First ballet and tap class!

We have had Makenna in gymnastics for the past year and I thought it was time for her to try ballet and tap. I wanted to let her try different classes to see which ones she liked best. She kept asking if she was going to gymnastics. She still wasn't getting it as we were walking in. The first thing I noticed that was different was the amount of kids in the class. She has a max of 6 or 7 kids in her gymnastics and there were like 25 in her dance! Crazy!! We went to the store the night before to get her a new leotard and her shoes and after spending some serious moolah, I was really hoping she was going to like it.
She never did her stretches in her gymnastics classes. I have no idea why. She would just sit there and watch the teacher. But for some reason, she did all the stuff for dance. I was just watching her through this little window and she was doing so good!! Then all of a sudden, they lined up and she froze. She wouldn't do what they were asking. She just stood there. I saw a couple of moms go in to help their kids so I went in to talk to her. She said she didn't want me to watch her. I said that was fine and to go do her thing.

She still didn't do much and when they came out to change into their tap shoes, I had a talk with her. I said I would buy her a slurpee if she did all the stuff her teacher does. We got on her fun clicky shoes and she went back in. At first, she was doing it but then she just froze again. So, I went in to talk to her again and she then told me she wanted me to stay in there. Ok....first, she wants me to not watch and now she wants me in. I had just found out that you could sit in only if you had a camera. Lucky me, I'm a camera freak so I was good to go. I hung out and took some awesome pics of my princess wowing me with her moves!! She did all the stuff and had fun.

Heel....toe.....heel.....toe

Toe....heel.....toe.....heel....I love that she is holding her skirt while she is doing it:) Sigh!

This pic is just to show how much taller she is than most of the girls in her class;) She looked so big!

Shuffle step

Jump!

Jumping backwards;) This was the most fun for her to do and me to watch! She also loved to look at herself in the mirror!

Makenna showing the teacher what her favorite thing to do was.....shuffle step;)

My sweet little dancer. I called it a success and she got her slurpee. She also got a nice blister on the back of her heel because of her tap shoes though. We are going to have to put socks on her or something next week!:) She did so good!

Back to school/work for Daddy:)

Travis was home with us all summer and the girls got very used to it. The first day back, Jordyn came downstairs and didn't see her daddy. She points upstairs and said, "night night??" She wanted to go up and wake him up! It was so cute. And the other day, Makenna asked where daddy was. I told her he was at work and she said that he needed to stop that and come home with us! Love it and gotta love a great daddy:)

We also have decided to not put Makenna in preschool. It's just too expensive right now and I don't know if I was ready to send her to strangers yet:) Fortunately, some wonderful ladies asked me to do joy school with them. I think this will be wonderful and be just as good if not better than preschool. It will be with women that I know and trust and it gives me a chance to participate as well and be with my cutie. I'm thrilled that I was asked to do this and I think Makenna is going to love learning and doing new things and spending time with her friends. We also are going to take turns watching the younger ones each week and I hope that Jordyn enjoys that and that it helps her come out of her shell.

Rude?

I don't normally watch Oprah but if it's an interesting topic, I will keep it on (unless the kiddos are watching a movie). Today, she was talking about how rude people are nowadays. I have to totally agree with that. As an example, Makenna had to go potty so bad in New York that she was doing a little dance. We were outside of Macy's so we went inside there and of course the bathrooms are all the way in the back and downstairs. Then there was a huge line once we finally got there. Makenna is still doing her jig and it's about our turn when this lady cuts right in front of us. Sometimes I'm vocal and sometimes I just let things go. Well this was a vocal time. I said that there was a line and she just looked back at me with a dirty look. And then I said, "my daughter has to go really bad and you are going to cut in front of her???" And she looks at Makenna and then just shrugs!!! I wanted to punch her in the nose!! So, I was determined to not let her go first but she was half way down the aisle and waiting to pounce on the next stall that opens. Well, I was going to do the same and hoped that I could get in before her. Unfortunately, the next stall that opened was all the way at the end. Fortunately for us, another one opened up pretty soon after so she didn't pee her pants (and it was right next to the mean lady). The whole time I'm helping Makenna, I was openly discussing how rude people were to Makenna. I told her that I'm sorry that people are not nice because you would have already peed by now otherwise (as she is desperate to get her pants down:) Seriously, why would someone do that??? I always try to be courteous. If someone has like two things at the grocery store line and I have a whole cart full, I will let them in front of me. But people also need to know when it is possible to do so. Last week, I was about half way through my check out and this lady gets behind me with ONE thing! Even though I've already started before she even got there, I still felt a little guilty! I looked back at her and said, "I would have let you go if I hadn't already started!" And she gives me a smirk!!! It was a look that said, "yeah, whatever!" What did she want me to do? Tell the cashier to cancel my stuff and unbag it and redo the whole thing after she waited on her??? Come on!! After watching the show, I know there are things that I do that would be rude too but not blatant stuff like some people do. And I've just learned of some awful behavior that someone did towards someone in our ward. I truly can't believe that someone could be so mean. And I hope he doesn't stop going to church because of it. The whole Oprah audience (except one guy) admitted to gossiping. I know we all gossip and most of the time it's harmless but we need to make sure that we aren't being cruel. I for one am going to repent of this and try to be more understanding and loving towards others. Even if they are difficult!! I also need to let the 'rude' people's actions just slide off my back. That might be a bigger challenge though:)

Washington DC Day 10 Last Day!!!

The final post of our vacation finally!!! Phew!! The last day was spent at Mt. Vernon, Arlington National Cemetery and then finally at the D.C. temple! It was another full day but it was really neat. I have really come to admire and appreciate our first President of the United States. George Washington was an amazing person and it's so neat to learn new things about history! Mt. Vernon was his home and this is where he chose to be buried instead of at the Capital. I don't blame him!! It was beautiful!! The amount of land. The view. Everything was just so great! We took a tour of the house and then walked around the grounds. Again the walking!! All of our legs were so tired. Jordyn was being her lovely cranky self as well!!

This is the tomb where George Washington and his wife are.

A huge tree and a smiling Kenna:)

We went out by the water and walked around there and then we walked through the gardens. As we were walking around, we saw this lone sheep just walking around. Makenna thought it was amazing!! She followed that sheep around for awhile and then we found some more. Both of the girls loved it.

The sheep were very nice and let the girls (and their mom) pet them;) And Miss J.J. was not wearing shoes again!! That girl can be barefoot anywhere!! :)

This is the back of the house by the water! I have no idea why this pic is crooked. I'm pretty sure I took it;) O-well. I must have been tired.

The wonderful view from the house! I wanted to move here!!

After we walked all over Mt. Vernon, we headed over to Arlington National Cemetery. I've always wanted to go here. I just think it's a very important place to see. It's truly amazing to see all those grave stones for all the people that served and helped to keep us safe.

This also was a major walking place with huge hills!! We thought we were going to fall over. This (on top of a hill) was the Kennedys.

Then on top of another major hill is Robert E. Lee's home which is called Arlington house! It got turned into a cemetery after the war started with the intention that Lee wouldn't be able to return to it. Union soldiers were buried right by the house!

View of White House, Monument and Capital from Arlington house.

View of the Pentagon from Arlington house.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

After we left the cemetery, we met up with my cousin Jenny at the Washington D.C. temple!! I just have to say that it is so beautiful!!! It is pretty much hidden among a ton of green trees and when you finally see it, it is breathtaking. What a sight to see!! Again, we saw this at a great time. We saw it during the day.....

As the sun was going down......

and at night!!! Holy cow! It was so pretty!!

Me and Jenny!! It was so great to see her and visit with her!!

What a great way to end our trip!! So beautiful!! We got some dinner afterwards and got ready to leave for the airport in the morning. It was a wonderful trip full of amazing sights and history!! I am so thankful to my parents for taking us with them so we could experience the trip of a lifetime!!

Family Home Evening

So, I feel pretty bad for saying this but we had our first family home evening tonight!! I know, I know!! Better late than never though, right? We just figured they were too small to do much. We have done fun activities but I've never done a lesson. Well, Makenna has been so bad lately that I decided that we were going to have family night and we were going to talk about obeying parents!! Travis made a cake with the girls while I looked for stuff for our lesson. We did a song and a scripture....honor thy father and thy mother...Kenna repeated.....honor MY father and MY mother;) She was even excited to say the prayer. Then I read a story and they colored a picture!

Afterwards, we played 'simon says' to show that she needed to follow directions. She didn't quite get the premise of it since she just did whatever we asked her to regardless if we said 'simon says'. And then when it was her turn, she kept saying 'science says'. It was hilarious. They loved jumping and that is what they were doing in this pic! We sang another song and then had the cake for dessert after saying that if one of them didn't follow directions and added something extra into the cake, it would taste nasty! So they need to listen!! I don't know if it will help at all but it was worth a shot! They had fun anyway! And if worse comes to worse, she came when I said, "Simon says come here!!" LOL!

Makenna

Makenna told us she was going to work. She put her sunglasses on and gave us both kisses and said she would be back later. Travis asked her what she did and she said she gives people sagges;-) I guess that would be half of a massage!!

Makenna said her legs were broken when we were out bike riding and going up a hill!!

Makenna loves to be sassy. She has gotten a teenager attitude in the last week!! I truly don't know what to do with her sometimes!

Makenna has decided that she wants to wear the same outfit everyday lately! I made her wear something else the other day and about half way through, I discovered that she had changed her clothes to that outfit!! It gets so filthy but she doesn't seem to care;) She has to pick everything out now too, including her dress for Sunday and her jammies. I don't think I like this:) It's nice that I can say go get dressed instead of doing it for her but I don't like what she comes up with sometimes!

Makenna has strangers tell her how beautiful her hair is all the time!! It's happened so often that when people say it, she's almost like, "Yeah, I know!!"

Makenna will go up to strangers and talk to them like they are family! She went up to one lady and wrapped her arms around her leg!! I couldn't believe it. She is definitely not shy (except when she has to say a talk in Primary:)

Makenna says prayer, prarr. It's hard to write how it sounds but it sounds like she has Southern accent:) We asked her to say the prayer last night and she sticks her arm out and says, "I just said the prarr in my Primary!!!!!"

Making fun of politicians:)

Travis found these type of videos on youtube kind of making fun of politicians. And nowadays, I think we all need to laugh or else we will cry;) Enjoy! It's hilarious!

All knotted up!!

Miss Jordyn loves playing with her hair especially now that it has gotten longer and curlier. She really does it a lot when she is tired. Well, I have been noticing little knots in her hair when I have been doing it in the morning. I just figured it was because it's curly and it got all tangled while she was laying on it or something. Well, she woke up with this massive knot after her nap today and the bell finally went off;) She twirls it and it just must get all tangled when she does it. This knot was worse than the others though and I have no idea how to undo it;)

Day 9 Washington D.C. Part 3 :)

To finish off Day 9....(we had a very big day;)....after our tour we walked from the capital to the National Archives to the White House and eventually the Lincoln Memorial.

This is a cool pic from the Capital to the monument.

This is the Supreme Court that is right across the street from the Capital.

Travis had to take a pic of this.....a port a potty was being raised up by the Supreme Court. I guess they have too much B.S. in there;)

This is the National Archives. We actually got there just in time to see all the stuff before they closed. I just loved all the architecture!! Why can't we still build buildings that look like these!! I love it.

They had some neat stuff in there!! I love history!!! We also got to see the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and the Bill of Rights. There were so many people there so we only got a couple of pics and they had to be no flash. They are really faded now!

Pretty cool stuff!!

Our next stop was the White House. We saw the National Treasury on the way there with Alexander Hamilton's statue out front. I wish we had time to go inside!

Another squirrel!!! I miss those dang squirrels everywhere! And so do the girls!

The White House!!

Next stop was the monument!! Jordyn wanted to get down and run by this point so Trav let her roam a bit! We were getting pretty tired by now. These buildings all look like they should be pretty close together (which they kinda are) but it's pretty long by foot. And unfortunately our blisters were letting themselves be known at this point;)

The monument! If you look closely, you can tell that the bottom portion of it is a different color than the top. I guess they ran out of money and stopped construction on it. It took 30 years before Congress gave the money needed to finish it. When they finally started construction again, it was a different shade of stone. You can tell where they stopped and started again by this difference.

The Lincoln Memorial looking from the Monument. Again...check out the dead grass;(

Almost there.....walking....always walking. We were pretty weary at this point but this was the last stop of the night and we were determined to see it. We couldn't be this close and not see it;)

Monument at twilight.

Lincoln statue

Monument at night from the steps of the Memorial.

We actually got to the Monument and Memorial at the perfect time. We got to see them in the daylight and then gradually as it got dark. I love the pics that we got!! Unfortunately, we had to walk all the way back past the monument and halfway back to the capital to get back to the metro!! We were so happy to get to the station only to have to wait forever for a train!! I guess a baseball game just let out and the trains were slow!!! Ugh!! We were so happy to get on it and get moving toward our beds. It was a very long day but we got to see soooo much!! It was great!!