Dance, Dance, Dance!!!

Below are a few reasons why I love dance;
Thanks to modern technology here are few of my favorite routines:

Favorite Int. Standard Ballroom couple (tango):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwl3xBjCaV8&feature=related

Ballroom Standard Formation team from Europe:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxtdwBthddg&feature=related can you believe how on these guys are with their lines, etc.

The choreography of this modern dance is amazing and so beautiful-check it out *it is 9 min long*: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p29L_eQx5To

My favorite west coast swing couple:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=340799kbLNA&feature=related

Fun swing routine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMZ2ILbeKks&feature=related

If you don't think this next dancer is talented-well you try doing what he does: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYFDYX4i2EY&feature=related

And I had to add this one because I think it's an amazing lift they do in the beginning It's a latin formation team so the girls aren't wearing very modest dresses -just to warn you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbmWw6rsjo4

and here's a Rocky themed routine that is fun to watch too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9892-II7MTk&feature=related

Capturing moments

So Last night after putting the children to bed, Joe came and got me and took me to stand outside their door. What I heard was Whitney saying more prayers-
Whitney: "Heavenly Father please tell people not to drink coffee-just tell them so they wont, They aren't supposed to, its bad-if you can just tell them......"
Joe whispered to me: "Are we getting instruction or giving instruction." It was so cute and kindof funny that i just had to share.

Her are a few other things that my kids do at the moment:

Amber doesn't just give you one kiss goodnight she has to kiss you on both cheeks and then lips-she will grab your face and move your head to make sure she gets all three.

Whitney calls marshmallows-Smarshmallows-it's really very cute.

Amber doesn't understand that screaming and waving her hands at a cat while chasing it won't get it to come to her to be petted.

Softest Sugar Cookies Recipe

So I made some sugar cookies yesterday and I kind of changed up my normal recipe and found out that it made the cookies softer-Today they are still soft and moist so I thought I'd share:

Ingredients:
1 cup butter (or 1/2 c. butter and 1/2 c. shortening)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 3/4 cups flour

Blend together butter and sugar until fluffy then add remaining ingredients-I add a little extra flour if I need to. Then roll dough into 1 inch balls and place them on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with palm of hand. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Let cool then frost. You can also roll the dough out and cut into shapes if you want. Enjoy!!!

Making memories for my children and my family

So I feel that maybe my children and myself spend too much time on the computer/watching T.V. etc. So in order to make time more meaningful on a daily basis I searched for some activities for me to do with the kids when we got too bored with reading books and coloring. Here is a great website I have found that you may or may not have looked at yourself:

http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,31-1-15-1,00.html

My favorite activites that I would like to try with my family are these:
The first two are Rainy Day fun: *we have rain in our forecast*
1. Collect rain in containers and use it to wash your hair, put in mom's iron, water the houseplants, or put in your car battery
2. Have each person mark a line on a container showing where they think the water line will be when the rain stops. The person closest to the actual line is the winner.

3.Mosaics. Almost any material can be used for a mosaic: tiles, broken glass, nutshells, macaroni, wood pieces, or stones. Have your family each find several small things in your yard, on the beach, in the park, or in the school yard and arrange them on a piece of wood, gluing them down in some design. You may want to spray the whole piece with gold paint after the glue dries.

4."What Do You Hear." Have all the family members close their eyes for one whole minute, listen, and note all the sounds they hear. After a minute, have them open their eyes and take turns naming the sounds they heard.
*I'm going to use this one with amber while we wait for whitney at the bus stop.

5."Ball Tag." Play tag with a ball by letting everyone run around and dodge the ball that the person who is "it" is trying to touch players with. The player who is touched becomes "it" and tries to touch someone else with the ball.
*When I babysat i called this "sock tag" because we used a pair of rolled up socks-this was how I survived the schultz's.

Hope you all check it out and find it motivating and full of ideas for you to do with your families as well.

Kite Flying

We had such a fun day today..we took the girls to the store so they could each pick out a kite to fly. You can see each of their choices in the pictures. We also got a quick lunch to take with us so it was kind of a picnic too. There wasn't much wind so Amber's flew much better than Whitney's due to it being the cheaper one and consequently the lighter one. So we had to kind of take turns. The girls had so much fun and afterwards we went and bought Whitney a soccer ball because she has been wanting to learn how to play.

Here was the conversation on the way home .

Whitney: "Mom, Dad will you teach me how to play soccer?"

Arin laughs: "That's great neither of us played soccer, and she picks that sport to play."

Joe:"That's shows how much you know me."

He played soccer??? What?? Since when?? Anyway it was funny because then:

Whitney: "Dad can I wear your soccer shoes from when you were a kid?"

Joe just had to laugh at that. "Yeah Whitney I will just pull them out of my back pocket."

Anyway it was alot of fun kicking the ball around with the girls after that. It was such a great Saturday afternoon-the weather was perfect and so was the time we spent with eachother.

A Good Dose of Vitamin D

The weather finally decided that we needed a little sunshine today. We have been looking for some nice weather for a while now. It hit 55 and so I took the girls out to the park to play with some friends. We were there at least two hours and didn't want to leave. It was such a nice day and tomorrow the forecast is sunny and 66-I am so excited. I am going to wear my capris and the whole family is going to do something fun outside. I don't know what yet but we aren't going to stay inside that's for sure. Reminds me of a hymn: "Oh there's sunshine, blessed sunshine..."

GO KANSAS!!!

Okay so those of you who have followed the NCAA Basketball tournament know that the championship game match up is between Kansas and Memphis. All of my teams that I picked eventually lost and got the boot except Kansas who I have down for winning it. And so this year I have beaten Joe on our bracket game because his final two (UCLA, NC) both lost in the last rounds. So tonight is the big game and I will be tuning out dance for basketball-something that very rarely happens if you know anything about me. And I will be hollering for Kansas while Joe, as usual, will be going for the opposing team. GO JAYHAWKS!!!!!

I have a Testimony and want to share it...here is a start.

A word on General Conference; I really enjoyed and loved all of the speakers. My favorite talks were byPresident Uchtdorf and Elder Ballard that were given today(Sunday). What wonderful messages were presented by all of the speakers and I definitely felt the Spirit throughout all of the meetings. It really motivated me to share my testimony more often in the future and I will begin here on my blog:
I have a testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church on the earth today. I know President Monson is a prophet of God, that the twelve apostles are truly witnesses of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know that Joseph Smith saw God and our Savior together in that sacred grove of trees where as a boy he knelt in prayer asking in faith for an answer to his question. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and another testimony of Jesus Christ. The Priesthood keys were given to Joseph Smith and are on the earth today, held by those worthy to exercise this power. I am blessed to be a member of this church, to have felt the blessings of the priesthood, to know my savior loves me and knows me individually as he does all. I know that I am a daughter of God and that He loves me and knows my heart, that he hears and answers my prayers. I share this testimony in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Blessing Day

Well We finally got Brookie blessed-She's almost 17 lbs and 4 months, but she didn't fuss one bit. I was a little worried because she has a pretty nasty cold and has been cranky lately on account of it. Look at this cute girl-doesn't she look happy?? My mom made her dress and it turned out just beautiful !


Here are the older girls in thier Easter dresses. If you look closely at Whitney's picture you will see her newly pierced ears-daddy gave the okay so off we went-it took her about twenty minutes of fretting and crying until she got brave enough-afterwards her reply was "that was it?" All that worrying for nothing.