Outdoor Play to Dancing Our Hearts Away

What a week it has been for the Nutt House.  I’m sitting here writing this at what should be the kiddos normal bedtime, however, after a week of several late nights they were tucked into bed a bit ago.  Myself, I’m ready to call it a night as well, so we’re going to see how quickly I can go over the highlights of our week.

We started our week with a fantastic President’s Day break from school.  The Nutt House didn’t plan any adventures for the day.  Instead we spent the day preparing for the week to come, we took the car to get the oil changed and took advantage of the time and the little Nutts scootered their way back home.  Alas, that and the scooter ride to pick up the car were probably the most adventurous activities of our day.  Beyond the rides, the kiddos played a bit at home and we spent a good couple of hours getting bedrooms cleaned up and ready for the week before heading to Kara’s dance practice for a good couple of hours. 

Two happy kiddos riding their scooters home

Check out those clouds though!

Legos bring Kaden both a focus and a relaxation
that simply amazes me

Wanting to make up for a not so exciting day out of school, Tuesday right after school we headed to the park where swings, slides, and all other assorted playground equipment pieces were a hit before going home where the outdoor fun continued. 

She loves swinging

While he loves climbing around

Notice the perfectly good steps right next to her
that she could use to climb up

This one too, crazy kids!

Now that's some wild hair

Wednesday brought us a typical Nutt-y day full of school, homework and kiddo activities.  As we’ve drawn closer to competition season for Kara’s dancing we’ve noticed a spark in her come back.  This has meant that she has been dancing better and pushing herself harder than we’ve seen in the past few months.  Wednesday was no exception to this and Wednesday in her tumbling time Kara FINALLY got her aerial looking good!  It’s still not there consistently, but definitely a step in the right direction.  In addition to the amazing aerial Kara started working on a new trick, where she takes the round-off back handspring she has just started to get the hang of and change it up so it’s more of a dancer’s move. She does a round-off back handspring step-out that is beautiful and will be so amazing as soon as she has it mastered.  This tiny dancer works so hard to develop her skills, I am one proud momma when I see her succeed and see her reach for newer, more challenging skills to develop.

Our Thursday brought what was my favorite activity of the week and one that will go without pictures any time we do it.  The Nutt House came together with a couple other families we are friends with from church to prepare and go serve dinner to individuals that are currently homeless at a church not too far in the area.  I was completely humbled by this endeavor – the individuals that we served were so kind and appreciative.  The little Nutts, they were amazing.  We talked with them before hand to be friendly in addition to working hard and I could not have been any prouder.  Kara had the job of offering cheese and bacon for baked potatoes while Kaden passed out silverware.  I’d sneak glances at both kiddos while we worked and they were smiling and polite the entire time they were working.  Kaden occasionally became slightly disappointed when people would just take silverware, thus denying him the opportunity to hand it to them.  He rocked it though by blessing the food before the start of the evening.  The highlight of the night for me was once everyone had been served dinner and Kara took around a tray of cookies to offer one to everybody looking at her – she was beaming ear to ear with a smile so full of happiness and love, just as I know our Savior would be if he were there passing out dinner. I am so proud of how hard each member of the Nutt House worked that evening and cannot wait for the chance to do it again!  The evening turned into a great teaching moment at our own dinner when we talked about how much we have, but still manage to want more and complain about what we do have.  That we need to all do a better job of appreciating all we have and not taking it for granted.

Friday the Nutt House received an extra treat when Aunt Allison arrived for a short weekend visit.  We love family so much and welcomed her with eager open arms and hearts.  The highlight of her visit though came in the form of support for the dance competition weekend we had starting bright and way too early Saturday morning. 

Because life at the Nutt House isn't always
fun and games.  It is quite far from perfect
and we all have our moments...
Including this tired one from Kaden
where his sadness at not getting something
he wanted mixed with fatigue almost melted my heart

This was the first competition of the season, which is usually met with a few nerves along the way.  Starting with my own nerves as I do dance hair and make up.  Allison was great to spend time back in the dressing room helping me try to keep it together, watch Kara warm up and keep Kaden company while he and Brent cheered Kara on from the crowd.  It was nice, the time with Allison helped Kaden to not feel too left out or put out of a weekend at dance.  Saturday brought Kara’s large group dance and her small group dance.  There was some slight angst going into the competition as the custom-made costumes for her large group number weren’t finished and we didn’t have them until we arrived at competition on Saturday.  Though the delay was nerve wracking, the costumes look amazing. Both Kara’s dances Saturday did well and placed in the Top 10.

Bright and early, ready to start the day

Large group all stretching out

My 3 favorite dancers!

This competition was cool in that they had
a free balloon artist and a coloring station for kiddos.
Aunt Allison took Kaden to get a balloon penguin
that he now adores

A little Snapchat filter fun while waiting

Small group

Love these 3 so much!!

Hand games while waiting

Starting position, Kara is the one with her head upside down

Kaden's favorite activity was playing a farm/town
game on Aunt Allison's phone

Awesome Dance Aunt!

One happy tiny dancer!
*Check out the size of the flower bouquet
her brother picked out for her!

We celebrated Saturday evening with dinner at Melting Pot where Kara wasn’t too impressed with the cheese course, fortunately, the main course went better and Kara beamed with pride as she was able to perfectly cook up the meat for her dinner.  It was the chocolate dessert course though that brought nothing but chocolate covered smiles from both little Nutts. 

Despite some strange faces, dinner was enjoyed by all

Dessert is ALWAYS the sweetest though!

Sunday the dance day started a bit later which no one in the Nutt House complained about.  Kara was excited to dance with all the older dancers in their production number, with a compilation of songs and dance styles tied together through a Las Vegas theme.  Their Viva Las Vegas dance did well as they earned a 1^st place in their division for production dances!  Once production was done it was time to focus on what was my favorite dance of the weekend, a lyrical trio dance Kara did with her dance besties Scout and Jae to “Unchained Melody”.  It was so breathtaking and the judges thought so too awarding these hard working dancers with a 1^st place in their division and 4^th place (out of 21 dances) overall awards!  We are all so proud of Kara and all of her teammates on how hard they have worked for the results they received this weekend.

All ready for production

Things I could never do!

Trio!!!

Words cannot describe
the love I feel for this girl
or the admiration I have
for how hard she works at this sport
she loves so much

Playing the farm/town again
Kaden's face says, "mom let me play and
stop taking my picture!"

Starting for their trio to start

So Proud of these tiny dancers!

So grateful for Ms. Jeannine who has taken these
three under her wings and helped encourage,
teach and mold these three into the
stunning dancers they are now.

It’s funny though, we arrived home from Kara dancing all weekend to her then doing tumbling tricks and continuing to dance for another hour while I on the other hand, have just wanted to melt away ever since we got home.  How am I the one so drained and she isn’t?!?

The Nutt House wrapped up our week with some good story reading time to both Nutts before calling it a night.  Which is just what I want to do before this new week starts off...