Piano Prizes

We just love Sister Bankhead. She is Jessie and Brookie's piano teacher. Jessie has been playing for 2 years now and Brookie just started and has been going about a month. The girls get stickers for passing off songs and practicing at least 5 times during the week. There is a prize box where they use their stickers to "buy" prizes. Jessie has been requesting yarn in the prize box for a little while. She "bought" some yard today and is busy finger knitting. My girls LOVE piano. I'm so glad. They practice in the morning before school. While I fix one girls hair the other does her piano. They have to practice each song 3x each. (That's how my mom did it.) AND they NEVER complain! I'm cherishing that part. I'm sure it won't be long!

It's gonna be OK!

I've decided that this year I'm going to try to include more in my blog than just pictures with a description but more "feelings". So, here I go....I received this message on Facebook from our Primary President. It made my day, my week, my month, maybe my year (maybe). It made me feel soooo good. I must be doing SOMETHING right, despite what my family in Idaho thinks! I love visiting my family so much but I always feel very "less than" when I leave Idaho and spend a good deal of the drive home crying to Brent. My whole family is just a whole spiritual step above I suppose. Anyway, Sister Snyder, must have been inspired to send me this just after my parents visited and my feeling like a failure as a parent again! April 11, 2011 10:21 A.M. April, I just wanted to tell you what a GREAT job you are doing teaching the gospel in your home and raising WONDERFUL children!!! Your girls always have the answers in primary! AND they are CORRECT answers!! Not something I can always say about the answers I get. hahaha. You go girl!! Keep up the good work! Love, Deborah

Ninja Graduation

Braden had his first Ninja Graduation and belt promotion. He is now a Little Ninja White Belt. He had to pass off all 8 skills to promote. Braden was the only student who got an excellent in each area. Braden has worked so hard on this. He practices all the time at home and can not wait to go to class each week. He has been counting down the days to his graduation. He woke up at 5:00 am this morning and woke me up to tell me "today is my ninja graduation". The eight Little Ninjas skill requirements are composed of phusical and mental benefits. Here they are:

Focus, Teamwork, Control, Balance, Memory, Discipline, Fitness, and Coordination. It is an AMAZING program that I believe would benefit every young boy.

Braden and Master Niles
Passing off his coordination skill.

Passing off the teamwork skill.

All done now waiting for his skill review.

Getting his new belt.

Let's give a hand to our newest Little Ninja White Belts!

Bow to the flags.

Mommy and Braden

Daddy and Braden

Grandpa and Nana got to come watch too!

Pizza party after the graduation.

Jump Rope for Heart

Brookie and Jessie really enjoy jump roping and spend quite a bit of time at home making up jump rope routines. Well this year for the Jump Rope for Heart Assembly they got to tryout in PE to be in the assembly. Both Broolie and Jessie made it and the PE teacher let them do a routine together. It was a hit with all the students and they just loved performing and having all the kids cheering for them. They had one of our neighbors, Cassie, do it with them. Lots of fun plus Grandpa and Nana came and watched.

Jessie on the left in the blue, Brookie in the middle in the pink and Cassie on the right in the red.

Brookie also got to show off the one legged jump.

Golfing with Coach Daddy

Braden has had a great time this spring with Daddy being the golf coach. He gets to go out to golf practice about once a week. The girls have only gotten to go once but they don't love it as much as Braden does.

Braden Little Ninja Memory Pattern

They have a memory pattern that they have to learn in order to "graduate" to the next belt. It is a 10 week program before you graduate to the next belt and there are 5 different belts before you graduate out of the Little Ninja program. With each belt you add more numbers to the memory pattern up to 20. Braden takes this so serious. He practices every day. He has the pattern memorized all the way to 20 already.

Mom, take a picture of this one!

Every time Braden thinks he is wearing "cool" clothes he asks me to take a picture. Nikki likes to do whatever Braden does lately. Here are a few days worth of pictures.

Blocks

Sunbeams

I have taught Sunbeams for so long. I got to sub this Sunday and I loved it. I think they are the most fun age to teach. They always have so much fun and say the cutest things.

Jessie gymnastics picture day

Jessie had such an amazing first season of competitive gymnastics.  We had so much fun watching her and cheering her on.  Very proud of our little gymnast!

Stunting

Braden's Mr. Potato Head

Braden went to Jett's birthday party and it was a Toy Story 3 party. Braden got to make a Mr. Potato Head with a tortilla shell just like the movie. It was funny because Braden didn't want anything pink or purple on his head. Braden asked if he could have an orange off the counter instead of a cupcake. It is still so strange to me that Braden doesn't like any kind of candy or cake or really anything sweet or sugary. I guess it's a good thing but definately different for a little kid. I sure do love this little boy!

Final gymnastics meet

Jessie was excited because Nana and Grandpa got to come to this meet. Jessie did really well at her final meet of the season. She metaled in every event and all around.

Bars: 8.65

Beam: 7.7

Floor: 8.55

Vault: 9.0

AA: 33.9

She fell off during her beam routine during her jumps. When she was getting back on the beam she looked straight at us in the crowd. We all gave her big smiles and thumbs up! She gave us her big dimple grin and jumped right back up and finished her routine. It was a surreal moment. It gave me goose bumps to think about how much impact parents can have on their kids. Just a little smile and thumbs up gave her all the confidence!

Haha...I told Nik Nik. "Eyes on me." This is her doing the, "I've got my eyes on you!" That comes from having older siblings.

More Braden Photography, Inc.

Braden's newest technique is to add effects to the pictures he takes on my camera. This is one of his favorite's. It is the "negative" effect.

Future Missionary

Elder Eddy......sounds wonderful doesn't it?!?!

The sick meet

Jessie caught the sickness that I had. She missed 2 practices the week of the meet. It was the Spirit of the Flame meet in San Jose. We drove down that day because she didn't have to be there until 5 PM. When we arrived her temperature was 103. I gave her some tylenol. By 5:30 her temperature was about 99 and she seemed ok. The meet started out really well. She did really well on bars and then did "ok" on beam. Then they had a break. I could see her sitting there during break and I could tell she was going down hill. She just looked miserable. The next event was floor. About half way through floor warm ups she went and sat at the edge of the mat. She sat there until it was her turn. When she stood up and took the mat she was white as a ghost and her ears were bright red. She stared out ok and then she missed her handstand forward roll. By the time she rolled over she was behind on her leaps. She did her handstand to bridge and fell on her head and had to kick three times to kick over. So then she totally missed her splits. The tumbling pass is the final thing. She hit her head on her backhandspring. She did her final pose and before she had even walked off the mat broke down in tears. Her coach cuddled her up and held and comforted her. They were'nt going to have her compete in vault but then she started crying that she wanted to finish. She did one warm up and didn't make it over the vault so she skipped her other 2 warmups and when it was her turn the coach stood there in case she didn't make it over and fell back. Amazing enough she completed both her turns pretty well. After she was dismissed she came over to me and just fell into my arms crying. Her temperature was 104. We gave her some advil and rented a hotel and she slept and slept. When she woke up in the morning she was feeling much better.

Bars: 8.35

Beam: 8.025

Floor: 7.1

Vault: 8.4

AA: 31.875

Amazingly she still ended up metaling in bars, vault and all around. She is a trooper. Very proud of her hard work and determination.

Braden and Logan

Braden's friend Logan had a birthday party at Bounce-n-Play. Braden insisted I take a picture of the Monster Truck cake becasue it was SOOO cool!