So much Time has Passed...(Again)

It's amazing how quickly the time flies.  So here is a quick recap of March, April, and May.

March...
Kaylee and a group of her friends performed a fun little dance for the Grammy Awards at Erwin.  The song was called BOUNCE!!!  They choreographed and practiced the dance for weeks in preparation.  Then I helped them to make the costumes.  It was so fun to watch them perform.  Tiffany got to be a last minute fill in for one of the girls who ended up going out of town too.  Bonus for Tiff!!!

We took a trip to Las Vegas for Spring Break.  My brother Jeff got married to Erika.  It was a beautiful sealing ceremony in the temple followed by lots of pictures and a totally fun reception.  The dancing could have gone on all night I think.  It was really great to see Jeff married and to know that he finally has someone to share his life with.  And we are so happy to have Erika as a part of our family.  It was also great to have all of my family together again.  All of my siblings were there along with dad and Kay.  In addition, Grandpa Pierce was here from Hawaii, Grandma & Grandpa Thornock came down from Ogden with Tami, Monica, Shandi, and Tonya.  We also saw Heather and Kevin, and Yvette and her family too.  It was great to see so many.

While in Vegas we took the opportunity to do a few fun things with my family.  We did a hike out at Red Rock Canyon one of the days.  We had a very large group.  It was my whole family, Steve & Zack, Kevin's whole family and Jeff.  It was a great time.  We loved hiking around in the canyon, climbing on the rocks and just spending time together.  We had a great time until Kyle took a dive into an agave plant and got plant spikes embedded in his leg.  He had more than 12 puncture wounds in his leg and ended up in the urgent care to have one of them removed that had broken off under the skin surface.  Ouch, it hurt.  He was a real trooper though and with a little Novocaine, the spike was removed and he now has it in a test tube to shoe everyone. 

We also had our traditional "Pierce Family Pizza Night".  It was so much fun.  We made lots of pizzas both deep dish and thin crust and had a real party.  The pizza was so awesome, and the company was even better.

Mike and I took the kids up to the top of the Stratosphere.  It was fun to look out at the whole city.  Kaylee and Mike rode the big shot ride up on top.  They loved it.  The rest of us just watched from below.  The rides up there look pretty scary.

Also in March, Jake got a tonsil infection.  It apparently started as strep throat but his tonsils got infected and were HUGE!!!  They are still huge today in fact, but the infection has long since been gone.

Tiffany played in the 6th grade basketball championships.  Her team ended up winning the championship and went completely undefeated for the season.  It was awesome.  It was really great to watch her as her skills improved over the season.

Mike and I received a new calling from the Stake in March.  We have been called to be Ma and Pa over a family of youth on the Pioneer TREK this summer.  We are excited and nervous for this big event.  We will be walking (pushing/pulling a handcart) with 6-8 youth ages 14-18 as we re-enact a portion of the handcart pioneer's trek across the country.  We will be covering a 36 mile portion of the trail over 3 days and will be visiting landmarks like Martin's Cove and Rocky Ridge.  It will be physically exhausting I am sure, but I am also sure that the spiritual benefits from this trip will far out-weight them.  We are looking forward to it and preparing ourselves as well as we can.

April...
April brought with it Track season.  Both girls were participating so the boys and I spent many afternoons in the stands at the track.  The girls worked really hard and improved their own personal records with each meet. 

Tiffany competed in the Long Jump, the High Jump, the 100 meter dash, and the 4x100 meter relay.

Kaylee competed in the 100 meter dash, the 200 meter dash, the 4x200 meter relay, and the long jump.

At the boys elementary school, I worked on the school carnival committee.  There was a ton of hours involved in the planning, but the event was a HUGE success.  Our silent auction produced a profit of $2500 and out overall profit for the carnival including the auction was $4600.  That is the best we have ever done with one of our carnivals.  The best part was that everyone had so much fun, it made all the work completely worth it.

May...
May brought all the final school events for the year.  (much too quickly might I add)  We had field day at centennial and I watched the boys play in many different events and games.

At Erwin, Tiffany participated in the school talent show.  She sang Take a Bow by Rhianna.  She did such a great job that she was asked to perform again at the Pride Assembly on the last day of school.  For that she sang the Carrie Underwood version of "I'll Stand By You."  Both of her performances were great!!!

The girls finished out their track seasons strong.  Tiffany took 4th place in the 6th grade city meet in Long Jump, and her relay team took 5th place in the city meet as well.  She did a great job and can be very proud of her efforts this season.  Kaylee and her 4x200 meter relay team broke the school record by 3 seconds and ended up taking 2nd place at the city championship meet.  She too had a great season and I hope she will continue her efforts in high school next year.

Speaking of High School, it is almost painful to admit that I will have a child in high school next year.  Kaylee is now taller than me and she is such a beautiful girl.  She has some really great friends and is doing so well in school.  She received a Gold Presidential Academic Award for her grades this year. She almost had straight A's despite missing over 20 days of school.  She stayed very organized and managed to stay on top of her school work despite 2 surgeries, swine flu, and another flu-like virus. She didn't get stressed out by the work load, but got her work done and managed to pull almost all A's for the year. She has worked really hard and I know she will do great in High School.  I am so proud of all her hard work and her motivation to do well in school.  She is looking forward to a very busy summer with volleyball camp, EFY in Provo, Pioneer TREK in July, and Girls camp in August in addition to volleyball open gym at the high school whenever she can.

From there I go to the opposite end of the family.  In May, my baby, Kyle, turned 6 years old.  The years have gone so fast and he is growing too quickly.  It makes me sad to realize that he is so big now.  Next school year he will be in 1st grade.  He is a very smart little boy and I am so proud of him for all that he does.  His teacher absolutely loved him this past year as she said he reminded her of her own son.  He is looking forward to swimming at the pool this summer and playing t-ball.

Tiffany is a natural at almost anything she tries it seems.  I was so proud of her over the school year.  She worked very hard to improve her grades and she maintained about an A- average over the year.  She also tried many new things and did well at them all.  She played Volleyball for the first time and was a true asset to her team as a setter.  She played basketball for the first time and improved her skills over the season to where she played very well.  She did track and found that she was good at that too.  She also continues in singing and is very talented there as well.  I am proud of her for trying new things and not being afraid.

Jacob had a great year.  He pulled really awesome grades for the year, had fun wrestling during the winter and is looking forward to playing baseball this summer.  He loves to swim at the pool and ride his bike.  He is still working on controlling his actions an behavior.  He is a very busy boy and is constantly moving.  He is also very loving and kind and makes me smile often.

Ryan finished out his fourth grade year in high fashion.  He pulled an A+ on his biggest project of the year a replica of a Mesa Verde residence.  He and I worked very hard on the project and he did a great job on it.  He has been enjoying reading this year and has read almost the entire Fablehaven series.  He has thoroughly enjoyed the series and will be looking for another book series to get into next.  He pulled straight A's for the year and in addition he participated in the GT program at school which included extra work.  In GT they studied the Presidents of the US this year and he learned a whole lot about many of them.  He is looking forward to playing baseball again this summer followed by football in the fall.

My children continue to amaze me on a daily basis.  Although we have good days and bad, days where they listen and are helpful and obedient, and days when they are stubborn and difficult.  I am very proud of them overall.  They are good kids.  They are kind to others, and they generally make good choices.  They are so smart and seem to be like sponges as they absorb sooooo mouch from the world around them.  I am so grateful for each of them and the individual blessings they are in my life.

Mike continues to work in Lawton, Oklahoma from Monday through Friday each week.  He is working hard and hopeful that it won't be too much longer before he will be able to spend more time at home again.  We so love the weekends when he is home with us.  He was recently released from his calling in church as the Gospel Principles teacher and was called to be a teacher for Ryan's class in Primary.  I think he is enjoying the change, at  least for now.

I continue to design T-shirts for my shop, dabble a bit in digital scrapbook design, I taught a 6 week digital scrapbooking 101 course in my home in March and will teach another session starting in the Fall, I am working on some new and exciting things for my Once a Month Cooking Project, and in my spare time I try to exercise a bit by roller blading around the park.  Otherwise, the kids keep me really busy and I am absolutely loving hanging out at the pool so far this summer.  I am looking forward to participating once again in Relay For Life in a couple of weeks as a tribute to my mom.  Life

Well, this was super long, but for the sake of family history, I am now caught up again as best as I can be.  I hope that I can do better in the near future to stay up to date!!!