Friday's quick quote

"Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It's the rhythm of your life. It's the expression in time and movement, in happiness, joy, sadness and envy." ~Jaques D'ambroise

"When in doubt...dance!"

Happy Birthday Erik!

I will spare him the pain of posting a picture, but I have to take the time to aknowledge the occasion. No big celebration today since we both had to work, but we are planning to go to the Voice Male concert tomorrow. He received plenty of attention from his co-workers though. They bought him lunch, and a cake, and a birthday card. The kids gave him lots of hugs and kisses, which fits right in our budget nowdays. Here's hoping for many more good birthdays.

Friday's quick quote

"Dance for yourself, if someone understands good. If not then no matter, go right on doing what you love." ~Lois Hurst

Dancing in the Peace Gardens

Today we danced in the anual program at the International Peace Gardens. The weather was nice, only in the 8o's which is unusual. We were small in numbers, but big in spirit. The program went great. One part that was unexpectedly difficult for me was the Armed Forces salute. With my cousin being killed in Iraq in October, and my uncle who was an army colonel passing away in April, my thoughts couldn't help but turn to them. I was not able to attend either funeral due to the long distances, so I find my greif assults me at unexpected times. This occasion was no exception. I expect salutes such as this will always bring back difficult memories.

Happy Birthday Alex

More recently we celebrated a birthday for Alex, one of Erik's nephews. Alex is a great kid with a lot of spirit and a great personality. He was born with a lot of challenges, and it is so great to see how far he has come in six short years. He faces each challenge head on and comes out ahead every time. He is just as cute as a bug.

Happy Birthday Alyssa!

I know this is a few weeks late, but I had to find a time to blog from home so I could include pictures. Alyssa has officially hit the big 3. She was sooooo excited it was finally her turn to have a birthday. She has been waiting for her birthday for months. We had a birthday dinner with Erik's mom on that Saturday, and then a party with my family on Sunday. She was excited to have everyone there since we don't all make it very often. She wore her "princess dress" that Grandma made to church. We bought her a carseat for her dolls, as she requested, and new dolls. Grandma and the gang got her a bathtub for the dolls, little ponies, and strawberry shortcake figurines. She had a princess birthday cake and enjoyed herself thoroughly. I think though, the highlight of the night was when Josh read stories to Alyssa and Madison, both girls were in heaven.

friday's quick quote

"To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking." ~Agnes De Mille

Friday's quick quote

"When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way."

-Wayne Dyer

Summer Fun

Here are a few pictures of the trip we took to Logan to visit our family there. We always have fun there no matter what we do. This particular trip we crammed in lots of fun. It has been so hard for the boys to have their cousins/ best friends live so far away. They have been used to having them just a few minutes away. We have been trying to work in a trip every few months to ease the loneliness for all of us.

Alyssa

Alyssa is the sugar and spice in our family. One minute she is sweet and cuddly, and cute, the next she is full of mischeif. She loves all the things a little girl loves, dolls, flowers, pink, but she also loves to make a good mess. She and Colton are the fastest mess makers I have ever seen and can make a mess out of absolutely anything. She loves to cuddle and give kisses, but if her brothers make her mad she just pushes them down and sits on them. Since she is a sturdy little girl and her brothers are very thin this puts them in a difficult position. She is deffinately the princess around here and she rules with an iron fist.

She makes us smile and laugh often. Having a little girl is so different from our boys, and we are sure glad to have her.

Colton

Colton is our second child, approaching life the hard way from before birth. Colton was due around Valentine's Day, but decided to come the day after Thanksgiving instead. Born at 28.6 weeks he came with a large load of hurdles to overcome. He was 2 lbs 12 oz and 15.5 inches long. He was on a ventilator for 8 days and on CPAP for 2 days. He had an infection at birth due to my water breaking several weeks prior, this was the cause of his premature birth. Any one, or all of these factors combined could have killed him or left him severely handicapped, but today he is just about as perfect as they come. He was fragile and spent his share of time in and out of the hospital the first year, but all these trials have made him a fighter. If he wants it, don't try to stop him, he has a very strong, but very sweet spirit.

Colton is getting ready to start kindergarden this year and is very excited. He enjoys being outdoors and playing with anyone who will play. His best friend is his sister, they like to crawl into his bed at night and giggle all night long. He loves cars, planes, and motorcycles. Where Rylan wants to be like Uncle Josh, Colton wants to be like Uncle Aaron. Anyone who knows my brothers knows they are as different as night and day, this applies to my boys as well. If Rylan wants blue, then Colton wants red, if Rylan is hot, Colton's cold. As you can guess this causes a lot of friction between them. Colton is a snuggle bunny who just loves to be held and snuggled, and will give hugs to anyone he feels needs one.

Rylan

Rylan is our oldest child, born 2+ years after we were married. He has always been a daddy's boy, but has a great fondness and desire to be like his Uncle Josh. At age three Josh had him saying "hydroxides are insoluble", and "studying calculus". He is very intelligent and wants to be the best at everything, but he is also very independent. He is very curious and wants to know the how and why of everything. He has a great talent for memorizing things, scriptures, movie quotes, useless trivia etc. He loves sports, soccer, basketball, football, swimming, and if you ask him he excels at all of them. He also likes to read and draw.

Rylan is a great big brother. He has always been able to make his little brother laugh when things are tough. He watches out for his little sister and will sometimes even play dolls or kitchen with her if she asks. He loves his cousins and is real protective of them, as he says "nobody better mess with my cousins or they will have to answer to me".

In the beginning...

The story of our origins as a family is really overall a rather boring one. Erik and I met while I was still in junior high. I think we were destined to meet one way or another, we grew up in the same town, attended the same junior high and high school and had many of the same friends. It was actually our common interest in dancing, or more precisely our friends interest in dancing that brought us together. Our friends had started an after school dance class/group and we were invited, by different friends to attend. One thing lead to another and we were married shortly after I graduated from high school.

We have been blessed with three children, each an independant free spirit. We have had what feels like more than our share of struggles, but as they say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. We have continued to dance, and some days that is the connection that keeps it all together, the neutral common ground where we can go to work things out, the outlet that keeps us "sane".

Giving In

I have been resisting starting my own blog for several months now feeling like I have nothing to say, but after clinging to the contact my friends blogs provide on those long lonely night shifts I have decided to give in. I figure if they can put themselves out there and give me hope by doing so, maybe it's my turn to give back. Don't expect much, I'm not real insightful or exciting, just lonely and lost. Maybe the therapy of writing is more for my benefit than to entertain.