Logan's Birthday!

My baby is 2 years old! I'm terrified for the terrible two's with this one. He is the cutest thing you can imagine but he can be soooo hard! He has so much personality. I can already predict that he's going to be the class clown and we're going to have a lot of trouble with him in school! He will do anything for a laugh! He idolizes his older siblings, especially Chase. I hope they are always best friends. He loves animals just like his brother and they spend all day playing animals or cars. Him and Carly on the other hand? Oil and water. They fight non-stop. Logan is absolutely obsessed with his dad. He doesn't care about me at all if dad's around. He isn't afraid of anything (except loud noises) and is a typical boy. Loves to wrestle anyone sitting on the floor.



Breakfast for the birthday boy!

 

I made Logan an Elmo cake and set it on the counter. I left to go get a few more things together and  came back to find some finger prints. Carly was the culprit. Little stinker!

We went to the zoo the afternoon of Logan's birthday. We have a zoo pass so we go to the zoo multiple times a month. We're animal lovers. :) But since it was a special occasion we let the kids ride the train and carousel.

 Sleeping otter

 The otter is awake!

We just love this kid. He is so funny and spunky and keeps us all laughing. When I was pregnant with him and at my 20 week ultrasound I had this distinct impression that he was going to be a peacemaker. I feel like that has been true in every way. We all are so smitten with him that he makes every moment better. His sense of humor breaks the tension. Don't get me wrong, he spends more time than anyone in timeout and has been our only kid who bites but we love him and his goofy personality. Love you Logan boy!

Dance Comps

This year Emily was on two different competition teams. A jazz team and a hip hop team. This was her first time ever doing hip hop. And she loved it! She asked me if she could quit her jazz team and just do hip hop. Haha.....NO. But being on two comp teams made competitions even more work than they already were! She competed four dances at each competition.

Woman's World-suuupppperrrr sassy dance to a mix of Cher's "Woman's World" and Britney Spears "Werk"
Hairspray-cute character dance to songs from Hairspray. This was a mini production combined with the team just older than hers. The younger ones were girls and the older ones were boys.
Feel Ur Beat-hip hop dance to this dang song that gets stuck in your head like no other.
Vegas-production number with all of the hip hop teams. Emily's team is the youngest and they were little Elvis'!! Adorable. She danced to "Viva Las Vegas." The other teams were magicians, tourists, showgirls, and gamblers. Finale was to "Uptown Funk."

I was also the team mom for her hip hop team which doubles MY workload but it's way fun to do. This was also the first year Emily had to do extra practices. During February and March she had dance five days a week most weeks. Comp teams really do rule your life!

Rocky Mountain Classic in St. George
Such a fun competition. This was our first comp as a new studio so everyone was really excited and nervous. But the studio (and Emily) did amazing!
Woman's World-3rd
Hairspray-1st
Feel Ur Beat-1st -these girls' first time ever doing hip hop and they went up against an amazing studio that specializes in hip hop and beat them!
Vegas-Platinum (Highest score you can get)

The studio won Beginning and Intermediate high point and Sweepstakes! (Highest scoring studio of the day)

We had two dances with wigs this year! Hairpsray and Vegas. Glad to see those go!

Aspire Dance Pro-Ogden
I was not really a fan of this comp. But whatevs. One fun thing about it was that half way through the day they had a master class from a professional dancer. So that was fun. It was waaayyyyy over Emily's head but I'm proud of her for even doing it and trying her best!
Woman's World-Ruby
Hairspray-Ruby
Vegas-1st-Grand Champions
Feel Ur Beat-3rd-Diamond
The studio won a bunch of high points and stuff but I don't remember what they were. :)

 Master class

Gotta Move
My FAV comp of the year! I just love Gotta Move. It's such a positive and uplifting competition. They raised money for pediatric cancer and we shared our dressing room with an awesome studio that was so sweet. It was just a really fun day.
Woman's World-1st and Best Showmanship (facials, projection, etc.) In this dance it should just be best sass award. One sassy dance!
Feel Ur Beat-2nd-they got 2nd by .5 points! But the next week they beat the team that beat them this week. Best Showmanship and 4th OVERALL BEGINNING HIGH POINT!!!
Hairspray-1st-Best Costume
Vegas-1st-5th OVERALL INTERMEDIATE HIGH POINT!!!
The studio also won STUDIO SWEEPSTAKES and our awesome directors won DIRECTORS OF THE YEAR! Fun day!

Diamond Classic
Ugh. This comp was rough for me. I think it was just because it was our 4th competition in 4 weeks and we were all beat. It was also a REALLY crowded competition with some really big studios so I was having some claustrophobic issues! I was glad when it was over. :) They also did not like our hip hop AT ALL. It was almost comical.
Woman's World-1st
Hairspray-2nd
Feel Ur Beat-4th
Vegas-1st

These are the only pics I took all day. I was over it. :)

Carly also took her very first dance class this year. She absolutely loved it. I told Robert we should put her in a dance class every day of the week because she was a totally different kid on days when she had dance. She was so happy and cooperative! I hated taking her to dance but the things you do for your kids! I really just hated dealing with Logan during her class time. :)

It was a very fun dance season. Some of my best friends these days are the moms of the girls Em dances with. Her best friends are girls she dances with too. It was a little  bit of a roller coaster with some things going on at the studio but we all had a great time! Looking forward to what the next year has to bring!

St. George weekend 2015

Every April, Emily has a dance competition in St. George. This year the whole family went. And my mom. Because she's awesome. We drove down Friday afternoon and went swimming as soon as we got there. The kids couldn't wait any longer! Saturday was the dance competition. Those pretty much consume your entire day (and life). Sunday we spent a few hours in Snow Canyon and then headed home. Quick trip but lots of fun!

Selfies with dad

April 2015

A Day In The Life

I've been thinking a lot lately about how quickly this phase of our life is flying by. In a little over a year from now, there will be days when I have zero kids home with me! That just boggles my mind. I wanted to do a better job at documenting our day to day life because it's those little details that you forget. Alas, a typical day in the Cottrell house in spring 2015!
 

5:50 am-I wake up, make Robert's breakfast and lunch while he gets ready for work.
6:15 am-Robert leaves for work. I get my self dressed and ready for the day. Also check Facebook and Instagram. You never know what might have happened in the last six hours. :)
7:00 am-wake up kids, potty, breakfast, get dressed, do hair, brush teeth
8:00 am-begin the getting out the door routine. Inevitably someone can't find their shoes, jacket, glasses, etc, etc, etc. Logan runs out the door and into the front yard to play and I have to build at least 5 minutes into our schedule just to get him into the car. 
8:15 am-say prayers and leave to take Emily to school
8:30 am-drop Emily off at school. On Tuesdays and Thursday the middle two have preschool. So I would race to drop Carly off at preschool.
8:45-11:00 am-depends on the day and what we have going on. Sometimes we have dance and presidency meeting or preschool or errands to run. If not, we're at home doing reading lessons, computer games, cleaning, playing outside and doing yard work, playing with toys, puzzles, etc. This is also the time every day when Robert calls me. I am usually on the phone with him for an hour to an hour and a half. The kids play and fight and ask me for things every three seconds.
11:30 am-lunch and screentime
12:30 pm-quiet time! Logan naps and Carly and Chase play quietly downstairs or in their room. During quiet time I reply to emails, blog, pay bills, work on lessons/projects, do family history indexing, coupon, fold laundry, go through mail, etc.
2:30 pm-quiet time is over :( get ready to pick up kids from school
2:45 pm-leave to pick up kids
3:45 pm-get home, do homework, reading time, dinner prep, get ready for dance and whatever night activities we have. This is about the time that everyone starts melting down so there's always a lot of yelling and screaming this time of the day. From me and the kids. It's my least favorite time of the day!
5:30 pm-daddy comes home!!!!! The highlight of my day.
5:30 pm-dinner
6:00-7:30pm-most nights we have things going on but if not this is Robert's time with the kids. They usually end up wrestling. He plays and reads with them while I clean up dinner and load the dishwasher.
7:30 pm-if home, start the bedtime routine
8:00 pm-bedtime for kids!
After the kids are in bed I sometimes go grocery shopping to avoid doing it during the day (because it's a nightmare), Robert reads and works on his stuff for his church callings, we talk about things going on, watch TV, eat treats together, usually Robert falls asleep so I'll do more laundry and more cleaning. And then we go to bed!

These are the things that reoccurred every week. There are always a lot of other things thrown in each week/day but this was the basic schedule. It was a busy year but a fun one too!

Monday- Carly dance 9:00-10:00am, presidency meeting 10:15-11:30am, Emily ballet and jazz 5:00-7:20pm
Tuesday-Carly preschool 8:30-11:30am and Chase preschool 11:30-3:00pm, Emily choir 3:25-4:00pm, Emily hip hop 6:10-7:10pm
Wednesday was our favorite because we had nothing on our weekly schedule!
Thursday-Emily technique 4:45-6:00pm, Chase karate 7:00-8:30pm
Friday-Emily study group 1:15-2:30pm
Saturday-Emily piano 11:00-11:30am

Such an exciting life we lead (not really!) but I want to remember it. :) Can't wait to see how our lives change as our kids grow up!

Easter 2015