Dancing Queens

The girls had their annual recitals this week. Savannah only tumbled this year, but Ally, being on the show-time dance team, performed in several numbers. The recitals always make for a somewhat crazy and long day, but at the end they're always worth it.

Here is Ally in her show-time costume. (This picture was actually taken in March when her dance team performed at a Utah Jazz game for half-time):

And here are the beauties, just before leaving for the recital:
Afterward--flowers for a job well done (or shall I say-a dance well danced):
And this is just a cute picture of Uncle Matt and Tony and little James after the recital:

Go, Adrenaline!

Rough game...

The aftermath...

Who IS that hot coach anyway? ;)

One Month Old

Give a Two Year Old a Camera...

...and you'll probably get pictures similar to these:

Savannah's Six!

Happy Belated Birthday to my sweet Savannah! She celebrated her sixth birthday on May 23rd, but I haven't had a chance to post about it until today.

What a special girl she is--so confident and loving.

She had a special one-on-one day with Joel--she was able to miss school and the two of them went to Build-a-Bear Workshop and out to lunch. Then she chose McDonald's for dinner and Joel's family came over and we celebrated with presents and cake.

Here is the birthday girl with her gifts (and her Build-a-Bear creation):

Ally made this adorable poster for Savannah--she worked really hard on it--SO SWEET!

Savannah was really happy all day long--that's how it should be on your birthday!

I love you, Sweet Savannah! I can't wait to see what the year ahead holds for you!

Miracles Do Happen

James has been, let's say, less than thrilled to have a new baby in the house. For the first week, he wouldn't even come near the baby. He has slowly warmed over the past three weeks, but something occured two days ago that I wasn't sure I'd ever see happen...

brace yourself...

James held Samuel.

And I have pictures to prove it. (This was just after James' bath, and he was refusing to put on his pajamas--a battle not worth fighting--so excuse the semi-nude kid.)

Maybe there is hope for some brotherly love someday!

Future Leaders of America

Isn't "Future Leaders of America" a bonafide high school club? I could swear I remember something like that. Anyway, my son could now officially join the club. He ran for student council for next year and was elected. He had to do a number of things--every week he had an early morning meeting and then had to complete an "assignment" that week (writing an essay about what makes a good leader, choosing a leadership skill to work on, coming up with a service project idea for the school to be involved in, creating a campaign poster and speech, etc.) There were ten students elected, based 50% on how well they did the assignments and the other 50% was based on popular vote.

Here is his campaign poster...I just love it! (I should have taken a picture of it when we first did it, instead of after a week of abuse at school--LOL).


I am really proud of Josh and I am excited for this opportunity for him. The first thing he gets to do as a student council member is participate in the city parade next month. That should be fun!

First Bath

Initial reaction:

A few minutes later. Maybe this isn't so bad...

Afterward--all snuggy and warm:

He's Here!

Okay, so he made his debut nearly a month ago, but I've been a *tad* bit busy, so forgive me for not updating my blog sooner.

Our newest little bundle of joy, Samuel Jacob, made his appearance into the world on May 15th at 12:04 pm. He was 9 pounds, 2 ounces and 21 inches long. I was induced at 39 weeks, 5 days (my due date was May 17)--my doctor had concerns about this baby being too big, so he didn't want me to go over my due date like I did last time and ended up with an 11 pounder. I agreed to the induction and away we went...

Here I am two days before his birth (I can't believe I'm actually posting this on my blog. Nor can I believe how HUGE my belly was! Yowza!)

And now we're at the hospital--I'm getting ready to push. The baby wasn't having a lot of variations in his heartrate, so I had to have oxygen on (which did help.):

"Hello, cold world!"

Later that day the kids came to meet him. It was actually really nice just having Joel and I at the hospital during the birth this time. In the past, the kids and a relative or two have been there and truth be told, I was always quite uncomfortable with it. Mostly just because I didn't like trying to deal with the pain while smiling and making small talk. I also, selfishly, enjoyed not having to hand the baby over to waiting hands right away this time--I was able to hold him and get to know him all by myself for a couple of hours. It was really peaceful.

Anyway, Savannah apparently wanted to look her best for her new brother, so she applied some make-up herself earlier in the day. Here she is all dolled up, holding the baby:

A shot of the whole crew. Nice looking family, if I do say so myself. ;)

And here is baby Sam at one day old:

Even three weeks later, I can't believe I'm the mother to five children. How did I get to be so blessed?