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I've been working as a Health Coach and helping people get healthy. I love it!!! :) This is my newsletter header and also my signature picture.

Special Spray

Alexandra is notorious for getting out of her bed. Tonight when I tucked her into bed, I told her a bedtime story about a little girl named Alexandra. In the story:

"Her mom tucked her into bed and put a special spray on the floor. When Alexandra got out of her bed to play, her mom told her to get into bed and she noticed that her toes were feeling funny. Then she got out again and her mom said, "Alexandra, get back in your bed!" She got back in and noticed that another toe was feeling funny. She looked under her covers and discovered that her toes were turning BLACK! Every time she got out of her bed, the black crept a little higher and higher up her foot.

She started to cry and she told her mom what had happened. Alexandra's mom told her that there was special spray on the floor that made her toes black and if she wanted her toes to go back to normal she would have to stay in her bed. Every night that she stayed in her bed, one more toe would change back to normal."

After my wonderful bedtime story, I tucked Alex, gave kisses, and said goodnight. Then as I left the room, I put my hand out and "sprayed" the floor.

Well, as it turns out, tonight Alexandra was SO TIRED that she just couldn't manage to get out of bed and fix her door (like she normally does), so she called me to come and fix her door. It turns out she was also too tired to get out of bed and fix her covers (like she normally does), so she asked me to do it. I said, "Why can't you do it?" She said, "Because I'm just so tired tonight." 

I'm going to have to spray more things. :)

Athena, you are WONDERFUL!

I felt so terrible for Athena tonight. She was supposed to babysit at the church during the adult fireside tonight. She went, ready to serve, and Jeremy and I went into the fireside. It was 2 hours long and after the fireside, Jeremy and I couldn't find any children (in the nursery). We checked the church twice and figured Athena had just walked home because there were no kids to babysit. Well, one extra glance into the room (and glad I did), there sat Athena by herself. :( She had been sitting there for 2 hours! Made me want to cry. I gave her a big long hug and brought her in to get some WELL DESERVED refreshments. I can't even imagine what was going through her head during that long fireside. What a wonderfully patient girl! I love that she was so willing to help out.

Sealings . . . or . . . Ceilings?

Jeremy and I went to the temple to do sealings and the kids went to Lisa's house to play for a couple of hours. Apparently Hazel's room was messy and Alexandra was NOT impressed. A few days ago Alex came up to me and said, "When you and Dad were at the temple painting the ceilings, Hazel REALLY needed to clean up her room."

Happy Birthday Alexandra!!!

So, this post is dedicated to Alexandra - because she turned 4 on May 13th!!! On the morning of her birthday, I surprised her by taking her to Build-a-Bear to create a new little friend. This is the bear she picked.

This bear fits her personality exactly! It's very colorful with rainbow hearts all over it. I wasn't surprised that she went for this one.

Alex got to stand on the pedal to help the fluff go into her bear. She also enjoyed telling everyone how old she is. See her holding up her fingers? :)

After her bear was fluffy enough, Alexandra picked out a heart, gave it a kiss, and gave her bear the heart.

Nathan has afternoon kindergarten so he came with us to Build-a-Bear in the morning. We let him bring along his turtle and join in the fun. After fluffing up the bear, it was time to clean the bear. Here is Alexandra at the bathing station. She puts her foot on the pedal and the lamps blow air to help fluff up the outside of the animal.

Turtle also got a bath! Nathan was so cute about bathing his turtle. He carefully removed turtle's shell and then gently brushed and cleaned every inch of his turtle. I have never seen him be so gentle and loving! I enjoyed watching him! :)

Moving on - time to dress the bear! Alex knew exactly what her bear should wear and she went right to work shopping for the perfect outfit. She went right to the "kissing dresses" (wedding dresses), found the one she thought was the most beautiful, then marched on over to the accessories and busied herself matching this and that. She is quite the little shopper!

Finally, after the bear was bathed, dressed, named, had a birth certificate, and lots of little extra bows, we made it out of the store. Here is the finished product. TA DA!!!  Alex named her bear "Kissy" and ever since her birthday, Kissy has barely been out of Alexandra's sight.

For the afternoon on Alex's birthday, Nathan had "show and teach" at his school, so we went and spent the afternoon in his kindergarten class watching him teach his class. :)

I decided to give Alexandra a birthday party with her friends the next day, so after school I got to work on her cake. She picked to have a Tangled birthday party and birthday cake, so guess who gets to come up with something special . . . ME!!

I made her a special cake and it really didn't take as long as I thought it would to decorate it. I used ice cream cones to make a tower for Rapunzel and then just had to frost the tower, grass, and bushes. Easy enough. As I was putting together the tower, it kept leaning and leaning. I put toothpicks in at the bottom and attached the cones together with melted chocolate, but I wasn't sure it would make it through the night to the party the next morning. I left the cake here on the counter overnight and was worried about how it would look when I woke up. When morning came, Jeremy went out and checked the cake and came and told me ,"Well, your tower is still standing." Thank goodness!

 After I finished her cake in the evening, we had birthday dinner and let Alex open her presents from us and Grandmas and Grandpas. She was already in her pajamas, but I noticed that she transferred her birthday sticker from Build-a-Bear from her t-shirt to her pajamas. Cute!

I love the look of anticipation on Nathan's face!

 Ok. Next day. So, Saturday morning was the party. Notice my tower still standing? Woo hoo! It is leaning a bit, but still up! That's what counts. I added a couple little Rapunzel touches and Whalaa!

For the party we watched Tangled, painted fingernails and toenails, blew bubbles, opened presents, and ate cake and ice cream. This is the present portion of the party. It's funny because kids this age don't really understand the whole - I'm giving you a present because it's your birthday and you get to keep what I brought - concept. We had to explain this a few times throughout the session. Poor little traumatized girls.

Alex did love everything she received and I'm glad she got to have the experience of a party with her friends.

I had to include this picture because it made me laugh! We look so dumb!!! It was really bright outside. My 2 sisters, Lisa and Teresa, stayed at the party and helped out. I loved having them stay! It was fun to have a little extra help and some adult conversation. :)

Last but not least, we sang Happy Birthday and all enjoyed some cake and ice cream. For some odd reason, Alexandra wouldn't blow out her candles. We tried a few times to get her to do it, but she wouldn't, so I had to blow them out. I hope my wish comes true.

I did my best to make her birthday special for her and I think she had a wonderful time! :)

Zumba Me!

In case you didn't already know - I finally became a Zumba instructor! I got licensed at the beginning of April and have been teaching ever since. :)

This past couple of months has been a whirlwind for me. I decided I wanted to teach Zumba in January and had a hard time getting into a training because they were sold out. So, I finally made it to the one in April and 5 days later had a job interview to teach my first hour-long class at Anytime Fitness. Lo and behold, I got the job and I absolutely LOVE IT!!! I teach every Tuesday and Thursday evening and in my "off" time I work non-stop on memorizing music and working on new dances. I wish I would have found it years ago, but I'm happy to be doing it now!!

It's fun to see the kids embrace what I'm doing too. As I practice my dances in the kitchen, they join in and work on my dances with me. Now they all have their favorite songs and they take turns picking songs on my iPod when we are in the car.

PS - I would LOVE to have friends come and join my class. Let me know if you want to come and I'll give you the details!

Quick Family Home Evening Activity

We were at a loss for something fun after we finished our lesson for Family Home Evening, so out came the eyeliner and little clothes!

The kids took turn singing the primary songs in their new characters and had a blast! 

Samantha is on the left and Athena is on the right.

The funniest part to me is all the extra faces they make with their chins! Nathan was laughing so hard he could hardly sit up!

After Athena and Samantha had a turn, Nathan and Alex had to give it a try. This is Nathan. :)

We tried to give Alexandra's character some hair, but she ended up looking like a balding woman who couldn't keep her gangly long hair out of her face.

Overall it provided the much-needed entertainment for the evening and gave us all a good laugh!