March Madness

Last month I signed the girls up for a Drill camp. I didn't think Emily would be interested, but since I had called it a "Cheer Camp" she was all excited for it! The high school drill team held 2 nights of practice with the kids split into age groups and then a night of performances. Since I was in the "uncool click" in high school, I really didn't realize Cheer and Drill were two different things. Emily came home very disappointed that all they did was dance. Since I was working every night that week, Steve was really great to get the girls to the practices and performance. I was able to get to the performance before it started. It was apparently the last performance for the drill team and it was a VERY LONG night. We left right after the girls dances because it was already 8:30. We decided not to wait and watch the group performance! Ella loved every minute of it, though! (Ella is the 2nd from the left on the bottom.)
(Emily is the one standing in the back!)
I also surprised the girls with tickets to Disney on Ice again this year! It was really fun and included all the princesses, Toy Story and more.
Here's the princes and princesses.
Intermission time!
Toy story.
I was just a little too ambitious this St. Patrick's day and decided to make rainbow cupcakes for preschool. The lady that gave the recipe on the blog I was reading said, "It's so easy!" Wrong!! It took me over 2 hours!! But the kids all loved it!
Here's Tanna in her pretty green dress trying to find the gold the Leprechaun hid around the backyard.
Emily with the church bag I made her.
Pretty Ella.
And darling Eden!
Emily finally decided she wanted to donate 10 inches of her hair. We went to her favorite salon, Cookie Cutters, to get it done. They have Play Stations and DVD players at every station and cute cars to sit in. There's also a playland for the other kids to sit in. AND they do it for FREE when you're donating - bonus! Here's her before picture.
And after! She LOVES her short hair and I LOVE how easy it is to do! We were so proud of her!
We decided to get some ice cream at McDonalds afterwords. (We try to be out of the house on Wednesday nights so Steve can get a whole evening of studying in.) Eden had a blast!
The girls took such good care of Eden. Ella spent most of the evening lifting Eden up each step in the big playplace so she could get to the top. And Emily finally convinced her to go down the big slide at the end.
Steve spent the month writing an essay about his hobby for one of his classes. He worked VERY hard on it and ended up with two versions (check his blog soon and you can learn all you ever wanted to know about Megos.) Of course, he had to work on his hobby on the side while doing it. Here's a finished mighty Thor!
We finally broke down and replaced our DI made (and purchased used at DI) dresser and Wal-Mart dresser. They were falling apart! We got some IKEA ones just like we got the girls. They look very nice in our room and we FINALLY have matching furniture in our room! I was able to sell the old ones online very quickly as well.
Eden really wanted to wear her Kimono to church on Sunday and since it was so warm, we let all the girls wear theirs. They got a lot of compliments and everyone had questions about the people in Japan.
The girls love to take care of Eden and she's getting so fun to play with.
Cute Tanna with the Horton ears we made when learning about our 5 senses.
Just another way to watch Curious George. Eden was sick early in the month so we let her watch episode after episode of Curious George. Now she is literally addicted. That's the first thing she asks for when she wakes up or we get home! Luckily she likes the movies as well so I don't have to switch them as often. But we have been weaning her!
Ok, this is April, but we wanted to get these pictures up too. We were able to go visit G&G Tanner on April 1st - Grandpa's 95th birthday. They were very glad to see us and we had a nice visit.
March was a VERY busy month. I finally put my notice in at Sylvan Learning Center and just finished my last day on Saturday. The job was fine, but with finding a babysitter 2-3 times a week, having to have Steve come home and make dinner and do homework was just too hard. Life's a lot simpler again.

We had our share of sicknesses last month, but luckily everyone's gotten healthy again (except Emily who's sick again today.) I've been busy advertising and filling spots for next year's preschool. Luckily I only have 5 spots left. I know I shouldn't worry, but I still do. Besides I won't have any kids or cousins to fill any spots next year! I had a student drop out with 2 months left in the year. I luckily filled her spot, but having a new student amongst trained students proved very difficult. Hopefully she'll adjust soon!

Steve finished his 3 college class and is now on a Business Law class. He's still loving it, but it's just very time consuming. 3 months down - 3 years to go!

Eden is getting smarter and more verbal lately. She loves the Elmo shoes I got out for her, except since they are a little big, she tripped and fell on the book cart when I was volunteering at school. There were a lot of concerned teachers gathering around her. I took her to the office and the principal got me a bag of ice. Even though it looked pretty bad, she felt better quickly and it disappeared in couple of days. Good thing she has a such a hard head! Somehow she learned that the Sesame Street logo means Elmo and always checks her coat label to make sure it's the Elmo jacket (even though there's no picture on it!) She's learning her colors and is starting to count! She's gotten pretty good at acting out what she wants too! I love this age - even though it does mean she's getting preferences and wants things a certain way. She still loves to be naked and takes any excuse to take her clothes off. She still wakes us up a couple times a night. I've gotten lazy and give her a bottle. And when I'm too lazy to change her diaper in the night, I spend the next day washing her sheets! (I need to get better night-time diapers!)

Ella is getting to be a good reader and is doing well on her math worksheets at school. I'm surprised by the worksheets she brings home. She's adding, subtracting, doing fractions, etc. She still loves to dress fancy everyday and is getting good at doing her hair. I found her some "high heel" sandals at Family Dollar and she was in heaven! She's still extremely afraid of dogs and doesn't want to go to her friends houses any more. She doesn't even like to go outside. I hope she outgrows this fast! (Emily finally outgrew it, so I have hope.)

Emily turned 8 last month and is a completely different girl. She's so mature now! I can't remember a horrible dinner in the last month. She's so agreeable and responsible now. She came home from activity days with a FHE lesson and gave the cutest presentation of Joseph Smith's first vision I've ever seen. And she knew a lot of details! She's devouring chapter books and loves to play outside. I guess growing up isn't so bad after all!