Lightning Crashes

We have had  a lot of heavy rain in May and on this Sunday it was no exception. After we ate our dinner we were all in different areas of the house napping. I was downstairs in my bedroom. When I woke up I was lying in bed listening to the thunder and lightening when suddenly the thunder and lightening happened simultaneously with a loud BOOM whichI felt in my bones and made me jump. I got up and went into the living room and was looking out the window when Kefford came downstairs saying he could see smoke at the Winters house and he thinks they got hit by the lightening. He called Paige to see if they were home and ok and she said she thinks they were hit but she also thought they were ok.

We decided to head over there in the rain just to make sure everything was ok.

When we arrived Paige was on the phone with 911 and Fire Trucks were on their way. We could hear the operator telling her that everyone needed to stay out of the house but Kefford felt he should go in and check things out. It is a good thing he did, he went upstairs and found a small fire had started in the bathroom. Being a quick thinker he turned on the sink faucet and scooped water with his hands onto the fire to put it out. It took the fire trucks a while to get there and that fire could have gotten really big really quick so it was a good thing for Kefford to have done what he did.

Michael and Paige

Once the FireFighters arrived they went in and checked things out and thanks to Kefford's quick thinking all they had was some smoke damage and a ruined vent thanks to the lightening hitting it. The Fire Chief took a picture of the area where the lightening hit her house and it was a small quarter sized hole in the upstairs vent. It was crazy!

Kefford had to give a statement to the Fire Chief and then after making sure the Winter's didn't need anything else we headed home. What a crazy turn to our low key Sunday.

Elevated Dance Project Dance Recital

The end of the year for dance is always so bittersweet! I am definitely ready for a break from the dance schedule and recital is always the best but I know I won't see a lot of the same girls next year and that makes me sad. I get to know these girls throughout the year and I love every single one of them! Some of them drive me crazy at times but I adore these kiddos and am always thankful for the time I get with each of them. 

This is the first year that I really got teachers gifts. Some of the Mom's and dancers were so sweet and wrote me really kind notes and gave me super thoughtful gifts. Thank you notes and gifts are definitely my love language!

The recital was broken up into two shows. I had four dance classes this year and I had two classes in each show. Each class did two dances and so I had 8 dances I choreographed, taught and had to remember so I could help them on stage. It was a year of growth not only for my dancers but for me as well. One of my favorite parts of teaching dance is seeing how much my dancers have progressed through the year. I love seeing the ones who really struggled with coming to dance class in the beginning grow and thrive on stage, it is amazing! This year I taught more dance classes and had to choreograph 7 dances! I was super nervous about this but I am so proud of the growth I saw in myself this year as a teacher and choreographer. I found confidence in myself and I learned that not everyone can handle the littles like I can, I did not know that was a skill but it is and I have it! I had a great year and I really love my job!

Twinkle Mice

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Anything For You My Love

 (Bottom Picture) Back Row: Dottie, Annie, Paisley, Madison, Hannah, Sophie

Front Row: LeeAnna, Rylee, Sara, Juliette and Raegan

Flowers

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When Can I See You Again 

(Bottom Picture) Back Row: Kyah, Abigail, Kylie, Ashtyn, Amelia

Front Row: Tatum, Savanah, Remi and Sophia

Oysters

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Stompy the Bear

Eleanor, Guen, Eden B., Etta, Roen, Ellie, Eden S., Lennox, Kya, Kate and Colbie

Twinkle Mice

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Disco Hippo

(Top Picture) Back Row: Eva, Morgan, Lilly, Aida, Brynlee

Front Row: Ady, Lucy, Sadie and Desi

Every single dance went great and I was super happy with them all except I was really disappointed with the Oyster dance. I had to be in the front so I couldn't put them on the stage when it was their turn and I had Sydney help me with that. She did not get them out in time and they were lost and confused for a lot of the dance. It made me really sad but their Moms were super understanding and told me it was great and they loved what they saw.  Phew

But other then that it was a great night and I went home happy, ready for summer break and looking forward to what next year brings!

Avynlea Pops Concert and Awards Assembly

Tuesday was Avynlea's Pops Concert. Her jazz choir did songs from "Grease" and the Lovely Ladies choir did songs from "Annie". It was a fun performance and Avynlea was the cutest one on the stage!

On Thursday I went to the school for the 8th Grade Awards Assembly. Avynlea received a certificate for getting a 4.0 her 8th grade year and she also received one for having a 4.0 all three years of Middle School! She is one smart cookie!

Mother's Day

I had such a great Mother's Day this year. I have really disliked Mother's Day the past couple of years. My kids usually spend the day fighting and the talks in church always made me feel less then adequate. This year my kids were on such great behavior and church was the best! For Relief Society all the women went to the gym where we sat in a circle and listened to the Bishop speak for about 5 minutes. We were served cake by the Young Men and then after the Bishop was done all the men left and we got to sit and visit with each other for the rest of the hour. It was so nice and so relaxing, I wish we could have it that way every year!

Kefford and the kids made me a delicious french toast breakfast. I love that Kefford thinks to add the little things like limes for my water and the bowl of fruit.

Kenedy ordered me a box of Crumbl cookies which Kefford picked up the day before while I was at Dance recitals. That was so sweet and thoughtful of her and it really made my day. I got to talk to her later on that night which was fun.

Rylee was making the weirdest face in church and I couldn't stop laughing at it. She is a crack up!

I forwarded a groupon for chocolate dipped strawberries to Kefford as a hint hint for Mother's Day. I was so surprised when Rylee presented me with a box of chocolate covered strawberries that day. Kefford said the ones I sent were too expensive so he made his own. I was so impressed, they looked like fancy store bought stawberries, and tasted so good!!

Avynlea got me another aloe vera plant. The one I got last year died and I hope I am able to keep this one alive. I am so bad with plants.

Ryker got me a stadium chair which I was super excited about! 

I also got  an instagram message from Kenedy which was really sweet!

Mother's Day was the best this year and I am so grateful for my kids that make me a Mom!

Seminary Mothers Day Program and Dance Connection Dance Recital

I was invited by text message to a Mother's Day program Ryker's seminary class was having. I thought that sounded like fun and added it to my calendar. The next day I got another text message from the seminary teacher asking if I would share a few thoughts the day of on why I love being a Mom. My first thought was "this guy must not want me to come". I really do not like public speaking and definitely did not want to speak in their seminary class. I sucked it up and said I would do it and then tried to forget about it until I remembered way late the night before. I thought of a few thoughts to share and wrote them in my phone and tried not to stress about it. They had a really nice program planned and the kids who spoke did a nice job. The entire class sang a song about mother's and that was really sweet. I managed to get a picture of Ryker smiling during the song which is a rarity. Standing to his left is my trek son McKay and in front in the plaid is Macy one of the YW in our ward. It was fun to see kids I knew but I was still not happy about speaking. 

In the program they had plans to play a newlywed type of game but with Moms and kids. The seminary teacher randomly picked three kids along with their Moms to go up front to play the game. Guess who was one of the ones picked...Ryker and I. I could not even deal but I was a good sport and played the game. They were running out of time so I only had to speak at the end for about 2 minutes which was perfect. I said a few words and then sat down. I was told I did a good job and am happy with what I said.

After it was over we got treats and I got a picture with Ryker before he had to leave for his next class.

After I left the Seminary I went to meet Holly at Costco to stock up on snacks and food for our Dance Recitals. I found the limoncello chocolate almonds on sale and bought two packs. They are so good and it is hard to stop eating them once you start. I wanted to be greedy and keep both bags for myself but I shared one bag at the dance meeting because all of the teachers love them. 

I only had one class perform in this recital which was great. Charlie was the first of my dancers to arrive and she was really nervous and seemed unsure about what was happening. I sat and talked with her before some of the other kids came but she just looked at me like she did not know who I was. Later I saw my class backstage and as soon as Charlie saw me she said "Elizabef!", she was so excited to see me and finally knew who I was. I laughed and laughed.

I was so proud of these girls, they did such a great job and performed so well, I was so happy!

Samantha, Shyla, Mia, Charlie, Addie and Braylee

Cyndi got all of us teachers flowers and then after cleaning up we loaded up and headed out to eat.

We went to Luigis and KEfford and the girls got to come and eat with us. Rylee was super surprised by the size of her pizza, she ordered a medium thinking it was going to be a slice of pizza and instead got a huge pie. 

The next Monday in dance class I took a picture with my little monkeys. They were really frustrating at times but I love them and will miss seeing their little faces every week.

Mia, Charlie, Addie, Braylee, Samantha and Shyla

Honor Choir and Baby Laney

I like playing around with the instagram filters when I am taking pictures of my dancers in dance class. They are the cutest and on this day I got some cute pictures of Brynlee, Lucy and Aida.

Avynlea was talked into signing up for a district wide Honor Choir by her teacher Mrs Johnson. She didn't really want to do it but felt the pressure and said she would. Later she found out the practices interfered with cheer tryouts and decided she was not going to do the Honor Choir after all. The week of the last practice and the concert her teacher told her she could still do it so Avynlea decided she was back in it. I didn't find out about the concert until the night before because when she decided she wasn't going to do it I deleted all of the information off of my phone. Luckily I was able to go and get a good seat and be able to watch Avynlea perform. It was a good, quick, one hour long concert and I am glad she was able to do it and learn her songs so quickly.

I had told Whitney a couple of days before that I would watch Laney while she and Dustin went to the Temple. Then I found out about the concert which conflicted with babysitting. I told Whitney the situation and let her know that Rylee is perfectly capable of watching the baby because she has experience babysitting babies and that Kefford would also be home to help if needed. She decided that would work and she dropped the baby off while I was at the concert. 

I got home after about 30 minutes from when they dropped her off and I found Kefford holding a crying Laney. I quickly took her and tried to give her some comfort. I could tell she was really tired so I held her and rocked her until she fell asleep. She slept for about an hour and when she woke up she was in a much better mood.

Avynlea and Rylee were able to hold her at that point and Rylee even got a smile out of the little nugget. She is such a sweet baby!

Book Signing and Thank You's

My friend Devri Walls is an author of fantasy books. She came out with her second book in her "Venators" series and had a meet and greet in Boise. She invited me to come and of course I want to support my friends so I went to her book signing. I went last year to the release and book signing of her first one but I have to admit I have not read the book yet. I read one of her stand alone books and loved it but "Venators" is a series and I don't like to start a series until all of the books have been written and released, it drives me crazy to have to wait for the next book to come out.

So this year I went to the book signing and bought her new book even though I hadn't read the first one yet. I was just a little confused when people would ask questions I had no idea about. I did ask Devri how many books she was going to have in the series thinking if it was just a few more I would continue to wait until they were all out. She said she did not know right yet, it could be a few more it could be ten more, it just depended on how well her books were doing. I am thinking I probably should just start reading the books.

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Our ward was getting really big and the Stake decided it was time to redo some of the boundaries in our Stake and give some of our Ward to other smaller Wards. We all pretty much assumed where the lines for the split were going to be and if we were right our Young Women's president would not be in our Ward anymore. I saw our Bishop a week before we officially found out the new boundaries and in telling him how much I loved my Beehive calling he assured me I had nothing to worry about in being released and they wanted me to stay right where I was. I felt good about that and didn't give it a second though. Fast forward to the next week where we were told our assumptions were right and the boundaries were divided where we thought they wold be so goodbye to our President. I was still fine and happy until I was told by the Bishop that he owed me an apology because as it happened I was released along with the President and I was not not going to be in the Young Women's anymore. He is a new Bishop and didn't realize that because the President was released her counselors are also released, he felt really bad and I couldn't be upset with him. I felt blindsided and a little bit like I was being pushed out because I really loved my calling and was not ready for a change. I was really sad for about a week and then I was able to process it and be ok with a change. 

The Wednesday night I was at Devri's book signing was my first night not having to go to Mutual. It was strange to send the rest of my family off and not be going with them, Kefford is the Young Men's President. But the more time I think about it the more I am looking forward to not having to be so busy with Young Women's. At Mutual that night the new presidency had the girls write Thank you's to us outgoing ladies and when I got home I found a bouquet of flowers with the sweetest notes from the Young Women. Reading their sweet messages really made my night, I love those girls so much! 

 Later that week I was called to be the Sunday School teacher for the 16 and 17 year olds. I was really nervous about that but then I looked at the class list and read who was in the class I was really happy because they are girls that I know, love and that are my friends. 

While I was being sustained on Sunday I looked behind me and saw Abby Larson celebrating in her seat that I was going to be her teacher and after Sacrament meeting she couldn't stop telling me how excited she was. I then had Madi Eberhard come over with a huge grin and a big hug for me telling me how excited she was! These girls are the best and I am so happy I get to be with them in Sunday School!