Swim Team!

I've been talking up swim team with Megan all year in the hopes that she would love the swim team experience as much as I did as a kid.  As a result, when April 22 arrived, she was THRILLED to go to her first day of "rookie camp".  Basically, this was 3 days of optional practice in preparation for team tryouts later in the week.  The team is not terribly hard to make--they just require that you swim the length of the pool in under 2 minutes.
The past 2 or 3 years, April has been plenty warm enough to enjoy the pool, but this year, it was CHILLY!  They even cancelled practice a few times because the weather was so cool.  I would bring 2 towels and hot chocolate each day to wrap Megan up and we'd have her change right into dry clothes and blow dry her hair to warm her up after practice each afternoon.

Our happy girl at day one of Rookie Camp (Daddy even made it home from work in time to watch)

Candy and Brooke had fun watching...

And in they go!  She's under the arrow :)

Frozen but loving her hot chocolate...

She was a happy little popsicle though and breezed through tryouts (45 seconds, go Meg!).  She actually did well enough that her time put her in with the 7 and 8 year olds (but she moved back with her age group after a week and a half or so, it was too hard for her with the big kids).
Her first real "meet" experience was the team's Time Trials on May 11.  She swam her freestyle in 40.50 (dropped 5 seconds from tryouts) and her backstroke in 59.55.  She was so excited to be racing that she kept lifting her head up just to smile at us.  Cutie.  Here are some pics from Time Trials (courtesy of our friend Chris--I forgot my camera that day!).

Megan with her buddies Brooklyn and Hailey getting a little pep talk from me :)

Hailey and Megan...

Her first race!  (and the first time she'd ever seen a starting block--she decided she'd rather hop in from the side :)

Our happy little fish.  How cute is that!

I had a lot of fun being back in swim team mode.  I helped out with the people entering times in the computers and sadly learned at time trials that I needed to be on my toes--I missed Megan's backstroke race!  Darn.  But Dan and her sisters cheered her on and she had fun with that race too.  It was a great start to a fun season! 

Dance Spring Festivities

Megan really loved her dance class this year.  I felt like it was a great experience for her to be in a classroom away from me, away from home, and learn to be comfortable there.  I enjoyed chatting with the other moms each week and while we may try another studio next year that's a little closer, we really enjoyed it there.

One last practice before the recital...

Getting her trophy=best day of her life (especially because we went straight from dance to her last day of swim team rookie camp where she got a medal too).  *not Brooke's best day...we had a special Brooke themed family night that night to try to make up for her lack of trophies/medals--it's tough to be a younger sister sometimes

That's her teacher, Ms. Danielle giving it to her on April 29

Her recital was on May 4.  It was at a local high school and I thought the studio did a great job of making it a fun experience.  Instead of every single class performing in one LONG recital, they split up the classes into something like 6 different recital times.  Each time had a mix of beginners and more advanced students and it was fun to see them all perform.  Megan did great and Aunt Carrie was able to come cheer her on (thanks Carrie!).  We even had Grandma and Papa watching on FaceTime from Utah (I love technology).

She's 4th from the right.  Because they had a hired videographer, there was no photography allowed during the actual performance.  It was as you'd expect--what they lacked in skill, they more than made up for in cuteness. 

Megan did NOT want to pose for pics after.  So Aunt Carrie did her best to encourage participation.

This was the best we got.  We are so proud of our sweet Megan.  She is growing so fast!

  

Sprint for Life 2013

The Sprint for Life was on May 4 this year.  With my little brother playing in the state tournament for water polo in Dallas, we weren't sure we'd even be able to race this year, but when I realized that Megan had her spring dance recital that same day, I signed up! 
Dan sacrificed this year and stayed home with the kids so I could actually run and it was so nice.  Team Sweet Like Candy was small but it was still fun to see those that were able to come and catch up a little. 
My sister Carrie and I ran together.  Just like last year, I alternated between excitement for the run and the hope for more research and my eyes filling with tears as I remembered my Mom.  I was especially touched by a team who were running in memory of a woman in her fifties that passed away just 3 weeks before the race.  And by the pale, thin woman wearing her teal cap over her bald head and being pushed in her wheelchair for the race.  My heart just ached for all of them. 
After a moment of silence in memory of the thousands of women who were not there because of ovarian cancer, we were off.
Carrie and I stayed toward the front of the pack as we lined up for the race, so we didn't have to work our way around too many people as we found our pace.  We kept our pace right around 9:30 per mile and we finished right at 29:20!  My goal had been to finish in under 30, so I was really pleased. 
I will admit I was hoping to beat Carrie in the sprint to the end, but she saw me pulling ahead and we crossed together :).  It was perfect running weather (right around 50 degrees) and was a beautiful day.  I can't wait for next year.

 
Linda and Tom E.--great family friends for many years

Linda and Jenn & Chris (who so kindly let me catch a ride with them--thanks guys!)  We missed Linda's other daughter Kat, but since she had a 4 day old baby she got a pass this year.

Larissa and her hubby.  Larissa is a gynecologic oncologist as well as a family friend and was a godsend for Mom, especially at the end. 

Carrie and I--representing our family this year

April

Candace got some big girl undies to try out this week.  She looks pretty cute but at 21 months she's not quite ready yet (April 2, 2013)

I finally got around to coloring eggs with the girls (just 2 weeks after Easter) (April 15)

We had some warm, sunny days, so we got out the measuring cups and the baby pool (April 16, 2013)

And we hit up the zoo as well.  We love it there.  (April 19, 2013)

 Candy's darling curls seem to be staying put.  I love watching her hair get longer!  (April 20, 2013)

We babysit my visiting teachee's little boy for the afternoon.  The girls were smitten. (April 23, 2013)

Cute little Candy seems to be growing bigger every day.  She loves to sleep with her white blanket in her mouth and her little doll.  Her crossed feet are so cute! (April 30, 2013)

Happy Easter!

Easter was pretty low-key for us this year.  The kids and I spent Saturday helping my Dad clear out some stuff from his garage while Dan and some friends from the ward went to watch the PGA tournament near our house.  This meant that we ran out of time to color eggs--maybe we'll do it this week sometime :).
On Sunday morning, the kids got up around 6:30 am (I LOVE daylight savings time!) and we snuggled for a little bit until Candy woke up around 7.   We talked for a few minutes about the real reason we celebrate Easter and then let them out to hunt for eggs.  They were pretty excited to find the 10 eggs each that the Easter Bunny left behind.  They also each got a little purse and a set of tinker toys (hand-me downs from my little brother) to share.  The tinker toys are a BIG hit.

We had a quick breakfast before Dan headed to choir and the girls and I finished getting ready.  They looked so cute in their dresses!  I finished the dresses with a few days to spare and the girls had been trying them on all week.   They were excited to get to wear them out of the house.  They had gotten little stretchy pearl-like necklaces at a party a few weeks ago, so I told them to go get those and while upstairs they also grabbed their gloves (from the same party).  I figured if ever there was a Sunday where they could wear gloves, Easter was it.

Necklaces, check.  Gloves, check.  Balls, check. :)

 Oh the joys of trying to get a good pic of a 5, 3, and 1 year old.

I was going to crop these to just Brookie, but I loved Candy's goofy faces in the corner!

Megan...

Candace...

After church, we took a few more pictures (since now I had Dan to help me).

This was the best one we got.  Don't mind Megan's tongue sticking out.  They are cute though, even when they're being goofy.

We hosted dinner for my family later in the afternoon and had a great time.  I made my first brined turkey (yummy) and we had a delicious meal.  My brother and his 4 kids came over along with my Dad and Sally.  My other siblings from Houston were suffering on a cruise (Carrie) and in Barbados (Tyler), so I'm sure they were sad to miss our dinner :).
Our backyard egg hunt for the cousins got rained out, so we hid them around the house instead.  It was a really wonderful Easter.  One of my favorite parts of this Easter was the chance to sub in Brooke's sunbeams class and to share my testimony of the resurrection during sharing time.  I love the children in our ward and it was tender for me to be able to talk with them about that.  I was pretty teary during junior sharing time, but held it together better in senior!  I am so thankful for Jesus Christ who died as a sacrifice for the sins of the world and who makes it possible for us all to overcome death and be resurrected one day.
Happy Easter everyone!