Mother's Day

Oh how I love Mother's Day!  Travis let me sleep in, but I woke up earlier than he thought I would so he hadn't cooked breakfast yet.  Ya, it was 9:30 but he was surprised I was up "so early".  He made me french toast stuffed with cream cheese and fresh orange juice.  He is so good at thoughtful gifts.  He took a deck of cards, gave each of the kids 10 and they all wrote things they love about me on them.  How cool is that! Plus I got a 6 pack of bottled coke with limes and a gift card to Sonic.  And I got yellow roses.  Yup, I was pretty spoiled!
I went in to snuggle Cole because he was still in bed when I woke up.  In his sleepy voice he told me, "Happy mothers day mom. You can do anything you want today.  Except skip church, you have to go to church."  I thought that was so cute!  As crazy as he is, at least he knows where we are supposed to be on Sundays!
After church we went to Robin and Janet's house for dinner.  It was so relaxing and yummy.  The men and kids did all the work so all we had to do was hang out and chat.  I am so blessed to have such great family!  We stopped at my mom and dad's after dinner so we could tell mom happy mother's day.  It's kind of hard to have both parents live in the same place as us only because we feel bad to not spend the holiday with one or the other.  But our parents are pretty understanding and we love them for it!

Baylee is 14

Wow, where has the time gone!  I am blessed to have this girl in my life, and to get to be her mom.  She is better than I ever have been.  She is so talented, kind, and beautiful.  It is impossible not to love her! She makes me a better person every day.  She definitely acts like a teenager sometimes, but she is good to her very core.

Bay loves her friends!  She has such a great group of kids that she hangs out with. 

Baylee earned her Young Women's medallion already.  We had her pictures taken on her birthday for that.   This is one of the formal ones the photographer did.  This is just from my phone, but I think it is stunning of her.  She loves her violin and she loves to play.  All those years of practicing and gritting our teeth through the screeching have finally paid off!

14 things about Baylee:

1. She loves to play her violin
2. She has excellent grades
3. She is a total ditz and says the craziest things!  For instance, "wow look at all those dots, I'm never driving on this road!"
4. She earned her Young Women's medallion before she turned 14
5. She loves ice cream, but it makes her sick
6. She LOVES to read.  She has read about every book in our house at least once.
7. She wants to go to BYU
8. She is so kind and empathetic.  She truly cares about other people.
9. She has an amazing testimony and sets an example of righteousness for everyone she is around.
10. She is an expert "eye roller".
11. She loves music.  And her tastes are pretty diverse.  Except Rap, she hates rap thank goodness!  But she always has music playing, whether it's classical, country, alternative, or rock she likes it all.
12. She is brave.  She is never going to be that girl sitting on the side watching everyone else because she is too nervous!
13. She loves to ride her 4-wheeler.  She is so dang good on it too, I totally can't keep up with her!!
14. She is beautiful on the inside and out.

Lamb of God

Baylee had the opportunity to play with Zion's Youth in their performance of Lamb of God.  I really wanted her to write this post about her experience, but she is so busy I don't want to keep putting it off!  They played at the Smith Center this year and it was absolutely phenomenal.  The orchestra and choir is made up of high school kids (and a few select middle schoolers).  They practiced for 3 hours a day, 4 days a week, for just the 2 weeks before the performance.  And they sound like perfection!  It really is one of the most professional, spiritual, testimony building things I have ever got to see.  And it is even more so for the kids involved.  They originally were only going to do one show, but they sold out of tickets so quickly they added a second show.  But they ended up selling out both shows, a total of about 4000 people got to experience this.  I am so grateful for opportunities like this for Baylee.  And it surprises me every day that somehow I got a kid that could do something this fantastic!

David Skouson, the orchestra conducter

Baylee with our neighbor Haylee Pullan, and her friend Abbie Lords.  Baylee and Abbie have been involved with the same things since they were 3 years old and in the same dance class!

Chicks

Kade's 3rd grade class hatched chicks and he was lucky enough to get to bring one home.  His friends, Max and Will also got to bring a chick home.  But when we tried to separate the two, they seriously freaked out!  (the chicks not the kids)  So we decided to keep both of them so they wouldn't be so sad.  Max and Will did end up getting more chicks, 7 more to be exact!  It has been tons of fun to have these chicks.  Sadie only tried to eat them once :)

Kato and Tresh