Invitation to Nationals!!!

Tessa qualified for Nationals!!! 

The top 10 gymnasts from Regionals were invited to Nationals in New Orleans in June. Tessa was so so so excited to qualify and get the invitation! It's going to take more hard work at gym and hard work outside the gym earning money to go, but she's totally willing to do both.

Whatever happens at Nationals, earning a spot there is a huge accomplishment and something to be very proud of!

Congratulations Tessa. We're so proud of you!

This & That

 We hiked the Y for our Young Women's activity and invited the Deacons to come too. Sadly, only Rockwell and Simon showed up from the Deacons. All the young women were really excited about hiking it though! Audrey and Rockwell basically ran the whole thing. They left us all in the dust. :)

Meg, Afton, Marie, Stephanie and I had a while at the top with Rockwell and Audrey before the rest of the group got there. The sky was gorgeous and it was fun to chill up there for a bit and enjoy the view.

I'm really enjoying my calling. It's been so fun to get to know the other leaders, the girls, and get to spend time with Rockwell at activities.

The 2nd grade had Disney Day this week. Mrs Cooper played videos of Disneyland rides and put the kids in rows like they were on the rides. For Splash Mountain she ran around spraying them with a water bottle. :) The videos she shared were awesome and it looked like they had such a fun day!

I got to go to Amarie's last dance recital. It's been so fun to watch her dance all these years. She's amazing at it and you can tell she just loves it. 

Damon had his last soccer game of the season. He really enjoyed playing and had a fun team and awesome coach.

Tessa had her team Celebration & Showcase. They put the girls in small groups and they rotated to each event showing the parents all the new skills they've been working on to prepare for next season. That was really fun to watch!

They also gave out an award to each gymnast and gave them a gift to celebrate their hard work all year. Tessa received the Best Bar Swinger award.

Tessa and I went straight from her gym to UVU for Hallee's end of year recital. She danced in two numbers and was also asked to sing a solo. She comes alive on stage! She does a great job dancing and singing and we love to watch her.

Mother's Day

 I woke up to this awesome tower of goodies on Mother's Day. :)

After church I opened the presents, ate some of my treats, and read the All About My Mom pages the kids made. I always love those!

I took a nap in the afternoon, and woke up to these beautiful hummingbird pictures Paul and the kids colored for me while I was sleeping.  

Paul made a delicious dinner and then we played Phase 10 and ate pie and ice cream. It was such a wonderful day. I truly love love love being a mother to these kids. I feel so blessed that they call me Mom.

Everyday Adventures

Rockwell had his Spring Band Concert and they sounded great!

 He stayed on top of his chunks all year and earned a bronze medal. (7th grade is bronze, 8th is silver, and 9th is gold.) I have no idea why Mr Roberts has named these assignments chunks, but it has been kind of fun to ask Rockwell if he's submitted his chunkies all year I guess. :)

Grandma and Grandpa Ham came down for it, which was so nice of them.

It was Spirit Week at Northridge and the kids were so excited for crazy hair day.

Grandma and Gramps and Emilie came to Damon's soccer game and Rockwell's football game last week. We all loved having them there with us.

Damon and Gramps passed the football while we were waiting for Rockwell's game to start.

Tessa loved that Emilie brought Annie with her.

It was a pretty frustrating game for Rockwell's team. It was the final game, but since there were only 2 teams the whole season, they just played each other again instead of having any playoff games. Rockwell's team won most the games all season, but had an off game this week. It was frustrating to have the off day at the championship game, but oh well.

He enjoyed playing with Aiden and Ashton and learned a lot about football.

His coach gave out awards to each boy and Rockwell got the Track Star Award for his speed on the field.

Hallee came over that afternoon. She and Tessa painted their nails and had a tea party on the deck while it rained.

I've been working hard to get in shape to hike the Grand Canyon next month. I've loved getting outside to exercise now that the weather actually feels like Spring. Yay!

Regionals Meet

Utah is in the Western Zone group for Regionals. There were gyms there from Utah, Wyoming, and California. The competition was definitely more intense since all the girls there had qualified at State. Tessa did awesome! They started on vault this time, and Tessa had such a good landing!! She didn't take a step at all, which is so impressive. She scored a 9.375, which I believe is her personal best on vault. Next, they went to bars and she scored a 9.65. Amazing!

Beam was next, and Tessa stuck her cartwheel again!! It was so exciting! She scored a 9.325 on beam. She was the high scorer on beam for the Arete team. :) 

And floor was last, where she scored a 9.35. That's a 37.7 all-around score!! She had such a solid meet, and scored her highest all-around of the season. Way to go Tessa!!!

For Regionals, they only awarded medals to the top 6 gymnasts for each event (or 7 in Tessa's group, not sure why). I think everyone got an all-around medal, but I'm not sure on that. Anyway, Tessa got 4th place on vault.

7th place on bars.

6th place on beam.

And tied for 4th place on floor.

She placed 6th in the all-around.

Earning a medal on every event was quite the accomplishment at this meet. Way to go Tessa Girl!!! You did an awesome job at Regionals!

Tessa wanted a picture with the birthday boy. :)

Damon Turns 8!!!

Damon is 8 years old!!

Damon loves people and people love Damon! He has a smile that draws people to him. He enjoys talking with people and making them laugh. 

I'm told regularly how much people love Damon. Mrs Cooper reaches out often to tell me how much she loves him, other teachers at the school, family, my young women, etc. He's so much fun and brings a lot of joy to others.

Damon loves to play with friends. He's a great helper at school and is doing really well with everything he's learning in 2nd grade. He's excited to be learning multiplication now! His favorite foods are peanut butter, any kind of treat, and salmon. He loves to play video games with Rockwell and Paul. He wants to play every sport, and he loves to be outside.

Damon wanted to have his friend party at Lowe's Xtreme Sports again. Tessa's Regional gymnastics meet was on the same day as Damon's birthday, which stressed me out. We told him that Paul would take him and his friends to his party that afternoon, but he said that he really wanted to go to Tessa's meet and wanted to do his party a different day. So we did his party on Thursday. Rome, Jacob, and Quinn came and they had so much fun!

Friday morning Paul made bacon and animal-shaped pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream for Damon's breakfast.

We let him open one present that morning. He was excited to get some rollerblades.

He was really excited for the Spirit Week Glow Party that afternoon at school. I needed to check Tessa out early to get her hair done for her meet, but wanted to make sure Damon could stay for the party. I switched carpool with Aubrey, so that I could be working on Tessa's hair then instead of picking the kids up from school. Sadly, she forgot though, and so by the time the kids called me from school and I went and picked them up, we needed to get right into the car to make it up to Layton in time. Damon wanted McDonald's for dinner so we got that and ate it on the way. We brought all of his presents in the car and he opened them while we drove. He loves his new stuffed dog Spirit, and is excited to try his new gel blaster guns.

Damon had been so excited for a McFlurry after the meet. We put a candle in it and sang happy birthday to him.

On Saturday, Grandma and Gramps took Damon out for his birthday. He chose Dairy Queen for lunch. 

He came home with so many toys from their shopping trip! He got two remote control cars, two balls, a stick dinosaur, a huge water gun, and treats. He and Grandma add up the prices of the things he wants as they're shopping until they get to the birthday budget amount. He was able to get a lot of things he was really excited about!

There were a couple hard things on his birthday this year, but he said it was a great one!! Damon's pretty easy to please, which is a wonderful thing about him. I'm so grateful for all the people who love Damon who helped him have a great birthday. 

We love love love you Damon Doyle, and are so so so grateful you're in our family!!