Busy Year

Too, too, too long since my last post! I know, I know. As much as I love to blog about our life, we have been terribly busy this year and I've been too tired. I am happy to report though that this coming year looks to be slower and I am so looking forward to it! Evan and Lauren, this post is for you--I'm still hoping one day to get my blog posts in a book format so you can look back on them when you're older and be able to relive some memories.

We are going to start with Lauren, because unfortunately one thing about being the youngest is you don't always come first. Lauren, you've had a great 2014 so far! One of the best and biggest memories from this year was your competitive dancing with The South Y Dance Company which then changed to Y Diamond Dance Company. You shined like we knew you would--God has greatly gifted you with the art of dance. You of course were not shy in front of the audiences at competitions and you always captivated people with your facial expressions. You are a natural. The last competition was extremely impressive. Grandma and Grandpa from Colorado came out to see it. Both of your dances finished in the the top 3 for your age group! What was really special about that was the fact that 2 days before this competition one of the girls was asked to leave the team, so your dances had to be redone quickly. Also, at this competition you got to receive one of the rewards for the second place dance, got a medal, and the group received a check.

Piano has been another part of this year you have grown in. At your June recital, you played two pieces by memory. You also received a summer discount rate and two movie theater tickets because you are so diligent in your work. Miss Connie has told me you make her excited and she is so impressed by how well you learn your music.

Evan, one of your biggest memories is the Lego Robotics Team at WWHM. You were on a great team this year. You figured out a design for your robot, and completely made it around the practice course early in the season. When competition day came, your team got 1000 points--a perfect score! It was thrilling when the wwhm team came in 2nd place! It was funny how we were all hoping for 3rd or 4th place, and when our names were not called, we though for sure we had not done well again this year. So, when we were called for 2nd place we were stunned, as well as elated!

Sheltered Reality drumming became part of your life this year. We were introduced to them in January when mvps brought them in as a school event. We decided to join and you have done two performances. You are getting along so well with the other people you meet at the shows, and Steve and Jordan are so impressed with how quickly you are picking up on the songs and choreography.

No pictures in this post, but there were some taken and I plan on including those in a 2014 digital scrapbook I want to make when this year's over so that each of you will have that for your later years. You both are awesome and I'm proud of the things you've accomplished, and how hard you work at things. You are both maturing in so many ways and you make me glad and proud to be your mom!

Music

Evan has been taking drum lessons since the end of January and is loving it! I have always wanted him to do this because ever since I was pregnant with him, once the drums at church started playing he would start kicking me and to the beat--true story! His teacher is one of the drummers at our church and seems to be a really good teacher. Evan is learning quickly and having fun. After about 3 weeks of waiting due to a back order, his drums arrived today and he immediately went to work putting them together. He did it all about 98% by himself, and then wanted to have some fun playing from his lesson book.

Lauren loves to sing. She is always singing, dancing, or humming. She is quite the dancer and was in dance from the age of 3 to when she just turned 7. We decided to stop that for a while because her dance company decided to close and she wanted to try gymnastics. I would love to put her back into dance again and am thinking about finding something in the fall. She also wants to take voice lessons, and one of the singers at our church does that, so that may be an option in the future.

Here are two videos showing Evan practicing a little from his book, and Lauren singing a song about the month of March. Here are the words to the song in case you can't quite make it out:

Let's celebrate the month of March.
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The year's third month, the month of March. (This line trips up the tongue as you will witness in the video)
Hurrah! Hurrah!
Though the winds of March may blow (You will hear Evan providing a wind sound)
Soon you'll see the melting snow.
Like a lion it comes and a lamb it goes (You will Evan providing a lamb sound)
The lovely month of March.

Make sure you pause my playlist at the top of the blog page so you can hear the videos.