Emma

Here is Emma's professional dance picture! I thought it came out pretty cute! She loves taking pictures and is always willing to say "cheese"!

Dance Recital

Dance Recital

Saturday June 21 was Emma's dance recital with Arizona Desert Dance. Emma absolutely loves going to dance there and she did a great job for her recital. After the dance was over and the lights went down, Emma was still standing there with her arms up in the air! She really took to heart the "hold your last pose"! She literally needed to be escorted from the stage! :) Jon was sad he had to miss it, but he flew out to Hershey, PA that morning. (Pictures from that trip coming soon!) But, Emma had support from Grandma Clark, Grandma and Grandpa Trafzer and Aunt Stevi! We now have a whole month with no dance...she is going to miss it! Thank goodness it's only a month!

Ready to go!

Curtain Call

Emma with her soon to be Aunt Stevi

Emma and mom

Dress Rehearsal

Last Wednesday was Emma's dress rehearsal for her dance recital. We had to come straight from swim lessons that day, but we made it on time and managed to get her hair to look decent! :) She did really good for dress rehearsal. But, I was also there helping her to remember to smile! I know I have mentioned before what a great class Emma is in. All of the moms chipped in and bought Miss Lainie a gift certificate and flowers to have the girls give her at rehearsal. They're a cute group, I can't wait for dance to start again!

(top) Mele, Reagan, Sophia, Gabi
(bottom) Ali, Ava, Emma

Ava & Emma

On stage practicing...I love how each girl is in a different position!

Emma's dance class with Miss Lainie

Swim Lessons

Emma completed her 2 weeks of swim lessons on the 20th of this month! She loved every minute of it and did pretty good. From day one not knowing anything, to the last day jumping into the pool by herself, was an incredible transformation. Some of you may recognize her teacher, Miss Sharisse. (Julia and Sabrea mainly) It's Sharisse Blau! Sharisse lived down the street from me for a while when we were kids. It was so good to see her again. She was a great teacher and the kids all loved her. Emma's biggest challenge was jumping into the pool without holding hands with Sharisse. On the last day she only needed a very slight push from one of the other moms (who was kind enough to play the mean mom :)) and in she went. Of course, a little bribery never hurts! She picked out a new Snow White Polly Pocket! There were only 5 kids in her class so it was very one-on-one attention. At the end of the frist week Emma found a new favorite thing to do...dive under water for dive sticks! There was a bucket of dive sticks that the little kids were allowed to play with and then the class after theirs had big kids in it that would retrieve all the sticks. Emma caught on to this and wanted to try it. She started throwing the dive stick on the bottom step and Sharisse would help her swim under water to get it. Emma loved this! That Friday Sharrise let Emma take home a pink shark dive stick just for the weekend, which Emma named "Pinky Sharky"! She carried that thing around all weekend! She even "dove" for it in our little inflatable pool! She loves going under water and is getting better about taking big breaths! Jon thinks it's crazy that his little girl has a tan line! It's actually pretty cute! Now we just need to practice and keep up the skills that she learned.

In Memory of Mila

The 18th of June marks the one year anniversary of my niece Mila passing away. Most of you know the story of this precious little girl. She was very special and is missed by all who knew and loved her! We dedicate this blog to her, in her memory.

All About Jon...(sorry, it's a long one)

Jon's birthday was yesterday and with Father's Day the day before, he got a little spoiled! I can't say the weekend started out great for him though. He earned the nickname "One Eyed Willy"!
Jon left on Tuesday for a scout outing. They were going to West Clear Creek and were suppose to be gone until Saturday afternoon. There is no cell phone reception down there and that is the longest we have gone without communication! This made me a little nervous! Well, Friday I was taking a nap because the kids and I had been out in the pool for about 2 hours! I had a dream that Jon called and told me they were coming home early. Then, the phone woke me up and it was Jon! I got so excited I didn't even think anything could be wrong! He told me he was hiking through the river bottom where it was very thick brush. He had just taken his shades off when a tree branch poked him straight in the eye! He told me he was on his way to Payson Hospital to have it checked out. One of the Priests was driving his truck and I needed to find a way to get up there to drive Jon home. A member of the Bishopric was going up so he could pick up Braiden and take him back to the outing. I called Jon's mom and she agreed to come watch the kids while Jon's step dad drove me to Payson. (We are so grateful to both of them for helping!) Once we got there I headed back to see Jon...he didn't look so good! His eye was really red and you could see where stick had hit it! OUCH! We waited for almost 2 hours after I go there until the doctor came in and looked at it and cleaned it out. He has 2 corneal abrasions, but luckily they are not serious. He just has to put ointment on it for about a week. They did not give him a patch, but he was tempted to go buy a pirate one to wear to church on Sunday! :) But, he has been keeping that eye closed all weekend and so he was called "One Eyed Willy"!
I think he had a good Father's Day. The kids were so excited that it was Father's Day and then Daddy's birthday! They gave him a digital frame so he could take it to work and put it on his desk. I gave him a new dress shirt to wear to the Awards Banquet next week. On Sunday I asked him if he really wanted me to attempt to make him breakfast, or if he would just be happier eating something he made himself! He asked me to make waffles, which turned out pretty good! He helped me with dinner, but I stilled tried! He also was called to be the 1st counselor in the Elder's Quorum Presidency on Sunday. He will miss Young Men's but is ready to take on a new challenge and he is excited about the people he will be working with.
On Monday we took him out to dinner at the Keg for his birthday. The kids gave him the Indiana Jones dvd's and I bought him a new watch. He has been asking for Nixon watch for a very long time and I decide he finally deserved it! It was a birthday /congratulations present! I was worried he may not like the one I picked out, but he loved it!


Just as we were finishing our dinner, Jon's mom called to invite us out to ice cream with them. So we ended the night with some delicious Nielsen's Frozen Custard! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JON! We love you!

100 degrees!

Last Saturday Jon was working outiside on the yard. It got hot really fast and next thing I know he had filled up the kids pool and came inside to tell them to get their swimsuits on! They were so excited ! It was one of our first 100 degree days, which for June, that's not bad! Derrick didn't have a swimsuit, so he had to just swim in his diaper. Jon even set up their slide to go into the pool. They had a blast and we have been in a few more times since then. Emma starts swim lessons tomorrow, so I'm sure I will have more swim pictures to post soon!Derrick did not like the feeling of an extremely full diaper!

Emma sliding down the slide on her stomach into the water!

Derrick showing me how cold he is!

Emma kickin' back working on her tan!

Not A First...

This was by no means Derrick's first haircut, but I couldn't resist a picture moment! Just the last couple of months he has started sitting all by himself, like a big boy, for his haircuts! He does really well. But, he has been getting an average of one haircut a month since he was 3 months old! He's just not a baby anymore and is turning into quite the little man! He mimics so much of what Emma says and I just laugh when Derrick says it because I don't expect it to come out of his mouth. The other day he wanted a ball that was in my room because it had been taken away (because I found it inside the piano!), I told him he could not have it back but he had other balls to play with in the family room. He walked out of my room and I heard growl, "UGHHH" in frustration! When Emma does that she gets in trouble because she is throwing attitude, but I laughed out loud when Derrick did it and I know right where he learned it (EMMA)!