5/30/2011

A couple graduation songs

I think the class did 12 or 13 songs total, but these two were my favorite:



Lexi's graduation!

Lexi graduated from preschoo. Boy was it cute. There are 16 kids in her class, and it was so fun to see her singing and performing with all of them. She had another year of preschool with Miss Melva, because her bday is in October, so she'll have more fun next year too.







Here's Miss Melva. I love her preschool! And Lexi loves it too.

This is Lexi, Mason, and Emily. We all live in the same condo complex, so they are good friends. Who's that hottie in the background?? :)

Next come a couple videos...
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Jason's wedding

Wow, I've got some catching up to do. We went to Seattle for Jason's wedding, then had Lexi's graduation, then we're going to Florida for Tyler's wedding. So, let's get this going.

Last week, we drove up to Seattle for Jason's wedding. It was a long drive, but the girls were so awesome, so it wasn't too hard. 13 hours later, we arrived in Issaquah, WA at Brandon's Grandma's house. We hung out that night, and the rest of the family arrived at 1am or so.

On friday, we went to Pike Street market. It was fun, as always. Here are some pics from the ride, market, etc. Did I mention I forgot my camera for this entire Seattle trip? Yeah. I'm awesome. So, these are all my sis-in-law Lindsay's pictures.

Cute Lanie in the car.

Lexi Lou in the car too...

Linds and Lex in the car on the way to the market.

Us waiting somewhere at the market... there were lots of us going, and we all arrived at different times, so we all needed to meet up with each other. For some reason, I don't know if it was the walking and standing a lot, but I got really dizzy at one point and had to sit and eat for a while. It was incredibly annoying. Brandon saved the day and bought me a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich. Dude, that was a goooood sandwich. That whole dizzy fainting thing tends to happen at random times during my pregnancies. But it was still tons of fun.
Lanie loved this little water fall- problem was, she wanted to swim in it. Little crazy girl...

Lexi. She was such a GOOD GIRL on this whole trip! So well behaved, and listened great. Brandon and I took Lanie home for a nap plus he had a conference call with his boss, so we left early, about 12:15. AND I wasn't feeling too well with the whole dizziness thing. Lexi stayed with Nana and hung out with the rest of the 'big kids.' She had a blast.
Lexi snuggling with Jason, the groom-to-be. Again, I think she felt so grown-up staying with all the adults.
Waiting to eat fish and chips. Good thing Lexi inherited her love of seafood from her dad...

Yikes. We look tired. But it's the only photo with just the two of us. So here it is. We also look WHITE. Warm weather needs to come to
Utah NOW.

Cute little Lanie at the rehearsal dinner Friday night. I brought coloring books and the iPad. Saved my life. Lanie just colored and watched movies the whole time. It went until way past the girls' bedtimes, so they just sat and watched movies. It was awesome.

The big day! It was seriously the busiest day ever, and I'm not even the bride! I'm sure Jason and Caitlin were exhausted. It was pretty packed with activities and pictures, and the girls were pretty tuckered out by the end.

The bride and groom, Jason and Caitlin, walking out of the temple...

Loved this picture. Lanie was so cranky at this point (it was her naptime), and the only way to keep her happy was for her to be on Daddy's shoulders.

The Wernli brothers and sister, carrying the bride. It's tradition...

Siblings and spouses...

The whole Wernli fam. Poor Lane. She gave us a run for our money.

I had the most embarrassing moment that day, at least I thought so. Good thing I hid it pretty well. So, after the sealing ceremony, I had to go to the bathroom, and in the temple bathroom, I pulled down my skirt and since it was so flowy, it got in the toilet! So gross! I hurried and went potty, and when I got out of the bathroom, I told Brandon what happened, and that he HAD to walk in front of me because my skirt was all wet! The huge good news is that I had packed an extra skirt in the car just in case my flowy one didn't quite match the colors. So I hurried to the car and got my other skirt on. Oh gosh, I was so embarrassed. But so lucky I had the other skirt.

Anyway, The girls had a blast at the reception that night. Scratch that- they didn't have fun until the dancing began. Oh boy, they were hilarious! I hope the adults didn't mind the two toddlers taking up the dance floor! Lexi was spinning like a ballerina, and Lanie was doing break dance moves! I wish I had pictures. It was awesome. We stayed until about 11pm, and finally headed back. The girls were exhausted the next day.

All in all, such a fun trip! Sunday was such a blast just hanging out with Brandon's family. I am so lucky to have such great in-laws!

5/13/2011

Lexi's ballet recital

This video is only about a minute and 20 seconds. You might need to blow it up full screen to really see Lex. She's the second from the right in the beginning.



Her group was called the 'emerald fairies.' She was so cute!

P.S. Sorry the video is so bad. My good video recorder wasn't working. AND we were sitting behind the TALLEST grandparents in the WORLD.

Lazy days and ballet recitals

On Thursdays, I tend to skip the gym and stay home with the girls. There's usually only one reason- singing time. My girls love singing time, and it's a little too hard for me to go to the gym and get back in time to shower and get ready before it starts at 11. So, I usually use it as an excuse to stay home and have a lazy morning.

The girls are so funny when we don't have anywhere to go first thing in the morning. Lanie keeps bringing me her shoes saying 'go, go,' and this particular morning Lexi wanted to play Fashion Solitaire next to Daddy who was studying scriptures. (Yes, Brandon studies scriptures on his computer. It helps him to write while he studies. And the resourses online are AWESOME.)

I thought it was cute. :)

This week was kind of crazy. Lexi had her first ballet recital. But this isn't just any ballet recital. This is the ballet recital on drugs. The studio does an end-of-year recital that includes all levels and classes. Lexi had a whole week of rehearsals, and they gave me a whole list of things Lexi needed to have done for dress reahearsals and performances.

First, the bun. Lexi's hair is pretty short, and she needed it in a bun on the top of her head. Let's just says I used a LOT of MEGA hold gel. And mini bobby pins.

Then, there's the make up. On a four year old. She needed base, powder, brown and white eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, blush, and lipstick. The whole shebang. She was SOOO patient and was so excited to wear makeup. I have to say, she has really long eyelashes that look pretty awesome with mascara on. You can't really see in the pictures, but oh well.

The recital/concert started at 7:30. That's already 1/2 hour past Lexi's bedtime. I prepped her and told her she might feel really tired, but to try and do her best. She did great! I will post a video after this post. Here's our photo after her concert. Of course we had to give her a rose... And she only wears her costume on stage. They take it off right after.


It was already 9pm, but she was so happy about her rose and recital that we took her to ice cream. Boy, was she excited. Her dream come true. She chose some ice cream and we talked and ate.
Mid-bite...

It was so cute. Though I still think it was a bit ridiculous to have all these guidelines and makeup rules for a 4 year old, it was really fun to see her first little dance recital.

Her bun did pretty well, if I do say so myself. Here's how it looked at the end of the night... They also made her wear a hair net.


Overall, it was a really fun night. Tyler, Brandon's brother was so nice to come over and watch Lanie so we didn't have to worry about her during the concert.


All this being said, I think I'm going to take her out of ballet next year. Next year's focus I think will be music. I'm gonna teach her piano. I figure I take each year and give her another option, and by the time she's 8 maybe she'll know what she wants to do. :) This summer she's also doing T-ball. And dance is EXPENSIVE. And ballet dancers are WAY too skinny. There was this one girl that performed, and I whispered to Brandon, "That is EXACTLY what I DON'T want Lexi to look like. Or to feel pressured to look like." The end. I'm off my soapbox. :)



Of course, I won't stop her if dance is REALLY what she wants to do when she's 8. I just won't LOVE her choice. Apparently I use CAPS a lot...


SORRY IF YOU THINK I'M YELLING. :)


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5/09/2011

Burned peanuts smell like cigarettes

I'm recording this story for posterity's sake, and because it's kind of hilarious. You can skip it and scroll down if you want a good pregnancy tip...

Brandon bought some raw peanuts for us to boil on Mother's Day because he knows I love them, and it would be a good mother's day snack for the both of us.

The plan was to start the water boiling before church, come back and check on them, and then they'd be ready to eat after church. Peanuts take 3-4 hours to boil, in case you didn't know. So, by the end of church, Brandon realized he completely forgot about the peanuts and didn't get home to check on them and add more water.

I get home to fire alarms going off, and the house FILLED with smoke. Thank heavens there was no fire at least. I forced the girls to stay on the porch while I covered my face and tried to get in the house and open windows. Holy moley. There was a LOT of smoke. I opened all the windows, turned on all the fans, turned OFF the stove, with the charred peanuts, and waited for the smoke to at least thin so that our house was liveable.

Those poor peanuts. All the water had evaporated and the peanuts just got killed in the heat. And almost killed our house with it.

Well, the rest of the day was spent trying to get the smell out of our house. Fans, febreze, candles, spray, etc. You name it, we did it. The smoke had permeated every inch of our house, including our closet with all our clothes. We discovered something else- once the smell died down to at least not choking us, it smelled like cigarettes. Great.

I went to stake choir practice, where I apologized to everyone that I smelled like cigarettes, and that all the music folders smelled too. I tried changing my clothes, but since our closet smelled just as bad as the rest of the house, all my clothes smelled terrible too.

Do you know how embarrassing it is to be a pregnant woman that smells like smoke? I feel like someone will call the police on me at any moment. I almost felt unworthy working out at the gym this morning. I was imagining people turning away from me in disgust. It didn't happen of course, but I felt like telling everyone I came in contact with that it wasn't me, it was my house. You think I'm exaggerating? Ask anyone who's come over to our house yesterday and today. They will confirm that our house smells like a 90-year-old smoker's house. And that THEY smell like it too from being in our house 5 minutes.

It is all very funny, I guess. We will probably be working on this smell for the next week or two. Good thing the weather's nice and we can open our windows. Oh wait. IT'S 45 DEGREES AND RAINING.

On to other news, I wanted to share my favorite pregnancy hand-me-down of all time:

The Bella Band.


It's meant to go over your unbuttoned jeans or to provide more length to your shirts. I love it! My sister gave me a black one and a white one after her last pregnancy, and I use them all the time. They make me feel held-in a little more. They are made out of spandex, I believe, so they are nice and tight, but they stretch to your body and belly. They stay in place a lot better than just long tank tops. I tend to only use them in my second trimester, when I'm not huge yet and I'm still trying to fit in all my regular clothes. They are pricier than the generic brand, but they are worth it, in my opinion. Go here if you're interested. The link gives the price at 26 bucks.
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5/07/2011

Garden!

This, my friends, is what I worked on all afternoon.


My garden worksheet.
Planning what we're planting, how many, and when. Ahh, you can just smell the organization.

My husband rolled his eyes a little, but he'll appreciate it once we start working.

If you're wondering what the leaf-looking things are, they're footprints. Those are our walking paths. I never claimed to be an artist...

Yeah for gardening!
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5/06/2011

15 weeks, 4 days

I've been really bugged lately about how quickly my tummy is growing. It's funny how vain we can be... I think I complain to my husband every night. It usually goes like this:

C: I hate how big my tummy is already.
B: But, you're pregnant.
C: But, I'm only 15 weeks.
B: But, you're pregnant. Of all times to worry about how your stomach looks, this is not the time.
C: But I've been pregnant before, and I feel like it's different this time. My tummy is getting too big too fast.
B: But you're pregnant. There's a baby in there.
C: You mean a tadpole. Tadpoles don't take up that much space.

Guys just don't get it. :)

Anyway, I decided to to do a random photo shoot to make myself feel better. It kind of worked. I decided I'm not going to worry about it anymore. At least until tomorrow night. :)

My funny faces are endless.

Trying to look contemplative. It looks more like I'm looking at something on the floor. But I guess that's what I'm doing.

Everything looks better in black and white. :)

Do an impromtpu photo shoot today! It will make you feel better!
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5/04/2011

New blog

I started up another blog, because I don't have enough to do already... haha. If you're in the Pleasant Grove area, I'd love for you to look at it... Thanks!

http://goodgossipinthegrove.blogspot.com

-Cassie