My Clogging Competition

   March 2nd 2013 was a long day.   My mom was watching all my dances.   There were so many dances before mine even happened. I got board while I was back stage waiting for solos and dances to go by.
      When I did my first solo which was a accapella  I had to go first.  I did not want to but I did. I was pretty loud witch was a good thing.
 I thought I was terrible until later.
      On to my second solo is the freestyle dance solo.  I almost messed up!!!!! I thought in my head "oh great I messed up." I thought I wouldn't until later that day.
     Up next, is my third solo.  I don't no what this one was called either.  It was really easy. hop toe hop heel step ounce up. It's a lot longer.  When I did it I think I
did it perfect.  My legs were straight, I smiled, and didn't look down. It was pretty awesome.
      Finally, my 4th solo.  I don't no what this was called either. I think I did pretty good not perfect but, good. I was pretty shaky and scared at the same time.  One judge was smiling and the look like she was going to faint. Back to the solo. My legs were super straight. I thought  I did super good. 
      My dances were pretty cool my favorite one was Marry You.  Luckily, that's the dance were gonna talk about. Marry you was awesome. We had one boy on my team so, the dance was perfect. In the picture above, it shows me in my Marry you costume. That dance was totes fun.
    My last dance was called Banjo. I don't no why but, my legs were hurting so bad. I think it could of been all the hard jumps I did.  I don't no why I did not like that dance it just doesn't go with who I am.
       The awards my favorite part.  We started with the solos.  The man who gave out the awards said "These are our super star scorers, Alexandria Larson..." He called other names of course,  but he called my name first that meant I got first place over 8,9, and 10 year boys and girls. I was amazingly excited.
       The awards for the group dances were totally amazing. Marry you was the number 1 dance winner. We got first place in it.  Like I said that's my favorite dance. The trophy was super shiney and gold. Banjo got second. It's better than I thought it would be. When we got first place that help us get to nationals.
        Dancing makes me feel happy and that I can do anything. If some says your bad at something don't believe what that person says believe what you say and that you can do anything.  As my teacher said "be kind to yourself, be kind to others and trust good things about yourself." That is how I teach my life and hope many other people will too.   - A.

                                                                                                      

Time Marches on.

The last few months have been very busy. We have a had a lot of fun with sports and school and work. Here are a few of the highlights.

This year Alex turned 8 years old and was baptized by her dad. We are really proud of how grown up she has become. She is really very sweet and kind. The school secretary told me that Alex is like a ray of sunshine. She always comes to school with a smile on her face and is nice to everyone.

We had a wonderful December and really enjoyed the Christmas season together as a family. Our oldest son, Mitch flew home from college. It was wonderful to have him home.

After Christmas we flew to LA for ten days and enjoyed 80 degree weather and had a lot of fun. We went to a few things that we hadn't seen before like the Nixon Library.

We played at the beach a lot.

In order, Alex, Whitney ,Keith, Mitch and Kevin.

We are now back in the swing of the second half of the school year. Mitch is getting his mission papers ready to go.  Kevin is preparing to take his ACTs. Whitney is registering for higsh school. Keith turned eleven and Alex is eight.  My two youngest aren't supposed to be that old yet.  We are trying to enjoy every minute with them, because they grow up fast.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Thanksgiving is not just the day before Black Friday. It is the day to be together. To express our thanks to those we love, those who have helped us and most especially to the Lord who gave us everything.  We live in such a magnificant world. Let us remeber to stop and look around at the beauty and bounty.

Gratitude lifts the heart, replenishes the soul and reminds us of those around us. We think less of ourselves and more of others. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!

I just sent my oldest child off to college. I know I am not old enough to do this (actually I am) but here we are. He is having a great time and doesn't seem to miss us much. But that is how it is supposed to be, right?  

Great Couple of Weeks

Friday night, we attended the St Balderick's Childhood Cancer Fundraiser at the high school. All three boys got there heads shaved for a great cause. Don't they look great with those bald heads.

We are very excited. We have been waiting and waiting to hear if Mitch got into his school. Last week he found out he is going to BYU next Fall. We are so excited for him. I think he will have a great experience.

Keith's Destination Imagination Team took first place out of 11 teams and will now head to the State competition.

Taking January off - Kinda!

I took the entire month of January off. That is I took time off of my busy, crazy life of raising a family and did something I have been wanting to do for a long time. I went to Real Estate School to get my real estate license.

I have been working in real estate for over a decade but I also have five children so getting my license has not been a priority.

I left the house every morning at 8am right after my kids left for school and drove 45 minutes to Kaplan in South Denver. I was in class Monday through Friday 9am to 4pm for the entire month.

It was a little crazy but my kids relly stepped up to help. My oldest son drives so he made sure that everyone got to their after school activities. The kids helped with dinner and kept the house cleaned up. The only hitch was laundry, especially when my washing machine died and we went a week without doing laundry. Fortunately, I now have the super large washing machine that can wash ten loads of laundry at once (okay not 10 but a lot) so we quickly caught up.

After 4 weeks of studying and test taking, I passed the class with flying colors and more importantly I passed the state exam so I will offically have my license as soon as it comes in the mail.

October 2010

Keith and Alex heading out the door for school.

Carving pumpkins on the back patio. Mitch and Kevin


Keith

Mitch

The whole gang. It was very warm in late October. The rule is, it has to be over 60 degrees outside to wear shorts.

Hoping that the great pumpkin will help Mitch get into BYU!!

Alex as cute as ever.