Jared home, Girls' Weekend, 1st Gymnastic Exhibition

Jared got home Tuesday night, 5/12--I kept the girls awake for him and to surprise them:

I had Bunco the next night, 5/13, which was fun as always.  The twins had gymnastics on Thursday, then I got ready to leave for my girls trip!  My friend, Amiee, came to my house that evening, then we went and picked up Kiki and drove to St. George, where we met up with Jamie (who moved down to SG a few months ago) and Sarah (who flew in from VA).  We had an awesome few days together. We did some swimming in Jamie's pool and relaxing in her hot tub, played games, ate out a couple of times, at tons of snacks, chatted a LOT and laughed even more. :)  I have the best bff's!

Lunch on Friday, 5/15, at Kneader's, then made a quick stop to a cute little old-fashioned candy store before going to Jamie's to swim:

After swimming on Sat., 5/16, we got ready to hit the town and ate dinner at Rib & Chop House, then went and got cookies at Swig:

Amiee, Me:

 Me, Sarah, Kiki:

 I bent over and sneezed right as the picture took and everyone thought it was hilarious:

 Kiki, Amiee, Me:

 Sarah & Jamie:

 Celebrated Sarah's upcoming birthday:

Hanging out by the fir pit that night:

We all bought wax lips/mustache at that candy shop and did a group photo before heading home on Sunday, 5/17:

And we took individual pics to use as our new Facebook profile pics:

Jared and the girls stayed home most of the weekend but they did got up to Grandma's house and played with Daisy and Cody, and got to go visit Grandpa Lingmann, where they were able to hang out and have dinner with Katie and Colleen.  They went to church with Grandpa Lingmann, then came home.

Jared kept the girls up a little late for me Sunday night so I could see them before they went to sleep.  The next morning, 5/18, I gave them the wax lips and candy necklaces I had bought for them:

5/20: Kids are so funny!

Also 5/20: The twins' first Gymnastics Exhibition!!

Before leaving the house:

 Avery's floor routine:

 Makenna's on balance beam:

 Avery before her "vault" routine:

 Makenna's floor routine:

The gym was decorated so cute! The theme was "Flip Flop into Gymnastics". The medals were metal flip flops.

 Makenna's vault:

 Avery's bar routine:

 Avery on balance beam:

 Makenna on the bar:

Medal ceremony, on the podium:

 Photo op afterward:

They both did SO WELL and loved it! We celebrated with dinner at Scaddy's afterward.  Here are videos:

5/21: We had planned on going to the aquarium today but I woke up with a migraine, so Jared took the girls there by himself. They had a great time and I got to recover from my migraine, which thankfully diminished into just a bad headache by the time I had to teach a piano lesson this evening.

5/23: The girls and I went to a cousin's (Kaelee) wedding open house, where we also saw Grandma, and Laura and her kids.  The twins didn't want to leave, they were having so much fun playing with Kaelee and her fiancee.

5/24: We grilled some yummy burgers then all three kids (ha ha) played on the trampoline:

It's going to be an exciting week and I'm sure I'll have lots to post next time! :D

Dance Recital!!!

5/4: Dance Recital rehearsal and portraits.  They practiced their routine on stage, then had professional portraits taken, then I took my own photos of them outside.  I won't get the professional portraits back until the end of the month, then I'll post them.

5/5: Their 2nd dance recital!  They both did so well! Avery actually loved performing this time, instead of crying the whole time like in their first recital back in Dec.  They also loved having Laura, Daisy, and Cody there to watch them.

VIDEO!  This is the video that Laura took with my camcorder (I'll post the professional video, as well, as soon as I receive the link to it).
http://www.mediafire.com/watch/hepeaxc9ys9bobw/20150505_170419(3).mpg

Laura and her kids came with us to eat at Wendy's afterward.  The kids were a little crazy because they were so happy to be with each other. :)

5/6:  Poor Whiskers, ha ha.

At bedtime that night--they love singing, especially songs they make up as they go:

5/9: Makenna didn't sleep well last night so now she's snoozing on the couch.

5/10: Mother's Day.  Jared is out of town, so we just went to church, came home and relaxed and I watched my Tigers beat Missouri (they swept the series), then Kiki invited us over for dinner.  Michael made dinner--chicken cordon bleu, potatoes, salad, French bread, and red velvet cake.  Kiki wrote this on her FB just now: "I invited Dana over for dinner tonight. When she told the girls that they were coming over they were ready to go right then at 4:15. Makenna said "if you don't take me right now I am going to take the car and drive myself! " I cant stop laughing at this feisty strong little lady. I cant wait to see what she does with this power!! I adore her spirit."    Also, she wanted cake right after dinner but I said we would have some later. I told Kiki and Michael to watch and see what she would do when I told her a while later that it was time to go. Just as I thought, as soon as I said it, she yelled, "I didn't get cake!!!" Ha ha ha! I knew exactly what she would do. That girl doesn't forget anything!

I took this video of Makenna singing in the backseat on the way to Kiki's house:

Oh, look at this photo a friend of mine posted on my FB today, ha ha!  I thought for sure my girls wouldn't recognize me but Makenna knew it was me right away.  That, in itself, was a great Mother's Day present, ha ha ha!

That was me in 1989, 10th grade, btw. :)

Good Behavior Jars

Monday, 4/27: My little cuties just goofing off. Avery looks like a student with the glasses and booksack. :)

Flashback:  This video was taken in March 2012 when we live in Eagle Mountain; the twins were almost 15 months old. I miss that cute, sweet stage. :P We knew back then that Makenna was gonna be a chatterbox!
http://vid61.photobucket.com/albums/h78/danamariecritt/20120318_1540182.mp4

4/28: The neighbor boy played over here for a little while and now the twins are arguing over who he's gonna marry. Makenna has actual arguing points as to why he will marry her. :)

4/30: Gymnastics video:
http://www.mediafire.com/watch/olm46rqi7v749d8/20150430_113002.mp4

5/1: Makenna was scared to get too close to the fossil so Avery helped her feel better. — at Dinosaur Museum At Thanksgiving Point.

Shaaaaaaark!

Then Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point:
They loved petting/feeding the baby goats.  They were so cute!

And we enjoyed the wagon ride, as usual:

 And they always like the pony rides:

The visit to the dinosaur museum and Farm Country were a reward for filling their "good behavior jars" with pom poms.  I'm finding this age/stage they are in to be a tiny bit challenging, so we started this new reward program where they earn pom poms for helping, cleaning, obeying, going to bed with no fuss, etc. and they get pom poms taken away if they fight (more taken away if they hit, push, scratch) and throwing fits (especially at bedtime), etc.  It's working out really well so far.  There are already a LOT less fits and arguing.  They use to always go to bed really well but started throwing fits about every little thing at bedtime recently but have gone to bed with no problems all week.  I just needed to try something for my sanity (and their well-being, ha ha--j/j) until we get over this little hump of a stage where they challenge me on everything!  So far so good! :D  This week, they are working toward going to the aquarium and children's museum.