Completely forgotten Randoms!

As I'm doing my monthly photo organization and getting ready for a new month of photos, I opened up my "randoms" file and found these pictures, which includes the awesome snow we had. I completely forgot about them! 

So here are a few randoms plus our snow storm that wraps up the month of March. 

Rain or shine this girl is playing in the sandbox. We had literally walked in the door from church and she was begging to go outside! So we let her. 

 Back at the beginning of the month, actually the night before we left for Arkansas, (remember me telling you about that?!) we had a massive snow storm. This type of snow was the real deal! It was so fun to not have sick kids and to be able to play in it! Dan stayed home from work because the roads were to slick... and he was taking a half day off anyways, so we played in the snow until the roads melted enough for us to head out. 

This is a crazy amount of snow for Texas

We had fun throwing snow into the pool and watching it freeze instantly! It was cool because it wasn't melting as soon as it hit the water. 

Lounging by the pool 

Now the last couple of March has been DIVINE when it comes to the weather category. We have been soaking in as much sun as possible! We even got our first sunburns of the season... purely because I'm an awesome mom and wasn't even thinking sunscreen, even though we were outside literally all day, well except Owen, who did take a nap... 

We have been having so much fun already outside! I CANNOT wait for summer, when we can hop into the pool and swim and grill and just be in good spirits... I feel summer really does that for me. 

We had a tea party (Which is an everyday activity at our house) and Owen had spilled his water.. June said "That's it, boys are no longer invited! Only girls!" June likes things done in a very particular way, just like her mom! It was pretty funny though. 

Little range just being super cuddly one morning. I don't give a shout out to this little guy very often, but we still love him as if he's one of our children. He's way overweight and HATES going for walks! He's so lazy! haha but he's happy and we are grateful for his companionship .

I gave this little man a kiss before one of my performances. Wearing red lipstick is so fun! I had to give him a kiss. Oh man this kid has become the coolest lately. I don't know what it is, he wasn't the easiest baby... but seriously just within the last couple months he has been so much fun! Mischievous as ever! But he has just become my little bud. Maybe it's the age, but I am LOVING IT!  More on that at his 18 month update!

Well thats really it. I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss any pictures for March. Now onto April!! 

Bluebonnets 2015

Another year of pictures in the bluebonnets, a Texas tradition, and this year was beautiful! We have had so much rain and snow that everything has been blooming very fully! When we got to our usual bluebonnet spot I was so excited to see how many there were and how full the field was! 

This years bluebonnet pictures were pretty comical, I'll be honest. It was a bit windy and I don't think the kiddos were too thrilled to be hiking in the tall grass. 

Owen was much more cooperative than June was! He was pretty good about sitting down and taking pictures. 

June-bug had a bit of a harder time. Let me first tell you that she is TERRIFIED of ants. Rightfully so. Texas Ants are mean and bite. They have venom when they bite and make you swell and itch. It's awful, plus June seems to swell even larger than normal. Once you step in an ant hill, they are all over you. So with that said, the poor girl is terrified of sitting in grasses and playing where ants might be. She finally agreed to sit on a sweater that I was wearing, but no part of her could touch the actual ground. Everywhere she stepped she would ask if there were ants. I checked, and checked and checked, plus constantly re-assured her that there were no ants. 

By the end, the kids were DONE! hahaha I had to post this, because it was just so funny. I mean the look on their faces! Haha poor babes of mine. June was being such a sweetheart to Owen. She kept giving him hugs and trying to "hush" him by singing and making monkey noises. She is such a fantastic older sister. Owen wasn't too thrilled about her attempt to make him feel better... haha 

The Bluebonnet 

I love taking these pictures every year, I love that it's the same spot as when June was a baby! Every year I hold my breath hoping that nothing has destroyed the area, and I'm always so relieved when we pull up and see the field full of bluebonnets. It's so pretty! Love my Texas Babes!

Saturday and the Race

It probably wasn't our smartest decision to stay out late Friday evening when we had such a busy Saturday, but it was all fun and who really needs sleep?! ME. I need sleep. Haha

After getting to bed around 1:30am Friday night or I guess Saturday morning, we were pretty tired. I set my alarm for 6am to get ready, so my friend and I could go to our annual shopping trip to a HUGE Sale that happens twice a year. 

6am came and I probably hit snooze for a solid 45 minutes. I'm not a morning person. Not even a little bit. In my world the early bird may catch a worm, but I'm more of a night owl so I guess I catch bigger creaters?! hahahaha not really sure where I'm going with that analogy... 

Anyways, Makenna came and picked me up and we went shopping! We have been doing this for a couple of years now, and this was our last time, since she's moving at the end of June. I don't want to talk about it because I'm still in denial...

I got home around 10am and helped get the kids ready for the day, and clean up the house a bit. 

Dan went and helped someone in our Ward move, and then we headed out to one of June's best little friends birthday party. 

It was a lot of fun just hanging out, and letting the kids play. They decorated cupcakes and Owen was not messing around, he ate his cupcake and I'm pretty sure a pound of frosting in two bites. That kid INHALES his food. 

It was a fun little birthday party and the girls loved getting together to play. Poor little Owen is left out, but luckily My friend Amanda just had her little boy and now there is a little buddy for Owen. 

We got home from the birthday party around 4pm and our babysitter was coming at 5pm so we could get up to the race on time and meet up with our running crew. 

Dan and I really wanted to run together since the last race we were supposed to do I was pregnant with June and very paranoid. So we were excited to be running together again. 

We met up with some friends from Dan's work.  They are so marvelous people!

The run was called the Firefly night run. You get a bunch of glow stuff on and you run in the night. So we were preparing ourselves with all our glow sticks. 

Waiting for the race to begin. We were all just kind of hanging out until they told us to line up. 

With a little dancing involved

The run was fantastic! It was fun being in the dark with everyone around you glowing! 

Pioneer work crew with the Medals. 

I admit I am a slow runner. Dan is always way ahead of me, but I kept my pace and I actually ended up shaving 3 minutes off my mile! I think with all the excitement and adrenaline, it just got to me and made me run faster! Plus they were only giving medals out to so many people, so I wanted to make sure I would get one. I knew would, so that pushed me a little to do better. It felt great and we can't wait for our next run! 

Afterward we planned to go have dinner with friends but we actually ended up just wanting to have dinner with us two. It's been so much fun getting a lot of one of one time with the hubs. I'm glad we get to do things like this together and proud of ourselves! 

We've got a pretty good thing going for us. 

Millennial Easter Performance

MCO picked right back up after Christmas break to start rehearsing for our Easter Program. "That Easter Morn". I was excited to get back in it and have another fantastic season! 

This go around, was a bit harder than our Christmas program. The music at Christmas was fun, beautiful, festive and a lot of the songs, I knew the basic words and rhythms to, so the reading of music, and memorization wasn't too tricky, but this go around I pretty much panicked right from the beginning of the first rehearsal all the way up to 5:00pm the night of our first concert.

The music was AMAZING, but incredibly hard to learn. Like the hardest music I have ever had to sing in my entire life. All semester long I have done nothing but listen to pre-recordings of our music over, and over, and over again. 

The hardest piece we had to learn was "Chichester Psalms" There are three movements, making the song last a solid 23 minutes, and all in Hebrew. There is no solid structure to these songs, so learning tempo, rhythm, and plus the memorization definitely kept me on my toes. We all were pretty nervous about it the first time we heard the whole thing. That song was on repeat, I even had it playing while I would run. I still can't believe we memorized that and it actually turned out amazing!! It is now one of my favorite pieces and I still listen to it... more out of habit now I guess. Haha 

Honestly if you have a second, go listen to it on you-tube or google it. Just listen for a bit. It's amazing and Leonard Bernstein is an insane writer but such a master of music. It's so crazy! (Think 'West Side Story' then some... and some more... then more...) 

Our rehearsals, I felt continued to get longer and longer as the season progressed. I think it was just because our music was so difficult that we needed the extra practice. 

This was our dress rehearsal night. We were all laughing, because we had already been there for five hours, and then we were scrunched into this tiny little stairway for what felt like forever!

My view from the stage. I mostly took this to show Dan where to sit so he could see me, but isn't this church beautiful. We didn't sing in a huge venue this time, but this church definitely was a fantastic place to sing. 

Our Program theme

Other Songs we sang were:

-Alleluia

-That Easter Morn

-He's got the Whole World In HIs Hands

-Rock of Ages

-Jesus, Lover of my Soul

-Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer

-Chichester... I  II III 

-When I Survey The Wondrous Cross

-I know That My Redeemer Lives

You can find all Millennial Choir recordings on I-tunes of these songs. I know you recognize some of them, through their text, but the arrangement is completely different! Go listen. 

Friday, March 27th we had two shows

5:00pm & 8:00pm 

The 5:00pm was not nearly as full. I hate saying this, but we kind of use the 5:00 show to get all our jitters out, and we scale back just a tiny bit to save our voices...

The 8:00 show was so much more fun. I feel we let go a whole  lot more, and I let loose a little more on my voice, because if I lose it.. who cares. It's got time to heal! haha We were pretty much sold out for the 8:00 show and the audience was a much more mature set, so it was more fun to sing in that one. 

Before our concert 

This is such an incredible organization. Children starting from the age of 4 are welcome to sing. All the way up until 18. Once you turn 18 you have to audition to be apart of the Grand Chorus, the one I'm apart of. This is everyone! 

After the concert I met up with Dan and we chit chatted with others for a while. 

Selfie Style

Afterward we went and had dinner and stayed out way later then we should have, given we had a packed Saturday, but we had a babysitter who didn't mind staying out past midnight so we took full advantage and enjoyed our night after the concert. 

I'm so so so grateful to be apart of this. To sing, and learn more than I ever thought possible. I have loved reading music again and getting back all my music theory that I have learned so long ago. 

Go listen to the music, it's inspiring and especially during this Easter Season, very appropriate to have playing in your home. 

MCO. YOU RULE! 

This Man of Mine

Before I can blog about anything else that has been going on, I must give a shout out to Dan, my husband, my best friend, my secret keeper, and my biggest supporter...

I just want to take a minute and thank him for all his love and support through these past couple weeks. It has been incredibly busy for me, between Cantata, MCO, Relief Society business, and some other stuff that I have on the side... He has just completely stepped up (As I knew he would) and just managed the house, took care of the kids basically every night for the last two weeks, came home early from work at times so I could make it to rehearsals, and not ever, ever, ever did he complain, never hesitated or tried to slow me down. In fact he has been so completely supportive and so excited for me, that he made it so easy for me to enjoy all the craziness instead of worrying about whats going on at home.

It would be very hard to love and enjoy all I have been doing lately if I didn't have him.

I love him from the deepest part of my heart. He brings out the best in me, and somehow forgives and forgets the worst... or he helps me work on them. Ha.

Love him forever and always.

Thanks babe.

Easter Cantata 2015

This past weekend was the 3rd annual Easter Cantata and my 2nd year performing in it. I hesitated actually participating this year just because I already had so much going on, that I did feel a little stretched at times. But I am SO SO SO GLAD I did it. Life is about being a part of something great and not just sitting around right?! So I am so glad I participated and was able to perform. I always feel the spirit so strongly when I'm singing songs regarding our Savior and the gospel, and being able to share my testimony through my talent and something I love so much just adds to the awesomeness. I knew I wanted to do it... 

(I stole all the pictures off of our Cantata Facebook page... Photos were done by the ever so talented  Amy Herfurth!)

The advertisement for this years performance 

Our performance was held in our church's Sacrament meeting room, so there were no pictures taken in there. We had an amazing choir turn out this year and some amazing voices! 

This year I was asked to take part in an ensemble women's group. We sang "Life Thine Eyes" It was a beautiful song to sing and grateful to be asked to be apart of it. 

The performance was all put together (along with helpers) by Morgan Wicker. First of all she has some major music talent and I am so grateful to know her, to have her as our Ward Choir director and to be her friend. Second of all,  she put together an amazing program and each year just gets better and better! She's kinda the coolest!

We had performances Saturday night and Sunday night. Our original plan was to drop Owen and June off at our friends house Saturday night, and then we would take their little girl Sunday night so that Dan and the Anderson's could enjoy the performance... Well Owen woke up with a fever, cough and runny nose (Shocker right?) so we had to back out of our plans. Then we were still planning to take our friends little girl but then she fell ill Sunday... Sickness all around. I'm sooooo over it. 

So unfortunately Dan was not able to make it the performances, but I have been singing the songs all week that I told him he's basically heard the whole thing. Haha. 

It was very fun performing! I love the music, I love learning something new every rehearsal, and just being part of something so great that shares and spreads the Gospel. 

Girls Day

My head is spinning! It has been a madness of a week, with so much going on including constant rehearsals for Easter Cantata and Millennial Choir. We had our first performance tonight for the Easter Cantata and another one tomorrow, plus Millennial Choir performance coming up! It's a whirlwind and it's just the beginning! It's a good thing I love it so much! BUT more blog posts to come about all the goodness coming up! 

Since it's been so crazy, It was definitely a need to just take a moment to breath and have a day out with my little lady. Dan came home from work on Friday afternoon and we headed out. I have been wanting to take June to see the movie "Cinderella" ever since I first saw the trailer. It had June's name written all over it! 

So we headed over to the mall and spent the afternoon walking around, shopping at the Disney store, clothes shopping, and riding the carousal. We laughed, we talked, she told me stories and all the things that could possibly be happening in a 3 year olds life. It was FANTASTIC! 

 We then headed over to the movie theater in the rain. She's so funny with her umbrella, she has NO CLUE where she is walking when she's holding it. She's all over the place and it's so funny to watch. 

We got our popcorn, went potty so she wouldn't have to go during the movie, and then headed to get our seats! She wore her Cinderella crown so she could feel like a princess too! 

She got her own little kids popcorn and a soda which is a HUGE treat for her! She was so excited to have her own little drink! 

I was so excited to take to her this movie. She was excited to see Cinderella too and kept asking during every preview if it was FINALLY going to start. It was a relief when it finally started. 

Ya'll can I just tell you how AMAZING the movie "Cinderella" was?! Oh it was adorable and had such a good message! It had me in tears from the beginning and it was just a good clean movie for everyone! LOVED IT! 

June did ask where Olaf was, half way through the movie but she really did love it. She does a really good job at actually understanding movies instead of just seeing that there cartoons. She's a wiz kid! 

When we walked about of the movie we talked about it for a while. She told me her favorite part was when Cinderella got into the golden carriage with the Lizards and goose.. She then laughed to herself, and said "Thats so silly, a goose driving a carriage!" We talked about the movie the whole way home! 

It was a wonderful day spending time with just my little lady. With two kiddos tugging at my all day, it gets hard spending that one on one time with each child. So it was great getting out and spending a day with just my June bug.