The Past Week

Here's a little recap of this last week:

 The grandparents came over one night and we had pizza and watched "Brother Bear".  Jilly enjoyed a few tastes of Vivi's lollipop.

 She didn't want to give it back.  Once she had one taste, she thought it needed to be hers.

 I made some valences to go above my kitchen windows.  I didn't notice how bare all my windows look with just the blinds, but now that I have these valences up, I'm thinking I need to get going on making some window treatments for the other windows.

 This is one of Jilly's favorite new toys to play in.  Preston and Vivi pretend it's a wheelchair all the time and pretend they have broken legs and wheel each other around the house.  They decided to put Jilly in it the other day and she LOVED it!

 Trenton is done with school now.  YAY!  Can't wait til Viv and Colson are done, then we can really get our summer started.  Trenton's been such a wonderful helper.  He has also spent plenty of time pushing Jilly around in the dump truck.  He's so good to her.

 Preston and I got to go on a little date the other day.  It was so much fun.  He chose lunch at Good Times.  He loves the spoon benders there.  What am I saying, I love their spoon benders!  Although I'm trying to quit.  We also went to a toy/learning store so I could get the kids some summer workbooks.  He loved it.  They had these little car/scooters, and he was cruising all over the store in it.  He found this giant bear while we were there and had to have a picture with it.  While we were out, we also ran to Target to get a few groceries.  As we were 

strolling through the aisles, he saw a woman who was pretty heavy and he said, "Whoa, mom!  Look!  Her butt is really--" and as he looked and saw the expression on my face, he exclaimed, "Cool!  She has a cool bum!"  Oh my goodness... It was all I could do to not burst out laughing!  That boy cracks me up.

 The kids had their recitals on Saturday.  They did so good!  This is their amazing hip hop teacher Mr. B.  I wasn't able to get a picture of Vivi with her teacher, Miss Holly.  She took tap and ballet this year with Miss Holly.

 After the recitals, we headed over to the pool for some fun in the sun.  We all had lots of fun jumping off the diving board.  Here's Viv in the middle of a twist.

 

 Trent has still got it.  He did a front flip with a full twist, a 1 1/2 front flip into a dive, and lots of cannon balls.

 Here's Trenton finishing up a front flip.

 And this crazy little boy here decided he was going to do a front flip, and just went up and did it!  I couldn't believe it!  Colson was done swimming by the time I pulled the camera out.  However, he was the one that got me up on the diving board.  During adult swim, he told me, "Mom, go and jump off the diving board."  I looked around and noticed that the pool was all but empty, and there was nobody over on the diving board.  I asked him, "Now?"  He responded, "Come on mom.  This is your only time to shine!"  Once adult swim was over, I went and jumped off the diving board several times with the kids, then asked Colson if I was "shining" yet.  He told me that since I hadn't taken the opportunity to jump during adult swim, I missed my chance.  Oh well... Maybe next time.

 

My little Lou looks so cute in her tutu suit!  She's funny about the pool.  She loves it as long as she doesn't get splashed too much.  Which is funny to me, since when she is in the bathtub, all she does is splash the whole time and practically drown herself.  She's a funny girl.

For our cupcake this week, Vivi chose May Day Basket cupcakes.  She decorated them all herself.  They turned out so cute!

Recitals, and Other Things

Trenton, Colson and Vivian all had their dance recitals a couple of weeks ago.  It was a full week between Twilight Camp, Trent being out of town, end of the school year parties, dress rehearsals, and then the actual recitals.  We had a few mishaps through all of the running around one of the nights.  We had twilight camp and dress rehearsals that night, which meant an afternoon and evening of a lot of driving back and forth.  We've all been there and done that, I'm sure.

Well, amidst all of the chaos, Jillian happened to get locked in the car, all alone, just as we were getting ready to head into the boys' dress rehearsal.  I've never had a child locked in the car by themselves before, let alone a new born babe.  I had no way to call for help either because along with Jilly, mine and Trenton's phones were both locked in the car as well.  I had been in the process of getting all the kids and the stroller out of the car when Preston thought he would jump in the front seat and press a few buttons.  He hopped out, closed the door, and there Jilly was, locked in the car by herself.  I was already a little (okay, a lot!) frazzled with all of the different things all the kids had to be to that night, so this was kind of the icing on the cake.  I screamed out, almost at the top of my lungs, "Jilly is locked in the car!!!"  The kids all immediately started balling, (except Preston, he just asked why I locked Jillian in the car,  the little turd) which got me crying.  The upside was I got to see how much they all love and care for their baby sister!  Luckily a very nice woman happened by at the time and was so kind as to let me use her cell phone.  We called 911 and a fire truck was there in less than 10 minutes.  It seemed like forever though as I listened to my baby in the car, screaming her head off.  It took them no longer than 30 seconds to get the doors unlocked.  They seemed pretty practiced at it, so I'm thinking this might be something they get called on for frequently.  Preston and Vivi even got to sit in the fire truck for a bit, which was the highlight of Preston's whole life so far, I'm pretty sure.  I told him not to get any ideas and lock his sister in the car on purpose just so he can sit in a fire truck again.  Anyway, we made it in to the dress rehearsal with no other mishaps.  Thank heavens.

The dance recitals were that next Saturday.  The kids did so great!

Vivi did tap and ballet again this past year.  I can't believe she just finished her third year of dance!  She wants to take hip hop next year too.

This is the boys' hip hop teacher, Brock.  He is an awesome teacher.  You can always tell which dance groups are his.  They are always the most original and get the most applause.  They rocked the house this year!

The kids all did amazing at their recitals this year.  Can't wait for dance to start up again in the fall!

Christmas Break

We had a very fun and busy December this year.  Here are a few of the highlights.

Vivi and her friend Brooklyn were in four different dance recitals together.  (And they were all in one weekend!)

Colson had a choir concert, which he had a solo in, and Trenton had a band concert a few days later, but I don't have any pictures. :(

Preston's Joy School class had an adorable Christmas program that they did for all the parents, and they got to go to an assisted living home and perform for a whole bunch of grandmas and grandpas.  (Preston just hid behind the food cart the whole time for that one.  Little booger.)

 Trent's parents surprised us all with a carriage ride around downtown Denver.  So much fun!  The kids absolutely loved it.  Cousin Trey was in town, so he got to come too.

My favorite part of the ride... Seeing the City and County building all lit up.

We spent Christmas Eve at mom and dad Stock's.  Mom made a delicious prime rib dinner, some stories were read, we sang Christmas carols together, and Santa popped in for a surprise visit!

And the kids all got to open one present that night.

New pajamas of course! :)

 They had a great Christmas.

All the boys.  (Except Preston.  He was done with pictures by this point.)  Note the smile on my brother's face.  (Top left)  He is not a fan of getting his picture taken, and I was giving him a really hard time about never smiling for pictures, so he gave me this cheeser grin.  Enjoy it now folks because it is probably the last one you will ever see.  We are lucky if we can even get him to look at the camera, let alone smile when one is pointed anywhere near his direction.  Little turd. ;)  (You know I love ya Dus.)

 A few days after Christmas, Trent took Cal (for the first time) and went with his dad and a few others on a little hunting trip over to Colby, KS.  They had a great 3 days trudging through weeds and grass up to their waists, and shooting  birds.  Cal was in his element.  The poor dog's feet were cracked and bleeding, and his face and chest were red and swollen from the weeds and grass, but he didn't care.  He would have kept going and going if Trent would have let him. 

The glory of the hunt. ;)

The day after he got back from hunting, Trent took the three oldest kids on their first ski/snowboard trip.  The were having a great time until Trenton and Colson both threw up on the ski hill.  They weren't even together when they did it.  I don't know if the altitude had gotten to them or what.  So they ended up coming home early, which Vivi was totally bummed about.  The good news is the ski school gave them all rain checks, so they can go back up and try again.

 New Year's day, we took the kids over to a fun hill by grandma and grandpa Stock's so they could all try out the new sleds they got for Christmas.  (Since it had finally snowed!)  Again, no pictures.

It was another wonderful Christmas break for the Stock's.  It is always so hard to want to send my kids back to school after having them home that long. (I always enjoy a little break of not having to have a schedule.)