Twist and Shout!

My friend and neighbor Stephanie

held her big showcase for her voice students last week and Ashlyn had the opportunity to be a backup singer for one of her students. She attended practices for 2 months and seemed to love every minute. For the Beatles- themed showcase, their group performed "Twist and Shout," complete with simple choreography. We were disappointed that 2 of the microphones didn't work, so it was hard to hear her, but she still had a good time performing on stage.

Ashlyn was the youngest in the group by 2 years, but you'd never guess my her height!

No surprise there, I guess!

Claire's new friend

Claire has been so much fun lately! She is such a little "person" and she knows what she wants. I think she'll be a little like Ashlyn in that she's pretty daring and likes to try anything once. Last week I was laughing hysterically as our bird Marley sat on her shoulder. Marley kept biting her curly hair and nibbling on her ears. This sends me through the roof, but Claire was s good sport and walked around like a pirate with a bird on her shoulder for over and hour. Those 2 are good friends now!

I wish Claire would talk a bit more, but I know that will come. She uses "the finger that rules the world," as my Mom calls it, to tell us what she wants but I've been insisting that she either sign or tell me what she wants lately. I know she understands, so I talk to her like a little grown up. It might be true what everyone says about 3rd children...that they have 2 older siblings to talk for them.

The "terrible twos" are approaching, but I'm really enjoying my baby for now!

Bloom where you're planted???

I can hardly believe I'm writing this, but we are moving to Colorado! This has been such a difficult decision for our family because we LOVE Arizona and viewed this as a more permanent move. We've been here 3 years this month, which is the longest we've stayed in one place since Ashlyn was born almost 9 years ago.

I am just having the hardest time getting excited about going! We've prayed about this and do feel it's the best option for our family and I did feel at peace. The next morning, all I could do was cry. All the details came flooding in.....how much I would miss my friends, Dan's family, our ward and our home, how much work I had to do to get us moved again, that we'd be starting over...again. I went to the grocery store later that day and I just lost it in the cereal isle. I sat down in the middle of the isle and just bawled. I got a few strange looks and one lady asked if I was okay. I could just mumble, "I just found out we're moving and I'm going to miss it here." I'm sure she thought I was nuts!

It's hard to know what to say when friends ask how I feel about this move. While I want to cry and scream, my kids are watching me and pick up on my attitude, so I'm trying to be on my best behavior:-) The truth is I am angry. I'm angry that we have to leave a place I love so much, a place where I could envision us living forever. I'm angry that we'll have to rent our home that I adore and that we'll be renting in Colorado until we figure out what to do. I'm angry that my kids will have to be the new kids at a new school again. Ashlyn's 8 years old and this will be the 6th city in the 5th state that she's lived in! I hope they'll forgive us for moving them around so much, especially because I moved around so much when I was their age!

When Dan left with Corey & his Dad for the Father & Sons' campout on Friday he kissed me goodbye and whispered, "Just stop fighting it and this will all be easier." I know he's right and I know that I should feel so blessed that he'd got a great new job in this sad, sad economy. So many people have said to me, "Oh, you're in for a great adventure" or "maybe the people in Colorado need you," but my heart just aches to stay put with friends here so we'll someday be the kind of friends that go "way back."

We had our first moving company estimate on Friday and my head is just spinning when I think of how much there is to do. We're heading to Colorado this week to find a place to live and we're going to list our AZ home for rent. School is out for the kids next week and the heat is here with a vengeance. I told Dan last night that "my home is wherever you are" and I meant it. We have come to love everywhere we've lived...Salt Lake City, UT, Las Vegas, NV, Torrance and Castaic, CA and now Gilbert, AZ. Our circle of friends just keeps getting bigger and we're experiencing life in different states with different people. Now, I need to stop blogging and start packing...

Ashlyn's latest adventures...

I'm not sure where she gets the nerve to do some of the things she does, but my Ashlyn is pretty daring and adventurous. She sings in church, dives off the high dive and climbs trees like a squirrel. At her school's Spring Festival, she loved the climbing wall and rang the bell when she reached the top 3 times. Even though she scares me to death sometimes, I'm her biggest fan. I love that she's willing to try things that scare her! ----->

<------- Last Saturday, Ashlyn joined Dan & his

Dad for an early morning hike. It was apparently

a pretty tough climb, but from the pictures, the view was worth it! Who knew the desert could

be so beautiful?

Crashing my sister's vacation...

The BEST pizza at Oregano's...(Above): Alli & Andrea, Tyler & Corey, Ashlyn & Jane.

I feel blessed to have siblings that are also my best friends. All 5 of them live in Salt Lake, within about 10 minutes of each other and my parents..... and then there's me. Thankfully, we get back to see them a few times a year and this year my sister Andrea and her family came to Arizona for their Spring Break! I drove up 4 times in a week to see them at the beautiful Marriott resort in Scottsdale and they came to visit us and to hear Ashlyn sing in church. When I see how much my adorable nieces and nephew have changed in the few months since I've seen them, it seems wrong that we live so far apart!

We enjoyed dyeing Easter eggs, swimming in the amazing pool, hanging out at the park, eating Grandma G's pizza at Oregano's and just catching up. My Claire was fascinated with her cousin Meg, who's just 11 months younger and I think they'll be good friends as they get older. Check them out in their matching swimsuits from my Mom!

Girls' night out!

We've moved around a lot, but I think I'm decent at staying in touch with good friends. I was ecstatic that Stacy came to visit her sister-in-law recently in AZ, so we had a girls' night out at Red, White and Brew! While we were being seated, we had 2 waitresses stop and ask us if we were sisters. I LOVE this girl! She was the first friend I met when my {{mean}} parents made us move to a new school with only 4 weeks of school left when I was in 8th grade.....

Stacy and I had P.E. together and she introduced me to all her friends and suddenly, it wasn't SO bad that I had to move again to a new school where I knew no one. We've shared clothes, prom dresses & awkward high school experiences (well, I shared mine). We've been there for each other through breakups with boyfriends, bad hairdos (again, mine), senior trip, country dancing at the Bay, double dating, concerts in Park City, college Rush week, baby showers, weddings and we even lived in the same neighborhood when we both bought our first homes...and now our husbands are great friends too! Stacy, thanks for being there for me through it all. You are the best!

Easter

We had an unusual Easter Sunday this year. Ashlyn & I sing in choir, so we had to be to church by 7:30 AM for practice, which made Easter morning a bit of a rush! Andrea & Paul drove an hour to come hear Ashlyn sing a solo, and I believe it was worth the drive. She did great! I'm still not sure where she gets the nerve? I never would've done that at her age!

After church, we came home and took some pictures of the kids in their Easter outfits while they played with bubbles from their Easter baskets.

Easter dinner this year was at Holly's and she always does it right! After all the rain that week, we were grateful for a sunny afternoon for our egg hunt. Claire was hilarious! She was so excited to find eggs and had to shake each one to hear what was rattling around inside.

Please "Say cheese"...

I almost always have a camera with me. It comes in handy when I see something that inspires me. Sometimes it's my kids doing something funny, something I see at a store, or last week when I witnessed a Hummer hit a parked car in a parking lot and the driver almost drove away until he saw me taking his picture! My kids are usually willing subjects for my photographs.....but not always!

Sunday after church I asked the kids if I could take a few pictures of them in these adorable matching outfits that my Mom sent. Ashlyn was not too happy about this and pouted so much that I took a few group shots and sent her inside to change. I continued to take candids of Corey and Claire and got some great shots.

When we came inside, I explained to Ashlyn that, as a parent, you think you'll never forget certain things about your children. We sat down at my computer and looked through my digital photos. It was fun to see pictures of Ashlyn as a baby and to see the changes as she grew up. I told her that pictures remind me of all the little things I never want to forget about her: the shape of her face, how she looked at age 3, how she loved the puppy we could only keep for 6 months because the dog was tearing up our home, how she looked with very long hair...

She hugged me and told me that she'd smile next time I wanted to take her picture.

"You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it." ~Author Unknown