Bilbray Drill Team's newest member

Funny how things happen. One Saturday, I was stressing over which dance classes to put Haylee in. She only does dance one day a week at her dance studio. She has done this since she was 4. She is getting much better, and wanted to try out for the "drill team" at her dance studio. My stress was coming from the fact that it is 3 days a week if she makes it, and that means a whole lot more money and time spent driving to the studio (which is not very close).
Fast forward to Monday, two days later. Haylee comes home from school with a paper that has info on the Drill Team at school. If she makes it, it would be 2 days a week, right after school for practice. She would practice during the summer, and then all next year. They perform at the basketball games, assemblies, etc.. It would have her very involoved at school, plus she could stay at the dance studio one day a week. It was an answer to our prayers of what to do.. but almost seemed to good to be true (I know I know, Oh ye of little faith:)

She went to tryouts. There were two weeks of practice before the official day of tryout. There were 45 girls there. They only have 20 spots on the team, and 11 girls were returning from last year. That only left 9 spots for the entire school. I was a little nervous with those stats. But, Haylee was determined. She practiced hard for those two weeks, and prayed hard that she would make it. Her faith and determination payed off, when she opened her letter to find out she had made it.

We are all so proud of her. 4 years of dance has proved to pay off so far. She is great at what she does, and most importantly, she loves it!

Our Desert Oasis

Here are a few pics from our new house. We moved in January - so I'm wayyy behind! We have an offer on our old house, just waiting to see if the bank will approve the short sale. At first I was hesitant about being a renter again. But after the flood last summer in our old house, and then the water heater flooding the garage shortly after, I realized at this point in our lives, renting sounded perfect! With me working, and Bryce taking such a heavy load of classes, being able to call someone else to repair things is exactly what we need!
We found this great house in the neighborhood just across the street from our old neighborhood. It puts us closer to the school so the kids can ride their bikes. We are in a different ward, but in the same church building. The kids stayed in the same school, and a lot more of their friends live in this neighborhood. We are paying about $600.00 a month less, and we all agree, this house is so much better than the last. From the layout inside the house, to the backyard, we love it!

BBQ/Fire pit


The Koi Pond

The kids love to feed the fish. There are about 30 fish. We have only added one Koi fish, and the kids named him Jimmer:)

Here is one of our four turtles. This is Crusher. He (although we actually just learned he is a SHE) is the biggest one. There are 3 smaller ones who the kids have named Squirt, Baby Crusher and Megamind (random, I know:) They hibernate all winter, and now that it is warm, they lay on the rocks and sunbathe. Crusher has discovered she loves to swim in the pool, but can't seem to figure out how to get out. We have found her doing laps in the pool just about everyday for the last week!

My favorite part of the yard is the way it lights up at night. It's so peaceful with the sounds of the waterfall (if you can hear it over the kids splashing in the pool:)