Secrets are fun!

I'm a bad liar and therefore not the best at keeping secrets. I find it especially hard to lie to someone in person. On the phone, however, it's a little easier and this is why when I found out I was pregnant just 4 days after my longest and dearest friend moved away, I thought I might have a little fun with this. I did keep it a secret from most at first (including my hubby), but on my own time I gradually spilled the beans to everyone on my own terms. There was no FB announcement until my 20 week ultrasound we when found out the gender and then I tried to make sure everyone in her family wouldn't see it. I also would immediately delete anyone's comment's on my wall about the pregnancy. With Beckie, I remember talking to her on the phone and I was about to tell her but our conversation ended before I had a chance and I began to wonder how long I could keep it from her. I figured I would have to tell her at some point but then she started talking about coming out during the summer and I was due July 17th! She had a hard time deciding when to come out but either way I thought it would be fun if I greeted her big fat and prego or with a new baby, so either way was good. I eventually let her sister, Annie, in on my little secret and she became my partner in crime. She planned a baby shower for me and we considered trying to have it when Beckie came out but that didn't work out. Beckie and Annie's other sister was having a dance show and asked Beckie to come. Her show was on July 17th! So Beckie finally decided to come on the 17th and stay for 3 weeks. I still didn't know whether or not I would greet her prego or with baby in tow but at the Dr.'s appointment 2 days before my due date we decided to induce. I really wanted to go into labor on my own with this last one as all others were induced, but at that Dr.'s appointment it was obvious that she was not coming soon and that I would more than likely be induced when I went a week past my due date. My doc gave us the option to induce on the 17th as she was on call and, mainly because of some other things that were going on at the time, we agreed. I started talking with Annie about how we could coordinate. Their sister's show was in the evening and she was suppose to bring Beckie by after. I figured I'd have the baby quickly as she was my fourth, but I didn't. I kept in contact with Annie all day so she knew that it was taking awhile. Unfortunately, I missed Annie's call when they were done with the show that evening as I was getting my epidural and by the time I called back she had dropped off Beckie. Annie at least came by and kept us company and shortly after she left Charli was born. The next day Annie and her older sister kidnapped Beckie and brought her to the hospital.
You can read about it in Annie's Blog:
Beckie's Surprise
Unfortunately I have no pictures from her visit. I'm always the one to take pictures and I was either too high on pain killers, caught up in the moment, or both and didn't think to ask someone to take a picture :-( I should have planned better. But I thought it might be fun to share some pics of Beckie and I through the years ;-)

I had a lot of fun with this last pregnancy by surprising people. I finally told my husband in a cool way as we had found out together with our other two. I totally surprised him at a dinner I arranged that he thought was to celebrate a business achievement. He thought I was being nice when I offered to be DD ;-)  I had the restaurant print "Congratulations" on the top of the menu and when he noticed that, I gave him a present I had brought. It was a musical giraffe. Giraffes have been a common theme among our babies. My girls still sleep with their giraffes. He had no clue what it was. He thought the hard musical part inside the giraffe housed what he really wanted, a watch. So after watching him try to take the giraffe apart I asked him to "think about it". It was priceless. Just as his eyes became wide and it was dawning on him, the waiter came over. He sat there dumbstruck and the waiter figured out that he should come back. Once he could talk his words to me were, and I quote "so that's why you were such a b**** last week!" Now that's what I call love! He was excited though. That boy gets baby fever more than me. We just weren't expecting it (totally thought we were done) and definitely not trying, so he was caught completely off guard.

Then on the day we got home from the hospital (which happened to be our 8 year anniversary) I got a text from my friend Trish, wishing us a happy anniversary (she set Chris and I up on a blind date and that was that). I'd been talking to her through out my pregnancy but I hadn't told her either. We were suppose to get together the month before and I was going to surprise her with my huge self but her kids got sick so we postponed. So in response to her text I sent her a pic of Avery holding her new baby sis.
She was shocked and had so many questions.


Here are some old school pics of Trish and Beckie at my 21st bday and my wedding. What awesome friends I have:

Anyways, I had a lot of fun being sneaky with my unexpected surprise. It's not everyday that you get happy news, and for me it was a lot of fun keeping the secret and figuring out creative ways to share it.

More about our local Ballerina on the rise

So I am having so much fun watching this girl from our studio on her path to a professional career. This weekend she is competing in the finals of the Youth America Grand Prix in NYC. It's more of a traditional competition where you prepare small dances from famous ballets (variations) as well as freshly choreographed contemporary pieces. I'm not sure how she placed last year but she did win a model competition. Pretty much every girl who enters the competition (there are about 9 or so local competitions throughout the country and the top meet in NYC for the final competition) is also entered into the model search for Grishko, a ballet shoe and apparel manufacturer, and Anisa won. 

Here are the videos of a couple of the variations she preformed at the competition that took place here:

Can you believe this girl only started studying classical ballet at 12 (she's 17 now)?!?!
She's going to be the lead in our studio's spring production of Cinderella. I'm sure this will be the last show she'll be with us before she moves on to much bigger and better things. You should take this opportunity to come see her (and of course my kiddos as well). It will be the first weekend in June at Denver University. I will post more info when it becomes available.

Winter Park Feb. 2011

So a couple times each year we head up to a house in Winter Park that my Mother-in-Law has partial ownership in. We got to go at the end of last month and the girls had tons of fun. I, on the other hand, was somewhat tired and miserable as Charli REFUSED to sleep at night. The last couple nights were better as she got her own room but before that we were have regular playdates in the middle of the night.
The girls got to go skiing twice and went with their Dad and Grandma. No more ski school!!!! The first day they gave their keepers a workout but by the second day they had worked some of the kinks out.

One of the days the big girls and I got to go dog sledding. 

That night they got to go to the tubing hill in Fraser. I guess they had the place to themselves for awhile. When they got home and I was putting them to bed, I did my usual check of Avery's loose tooth and it was finally ready!!! She had already lost one tooth before but got some professional help from her Uncle and soon-to-be Aunt because the other tooth had already popped up behind. This was the first time she got to actually do the yanking and while she was a little scared at first, she got it out.

The townhouse is at the top of a cul-de-sac and the plows made a huge snow mound in the middle. Some of the neighbors turned the mound into a little play ground of sorts by digging out tunnels, making stairs, slides, and big holes for them to hide in. They spent a lot of time out there.

I always try to get some shots of the girls in the wooded area behind the house.

Overall it was a good trip and I can't wait to go back again this Fourth of July!

Charli's Six Month Pics

Here are just a few of the shots my friend took of Charli. 

 I Just LOVE how she captured all her little baby faces and that fabulous chunky baby bod!

And as for the hat............

I bought it from my friends store and thought to myself that I really ought not spend that much on a baby hat (even though I was supporting the girl who made it and my friends store). The hat goes with everything (you can even switch out the flower), and it's been great in these Winter months. She just happened to be wearing it to keep warm that day and I'm so glad my friend asked to use it in the pictures since it has become a big part of her babyhood and will go down, I'm sure, as one of our most cherished keepsakes of this special time.

    

Flat Avery Goes To Africa

Well Avery's First Grade class read Flat Stanley and were asked to do their own flat project. For those of you who haven't encountered a Flat Stanley project, you probably will at some point. It's become an Elementary right of passage so to speak. In the book, Stanley becomes flattened by a bulletin board. His parents take advantage of his newly flattened form and ship him off via the mail to see different people and to go to different places.

We sent Flat Avery to her Uncle Justin. Justin was kind enough to take Flat Avery along with him on his second dental missions trip to Uganda to provide dental care to HIV positive children.

Flat Avery on a gorilla trek with Uncle Justin

Flat Avery on the Equator!

Last year while on his first dental missions trip, Justin met someone very special. Joni!!!!

This year, Uncle Justin asked Joni to marry him!

Justin with one of his patients

Grrrrrrrr

Pretty view

At a local market

Prix De Lausanne

So I'm going to take a cue from all my Mormon friends (you know who you are ;-) and give this blogging thing a try. I must admit this is NOT the best way to be spending my time right now so I can't guarantee I'll stay current, or keep it up at all.

Theme of the day???

BALLET! more specifically the Prix De Lausanne.

Don't know what that is? Neither did I until recently. A girl named Anisa from the girls' studio was chosen to participate in this years competition. It's been held annually for the last 30 some odd years in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is an international, six day competition for up and coming ballet students ages 15-18. There were approximately 45 boys and 45 girls chosen to participate this year. I think Anisa is only 1 of 4 Americans. Some of the alum include Darcy Bussell, Alex Wong (of SYTYCD success), and even Natalie Portman's baby daddy Benjamin Millepied.

The goal is to be one of the 20 finalists who will compete live, on Sunday, for one of a handful of scholarships or apprenticeships. But the truth is, just being asked to participate is such a huge deal that it will get them all very far in their careers.

It has been a lot of fun checking out the video blogs and pictures each day from the competition so I thought I'd share them with you. Mainly the ones featuring Anisa because you've got to route for the home team! Speaking of which, I find it kind of funny that this "Super Bowl" of ballet coincides with our actual Super Bowl. At least the times won't clash seeing as how the finals start at 3 pm Central European Time which I've calculated to be about 7 am here.

So here is the link to the official website if you're interested:

www.prixdelausanne.org

Here is a pic of Anisa and Avery at Nutcracker this past year

Here are some pics of her from this week's competition. She's #313 in the orange leo for the first 3.

Here are 2 of the Video Blogs. One features a French participant who is part of Anisa's group so you get to see her a lot in the background. She's the one with AMAZING extension.

With the excitement of this weeks competition and being stuck inside for 2 days due to the sub-zero temps, the girls decided to start gearing up for the Prix De Lausanne 2022