Another Class assignment of photos

Educational class

I have not done well at all with keeping up this blog.  The only reason I am writing on it now is to fulfill a class assingment.  I don't know if anyone even reads this blog anymore.  For those that do, I am going to write a quick summary of what has been going on in the life of the Baileys.  We are still living in Tremonton Utah.  We love it here and so do the kids.  I am on the last leg of my education.  I only have two semesters plus the one I am in right now.  I am doing my practicum at an Elementary school and I love it.  It has been so much fun, just kind of busy going to my classes when I get home.  Jon is one month away from getting his MBA.  He is so excited to have it over with.  Dylan is still doing great.  He loves school and reading.  Livie has loved going to kindergarten this year.  She loves being there and thinks her teacher is the best.  She told me the other day that I will probably be a great teacher, but Mrs. Heath is her favorite.  :)

May Performances

May has been a month of performances and graduations. First was Livie's spring TaVaci concert. She did such a great job and loved every minute of it. I love that when I tell her to smile she poses for the camera.Next was her dance revue with Dance Factory. She had so much fun and did a perfect job. We were so proud of her.Dylan graduated from kindergarten. He called it "congradulating". He was so excited and sang his songs so well. We loved that he marched up to the stage when his name was called. His teacher Mrs. Esplin and the para Mrs. Stevenson were so wonderful. He loved them and they did so much for him this year. We are so grateful for all of their hard work and the time they spent helping Dylan grow.

Dylan's Musings

Dylan answered a questionnaire in his class for Mothers day. It was so cute that I decided to share it. Some of the things he said were right on, others not so much.
He said:
I love my mom because: "She likes to go to church."
My mom loves me because: "She likes to drive me around."
My moms favorite thing to do is: "Read."
My mom looks very pretty when: "She does her hair."
My mom gets the most mad when: "I don't clean up my room."
My mom's favorite thing to eat is: "Salad." (Yeah, right. But I'm glad he thinks that.)

He also has been watching the latest Herbie movie that is called Herbie Fully Loaded. But Dylan calls is "Herbie full of Loadie." Too cute.

Hawaii and more

I have been trying to do about one post a month, so I figured I better get on my April post. This has been a great month. I had the opportunity to go to Hawaii with my brother. It was so amazing. I had never been there before and I treasured every experience. Some highlights of the trip were:

• Snorkeling. I loved it and I could have done it all day. We saw enormous turtles who could be a tad too friendly, but it was amazing.
• My first ever massage. It had its weird parts, but I loved how relaxed I felt afterward.
  
• Coby's status. This is more of a joke between us, but because of his selling, we were upgraded to a suite and were served breakfast every morning, afternoon tea, and appetizers every evening. I ate way too much.
• Snorkeling, oh wait, I already mentioned that, but I loved it so much it was worth an extra mention.
• The volcano. It was a long drive, but it was amazing standing on a live volcano.
  
• The dancing. Coby and I are both dancers and one night they had a country dance and we ripped it up. We had to avoid all slow songs, but we rocked the line dancing.
• The lava tubes. They were incredible to walk through. The volcano was so crazy, one side was a desert and dead and the other side was a lush rain forest.
• My hair. Okay, not really. My hair would not go straight. I spent one morning straightening it and by the time we got to breakfast, it was curly.
• The sunsets. They were amazing! I would have loved to share them with Jon.

To finish off, here are a few random pictures. I love this one of Dylan and Livie. They were playing dress up. He was her prince.

This last one is a Sunday nap. Usually Jon is the only one who naps on Sunday, but this time he was the only one awake and had to document the experience.

Dylan's 6th Birthday

Dylan had a great birthday this year. He was so excited to turn six because it is only ten years away from sixteen and then he can drive a car. We had a friend party for him the Saturday before his birthday. They made wooden cars, pinned the dog on the firetruck and broke a pinata. They had so much fun.
On his birthday he got the two presents he had been asking for and then we surprised him with a power wheels truck. He was so excited, he couldn't stop shouting yes! He has had so much fun with it.
On a side note, I just had to post the picture of the darling Valentines Day box Jon made Dylan. Dylan was so proud of it and still plays with it.

Random Cuteness

There hasn't been a lot of things going on in January, but there have been a few random cute things.

• Dylan and Denver were playing together one day and Tangi and I dressed them alike. They loved being twins.
• Dylan decided that he needed to be a man and had Jon draw a mustache on him and he went around all day wearing that and his hard hat.
• Dylan also decided that he needed roller skates. He took two cars and used masking tape to attach them to his shoe. He thought it was pretty clever and it worked pretty well.

This last picture is only funny if you have seen our house and you have seen Coby and Tangi's house. Dylan was building a city and brought me into his room to give me a tour. He had taken Livie's doll house and told me that was Denver's house. Then he pointed to a little lego house next to it and told me that it was our house. I love kid's perceptions on things.

Sunday Love

This may be the end of my good posting run, since I resume school on Monday. I thought Dylan and Livie looked so cute on Sunday that I had to take a few pictures. And yes, I am aware that my son looks like Harry Potter. We went sledding on Saturday and Dyl forgot to stop and slid into the fence. Dylan was also putting the moves on a couple of women on Sunday. He was one of my helpers in primary and he sidled right up to this little girl named Shayden. He stood really close to her and then smiled and put his arm around her. Later in sacrament meeting, he was playing on the back of the bench when a cute little old lady leaned forward and said hi. Dylan not only said hi back but gave her a great big kiss! She was very happy. I had no idea my son was such a lady's man.We also built a snowman on Friday. Dylan was so excited and wanted to take his picture next to it. Doesn't Dyl look so squishy and cute? We decorated the eyes, mouth and buttons with candy. The coloring leaked everywhere and it looked like we had dyed him. The sad thing is someone knocked our snowman over the next day. But the kids were still happy with the result.

Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas. We started by having a great party at my mom and dad's house on Christmas Eve. The kids were so excited, nothing we could do would calm them down. So they settled on wrestling each other to the ground. They acted out the nativity. I took a picture of Dylan's costume before but we didn't get any during the actual event. The kids did fantastic. They opened up their jammies and looked so darling.

The next morning was perfect. I haven't had a Christmas morning in my house since Livie was born. The kids were darling. They were so excited and so happy with everything they received. We had been working on present manners so I was glad that they were so grateful for everything that everyone gave them. After going back to my mom and dads house, we headed to Provo. Jon's mom and dad just got back from Hawaii so our presents had a Hawaiian theme. The kids share a bed while we are there and I couldn't resist snapping a cute picture of them snuggling up together. Everything was perfect until the next morning. A couple of kids the night before had started getting sick, but we thought we were okay. Then it hit me. I knew I was getting sick so we went home early. The night all four of us had the worst stomach flu I have ever had. Jon was the hero of the night running back and forth to each kids room while I was downstairs almost dead on the floor. Luckily twelve hours later we had stopped vomiting and we are recuperating. We have Clorox and Lysoled every inch of our house and have used our washing machine for almost 48 hours straight. But if you exclude that, it was one of the best Christmases ever!

The Nutcracker

My mom, sister, and my niece Savannah went to see the Nutcracker today. It was so beautiful. I haven't seen it in so long and I can really appreciate it now. It was so much fun to spend time with them and have one on one time with Savannah.

Happy Birthday Livie

Livie's 4th birthday was a week ago, so I am a little slow, but better late than never. She had the cutest little birthday. It was on a Sunday so it was kind of a laid back day, but I think that was good for her. She played with her presents and we sang to her at church. She was the only kid with a birthday that week so she thought she was pretty special. That night my family came over for cake and ice cream. She was so happy, but she was a little sad when it was over. I didn't get any pictures of the party because it is all on video. But here are a few of her opening her presents.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Card

Things are a little tight around here this year, so we are cutting back on everything we can. Although I love sending and getting Christmas cards, it seemed like one of those expendable things. So I am posting a pseudo Christmas card on my blog, since almost everyone I would send one too, reads the blog! Merry Christmas everyone.

December so far

I only have one more final left in school, and I have noticed that I have a lot more free time on my hands. That being said, I have a lot to blog about. Livie is in a singing/performing group called TaVaci. They had their first concert last night. It was so darling! Livie is in the class with her cousin Denver and both of them did fantastic. They sang and did all of the actions. I wish I could upload the video on here. Dylan and Beckham sat in the audience and watched, but they were rewarded for their good behavior by going to get ice cream after.
We took the kids to see Santa, and Livie was so excited. Dylan was okay with it, he was more interested in getting his candy bag. It has been snowing here almost nonstop today. Jon and Dylan are outside building a snowman. Livie is more like me and still has her warm Vegas blood, so we are staying inside snuggling on the couch. But then her dad got the four wheeler to plow the driveway, and she changed her mind.
Dylan has also started building cars. He makes a new one almost every day out of Lego's, but this morning he made a life size one. He even added headlights and a pedal.

Artwork

My kids are little artists. They love to draw all of the time. These two are my latest favorites.
This first one is Livie's. She drew it after her friend Rebecca came to stay with us. She has had it hanging in her room ever since.
This one is Dylan's. He drew this stating that it was his favorite thing to do with his best friend Denver. I found a picture I took of them this summer, and Dylan's drawing is surprisingly accurate.

November Happenings

Well I am averaging about a post a month. That is pretty good right? A week ago my great friend Emily Bowman drove up from Vegas to go see New Moon with me. It was so wonderful and we had so much fun. Our kids loved seeing each other and they had a ball. The picture below is the four of them watching Dr. Seuss How the Grinch Stole Christmas on my bed. Jon said this was right before Livie and William freaked out and went running out of the room. It was so wonderful to see Emily and we already have our plans made for Eclipse.

The other picture is of a Lego car that Dylan made. He also made a Lego remote control to go with it. Every time he pushed the green button he pushed the car to pretend it was moving.

This last Saturday everyone in my family rode the front runner train to Salt Lake to see the lights. The kids loved the train, I think more than the lights. Temple square was absolutely beautiful and I just love the spirit that you feel in that holy place.

Halloween

Our Halloween was so much fun this year. We started it off by having a Halloween party at Jon's mom and dads. Friday night the grown ups had a How to Host a Murder party. Sadly I don't have any pictures of that. But it was great and I ended up being the murderer. Then on Saturday the kids had their Halloween party. They got to dress up, go on a pumpkin hunt, play Halloween bingo, and eat delicious food. Heidi was so sweet and wonderful to organize it all. Then we headed back to Tremonton to eat delicious soup at my mom and dads. The kids loved showing each other their costumes. Dylan and Denver thought they were so spooky. We then made the rounds seeing relatives which was so much fun! We didn't do trunk or treat this year, but being around family that loves us was so much better. After that we went door to door with Gunner, Savannah and Maverick. It was a great Halloween.

I need to do better

I know, I have been horrible at blogging. I got a slight reprimand from my friend Tawni tonight, so I came straight home and started to download pictures. So, to catch up on the last month and a half:
We went camping up at my sister in laws cabin. It was so beautiful. We rode four wheelers, went fishing, where, Dylan and Livie both caught their first fish. In fact, all of the kids caught one. We tried to release them, but some of them didn't make it, so we took them back to camp and cooked them up. Surprisingly, Livie loved the fish and couldn't get enough of it. The two nights we stayed there was horrible weather during the night. It was windy the first night and poured the next. But we had so much fun.
Livie and Dylan both had sleepovers on the same night. Dylan slept over at Denver's house, and Savannah and Lexie stayed here. The girls were funny and darling, stayed up way too late and ate a lot of candy. But they had a fantastic time. Tangi was lucky and got both boys to sleep at 8:30.
Livie started dancing here. She loves it and dances for me all of the time.
Dylan started kindergarten this past Monday. He is doing so well and he loves his class. We had a little incident on Friday where he started a food fight in the cafeteria, but he was disciplined and he swears he will not do it again. The story is funny and it is hard not to laugh when you are telling him it was a bad choice.

Catch-Up

This summer has gone by so fast! I haven't had anytime to post. We have spent the summer playing with cousins, working, doing homework and having so much fun. A few of the highlights:
Each summer the cheerleaders put on a little camp for little girls where they teach them a dance and some cheers. Livie had so much fun. She can't wait to go back to her cheer again.










Dylan has found a new best friend. He loves his cousin Denver and they have had so much fun together. Here they are doing their favorite thing.












Dyl and Live have been in swimming lessons and doing so incredible. They were both swimming underwater by the end of their session. On the second to last day Livie hit her chin on something and had to get five stitches. She wasn't too upset about the stitches, but was very mad that she had to leave the pool.











On a sad note, Dylan's best friend from Las Vegas passed away on Tuesday. He loved Giovanni. Gio was a little autistic boy in his class. The amazing thing was, Dylan was able to get Gio to talk sometimes. It has been an interesting lesson for Dylan to learn about where Gio is now. Dyl was convinced Gio was in the cemetery, but he now knows he is with Heavenly Father and Jesus. Dylan thought that sounded so good, he told me he couldn't wait to live with Heavenly Father. Umm, yeah, I think I can wait.
We are looking forward to celebrating our first pioneer day in five years this Saturday.