Love is in the air and Dancing is our weekend

As is the case every week for us, this past week has been quite a week for the Nutt House.  Thankfully, we try to plan out our time, work and help each other out and when things don't go our way, we roll with the punches (or in my case, I am learning to roll with the punches).  

Our two little Nutt's were elated to start off their week filling up their Primary Bingo board, an activity we are doing in Primary where going with our theme of the year to Choose the Right each family was given a bingo board and asked to fill it in with what as a family they would like to work on.  The goals we placed on the Nutt House board were FHE and temple attendance.  With Kara conducting our FHE lesson this week the board for the Nutt House reached its Bingo!  This has been such an enjoyable tool to help us focus and work on goals we had set as a family anyway - to have consistent Family Home Evening and for Brent and I to make it to the temple more often... this activity has been such a perfect motivator!

BINGO!

With Valentine’s Day at the beginning of the week, we started our week celebrating each other and the love we share.  When the month had begun, Kara was so excited to eat school lunch on Valentine’s Day at school because of its Valentine themed menu.  I was somewhat apprehensive, as Kara has turned up her nose at each time school lunch has been an option for her.  Well, after some last minute checking she changed her mind and decided she wanted a homemade lunch instead.  By this time, it was bedtime Monday evening and I hadn’t even gone to the grocery store yet, so, a quick trip up the street to Safeway was in order.  The purchase of some strawberries and Valentine cookies paired perfectly with items we already had at home to make a perfect Valentine’s Day lunch consisting of heart shaped PB&J sandwiches, strawberry milk, heart shaped cucumber slices, strawberries and watermelon cut out like hearts and a pink frosted Valentine’s cookie.  Kara, who typically struggles eating all of her lunch, finished off every bite, which spoke volumes about how much she enjoyed her food.  Though Kaden didn’t eat lunch at school I made sure to replicate the lunch for him on Tuesday so he was able to equally enjoy a Valentine’s lunch of his own.  Monday evening we continued a family tradition of “heart attacking” the kiddos doors for Valentine’s Day.  Kaden was so excited when he awoke to the hearts Tuesday he repeatedly requested that the hearts not be taken down.  Kara on the other hand, asked why I had not written in most of the hearts as I had last year.  Well, I’ve since added a few notes to some of the hearts and I figured there is always next year to try to please them both, right?  Dressed in pink and with her hair all done up in a heart design Kara was off to school bright and early Tuesday morning for her class friendship party.  (*since when can’t they be called Valentine’s parties?)  She was so excited for her donut and fruit breakfast with her class though sharing the Valentine’s she had created was the highlight of the day for her.  Kaden was off not too long after Kara where he enjoyed a Valentine’s party of his own.  I was a proud mom to hear that giving out his Valentine’s not making his Valentine’s bag or receiving cards from his friends was his favorite part as well.  Once Kaden was out of school, we met up with some friends so the cute little CTR 4 class could sneakily visit the house of the primary teachers, Bro. & Sis. Willis and heart attack it.  This random act of kindness was so fun for the kiddos after they were done they kept naming other houses they wanted to heart attack next, such sweet boys!  I had spent days trying to figure out the perfect dinner for Valentine’s Day but nothing seemed to work out.  Tuesday after swim lessons we stopped at Pizza Hut where I picked up a pizza and upon arriving back at home quickly sent the kids off to the shower while I speedily set up a Valentine’s dinner that was perfect for this Nutt-y family.  Nothing about our Valentine’s was anything over the top, but it was a day full of expressing our love to each other and it was absolutely perfect for our family!

Kara's fancy Valentine's lunch

He eyed that cookie the whole time he was eating
the other foods... fortunately he did eat the other
foods first!

I must love her, dance hair AND holiday hair!  

He was so excited to exchange Valentines with friends!

Her box fit her perfectly

Running to grab more hearts to put up

Notice how they lined them up with such symmetry

Such goofballs

So proud of their work

Our version of a fancy Valentine's meal...
pizza on a serving tray, an actual salad, fruit, strawberry flavored
Sprite, 2 kinds of dessert and oh  yes!  The fine crystal mixed with
paper plates!

Kaden's school assignment, drawing out who he loves
There are at least a million reasons why I love this picture!

Fast forwarding to the end of the week brought us Kara’s first dance competition of the season.  I don’t know what it is about these competitions; I get so nervous that you would think it is me that is going to be up on stage or something!  Fortunately, for everyone, it is not me on the stage and instead it is our ever-talented tiny dancer!  This competition, called Open Call took place in downtown Phoenix at the Orpheum theatre.  What a magnificent place to perform, the theatre was absolutely gorgeous!  Kara and her teammates that were performing their solos kicked off the competition bright and early at 9 am Saturday.  While 9 am doesn’t seem all that early when we factor in arriving an hour early to stretch and warm up, travel time, and time to do hair and make-up we find ourselves with a 5:30 am wake up time on Saturday morning.  To combat the early time Kara was in bed and asleep Friday night by 6:30.  To both assist in getting to sleep so early and give him something special of his own, Friday night Brent took Kaden off to the movies where Kaden proudly wore his new Batman shirt to the new Lego Batman movie.  It was a tired yet excited little man that came home a few hours later with dad, his belly full of popcorn, root beer and Butterfingers.  Therefore, Saturday morning, after arriving and getting changed Kara and I found a place in the hall to lay down her yoga mat and get to work stretching.  Ms. Carolyn was out of town for this competition which meant getting Kara ready for stage fell on me, truth be told, with 6 different solos that Carolyn has the bulk of Kara’s preparing would have been with me anyway.  Once it was time I handed Kara off to Ms. Jeannine the studio owner who took all the girls backstage and I dashed to the auditorium to find Brent and Kaden where we watched each of the Lil’ Lights perform the routines they have been practicing for months.  When Kara’s came I scrutinized every second of her performance – every toe point, every turn, every step, every arm, everything.  I don’t know why I do this, but I do and at each competition.  I analyzed her performance so much, that when I texted Ms. Carolyn how I thought Kara did I reported I’d give her 7 out of 10.  When our tiny dancer and all of her friends finished their dances, I met her back by the dressing room where she literally jumped in my arms and was beaming from ear to ear.  I asked her the two questions that matter most to me – 1) did she do her best and 2) did she have fun doing it.  With a radiating smile, she emphatically told me yes and we bear hugged while I reminded her how so very proud I am of her!  A few hours later brought us the results of Kara’s performance.  I was and still am humbled and embarrassed to say I was wrong about her performance, Kara ended up taking 1^st place out of all the apprentice level petite dancers, winning a High Gold award (2^nd highest point value she could receive), and she won a scholarship for a dance convention this summer!  On top of all of that, when Ms. Carolyn was able to see Kara’s dance she informed me she would have given it a 9 out of 10.   Time after time, Kara impresses and surprises both Brent and I with just how incredibly talented Kara is with her dancing.  Some of the needed skills, such as pointing her toe do not come naturally to Kara and she has to work at it, but she does, and she works hard and that hard work continues to pay off!  Once the awards wrapped up it was time for the Nutt House to celebrate and call it a dance day and the best way we could think of to do that was to find the nearest ice cream parlor and devour a couple ice cream sundaes!

Tiny dancer, big theatre

She knows she's got this

This!  Those muscles, that toe point, that smile...
All of it!!!

Our beautiful dancer in her solo costume

Posing with her teammates that also performed solos

I love that these girls are all such friends!

This is how Kaden does competition

A little selfie goofiness while waiting for awards

That smile couldn't be any larger

So proud of our little miss!

One Rocky Road sundae to share (with an extra cherry,
those are not for sharing!)

Such love right here

Sunday after church, we found ourselves once again preparing for competition, this time, it was the group performances.  After repeating the hair and make-up, we headed back to the Orpheum where this time we had two dances to prepare for.  After changing for the first dance, we found a lobby area that was much nicer and roomier than the hallway from the prior day to start our stretching.  After running through the dances several times with the other girls, it was time to send them off to perform.  With still a second dance to present as soon as the dance concluded I was out of my chair and rushing back downstairs to the dressing room for a quick outfit change and make-up touch up so we could once again warm up and prepare.  *A funny side note, I’ve learned that a Pixie Stick helps to give Kara an extra punch that aids her in coming alive and dancing outside of her snow globe (a tip a dance teacher gave her one time, to dance outside of her snow globe)  while on stage.  Perfect example of this, Saturday morning, we were warming up and she had the dance but the spark in her eyes wasn’t there.  Seconds before Jeannine had to take her backstage I remembered I had her Pixie Stick in my pocket, I opened it up and fed some to her and instantly, the spark in her eyes was there!  Anywho… after an exhausting second dance we didn’t have long to wait for awards so by the time she was changed we were good to go.  The girls lyrical number (the first one they performed that night) earned 4^th place at awards and their jazz piece, Starships earned them 1^st place in the apprentice petite division!  Not only that, but it earned them 3^rd place overall for all group dances 12 and under!!  With awards done, we were all but happy to wipe some makeup off and head for home and the comfy beds that awaited us after a long dance weekend.

Stretching, stretching, stretching

Gorgeous Sing Me to Sleep crew

Sassy Starship divas

Our week wasn’t just Valentines and dance, though it is easy to think or even feel that way.  We of course had our normal swimming, dance and My Gym classes.  Additionally, there were many a minute spend jumping on the trampoline, having fun with friends over, playing games (oh!  I totally learned that Kaden could still share his toys and have a playdate with no fighting!!!  He has had the same friend or two over for so long, I was beginning to think he couldn’t have a play date without feeling territorial and overall sensitive, but this was not the case!  Kaden was amazing with his friend from preschool, Rye… best playdate he’s had in I can’t even remember how long!) and going for bike rides.

Learning Volleyball at My Gym, Grammy would be
so proud!

Reviewing her toe points with Ms. Carolyn

Guess Who?  I went easy on Kaden the first game
Huge mistake!  He stomped me the next 3!!

Normally I would call it a night and wrap up here, but since last night went so long and I’m, just getting to this now I might as well include the Nutt House exploits of today.  With a day off or work and school thanks to President’s Day, the Nutt House has enjoyed a much needed and long overdue slow day.  Now, this doesn’t mean we just vegged all day, instead it means we slept in, watched some cartoons and went at a slower pace today.  Where the weather remains so wonderful and our next several weekends are already booked, we took advantage of this day together to accomplish a few tasks we’ve been wanting and needing to get done.  One of these was replanting the planters out front; two little Nutts were excited to wear their gloves, dig in the dirt and plant the new flowers.  Once the front was finished we moved to the back where after finagling a fence to hopefully keep Uno out of the garden we cleaned it up and got to work planting a full garden, the first we’ve done like this in a couple of years.  I know it is early, but I’m crossing my fingers it’ll take and if not, once some starter plants become available, I’ll make a trip to the store to help give our garden a push forward.  Kara and Kaden went through all of my seed packets and watching them narrow down what they wanted to plant to just 9 was amusing to say the least!  The negotiating and pleading that went on, I felt like I was watching the NBA draft or something.  Once the nine were decided, we strategically laid out each seed type in the garden so all the vine plants wouldn’t be near each other, etc. and got to work carefully digging holes, placing seeds inside and covering them back up.  Once the garden was finished, the Kaden chose to continue his outside digging by working on creating a volcano in the sandpit.  I could have sat for hours watching him, covered in dirt, his clothes a mess just a boy with a shovel and a pile of sand.  He was completely content.  After a while Kara wanted to join in on the fun and after a bit more negotiating Kaden allowed her to help finish off his volcano before it was time to call it a day.  We wrapped up our day with a couple errands and a delish dinner at Joyride taco where I continue to love their Mexican Street Corn… so much my very favorite!

We love teamwork!

Seed negotiating time

The final picks!

So carefully placing in his seeds

Digging the holes is fun to do, fun to do, fun
to do!  Especially when mom gets you both
a strawberry plant of your very own!

"It's not finished yet mom!"

With a little added height and tracks where the
lava flows down the mighty volcano
was finished!

Fastest and funnest way to shake the first several
layers of dirt off

Now, with that, we’ll call it a week and a day and wrap up our evening.  With many, an event already on the calendar for this week we are an excited group of Nutts who cannot wait for all of the fun of this current week!