Graduation #3...CHECK!!!

May has been a CRAZY month to say the least.  Carlie had 3 graduations this month:

1-Rio Salado
2-Seminary
3-Heritage Academy (High School)

The Class of 2018 had 108 graduates in it.  Each parent was allotted half a table to set up pictures/awards/accomplishments of their Seniors--WHO does this?!?!  Seriously LOVE this small school we chose for our kids!  (Carlie's Senior Class had 108 students in it:)

Funny side story:  Lois is one of Carlie's best friends--she is one of those AYT kids that we met way back in 2010.  Lois goes to Perry HS but has most of her friends at Heritage so she wanted to surprise her friends by coming to their graduation.  She rode up to the event with me, hid outside for a bit and then snuck in.  It was HILARIOUS seeing everyone's faces when they saw Lois, but Kayleah's face was THE BEST:

Carlie was surprised too:)

The entire ceremony was 1 1/2 hours--which was PERFECT!!!  Here's my girl and all her best buds:

Kayleah & Carlie

Kalissa & Cartlie

Dean & Carlie

Carlie, Tayte, & Lois

Tayte, Kayleah, Carlie, Lois, & Thommy

The Open House:  (Friday, May 25th)

We had an open house on Friday celebrating Carlie.  I had these cookies made for the event.  When I ordered them, I just gave a few general details--her name, what college she was going to, what her major was going to be...  Then this cookies lady blew me away with her designs!!!  OBOE COOKIES?!?!  Are you kidding me?!?!  They were all almost too pretty to be eaten!  They were a huge hit at the party for sure!

I made sure to get her with an
OBOE COOKIE!!!

And we had such an AMAZING turn out of people coming to support our girl.  My heart was FULL for sure as I looked out over all our good family friends that we have made here in AZ.  

Well, we made it through!  As I sit here and think of everything Carlie has accomplished in her 17 years of life...I can't believe that she is MY daughter!!!  What did I do to deserve this awesome girl?! She has far exceeded any and all expectations that we could have hoped for her.  I am CRAZY PROUD of her and can't wait to see what she does in the years to come.  Look out world...here comes my Carlie Mae:)

Fun Side Story:
This is a good friend of mine, Greta.  She hired me way back in 1999 to intern for her as an Exercise Physiologist at Advanced Cardiac Specialists.  She was struggling with infertility for years before I came to work for her.  I was pregnant when I was interviewing but had not told her that I was fearing that it would hurt my chances of being hired.  Well, she hired me and within 2 weeks of me working for her, she announced her pregnancy!  There were 3 of us in the Cardiac Rehab that had girls all born within 2 months of each other in 2000--it was the running joke in the office to NOT drink the water in the Rehab or you might end up pregnant too:)  Our girls spent many years growing up together but then Greta and I had lost touch for several years but I sent her a graduation announcement just hoping I would get an announcement for her daughter too.  And I did get Maya's announcement and was even more surprised and thrilled when Greta showed up to Carlie's Open House!!!  It was a blast from the past for sure and soooooo good to catch up with an old friend.

Diamond Queens--Spring 2018

Tatum had a FANTASTIC season this year in softball.  She once again had her favorite coaches--Dad and Coach Scott.

These girls ended the season with 9 wins and 1 loss.  Tatum was the star First Baseman, back-up pitcher (which she ROCKED), AND the hitting/RBI leader of her team!!!  This girl can hit pretty much anything!!!  So proud of her on and off the field.  My Tatum is a worker and gives 100% to everything she does!

Tatum, Chloe, & Leyla
The TERRIFIC TRIO!!!!
No better 1st Baseman, Pitcher, or Catcher in 10U!

In front of their beloved Chicken Coop!

These girls practice in Coach Scott's backyard.  He has it all set up and measured out into a perfect softball field--it's super hard to get regular fields for weekly practice.  So you always hear the girls cheering on their teammates by saying, "HIT IT TO THE CHICKEN COOPS!"  Which makes NO sense to anyone outside their team:)  When it's hit to the chicken coops at Scott's house, it's a home run!!!

Prom #2--"Mo Pro"

Thank goodness Carlie got a re-do on Prom this year--since her Senior Prom was kinda dampened by All-State.  So here she is in all her beauty with her awesome date/group.

Kayleah, Jarod, Carlie, Dallin,
Kalissa, Matthew, Linda, & Devon 

The day date consisted of going to see Kayleah in her matinee show of "Anything Goes."  Kayleah was "Reno Sweeny" in this play (the star!)  Then they went back Kayleah's house for dinner and then off to the dance.

Carlie and Dallin have been great friends through high school at Heritage.  They were both voted "Most Musical" by their Senior class so it was most fitting that they went to Mo Pro together:)

So great show, great food, great dance, & great Date!!!  So glad she had the "full" Senior Prom experience--even though it's WAY more complicated than way back when I went to prom:)

Yep...Tatum ROCKS:)

Tatum had her last concert of the year and was asked to perform a solo.  So we found one in her book and worked on it at home and here's the result:


I mean, I know I'm her mom but she was definitely, hands-down, the best solo of the night.  Yep...my Tatum Jane ROCKS!

Sozo Coffee House Performance!

Lois and Carlie have been great friends for many years now.  Lois is pursing a singing/songwriting career right now and can be seen performing all over the valley.  Tonight was her new album release party and she asked Carlie to sing with her.  It was super fun to watch these two.  LOIS IS A ROCKSTAR and we love her oh sooo much!

Baby Milo

So I heard of a sick pup on FaceBook who had been taken from him mother way too early and was very sick because of it.  It's called "failure to thrive" or "fading puppy syndrome."  I had to pull 4 kittens out of this last summer so I thought I could handle it.  My intentions were to nurse him back to health and then let Lost Our Home have him to adopt him out.

Well, this poor little guy was SOOO sick when I picked him up on Monday morning.  Tuesday, not a good day at all.  He slept most the day and was not interested in eating at all, and worst of all, there was blood in his stool.  So I continued to try and syringe feed him every 2-3 hours overnight with very little success.  Wednesday morning, got up very early and headed to the shelter with him.  I was hoping that we could humanely euthanize him there at the shelter.  But Vanessa, who works at the shelter, really wanted to push some fluids into him and change up some meds and give him one more try.  And boy am I glad we did just that!  He seriously went from hopeless to near perfect health within 4 hours.  IT WAS AMAZING!!!  Brought me to tears!

We're now at Friday of this same week and Milo is going strong!  He has a big appetite and should be up to weight in a couple of weeks.  Seriously the sickest little pup I've ever taken on but then the biggest satisfaction too.  I'm completely sleep-deprived, my house is messier than I like it, and I only made it to the gym once this week, but the pup is healthy and THAT'S what most important to me:)

My Piano Teaching Buddy!!!

In other doggie news, this was Rocco's biggest challenge of the day...getting his Teddy Bear out the doggie door!  Even though I was holding the back door wide open for him, he just HAD to get the bear out HIS door!  Ugh!  First World Spoiled Doggie Problems:)

Heritage Choir Concert--May 8th!

So my posts are totally out of order!  But oh well.  I'm just happy that I'm not completely crazy from the events of the past 2 weeks:)

The final choir concert was AMAZING.  Carlie had like 8 costume changes.  It was a very enjoyable concert.  I have the highest respect for the choir director--Mr. Rakita--he has done an incredible job in the 2 years he has been there.

Here is my favorite performance of the night.  This is Carlie & Tayte singing "Anything You Can Do" from the musical "Annie Get Your Gun."  Carlie & Tayte have known each other their entire lives since their dads have worked together for over 20 years now.  Carlie & Tayte have performed together numerous times in plays and concerts and have been best friends through it all.  It was the perfect way to end their Senior years.  LOVE THESE TWO!!!

Piano Recitals--May 5th!!!

How could I forget to post this!!!

So I'm seriously questioning ever doing May recitals ever again because May is SHEER INSANITY for everyone, not just me.

Thank goodness I have my next piano-star-in-training to replace my oldest daughter:)  Poor Tatum had to play in 3 of my 4 recitals today because I try to have an advanced student in each recital but due to circumstnaces out of my control (funerals, sicknesses, etc..) I had students cancel very last minute this year!  So Tatum stepped in to help me out.  LOVE this girl and LOVE that she lets me push her:)

So here's my rising piano star performing in the once recital she was scheduled to be in:

Duet with Chloe V.--"A Little Night Music"


Solos--"Fur Elise" and "A Million Dreams" (from The Greatest Showman movie)

Carlie Graduation #1!--May 9th

This girl is a ROCKSTAR in every thing she does.  She has worked her hind end off throughout her high school career and now all her hard work is paying off in big ways.

She has a full Music Scholarship to BYU this fall.  She was 1 of only 6 oboes taken into the music school next fall.

She also received a full Academic scholarship to BYU because of her top-notch grades and test scores.

She has earned her Associates of Arts degree from Rio Salado college BEFORE she even graduates from high school.  She is 1 of 8 Heritage students to do that this year.

Phew...I'm exhausted just typing all of this.

So here she is at her Rio Salado Graduation at Comerica Theatre in Phoenix.  She graduated with Highest Distinctions and with her Associates of Arts degree.

Diego, Lincoln, Caleb, Ben, Rebekah, Carlie, & Ethan

Heritage Band Concert--May 1st

Heritage Band Concert was fantastic like always.  Max was asked to be the MC for his Symphonic Band--we can NOT be held responsible for what that kid says when giving a microphone!!!  But he was pretty dang funny.  We were proud of him.

Ethan performed fantastically in his advanced Jazz Band.  My favorite song they played was the Sesame Street Theme song--the trombones had the BEST part in that:)

Carlie was all over the place playing piano and oboe and she was just AMAZING like always.

If I was a good mom, I would have taken a picture of all 3 of them together but I suck sometimes.  I did record Carlie's oboe solo so here's that at least:

Prom/All-State/EVERYTHING Week!!!

I swear some weeks are just like this.  And it seems that every time a week like this happens, Chris is out of town:)

So this week in April we had a bazillion things:
1-Carlie left for All-State in Tucson
2-Carlie and Ethan had prom
3-Tatum had 2 softball games
4-And oh yeah...did I mention Chris was out of town???

But with lots of prayers and planning, it all came together.  My boys pitched in and helped coach at Tatum's softball games while I made 2 back-and-forth trips to Tucson to #1-make sure all the All-State kids didn't miss their Senior Prom and #2-see the amazing All-State Choir concert.

Carlie really went out on top this year musically.  In the North East AZ Region she was the #1 Oboist AND the #1 Alto. She chose to participate in the orchestra--guaranteed solos when your 1st chair oboe--and she was of course AWESOME!

For All-State, she was 2nd Chair Oboe and #4 Alto (in the ENTIRE State of AZ).  She was the only instrumentalist from her school to make All-State and so we encouraged her to participate in the choir--that's where all her friends were and she had already locked in her oboe scholarships for college.  So she did choir and had a BLAST.

All-State was at the U of A in Tucson this year the same weekend as Heritage Prom.  So not being able to participate in the whole day date thing, Carlie chose to go to prom with a couple of friends instead of a group date.  So I drove down on Friday night to pick up the All-State kids to bring them back to get ready for Prom at my house.  I had pizza ordered for them so they could quickly change and enjoy a good portion of the dance.  I then drove back on Saturday to enjoy the All-State choir performance.

Carlie & Lois

Carlie & Tayte
Life long friends

Carlie, Tayte, & Lois

This picture was taken specifically to bug Max.
Mission Accomplished.
"Too much touching" for Max

YEESSS  LOIS!!!

Rocco has to be in the middle of everything!

At the dance:

This was a picture I requested!  I wanted all the AYT kids in a group.  These are some of my most favorite kids in the whole world!  I have sure LOVED watching them all grow up together these past 8 years.

Kayleah, Mitchell, Carlie, Tayte, Lois, & Rhett

Ethan's Prom:

Ethan asked a cute girl named KT to prom.  Boy was she excited!  I got to watch ALL of her prom preparations on Instagram--the dress shopping, nails, hair, make-up, etc...So fun.  Ethan made a cute little stop-motion video asking her to prom:

She answered with a snow cone from Bahama Bucks which he had to eat the entire snow cone to see her answer written in the bottom of the cup.  "YES!" 

Moms of boys aren't really supposed to go take pictures but I would have if I wasn't driving to and from Tucson so I really appreciate these pictures I was able to "steal" from KT's instagram because Ethan sure didn't take any with his phone:)

KT & Ethan
Masquerade Themed Prom

Funny prom story:  So Ethan's date is very outgoing and direct--which was kinda why I encouraged him to ask her because he's sooo shy and might not talk much on a date.  While at the dance, KT told Ethan that he had to hold her hand all night because they were on a date...so he did!!!  Carlie was FREAKING OUT!!!  She was having a hard time watching her little bro walking around holding a girl's hand!  HILARIOUS RIGHT?!  In all fairness, Tayte did try to hold Carlie's hand but she was not having it because it wasn't really a one-on-one date:)  

I had asked Ethan to be home by mid-night but you see the size of his group???  Only 2 of the boys actually had their driving licenses AND a car so they had to drive everyone home!!!  So my poor Ethan didn't make it home until 1 am.  And I'm happy to report that KT didn't make him kiss her too--because I was actually a little worried about that:)

So we made it through yet another crazy week.  Not the first time and I know it's not the last:)