Our little Beehive

Our little Madison graduated from Primary today and was presented in Sacrament with her Faith in God award. We are so proud of her and especially proud when she shared her testimony with the congregation. She told of the feelings she had when she read her scriptures this year and how she is coming to know the truthfulness of the gospel. We love her so much and know she is excited to begin Young Womens!!!

Jackson Turns 7

Tuesday, the 15th, our little Jack turned 7 years old. We had a fun family party at Red Robin (the restaurant of his choosing) following by gifts, an ice cream sundae & a Lightning McQueen cake. He has looked forward to this day for a very long time and is now planning his 8th Birthday party.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG BROTHER!!

Emy eating her appetizer....LEMONS! She LOVES them!




Mitchell checking out the "goods"



GOOFY FACE!




My almost "12-year old"!!




The crew of servers singing to Jackson... he wouldn't for the life of him look up at them!! It was too funny, but that's our Jack!




The cake!



One of the highlights of the evening was finding out how much Emy liked to "Wang Chung" Who knew?? We also found out after she "took over" my salad just how much she liked salad! It kept her busy the entire night, so that was great!




And of course, Mitch had to have at least ONE trick candle in the bunch! What a trickster he is! Good thing it wasn't 7 trick candles...the fire alarm would've gone off!!!

Tied to the Arts

Last night Madison performed a poetry reading at her school's "Tied to the Arts" program. She wrote this poem entitled, White, and made a beautiful story board to illustrate it's meaning. I video taped her reading, but it didn't turn out good, so here is her original poem. We were really proud of her!

White
-Madison Whitten

White is purity,
The most innocent color.
White is honesty,
White is love.
White is the cloud in the sky above,
Flying high against a sky blue canvas.

White is the little sister of black,
And the mother of all colors,
And only exists when you turn on the light.
White is everywhere,
You just have to look for it.

When I say "white", what do you see?
Do you think of snow?
Or sugar?
Or salt?
There are a countless number of things,
Just pick one.

White rabbits for Easter,
Or a cold snowy day.
When your breath turns to frost,
When you go out to play.
Or sometimes you think of
A lone white crayon,
Anxious for someone to use her,
But alas, left there, never used in the box.

Thinking of white, there are
A million gazillion things you might see.
Everyone is different, from you,
To me.
Now that I've made my point,
Could you imagine
A world,
Without
White?

The Music Man

For the last 3 months Madison has been rehearsing for her school's Spring Musical "The Music Man". She was cast as one of the Pick-a-Little Ladies and sang about 12 songs in the whole production! They had 3 shows last week with a full house at each one! Here are a few pictures of the opening night of The Music Man.


Maddie is in the blue skirt & white shirt

Singing the "Cheep, Cheep Song"


The Final Bow!


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Meet CoCo

Our neighbor just got a new puppy named CoCo and Emy says "woof, woof" everytime she sees her! I've never seen a baby love dogs as much as she does. She is really gentle with her too.

Kevin's Birthday Party

Last weekend we gave Kevin a birthday bash!! Since I was laid up with a new born & a broken leg last year when he turned 40, I decided to celebrate BIG this year! We had about 25 friends and neighbors over for a BBQ Dinner & cake. They all brought "gag gifts" for the birthday boy....he got a pink umbrella, a Viagra silk tie, a talking "The Office" keychain, etc... We had a great time & we were fortunate that Pam was here visiting with us to enjoy the night.

Kevin's Whopper Cake

Yes!!! There were 41 candles on the cake...glad the alarms didn't go off!












Best card of the night! In the inside it says....."was a GOOD thing??"

Water Baby

Just to show you what a "Drama Queen" Emy is....I took this video this morning as she was enjoying a tub in the kitchen sink. I think she is going to take after her big sis when it comes to loving the water! Watch out Ocean Isle....here she comes!

Happy Easter Ya'll

Hope everyone has had a wonderful Easter ! We woke up to about 5 inches of beautiful white snow and thought it was Christmas all over again. It was pretty funny seeing all the little girls at church in there sundresses and big winter coats. It was also my sweet husband's birthday today. We celebrated early by taking a quick trip to sunny Scottsdale, AZ and we are going to have a big celebration next weekend, so look for the pictures next week!!

Coloring our Easter eggs...it was a real competition this year with who had the "most unique" egg!




Emy was sooo trying to get into the colored dye


WHAAAAAT!!!!!




Easter Morning....they just couldn't stop giggling!!

My beautiful children...I'm so lucky!








Who needs this Peter Cottontail dude?

Whitten Family Band ROCKS!!

Tonight Maddie & Jack got out some pots and spoons and decided to teach Emy how to "rock out"! They sound pretty darn good, if I say so myself!

Fun times on a Friday night......

MJ Does the Derby

Pinewood Derby 2007.....Mitch placed 5th out of 22 racers with his sweet silver and black Bugatti. We was awarded the "007 Award" for his cool car. We were very proud of his sportamanship because the top racers actually cheated and added weights and moved axles. Or should I say their DADS cheated! Totally reminded me of the movie "Down & Derby".....highly recommend it if you have any pinewood derby racers.

Kevin was so impressed with the sophisticated track that he took about a thousands shots of it for future reference if he ever has to build one!

I MC'd the event and even had the audience doing "the wave" and cheers! It was fun and we're already making plans for next year's race!!

Volleyball Season is Here

Maddie has joined a new volleyball team and is doing very well this year. She has played 3 games and has scored with every single serve!! The team is 1/2 6 graders and 1/2 7th graders and her height has been a definite advantage in the sport. She likes her coach alot and has fun with her team mates.


She is number 4 with the blonde ponytail

In her "ready stance"



Going for one of her power serves!



This is a video of Maddie making 3 points for her team....she's serving on the back line

"Her Blingage is Complete"...

....as Maddie would say! We pierced Emylee's ears and now she is COMPLETE!! A girl has GOT to have bling in her ears to go with her beads that she MUST wear DAILY!!

Here's a video I took this morning of Emy playing with Bosco! NO! We don't have another dog....just doggy sitting for a friend. Notice the 2 toothbrushes! She does this every morning...no lie! She is obsessed with her mouthful of teeth and LOVES to brush them!

Enjoy!!!

Madison receives an Excellent Rating

Last Saturday Madison competed in a County Solo & Ensemble Competition. She practiced over a month after school with two fellow clarinet players. On the day of competition she was ready and excited to perform......just minutes before their time slot one of the girls in her trio was a "no show"! The stress!!!! Madison rearranged the piece of music and proceeded to play it through with almost no mistakes at all! They sounded wonderful and you would've never known what a scattered and confusing 5 minutes before they just had!!

Here is Madison & Natalie playing "Calypso Morning"
(by the way, it was Natalie who messed up a little )

Proud Parents w/ our beautiful & talented Daughter



Madison was so happy her Grandparents were there for support




Waiting anxiously to play for the Judges




They scored an "Excellent" rating and missed a "Superior" by one little point. They were awarded a medal from their Band Director and roses from Grandpa & Donna. We couldn't have been more proud of her that day.

A Week w/ Grandpa & Donna

We just ended a fun week with my Dad & Donna visiting us from NC. They usually come out for Christmas, but decided to come in the Spring this year! We were excited to have them and kept them busy with just "life" with 4 active kids! We had baseball practices, volleyball matches, swimming lessons, piano lessons, play practice and of course, the fun stuff---movies, shopping, tubing up in the high country, eating out, and just playing around! We were also fortunate to have some last-minute visitors...one of Kevin's College friends, Bob Mealy & his son, Blake, and daughter, taylor were in Denver for a Volleyball Competition and College Recruiting Weekend. They came over for dinner and to watch some basketball before they had to leave, but the next day their flight was cancelled due to all the ice storms back East and they were able to hang out with us for a few more days.

Here are some pictures & videos of our weekend with everyone!

MJ in front of the Tubing Hill at Keystone Resort

Grandpa & Madison hanging out on the slopes

Grandpa enjoying the beautiful scenery



Mitchell & Blake ready to go down again!



The gang...Madison, MJ, Grandpa, Blake & Bob Mealy



WEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!







I'm TIRED!!!!!



Grandpa... a "true" Western Boy!



Hot Chocolate ROCKS!