My Dancing Princess

Samantha just finished her dance class last week where she learned tap, ballet and tumbling. She took the class with her 3 preschool friends; Rachel, Kami and Joelle. They had so much fun together! They had their recital last Friday and I thought she might get stage fright and not want to dance because we had problems the last time she took dance. But she was so excited and followed the teacher's every move as best as she could! I was so proud of her! They even made their own T-shirts for the recital. If you look closely Samantha wrote SAM at the top of her shirt, with the S written backwards! And I love how her tutu is on crooked! What a cutie pie!

Getting ready to tap dance!

Doin a little pose before the music starts!

Listening to the teacher very intently!

Mother's Day

I had a really nice Mother's Day! Right when I woke up the girls said "Happy Mother's Day!" and showed me the gifts they got me. Kayla made some things at school; a card in the shape of the word MOM, some stationary with little thumb print ladybugs in the corner of the paper and some coupons for free hugs and kisses. And then from both Kayla and Samantha, they got me some chocolate covered Oreo's in a cute little box. They were so yummy! Then Jake got me a hanging flower plant that I ended up hanging outside in our back yard. It makes my back patio look more homey I loved all my gifts! It really made me feel appreciated and loved! Jake wanted to make me breakfast but he wasn't feeling to good, so hopefully he'll make it up to me next Sunday! :) Then we went to church and the young men and young women handed out big yummy chocolate bars.
After church my mom, stepdad and grandmother came over for dinner. We had steaks, baked potatoes, and vegies, the steaks were awesome! And then later dessert was a stawberry cake with ice cream! YUM! We had a really nice time and I am so thankful to have such a caring and loving mother! I appreciate everything she has taught me and done for me. And I'm so thankful to have 2 beautiful daughters who bring such joy in my life! I feel so lucky to have such good sweet girls! (picture below is from 2 years ago, I forgot to get a picture of just me and the girls on Sunday but I really like this one anyways.)

Catch Up

Wow its May already? Where has the time gone?! I'm trying to think about whats happened since my last post hmmm...

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago on Sunday the 26th where I turned 34 years old. I know a lof of you are thinking, "34 years old?! Wow you look so good for your age!" Well thanks everyone, you're too kind. Anyways, we went out to dinner with the kids at TGI Fridays the night before. I had never been there before, the food was good, it was a lot of fun. Later we ate my birthday cake which was cheesecake, yum! Thats about all we did, nothing fancy, I got some birthday money that I spent on myself. We didn't take any pics of my birthday celebration but oh well, there wasn't much to take pics of anyways.

Jake got his hours cut at work to part time so for the past couple of weeks he's been looking for another job or another part time job. It was kinda scary at first, worring about money, making sure we have enough food etc. and if we can continue to live in our house. But I know Heavenly Father is watching over us and is mindful of our needs. Just the other day Jake told me that a couple of people quit. So they've been able to let Jake work 40 hours again. Its not official but its something until Jake can find a better more stable job. I just hope and pray everything works out for us because my biggest concern is being able to stay here in this house because we love it here SO MUCH that we don't want to move anywhere else. The girls have great friends and we love the people in our ward and our neighbors. I know whatever happens, we will just have to have faith that things will be ok.

On April 30th I went with Kayla on a field trip with her 3rd grade class to the AZ Mining and Mineral Museum. She had fun learning about all the different kinds of rocks and minerals. They taught the kids about the rocks and minerals that are used to make different kinds of products like Lava soap, pencils, soda cans and I bet you didn't know this but your toothpaste and possibly your makeup has rocks in it. Well at least the good expensive kind of makeup otherwise your makeup might have fish parts in it. I have the cheap makeup so I'm putting fish guts on my face! Ewwww! I forgot my camera so I found some pictures off the internet.

This is a really cool looking rock. There were a lot of these around the museum.

This is in front of the museum. These are the tires that go on the mining trucks! Yikes!

I took Samantha's preschool group on a little field trip to the Riparian Preserve last week. Its a habitat for birds, fish and other animals. There's lots of trails to hike and ponds where you can feed the ducks. Theres a little play area and a place to dig up dinosaur bones. My kids love it there and the preschool girls had so much fun.

Samantha posing for me.

Feeding the ducks.

These girls are a lot of fun, when they're getting along. LOL

More Easter Fun

So after being in the rain Saturday morning, we came home and changed the girls into some dry clothes and continued our Easter fun. We started with making Easter cookies. The girls always love to help make cookies for all the major holidays like Christmas, Halloween and Easter. We made little bunnies, butterflys, carrots and egg shaped ones. But we didn't frost any of them even though I made the frosting. I had to work later that day so I didn't have time to help the girls decorate them so the frosting is in the frig and the cookies are sitting on the counter. And no one is really eating the cookies because of all the candy we have! Oh well. Then the girls colored eggs which was fun!

Easter morning the girls woke up to their Easter baskets, actually they had to find them. Jake said thats what the Easter bunny did when he was a kid, so I thought it was a good idea to try on our kids. They liked that!

Then we did a little egg hunt in the house where they found eggs filled with fruit snacks, fruit rollups and money. They liked the money! I was only able to get Samantha a Easter dress this year which I bought months ago. I couldn't find a dress I liked for Kayla that was in my price range so she just wore something she already had. Oh well, it doesn't really matter if they don't get a new dress every Easter. I tried to take some pictures of them before church but all I could get was Samantha. But later I got Kayla when we went over to my moms house.

Samantha is holding her new ally cat Webkinz that she bought with her own money. When I look at this picture, it just amazes me how much she has grown! She loves to pose like this, what a cutie-pie!

Kayla also bought a ally cat Webkinz. She looks so pretty is this dress!

After church we headed over to my mom's house in Phoenix where they had another egg hunt in their backyard. It was us with my mom, stepdad Jerry and my grandma. We had a lot of fun watching the girls hunt for eggs!

Egg Hunt , Rain or Shine

Today was our wards egg hunt this morning. We woke up to a cold and raining day. We thought for sure the egg hunt would be canceled but we decided to go to see if anyone showed up. And sure enough, people were there with their ponchos, umbrellas and baskets! They had a good turn out for being in the rain. We first had some muffins, fruit and juice and then they gathered all the kids together to start the egg hunt. The big field where they originally were going to hide all 1,000 eggs was all muddy so they found a small area next to the playground to look for eggs. As they were running all around gathering eggs, Samantha fell on her bottom and got muddy. But it didn't stop her from having fun. They both got a lot of eggs, probably triple in what they would of got if all the kids showed up. So we learned that it doesn't matter what the weather is like, kids will do anything for candy!

Our wet happy kids!

4 Easter Egg Hunts

The girls are participating in 4 egg hunts this year! First one with our neighborhood, second with our ward, 3rd with us and 4th with grandma and grandpa Nielsen(my mom and stepdad). On Friday was the neighborhood egg hunt at our park which is 5 seconds from our house. Each mom contributed about 10 eggs for each of their kids who were going to participate. It ended up being over 200 eggs! It turned out really good, everyone had so much fun! In the picture above, Kayla and Samantha are right in the middle.

Kayla and Samantha seeing what they got with their friends.

Mesa Cannery

Today I went to the Mesa Cannery for the first time and had a lot of fun! It felt really good to be canning your own food that will help feed your family. There were probably about 20 of us there and we canned about 200 or more cans in less than a hour! I don't know if thats normal since it was my first time but I thought we'd be there longer. I even saw Jake's uncle Gary there working by the silos. It was funny because when I went up to him, he couldn't remember who I was. As soon as I told him, I think he felt a little embarrassed but that's ok, I probably looked really different with my hair pulled back and sunglasses on. LOL It was a really neat experience and I'm looking forward to the next time I can go!