Happy Mother's Day!!!!

So, it's Mother's Day! My mom is so awesome! She is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet and such a great example of Christlike love. I'm totally giving her the best present I could possibly give her: my kids for an entire week! Okay, so maybe that's not the best present. I mean, I love them VERY much and am so glad and lucky that I am their mom but.... come on, they're kids, and as much as my mom loves them I'm sure she's not entirely excited to have them at her house all week. So, thank you mom (& dad) for volunteering to watch them. I know that they are in great hands! I am so thankful to know that they will be safe and loved the entire time we're gone. I love you very much!

So.... this is where we're going:


Yes, a cruise to Baja, Mexico. This is my Mother's Day/Birthday present. Thanks Ben!!!! We head to Vegas today and board the ship in LA tomorrow. We're headed there with about 10 couples that are our friends so we should have a blast! Could I be any more excited? Whooohoooo!!!

Skylar's Dance Competition Results

Skylar just got back from dance and found out that her Mini-Starz dance team took 1st place for Once Upon A Dream and 2nd place for I'll Make a Man Out of You at the Grand National Dance Championships last week at Lagoon! Yeah for Skylar!! You're awesome!!!

Funny & Not So Funny

Funny: Our adorable morning greeting from Kade. He is hiding by closing his eyes really tight with a super cheesy grin on his face. Cracks me up every day!

Not so funny: Oh my hail!! I thought that this was a grocery bag on our grass-we get a ton of garbage living across the street from a park. It was actually a pile of pea-sized hail from last night's storm! Hello May!



Funny: Extremely flexible Nicky's impersonation of the baby in Mom's tummy!
Not so funny: This awesome burn I got on my arm taking a cookie sheet out of the oven. Ouch!!!


Funny, so it's not so funny: Tonight is the series finale of Scrubs. This season was totally cheated by the stupid writer's strike. This is mine & Ben's favorite show! We've been totally dedicated fans from the first episode and we are so sad to see it go. Good thing they put the seasons out on DVD because this is what we watch almost every night. We loves the Scrubs!

Skylar's Dance Competition at Lagoon!!

Skylar is our little dancer! She absolutely loves it! This year she's been dancing in her first competition group, the Mini Starz. They had the opportunity to go dance at the Grand National Dance Championships at Lagoon on Saturday. Her first performance was at 8:45 am so we had to be there at 8:00!! Getting up at 6 on a Saturday morning is insane in itself! Seeing how many thousands of dancers that did the same was absolutely crazy! Not being a dancer myself, I never knew it was such a huge thing! Her group performed twice-once to I'll Make a Man Out of You (Mulan) and then later to Once Upon a Dream (Sleeping Beauty). They did really great! Skylar is the youngest of the group and her teacher told me that she has been so impressed with Skylar's performance this year. Way to go tiny dancer!!!
The kids were absolutely ecstatic to get to go to Lagoon! We've never taken them because we'd rather save our money and go to Disneyland-they practically cost the same anyway-and Disneyland can't be beat! Anyway, we did get a little discount since Skylar was dancing and the kids dream of experiencing Lagoon was fulfilled! Ben and I ourselves have not been in over 10 years and there's quite a few new rides. Of course, I'm pregnant, so I didn't actually get to experience many rides-I hit the train & the sky ride-but Ben did go on some of the more mellow ones that Skylar was interested in and of course, we hit all the kiddie rides. We didn't buy a pass for Kade because he really couldn't go on much, but he was allowed to go on some anyway. Since he had to watch Sky, Nick, & Dad go on a lot of rides without him, he was overly happy when he got to go on a ride! It was so funny to watch how excited he got-definitely our daredevil!
We've decided that if you have to go to Lagoon that this is the time of year to do it. The weather was pretty nice (we were a little scared when it snowed last Wednesday!), so it was not too hot, and the crowds were definitely smaller than in the summer.

We brought two cars so that the boys and I could take off when we got too pooped and we surprisingly lasted until 6:00. Skylar & Ben did the daddy, daughter thing and ended up staying until 10-what troopers! After we left, Skylar got more daring and decided that she wanted to go on the Wild Mouse, which is actually a pretty wild roller coaster. Ben said she screamed the entire time! But at least she was daring enough to go!
We had a great time! I have to admit that if Skylar has another dance competition there next year, I won't be too disappointed. At least I'll be able to hit a few of those rides then!

What We've Been Up To

A couple of weeks ago my mom was nice enough to come watch the boys while I went with Skylar and her class to the farm at Thanksgiving Point for a fieldtrip. Skylar was so excited that I was able to go! Unfortunately I'm not able to help out too much in her class since I'm busy with the boys. I guess I should take advantage of her wanting me to be around because it probably won't last forever! Anyway, we had a fun time! There were a lot of brand new baby animals-even some tiny goats that were just a few days old- and that was really fun to see. The weather was actually pretty good that day so we lucked out. I was glad I was able to go!
This spring has had the craziest weather that I have in my recollection. There have been very few nice days-it's been really cold and windy! So, unfortunately, we've been spending more time indoors than I'd like. We have made a few trips to the gym to get the cooped up energy out for the kids. The Tongs have met us there and Nick has been so excited to play with his buddy, Dylan-those kids are inseparable when they get together. Last week we were borrowing my brother's mini-van so we were even able to take along Skylar's friend, Camille, which Skylar thought was the coolest thing on earth!
So anytime the weather has been good we've totally tried to take advantage of it. The kids have especially loved riding the 4-wheeler every chance they get.

I Heart Concerts!!!

So before Ben and I got married I'm guessing I probably had gone to about 50 concerts. I love concerts!! Since we've been married, I'm thinking that number has been about 10-I guess one per year we've been married. It's one of the greatest things I miss about my single and pre-baby days. Usually ticket prices and finding a babysitter are a big deterrent to us heading out for a concert so they are very few & far between.
Anyway, last Wednesday, we were able to go see Ben Folds in concert at Saltair. I don't think I've even been out to Saltair since the Beastie Boys came in 1995. I've seen some pretty amazing shows out there and it brought back some good memories. Ben was super stoked that Ben Folds finally came to Utah since he's one of his favorite singers. It was an awesome concert! Ben Folds is definitely one of the best entertainers I've ever seen. He is amazing on the piano, he totally involved the audience and put on a great show! We even got a couple shots of him-although they're not great since we avoided the crowd due to my blossoming belly! The baby liked the show too-totally danced along the whole time!

Nick's Birthday Pics

I hate to brag, but this kid melts my heart. He is too cute!!