Valentines Day and Dances.....

Valentines Day.....ahh. What a crazy/over-rated holiday. First order of business for Valentines day this year was the dance at Alta. Somehow, J.D. and I got talked into letting Brenna who is not yet 16 go to the dance. She and Morgan pulled it off by saying....."this will be the only dance that we will be able to go together in high school...."

Since the dance is girls choice, and I am thrilled that my daughters love each other as sisters as well as best friends I of course said yes. Brenna and her date - Andrew Scheffner. We have been friends with their family for about 5 years now. Drew and Jensen have played on football, soccer, and baseball teams with the other brothers and needless to say we think the Scheffner's are awesome. So when Brenna wanted to date one of them, I figured that would be okay with me!!

Cute, cute Morgan......she has plenty of options on boys to take to the dance that are her own age, but since she was going with Brenna and a whole group of Sophomores, she decided to ask a younger man to the dance. I told her that I am sure that made his week/month/year to be asked by a beautiful senior girl to Sweethearts. Jake Owen. They had fun.

Again.....another year of making Valentine Day boxes for the card exchange at school -

Have I ever mentioned how awesome Morgan is?? This big sister spent an entire Sunday afternoon locked in Jensen's room with him helping him make his Robot Valentine box....they wouldn't let any of us in the room, because they wanted it to be a surprise.

Also, when you are 9 years old and your name is Jensen Barnes, you have a hard time not pulling a funny face when the camera is out! Love you man!!

And here is my lovely little Ella, and here is another work of art done by Morgan! That was my Valentines day gift - not having to worry about the boxes.

I love you too, Jiles!!

We decorated sugar cookies after dinner for our Valentines Day treat - yummy!

I love my family! I am thankful for this day to tell them once again that I think that they are THE BEST!!!!!

Growing up.....

It's official......Ella is growing up.

She was once the little one that I would snuggle up to once everyone else had gone to school in the morning, now has things of her own to do. She takes a dance class once a week with Meg and Rachel, but the best part is her teacher is my darling forever friend, Tera. We love Teacher Tera!! She is darling - she is pictured here teaching the girls how to hold one of the others in a lift and the end of their dance. I cannot wait for the recital!

Ella does not wear the typical leotard, tights, and ballet shoes to dance.....oh no, she is much to sassy for that!! Her favorite is the pink and black leopard print, pouffy skirt with black leggings and top.....she also likes 'messy' buns instead of 'ballet' buns in her hair.

Ella loves Kindergarten, and I love her school. There is much to say for a charter school. I am so impressed with the teachers and the academics that go on in these classes. Ella entered Kindergarten without any kind of pre-school behind her. I am not a fan of pre-school. These little ones grow up and leave the house much too soon for me, so to push them into school so soon has never been anything that I have liked. I want my time with my kids while they still want to spend time with me, these moments are precious and priceless and I don't want to share them with anyone else.....

Summit Academy pushes these kids. This was one day at school when Ella had to prepare and present a science experiment that could be shared with her class. We decided to show how light reflects through a glass with water in it and show how when you place a pencil in the water that it looks like it has bent. The kids in the class were amazed....lots of 'ooohhhs' and 'aaahhhs' coming from the crowd.

I am happy to announce that just having parent teacher conferences with her teacher, Ella is doing 1st grade math, and is reading books that she would not be required to read until the end of this school year......yes, I am a proud mama!

It's always something.....

Jiles makes me smile.

It is always something with this little boy of mine. This is what happens when we get home from church at 4:00 and he misses his regular nap.....falling asleep before he can even get a bite of food in his belly. He slept there like an angel for nearly an hour and a half with all the noise and confusion of the family on a Sunday afternoon, he was really tired!

This is what I came into the other day......note to self "Never, ever put him to bed without a onsie on underneath his jammies!!"

He had undressed himself and was completely happy to be hanging out in his bed without his pajamas or diaper on. Thank Heaven that the diaper he had taken off was only wet!!