Memorial Day and Last Week of School!

Memorial Day barbeque at our house...
followed by swimming. It was supposed to be a nasty day, but it turned out to be beautiful!
Bryan pushed Dan down the hill to start the bug...it looked hilarious!
Ithe hill didn't work...
Taylor brought Oreo to show and tell. We waited 30 minutes with the other 15 animals! It was a zoo and poor Oreo was freaking out! Taylor was so excited that I brought her, so it was all worth it :)
Dance Festival...Zacky danced to "hot, hot, hot" and at the beginning of the dance he pointed repeatedly to the new 'hot' girl in his life (Sienna). He came home a couple of weeks ago saying he'd found a new cute girl while doing his dance practice. I jokingly glared at him and asked about Lauren (i LOVE Lauren :) He giggled and said if I saw the new girl, I'd understand! So during the part of the song where it says "I'm hot, you're hot, he's hot, she's hot...he pointed to the girl on the front row...too bad I didn't get her in the picture :( So at the end of his dance they were all supposed to strike a couple of poses and hold them for a few seconds...all of a sudden Zacky bounces to his head and does a break dance pose! Hilarious! He said he asked his teacher first. Good boy :) Of course Mrs. King would let him do anything, she's always bragging that he's her favorite. I invited her to our house thinking that maybe she could work on his listening skills at home! :) Zacky was so excited because she came over to get the cradle we gave her for her new baby :)
Taylor did a dance too--got it on video, but forgot the photo...she got to do the Hoe Down Throwdown from the Hannah Montana movie. So funny because after I took Taylor and Noelle to that movie over spring break, we down loaded the dance and learned it together. But we learned it backwards because I couldn't mirror them :)
Yeah!!! Last day of school!! I think I was the happiest :) No more Mrs. Empey!
Because Zacky got such good grades and had been an angel for Mrs. King all year, I surprised him and took him straight to the store after school to pick out the nerf gun he's been eyeing and saving for for months. He literally RAN through the store to grab it! I'm very proud of him for doing so great in school! He's always being complemented by his teacher for being her biggest helper, listener, math wiz and friend to all!
Then we went over to Noelle's to see the bunny she got. I told Taylor afterwards we'd go to the store to pick out an outfit....but instead I surprised her with the bunny she wanted! :)
Kelly got a bunny for her kids and built a cage, so of course Taylor was BEGGING for one! We had many talks about why we don't need a bunny (maybe the CAT and DOG we already have!!!). I had told Taylor earlier on that the only way she could have one (she, of course, was saying she'd pay for it :) is if it lived at Kelly's. So she and grandma talked to Kelly and worked it out. Bryan said no, but I changed the ruling the night before. Taylor has worked her booty off this year and brought home straight A's and excellent behavior. I'm so proud of her! So happy end of school present. (and on top of it there was no complaining from either child about the lack of presents (that's what I told them)...they've both been so good the past 3 months about not asking for anything during our little no job transition period :)
Noelle got Cracker and Taylor has Bear! Bryan calls him Black Thunder :)
Look at that happy boy! Can't figure out why he wanted another nerf gun!
I let the kids have a last day of school swim party right after their 1 1/2 hour last day. It lasted all day and the kids had a blast! (could have done without Lily's drama:) Austin, Brittney, Noelle and Lily came with Taylor and Hudson, Seth and Alec with Zacky. Taylor actually wanted to keep it to her close friends this year :)
They love that Corndog plays fetch in the pool :)

soccer party and other fun

Corndog was the boys good luck charm :)
We had a 4 hour soccer swim party on Friday to celebrate a great tournament! The girls had a blast!
They made Darren get in too!
Daddy's been out of town a LOT lately interviewing for jobs...so the kids decided we should have a slumber party. Not the best night's sleep ever! :) Kara said Corndog was on the bed too, but jumped off right before she took the picture! She and Dan stayed over after our late night spa party. He was knocked out from allergy meds and I told him he wasn't allowed to drive home! Although I wanted to kick him out after he shared all of his bad childhood pranks with Zacky! Zacky has never looked so entertained! :)
He was supposed to be out cleaning up dog poop!
Zacky practiced his pitching with Daddy in the backyard :) Then he went in and hit off the pitching machine...he's getting to be a great hitter! I told him that I didn't want to see any more boring walks...although kid pitch is definitely tricky and LONG :) He's now going to be playing on a Super League team too so he's wanting to practice lots more.
Zacky got Sunday sickness...although he actually threw up so we believed him this time :) I'm sure it had nothing to do with the JCW's that Daddy brought home last night!

May activities and Mother's Day

The pink piranahs had an interesting Spring season. They only won 1 game, tied 4 and lost 4 (by usually only 1 goal). We entered the AA tournament in last place but worked our way to the finals. (the Salem game was the best! We knocked out the 1st place team!) We actually had previously beat the team we played in the finals, but ended up losing 2-3. The girls were so sad, but it was a great game! Taylor was so upset because she didn't score and thought it was her fault they lost. In the semis and finals she kept shooting great shots that the goalie either got or that hit the bar. It was crazy!
They weren't thrilled with the 2nd place trophies :)
our soccer geeks! Luke was the only one with a little pride :)
so I literally RAN in from our trip back from California, grabbed Taylor and drove back to Provo for HOPE of AMERICA. Taylor's in the flag and sang in the program. No one warned us, though, that it was a 2 hour boredom fest :)
It was so long that Hudson had to use a water bottle :) Luckily I found Tiffany...we complained together!

She's still the best corner kicker :) She gotten the team several goals off of her great kicks!
Corndog's sad tumor. After we had it removed, along with ear surgery, they told us it was cancer. Taylor said "why do all of our animals have to die?!" It does seem to be a curse in our home.
Zacky plays pitcher, short stop and sometimes catcher. I just think he looks so adorable in his gear...and he uses grandpa's glove :)

I had a great Mother's Day. I got breakfast in bed, then while Bryan was making his famous salad, I was sent to bed. The kids made brownies and Zacky gave me a neck massage. He's actually really good :)
Taylor gave me coupons and a cute card. I have the best kids :)
Zacky gave me a mini foot massage too!
Thank you Bryan!
Jeff was in trouble, so he wrote funny messages in chocolate :)

Zacky got his first cup! He was excited :) Who has a picture like this!
Taylor and Noelle are still taking private lessons from Alicia. They love it! They're still in trouble for not getting their splits yet :) but are doing great. They've learned 3 jumps and Taylor can do a one footed spin now. They're so cute!
She's actually learning grace :)
Mom got new grass after they had to rip up her whole yard!
Devin was not pleased that the boys kept taking breaks!
Poor corndog had his tumor removed and his ear quilted. The kids took good care of him....
Zacky even slept on the floor with him because he couldn't jump up on the bed with his stupid ginormous collar!
Our last soccer game of the season! They won 6 out of 10 games. They're a great little team if we could just get everyone there most of the time! who knows what we'll do next year...and all the boys just complain about going to training! I'm over soccer right now :)
We had a soccer party. The boys love to swim and play together! We then watched Bryan try to burn down the entire neighborhood! Dang weeds!
I made it through my Woman of Steel triathlon! I almost chickened out...especially after Jen bailed. I used her bike so I didn't half to ride my pee wee bike! I did it in an hour and a half so I was happy. I can check that off my life list! Bryan was out of town so I was so alone :) Kara came to cheer me on, but we somehow missed each other! I ran the 5 K in 30 minutes and considering that I had to walk much of the first up-hill mile, I was happy. The swim was the most frustrating because people put themselves in faster lines than they should have been in so I literally was walking on the bottom of the pool trying to pass. It's over! Yah!!

May 5th Grandma Ashby's funeral

On our way to Grandma's funeral....nice and windy...It started out as a girls trip (minus Kimmy with a job!), but we ended up with stinking Jared and then Justin came down from Vegas too. Jared wanted out of the trip 10 minutes in :)
We stopped at Sharon's first. They made us dinner and, of course, provided much entertainment! We laughed all night.
Paul drew cups for us and we played Sharon's 3 question game! We met Heather too!

Evon made a cat cake for Heather :)
We spent a day at the beach...everyone made fun of me because I laid out with a sweatshirt :) We took a long jog/walk too. We listened to Justin's alien stories and smelled Jared for hours! Fun day!
Kelly got a big blister from our walk...not happy!
We made Nicole reinact her 1980's picture! Love it!
cousin pics....Kara was on the phone with dan and kelly was???
At the cemetery.
Jason made us laugh the whole time :)
Kara's 12 inch heels sunk into the ground!
I burned the heck out my legs (just on the front!) My red shoes really helped the look!
Wes, the crazy car salesman, brought pictures of dad...we were laughing because Zacky looks so similar!
After the yummy dinner we took the flowers back so Evon could give them out...
saying goodbye...everyone was laughing at Justin's legs...he got SO fried at the beach!
Short trip, but fun. We were supposed to catch a beach on the way home, but didn't find a safe one :) and I had to pee so bad that we ended up at sharon's to borrow her potty! I shouldn't be allowed on any trips!
We ate dinner at del taco...kelly was very pleased with her tacos and my nachos slurped! We laughed and laughed on that drive home! We stopped at Nancy's house to stay the night before the second leg home. Mom got so mad at us because we couldn't stop laughing and were being too loud at 1:00 am. I don't think Jared will ever take a trip with us again! :)