Our Little Dancer

Blair started dancing this spring and she just finished up with her recital on the 7th. It's been a little crazy as she missed two of the five months of dance classes while she was in the hospital and recovering, but I think she's had a pretty good time. They do ballet and tap once a week for 45 minutes.

The recital was pretty funny to watch. All of the little girl classes had every dancer doing something different and some not doing anything at all. I was pretty worried that Blair wouldn't move when people were watching her because when her teacher would invite the moms in to watch during practice, Blair would completely freeze. According to her teacher, she was dancing when we weren't watching. We spent the weeks leading up to the recital talking about how much fun it was going to be and bribing her with ice cream after the recital if she did her dance for her everyone. She had her little heart set on chocolate ice cream with sprinkles for weeks.

Grandma and Grandpa Davis and Aunt Emily came to see her at the recital. She was so excited when the day finally came. She did her dance pretty good until the end when she decided the umbrella was more interesting than dancing and watching her teacher. She was absolutely thrilled when Aunt Emily brought her flowers and she got a cute little gift from her teacher. Blair lets eveyone that comes to our house know that the flowers on the table are HERS- she got them from her aunt and her aunt is a dancer too.

Afterwards, we took her to a frozen yogurt shop where you can put on a million different toppings, but she only wanted chocolate with sprinkles. Nothing more. It was a late night, but we had a lot of fun and she was happy.

Dance pictures

The day of the recital

After her performance

Davis was pretty cute at the recital. He was standing in front of his chair dancing along with all of the girls and clapping like crazy for everyone. When Blair came back from dancing, Davis said, "You did REALLY good Blair." He's a pretty good brother. He sits through dance class every week and was a trooper at the recital.

This is her smile at the ice cream shop. A little creepy...

Everyone, except Mom, enjoying their treat after the recital.

A Real Mom

Tonight Blair decided the garbage was too full so she took the bag out of the can and put in a new bag. Before I knew it, she was outside. I went to check on her and she was closing the lid of the big can outside. "Look Mom," she said, "I'm getting bigger. I can do all of the garbage by myself. I'm like a real mom!"

I don't know how she got the idea that taking the garbage out made her a real mom; I'm always avoiding that job. She sure was proud of herself though.

Easter

The kids were excited about Easter for weeks and Spence and I were too. The Easter bunny came to an agreement that Easter would be a bigger present holiday this year, not Christmas. The day before Easter my mom had the kids while Spence and I worked for hours putting together the swing set. My parents brought the kids home just in time for bed Saturday night and they didn't notice what was in our backyard.

At 4:15am, Davis came running up the stairs to our room yelling "There's a swing set in our back yard!" He was thrilled. Why was he looking out the back window into the yard at 4am I'll never know. He was way too excited to sleep after that and we were too. At 7:15, we let Davis wake up Blair and the fun began. It was all he could do to keep the swing set a secret until Blair saw it for herself. The Easter bunny hid the baskets outside this year, so the kids had fun looking for baskets and playing on the new toy all morning.

When it came time for church, Davis had been awake too long and he had a full on meltdown, but he settled down in time to sing in Sacrament. It was the first time my kids have done this and it made me cry to see them up there- I don't know when the got so big.

Spence gave a great talk in Sacrament (Of course and it felt like it'd been forever since he spoke last- about six months. I'm still used to him speaking every month on high council Sunday) and Davis was a reverent child in Primary. I'm sure no one in Primary knew what to think. Davis has a hard time sitting still most of the time. He doesn't talk, but he doesn't hold still. We practiced being the reverent child all week and he stood up there like a champ- folding his arms and not moving a muscle. He was so cute. Blair gave a talk in Primary and did so good. In the middle of her talk, she got frustrated with me trying to help her and said, "Mom!" in a loud and very annoyed voice. I about died laughing. Of course she didn't need extra help.

After church Grandpa and Grandma Davis came to visit and have dinner. We had so much fun. It's not often that Grandpa isn't totally booked with church on Sundays, but Easter landed perfectly between semesters at BYU. We had a fantastic day.

Davis waking his sister up with his "horn".
Blair wasn't sure Easter was worth waking up for.

The Easter Bunny and Santa decided the big present should come in the Spring because it would be warmer. Too bad that didn't work out. Christmas morning was much warmer than Easter morning.

Aunt Sue taught Blair how to use Robin Eggs for lipstick a week or so before Easter and she thought it was the greatest thing ever. Davis has decided that Aunt Sue loves Robin Eggs so he won't eat his. They're in the pantry waiting for the next time we see Aunt Sue so Davis can give them to her.

Of course the kids had to pose with the annoying bunny.

Our Favorite Aunts

The kids' favorite aunts came to visit one weekend while Grandpa and Grandma were in Europe for a month. Davis and Blair were thrilled to have the girls come and slightly disappointed they only came Saturday afternoon and Sunday. We had a blast while they were here- we went bowling (a favorite of the kids) and went to dinner (Davis choose pizza of course). All four kids (can I still call the girls kids? It doesn't feel like that these days.) had fun and came home to veg later. Sunday night came too fast, but we loved every minute they were here.

Easter

The kids have a bunny that sings "Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail". It is perhaps the most annoying toy ever, but we deal with it for one month a year.

Yesterday at my parent's house, my mom was putting together an Easter basket for Morgan and Kristi before they move for the summer. Blair was looking at the basket with Davis came in and asked, "Is that a basket full of Easter joy?" That is, after all, what the song says the bunny brings.

Tonight he was taking about Easter joy again, so I asked him what it was. He quickly replied, "It's about Jesus."

We'll have to get the two separate parts about Easter sorted out in the next couple of days. Either way, we're excited for another fun, family holiday.

The Last Month

For the last month, since Blair came home from the hospital, our life has been pretty mellow. Spence has been super busy with tax season and the kids and I have been hanging out at home most of the time avoiding any germs and letting Blair get back to her normal self. The blogging has suffered since it's a pretty busy time for my work too. Here's what we've been up to:

A bunch of the pictures were taken on my phone- sorry about the poor quality.

We spent many days in our jammies, but not without a bow in Blair's hair. According to her, "You can still be fancy when you're sick." The picture above was the first time she walked down the stairs by herself after coming home. It amazed me how fast she regained her strength and got around normally.
We spent lots and lots of time in the bath. The kids love the bath and since we had no where to go, we could play forever.

We went to Grandpa and Grandma Davis' house when we needed to get out of our house. The kids loved all of the attention and the change of things going on. I enjoyed talking to other adults and having some time to get out when Grandpa watched the kids and I ran a few errands with my mom.

Grandpa bought this new fun toy for his backyard and the kids love it. The call the backyard a park now. I think the new toy put them over the top. It is a pretty fun place for kids.

Aunt Mandy made this darling quilt for Blair. She was absolutely thrilled and it is her new favorite. She won't sleep without it. Mandy quilted it too- what an amazing aunt.

This is one of the first few days we ran a couple of errands. I told the kids to grab some shoes and get ready to go. I had to take a picture when they came out with boots that didn't go with their outfits and a few toys that they needed to make the trip to Lowe's. They surely sported this look in public too. You can wear anything to Lowe's, right?

We had some really nice weather for a few days and the kids were excited to get out of the house. We rode scooters and bikes and even went to the park for a little while. It was so great seeing Blair play outside with her toys like nothing had happened.

On the 11th, we went to Blair's second follow-up doctor appointment. They did another x-ray of her lungs and it looked great. By this day, she was almost back to 100 percent of her normal physical activity. Her running was a little crazy still, but everything else was normal. The doctor said she could go out a little more, but to be careful with school and church and other activities like that because it is still respiratory season.

My cutie pie at the doctor

Happy St. Patrick's Day. The kids were thrilled to see the treats that the leprechaun left. Unlike all the good mothers that made their kids green pancakes, eggs, muffins, or something, I let my kids eat their treats for breakfast. I think they thought it was the best day ever.

This week we went to Sweet's Candy factory for the Joy School field trip, Blair has been to dancing, the kids are going to school tomorrow and we'll try primary on Sunday. Both kids are very ready to get back to their normal routines and spend time with their friends. I'm still a little paranoid, but I can't protect them from everything forever.

Our Cute Little Blair

Blair is trying to walk more and more each day. Here is a video from Saturday. She's got the whole front room of our house to practice walking with no obstacles because Spence took our furniture to stage a house we have for sale. He said it'd only be gone for a short time, but that was at the end of December...

Valentines Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day on Friday at our house. The kids were excited to make Valentines for Dad and Blair used more glue on her daddy's valentine than anyone else would use making ten. We made heart shaped rice crispy treats and had a fun night as a family. My mom's friend made these cute shirts for the kids.

Better Each Day

Blair is doing better each day. Today we had a follow up doctor appointment and everything looks pretty good for now. We have another appointment in two weeks and they'll do a last chest x-ray to make sure her lungs are looking good.

She is getting more and more confident standing and walking a little bit on her own. She can stand up for a second if she's getting off a chair or a step and she's getting better at standing up from the middle of the floor. Yesterday, she could only take one or two steps before falling, but today she's put together a few more steps a couple of times. She's doing great with sitting up and using her arms. She only had one potty accident today and I think we're going to try wearing underpants to bed tonight. She's being a pretty good sport considering everything she's gone through lately.

Our cute girl crawling around. Yes, her bangs need to be cut in a big way, but it obviously isn't on my priority list right now.
Happy to be walking

Davis wanted to show me how he walks too. He always says, "Blair can't stand much. I stand much." He is being very nice and helpful to his sister now though.

Sorry the video is so shaky. I was trying to get her standing and then move back without missing anything.

First Day Home

We had a pretty good night last night. We woke up to all of the alarms for medications and Blair took them like a champ. I've got quite the list going of what needs to happen each hour, but I don't want to miss anything that needs to be done.

I've been pretty worried about how Blair would get around at home, but she's doing better than I thought. Yesterday during her physical therapy, they worked on crawling with her. She doesn't do awesome with it because her arms are pretty weak too, but she can sure get where she wants to go by crawling. When I put her in bed at 9pm (much later than the normal 7:30pm bedtime, but earlier than her hospital bed time), she came downstairs and into the kitchen before I knew it. It turns out that she can slide down the stairs on her belly just like she did as a baby. It's a little crazy watching her get around like that, but at least she can move around the house on her own.

We were all so happy to see Davis this morning and he was thrilled to be home with us. He went right upstairs and woke Blair up when he got here. They've been playing together great all day long. I've had to have a little talk with Davis because he said, "Only babies crawl" and he told me to put her in time out when Blair had an accident, but he's understanding a little better now. We're all learning to adjust and I think things will be back to normal in a couple of weeks. Right now, we're just thankful for all the blessings we've been given lately.