAD!!.... YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND!!!!!

One Month!!

How has it been a whole entire month since I posted????? (you thought it would be something more exciting didn't you!?!?!)
There is so much to say... but I will try to keep the words minimal since I have lots of pictures to do the taking for me... we'll see how that goes!!

So, CJ got this truck... for $300. Seems like a pretty good deal.. but what an UGLY truck huh...


but then he got to work...

(click to enlarge)

It turned out pretty good... and somebody else loved it and bought it. It was a fun project for him!!

He also tried replacing a starter in a vehicle
If he was feeling a little better you would be able to see how excited he really was! He is turning into quite the handyman!!

The kids... well... they were kids... ALL MONTH LONG!

(click to enlarge)

Then there was EASTER!! We are so grateful for our Savior and for the greatest sacrifice that was made on our behalf so that we can live again!! Its a great time to celebrate, AND Kandis came to visit!!

(click to enlarge)

Plus we had Spring break which meant a road trip to another dance competition!!
Last Friday we headed to St. George for the weekend. Its about a 4 hour trip from our door and it is a beautiful, quick drive! It was the first time for the kids and I and CJ's second... although he thought we were only 5 minutes away from Lake Powell... ya... not exactly.. more like another 4 hours, thankfully we caught that mistake before we headed out in the car! Sadly we were only 5 or 6 hours away from our family in Arizona, it would have been fun to see you guys.

Anyway... onto the pictures... pool... FUN IN THE SUN!!! (except for Ashlyn who chose to stay and have fun with her dance company... inside... most of the day... haha! Although, I must say I don't think she minded one bit!!) OK, OK, pictures....


We got to the hotel and decided that we had time to kill that evening... and CJ is ALL about making memories, so Ashlyn and I went to the lobby to see if we could find a brochure on something fun to do. This is what we found... The Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum!! It was awesome, AND... here are some of our experiences

I LOVED this quote.. .it was right when you walked through the door...

They gave Kailey and Canyon binoculars, and the older children (yes us) radios. At each section there was a number and if you punched that number into your radio you could hear all about the animals in that part of the world. All of the animals were real stuffed mounts...they were so cool... and needless to say CJ was in HEAVEN!

(click to enlarge)

Kailey and Canyon got to go swimming on Saturday while Ashlyn was at dance... all three of them were in HEAVEN!



THEN there was dance

And the video... yes it is the same song but you HAVE to watch Ashlyn in this! She is SO committed to dancing and it certainly shows! She stole the show... ok, maybe that's just me... but watch!!!!!!...

THEY GOT FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!

In both of their performances... and the companies Hip-Hop team also placed first in their dance! I wish I hadn't missed that!! Good job girls... you are ALL so beautiful and talented!!!

THEN there was the ride home... the 4 hours... make that FOURTEEN!!!!!!!!!!
Yep... CJ and his road trips! Instead of heading straight up I-15 and home... we went through Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon... allllll the way up to Boulder, Utah where we got to see.... KANDIS!!!! SURPRISE!! We almost missed her... she was just a couple hundred yards away from turning off the highway to go hiking for the day... and our road trip would have been all for nothing!! Well, not totally...
Canyon found heaven again going through this HUGE mile long tunnel...


He called it the choo choo train tunnel, and, in fact, the car tires even sounded like a train as we were going across the lines in the road!!

Kailey found heaven with the plethora of ROCKS that were EVERYWHERE...
(Daddy explaining to Kailey that this is a special place where you cant take lots and lots of rocks)

Ashlyn was just happy to be alive... she is growing up and enjoyed seeing the scenery as much as we did... but she especially liked seeing the wild life and seeing the rocks she has been learning about in school. In fact she has been working very hard on a 5-10 minute oral report on Kane county... which we just happened to be driving though!!


We all had a great time together (MUCH better than the Yellowstone road trip!)


Then the visit with Kandis!! It was only a few hours but it meant a lot to all of us (and we got to have a junk food dinner picnic.. because that's all the food we had left from our trip!). She really does live in a great place!
(this is at the neighbors house!)






(eewwwwww.... Elk Poop!!)

Yes, that was our trip! We'll be headed to Spokane sometime this summer. Haven't decided exactly when though... a little help would be nice. Hopefully the trip to up there will be as fun as the trip down south!

And THAT was the last month with the Larsons!

Dance Competition #2

Ashlyn competed in her 2nd dance competition!! The team did AWESOME!!! They placed 4th for this routine





and 3rd for this one! The judges were up on the top row of the bleachers (it doesnt look like there were many people there because everyone was crammed into the front and sides of the gym to see the "front" of the stage)... watch how Ashlyn looked directly up at them most of the time!! I.LOVE.IT!!!!




She loves it so much and we are very proud of her. One more month and we're off to St. George for another!!!