Twinkle Toes

Malea did the cutest little dance class this summer through Provo City's The Center called Twinkle Toes (I am way behind on blogging so this happened before she broke her leg).  The class was every Tues-Thurs for 45 minutes and only went for about 6 weeks.  I mostly wanted her to do the class to see if she liked it, and then I might put her in one that is longer term starting in the fall.  She has such a little dancer's body and I really think she has a knack for it.  She did like it, but like always, she is a little slow to warm up to things.  She was so excited, especially after we went and bought her a couple of little dance outfits, but when it came down to actually going she was apprehensive.  The class was also right after nap time (4pm) which meant she was a little moody from sleeping, so that didn't help!

 

This picture cracks me up!

Well at the end of the 6 weeks they had a very informal little recital for all the parents.  As soon as I brought up the fact that she was going to have to perform in front of everyone, of course she instantly said she didn't want to do it (she did the same thing when she had to read the theme during sharing time in Primary, which meant I had to do it, haha).  Its actually kind of funny, because a certain someone (me) did the same exact thing to my mom when I was about her age when it came time for a dance recital.  And, like my mom, I resorted to all the same methods of getting her to do it (threatening, bribing, etc).  She said she didn't want everyone looking at her (I don't really blame her, I have some pretty mad stage fright myself).  After some convincing she did end up going up on stage, but she stood there as still as a statue while ALL the other girls in the class participated in the dance.  It was kind of embarrassing but what do you do?!  At least she looked really cute, haha!  Any ideas out there on how to help her get past her stage fright? 

 

Swimming Lessons

 After we got back from Intensives in Colorado, my kids started swimming lessons.  Malea did the class on her own and I did a mommy-and-me class with Isaac.  Malea absolutely loved it, but surprisingly Isaac hated it at first!  The whole first week he would just cry the whole time when I got him in the water.  Swimming lessons were M-Th for 2 weeks, and for the first week I could hardly get him in the water.  By the second week he did better though.:)  I kind of think he was traumatized a little bit by the pond incident we had a couple of months ago.

Most of the pictures are of Isaac crying :/

My little stubborn cutie :)

I'm just glad we got swimming lessons out of the way in June considering Malea ended up breaking her leg in July!

Colorado Trip

 As part of my graduate program, I am required to go to Colorado once a year for a summer intensive residency for a week.  I couldn't bear the thought of being away from my babies for a whole week, so I made asked Keith to take off work so that we could all go down together and make a trip out of it. I was in classes from 8am to 4pm everyday, so he was a trooper and watched the kids. :) We were planning on staying in a hotel but then a friend of Keith's that he used to work with at Nu Skin graciously opened her home to us for a whole week (thanks again so much Fallon & Brice!).  It not only saved us a butt load of money but they have two kids close in age to our kids that they could play with, as well as a yard.  It definitely made the week much easier!

This was on the drive down, because of all the fires the sunset looked pretty cool (this picture doesn't give it justice)

 The first day was registration and then we had to come back later for a mandatory Orientation dinner.  We took a few photos while exploring campus.

Malea and me in front of the Counselor Ed department

The kids were such little troopers on the trip and did a lot of their napping in the car 

Here is a pic of Malea and their little girl Claire, they were good little buddies the whole week we were there 

There's not a whole heck of a lot to do in Alamosa, Colorado, but they do have some really cool sand dunes that we went to a couple of times.  Keith took the kids once by himself and they played in the water, and then we went again another time all together.  The weird/cool thing about the sand dunes is that there is water that runs through them in the morning and then by the afternoon the water stops so its dry again.

Malea & Isaac playing in the wet sand :)

Mmmm sand boogers :P

 

Me in front of the Adams State sign

Malea and Claire playing outside....we sure miss them already!  I'm sad I didn't get a picture of their cute little boy

Intensives was a great experience. The first day I had to take the MAT exam that I had been studying for for about the last 6 weeks.  Thankfully I passed with a high enough score for the program requirement, so that was a relief.  In the morning each day I had a Pre-Practicum class, which was where we practiced counseling techniques with our classmates.  The first day the professor walked in with two boxes of tissues and said "you guys are going to need these".  Boy was he right!  This was definitely the toughest part of the week because we had to be graded on certain techniques. He compared the week to boot camp and said that he would start out by "tearing us down" and then by the end of the week he would build us back up.  I had to grow a thicker skin that week, but I am so glad I did because I learned so much. After lunch we had our growth group, which was basically just group therapy for us as students (this was my favorite). It was a really great experience.  I learned so much about myself and feel like I became a better version of myself.

After Intensives were over we stayed for an extra couple of days and went up to the Denver area to visit some family.  We stayed with Keith's aunt and uncle, and it was so great to see them!  They had never even seen Isaac before so that was great.  Their poor dog Scout took a lot of Isaac's abuse but he knew who to hang around when there was food involved :)

We got to go visit Keith's grandma who is in a nursing home there.  She is legally blind now and her health is deteriorating so I'm glad we took the extra couple of days to go see family. 

We also stopped by to visit Keith's grandpa....it was so good to see him too and listen to his great stories

Keith's sister Jenn also lives in the area so we were able to go see them as well.  The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins.

We ended up driving home on Father's Day, so poor Keith didn't get much of a celebration.  Malea did decorate a card though and I snuck off Saturday night to get him the new "Sherlock Holmes" movie :)

We had a great experience in Colorado!  We ended up being gone for about 10 days, which was the longest trip we had ever taken with the kids.  They did so well though, and didn't start to burn out until the day before we left.  We were sure happy to get home! 

Dang Trampoline....

So once again I am way behind on blogging, and I have lots of posts to catch up on, but I wanted to do a quick post about Malea's leg.  So last Wednesday (the 11th) Malea was jumping on the neighbor's trampoline....I am usually pretty strict about not letting her jump when there are a lot of kids on there or when there are bigger kids jumping, but this particular day I didn't check in advance before letting her go over to jump.  The next thing I know I hear her crying really hard outside so I went out there and one of the other neighbor girls was helping her limp back home. At first I thought she hurt her ankle but once I got her inside and finally got her to tell me where it hurt she pointed to her left knee. I found out after talking to some of the other kids that an older kid bounced her really high and she landed weird on it. I got her some ice for it and she just stayed on the couch for the rest of the evening.  I didn't rush her right in to the doctor because I didn't want to overreact if it was just a sprain or a bad bruise or something.  She went to bed that night and slept horrible.  She woke up in the morning and refused to walk on it, and if you tried to move her or even get close to her knee she freaked out.  I mentioned something about it on facebook, and someone commented saying that it is actually really common for kids to break their legs right below the knee on trampolines, and I should probably take her in.  After reading that, and watching her sit on the couch all day refusing to walk on it, we decided to take her in to Instacare.  She had x-rays done and then the doctor came in and told us that she had indeed had a buckle fracture right below her left knee :(  Of course after that I felt horrible for not taking her in right away, but the doctor said that sometimes parents will bring their kids in and it turns out that its nothing, so that made me feel a little better.  He wrapped her leg in a splint and told us that she needed to go in to get a cast on Monday after the swelling has gone down a little bit.

 

 

 Malea after we got back from Instacare and after a tricky sponge bath :(

 Some of the neighbor kids have come and played with her outside on our bench, it has been fun for her

  Eating family dinner at the card table with Malea

The worst news he told us was that she couldn't walk on it for 2-3 weeks, at which point she could get a walking cast but she would have to have a cast for 6 weeks total :(  My first thought was, goodbye summer! :'(  I was so bummed out that this happened right in the heart of summer, and that she would be getting it off right when summer was over.  I was also bummed because I am only a few days away from being done with summer semester and then I have a month off of school.  I had big plans to do all kinds of fun stuff with the kids during my month off.  I was especially frustrated because she is the most cautious child, I for sure thought her little brother would have broken a bone before her!

 Grandpa Dave came by and brought her a Magnadoodle that she can sit and play with, it was so nice!

They're also letting us borrow their wagon for the next few weeks too :)

Malea with her cast, she was excited to get a pink one

  So now we are just trying to survive the next couple of weeks until the 31st when she goes in to get her walking cast.  She can't put any weight on her leg at all so we have to carry her everywhere. We didn't realize how much she does for herself and for Isaac until she can't walk!  We were excited to hear that they had waterproof casts so she can still go swimming and stuff.  And of course she got a pink one. :)  We have had to get creative with things for her to do, and you can tell she is getting bored, but she has been such a good sport about the whole thing.  Hopefully summer is not completely lost ;)