Europe Trip - Day 2.

Day 2 of our Euro trip started with a segway tour around Paris! I had never ridden one before and was super nervous but Paul assured me (he has done segway tours before) that it was super easy and very fun. Of course - he was right. We had a quick training session before getting underway. We got to see all of the major tourist spots in Paris and had a great time doing it. There is so much to see and do that after our tour was over (and I took a cheeky nap) we jumped on a 'hop on, hop off' tour bus and continued to hit up the sights. We went up the eiffel tower where we bought the most amazing macaroons I have ever had, hung around in the Louvre and we bought some beautiful paintings by a local street artist. I absolutely loved Paris and would go again in a heart beat. So incredibly beautiful. 

 Paris Military School

 Les Invalides - Militray Museum and Tomb of Napoleon 

 The Ponte Alexandre - This bridge is lined with people in costumes - kind of like Vegas 

 The Eiffel Tower 

 Learning to segway... Paul was messing around because he already knew how! 

 Selfie with the most iconic tower in the world. Had to be done...

 The reason that Paris was number 1 on my bucket list - The Louvre. This made my DaVinci Code heart happy! Unfortunately it was closed while we were there due to some recent flooding. A little disappointing but a good reason to go back again I guess! 

 Adding our very own lock to the love lock bridge

 Notre Dame

 The Arc De Triomphe

Eiffel Tower at night before the lights display. So pretty - hard to get a picture in focus though...

Europe Trip - Day 1.

While Mum and Dad were in Utah they said they would watch the kids so that Paul and I could head off to Europe for a two week, kid free adventure! Yesssss! We flew out a couple of days after the twins birthday and arrived at our first stop - Paris. Day one - Disneyland! (of course). We all know by now that I am a Disneyland fanatic, so you can imagine my excitement when my darling husband surprised me with tickets! Hello! Best hubby ever! The best part - it was so quiet compared to the parks in California and Orlando! We basically walked straight on to every ride and had finished the entire park by 7pm that night (which worked out well seeming as we had been flying all night and were so tired!). We got to try a few rides they don't have in the american parks like RV's rocking coaster and my personal favourite - Crush's (Finding Nemo) Spinning Coaster. It was an awesome day and a great way to kick start our adventure! 

Memorial Day Antics

To celebrate Memorial Day we decided to drive up to Logan and have a picnic at the temple grounds. We packed a lunch, a few balls and the skateboards and set off for an afternoon of fun! The kids took it upon themselves to teach me how to skateboard... I wasn't great - but it was fun! We headed over to Lagoon afterwards to show Mum and Dad around and to ride a few rides. Such a fun afternoon/evening. 

The twins turn 4!

This year the twinnies turned 4! We had a princess party to celebrate the big day! They absolutely love Disney princesses and have quite the collection of dresses from our numerous trips to disneyland - so it was the perfect theme for their party. We decided to make it a big one as it would be the last party we would throw in Utah. We had a princess bouncy castle, Cinderella and Belle came, a fabulous face painter and tons of food and drink - all princess themed of course! Even more special - Grandma and Granddad flew in the day before from Australia! Yay! Two reasons to celebrate! Below are some snaps from the day. Thanks to everyone who came and helped us celebrate! It was an awesome day! 

 Kneaders for lunch for these birthday girls!

 The food. Each item was princess themed with a matching label - e.g. The Spinach dip was called "Ariel's seaweed dip". It turned out super cute! 

 The cake. How adorable are those cupcake toppers? There was one for every disney prince and princess - thank you Etsy! 

 The birthday girls with Cinderella and Belle

 Kendall and Haylee with their cupcakes 

 The girls with their best friend Isla

 The candy buffet

 The photo wall - this included some super cute princess props

 The bouncy castle 

 Surprise visitors!

This is probably my favourite photo from the party - poor Rooney just wasn't a fan of the princesses. 

JDS Spring Recital

In May, Jazz Dancer Studio held their end of year dance recital. The twins were in it and I had multiple classes performing as well. The girls did a great job and both of them performed with big smiles on their faces. A huge improvement from the Christmas recital where Baylee fell over and Kendall stood on stage and cried the entire time! They were adorable and we were so proud of them! Good job girls! My classes performed well too and I'm so sad this was my last performance as their teacher. I will miss these kiddos and this studio so much! 

 Baylee's Head Shot 

Kendall's Head Shot

 Group Photo

 Twin Shot

 Their response to "smile nicely for a photo"

 Flowers from Dad for a job well done. Posing with Sonny (their favourite teacher)

My seniors. Love them! (We obviously couldn't figure out what camera to look at)

Pre-School Performance

Boo and Woo went to three year old pre-school (3 mornings a week) this year and recently had a performance to celebrate the end of the school year. They made it! Hooray! Baylee as usual sang, did actions and performed for us. Kendall as usual stood there and refused to participate.... although it does look like she may quietly sing the occasional word... and hey - at least she stood up this time! (frequent blog readers may remember that last time all the kids stood up to sing and dance and Kendall remained planted in her seat with a frown on her face). Happy graduation twinnies - we love you! I have attached a video of them singing zip-a-dee-doo-dah because it was my favourite song from the day. 

When you go on a trail walk with friends...

and the heavens open up! So. Freaking. Wet. We toughed it out though and kept walking. Luckily good conversation and a lot of laughs made it not so miserable. I love these two! 

Just Chillin...

Excuse my husky voice... I have a cold. 

It's Been a Long Day...

I don't even need to go into details of how long my day has been today... I can just show you this photo and I'm pretty sure you will understand... Yes. That is a naked child stuck in the baby gate... on top of the laundry basket she tried to stand on to get over the gate.

My girls!

Jamberry Nails!

Ok - have you guys ever heard of Jamberry Nails? I am obsessed! One of my dance students gave me a set for Christmas and I was instantly hooked! You can get so many different colours and styles and they last just as long as shellac... especially on me because I tend to pick at my nails. These cant be picked off as easy as shellac can! Heres a collage of a few of my favourite designs we have tried so far. I especially love the Minnie mouse themed ones I got for our Disneyland trip! 

Girls on Film

The girls got to do some shooting for funtastic TV. They did the nursery rhyme "no more monkey's jumping on the bed." It was fun for them... but a very, very long day waiting on set for each shot to be set up and filmed. I definitely don't want them to become child actors anytime soon! 

When Jack Discovers Face Swap

Ok... you guys... This is GOLD. Our friend Jack recently discovered face swap. He sent us these videos of him morphing into our long lost relatives using our faces. I must say - he does a mean Aussie accent! So funny! 

12th April 2016

Spring Break 2016

Spring Break meant a trip to California for our cute cheerleader to compete at Nationals. This was her second year competing for MACS. We decided that the whole family would make the trip so we could catch up with Mark, Lisa and the kids. We also decided it would be fun to leave a little earlier and hit up Zions National Park on the way through. I had been once before with Sarah, Jess and Stephen (You can watch the video of our time there at flyingthenest.tv) but no one else in our family had gone before. We stayed in the National Park for two nights and had a great time exploring the different areas and trails. The twins and Hayden had a great time splashing in the water at the river walk trail head and Emma enjoyed putting her new found photography skills to the test. She has started a photography account on Instagram (emma.g.photography)for anyone interested in checking out some of her stuff.

While we were in California we decided (of course) to go to Disneyland. We only went for one day this time because we had just been in Disney-world only five months earlier... and we also wanted to take the older kids to Six Flags - Magic Mountain. Mark, Lisa and the kids met us later in the day and we had a fun time riding rides and watching world of colour. I'm pretty sure Disney-land/Disney-world is my favourite place to visit. I am addicted. We had a really good time at Magic Mountain too. Paul and I had been twice before but it was a first for Emma and Hayden. Hayden was a little unsure of the rides at first - they were definitely the biggest, scariest rollercoasters he's every been on. Dare devil Emma was, of course, totally fine. They both ended up loving it though and rode some of the bigger rides multiple times.

Paul flew out of LA to meet up with Leonard in Florida to go to Pearl Jam concerts in Ft Lauderdale and Miami. The kids and I stayed in California for a few days longer. The kids just love hanging out and relaxing with the cousins and we didn't need to rush home for any reason. We went to a cool pirate themed dinner show while we were there. the kids all dressed up and had a great time! We drove back home via St George the following weekend. This was my first time driving that far on my own with the kids. I usually rely on Paul to do the bulk of the driving - we made it safe and sound though and it was worth it to spend more time with the family! Thanks for having us Mark and Lisa!

Dancing Queens!

The girls had a dance party the other day - I had to video them because they had me in stitches. They kept trying to do partner balances and it was hilarious! The effects of having an acro teacher as a Mum I guess : ) Can't wait until the are strong enough to actually do balances and tricks together! I am already training them to be duo partners - Kendall is a righty and Baylee is a lefty! Perfect pair! 

Excuse the dinner eating clip at the end of the video - I saved this from my snap chat story - it includes all videos I took that day! : )

Pie Face!

Steve and Jess bought this for the kids for Christmas! Poor Baylee got pied more than anyone else! She was such a good sport about it though! : )

Christmas 2016!

Christmas 2016 was great! We spent the morning opening gifts and playing with our new toys. Then we snow blowed the driveway, packed the car and headed up to Park City. We booked a condo in the mountain and had a Christmas dinner surrounded by snow covered mountains! After dinner we went to the outdoor pool and hot tub! It is heated so you don't freeze in the snow and the kids had a blast! The girls spent ages melting chunks of snow in the hot tub and the older two swam for hours! We went back to the room and played some board games and then went to sleep. The next day we went and saw Alvin and the chipmunks the road trip and then went tubing! We had a great time on our mini Christmas getaway that I think we might do it every year! Hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas!!!! Sorry I didn't get many photos from the morning... the kids were opening their gifts so fast I couldn't keep up! I did however get a super cute video of Kendall who kept saying "Oh my gosh!" every time she opened something! It was SO cute!