Softball

Evey really enjoyed playing softball this year. Even though 5 of the first 6 games were cancelled and rescheduled due to rain flooding the field. It actually worked better for us to have the season shifted later, because at the beginning of the season the games over lapped with dance a lot and so dance was the priority.  Evey started the season at the top of the batting order, always getting a base hit.

All following pictures are from the city final game

This year new rules were added, and stealing was allowed. It made for a much funner game, that and the pitchers are refining their skills and can throw more hittable balls now.  They go through a draft at the beginning to the season so that the teams are more evenly matched, but there was one team who ended up with 2 or so AMAZING pitchers. Not sure how they pulled that off, except I think they were the coach and assistant coaches daughters! Oh well they were an awesome team and super tough to beat. But Evey's team gave them a run for their money, when they played.

Evey switched between outfield ( her coach says it's because she has a great arm to get the ball in field, but she rarely saw action out there) and 3rd base. But , it was so fun to watch her bat and steal the bases, it was pretty easy stealing 2nd and 3rd and then they would often send them to steal home, so that was always a rush watching the close calls and as my mom wrote on her facebook status after watching one game: " I watched my oldest granddaughter Evey slide into home base and emerge out of a cloud of dirt - SAFE!!! " 

Dang it coach!! Move!!

At the end of the season Evey's team had the second best record. Then the city holds a tournament, so through all of that they just couldn't beat that one team, and so they came out 2nd in the league, but, that was good enough to move on to the state tournament!

Receiving her 2nd place ribbon.

We had had a stomach bug run it's course through our house and on the day of the City final Evey had it. She rested the whole day, we thought she would have to miss the game. But because she is amazing she decided to suck it up and go to the game. They even gave her the "game" ball. She did great for wanting to throw up the whole time!

Down and dirty sliding into home!

Everyone else has fun at the games playing at the park, or like this day  we sat in the shade and ate lots of snacks and wrastled!

The state tourney was held not too far from our house, which made it really nice. It was double elimination so we knew we'd get to see her play at least twice.  The first game was a huge eye opener! We had always heard that Provo was a fairly easy softball league and that other cities were much more gung-ho about it. Well we got a taste of that right off the bat!! This team was all about bending the rules to the breaking point as far as stealing. They went so far as to distract with one steal, to steal another girl, and then were amazing at the "pickle", which threw our girls off because they weren't used to that. Yikes! They also threw our girls off with a bunt one time, something our girls had NEVER seen in city play! And, their pitcher was Mean and super accurate. She could switch up between a standing pitch and this running fast ball that was just plain scary!! The girls were a little intimidated in the first inning, but shook it off and didn't let them get away with it the next few innings, unfortunately the other team had won the toss for home field advantage and so were able to beat us by 2. Our team did make some amazing plays though, and our pitch chased down the runner trying to steal home and tagged her! It was an awesome moment! And a super fun game to watch!

The next game was with a team much more evenly matched, and we were pretty confident we could beat them. Well a team is only as good as their pitcher unfortunately. Our cutie pitcher was hurt twice in the first game, she twisted her ankle in an attempt to get out a base stealer and then was hit by a super hard ball as she was batting. So they ended up giving her a break in the second game, and the second pitcher although just as cute and sweet, wasn't at her best and the coaches waited too long to take her out, and we couldn't catch back up. That paired with a pair of teen aged umps who didn't really care (the field ump was throwing his own ball out in the field, not even paying attention) and made some rather stinky calls as far as balls and strikes. Oh, and the other team would waste incredible amounts of time getting out on to the field, wasting game time, and taking advantage of the stinky umps who did nothing about it. So when time was almost up, we we're down, but as long as we finished the inning they would start another if there was seconds on the clock. At the start of the bottom of that inning the clock said 1:45 and it began to thunder. After having petered out with all of the scoring the other team was able to do, this gave Evey's team and incredible boost of energy, because their team name is Thunder! They are so cute! Anyway, the clock said 1:45 and they needed to get the 3 outs to start another inning and have a chance to catch back up. And they did it!! With like a second left they got the last out, and after a little squabble between the coaches and the ump, the ump finally stood his ground and made a good call and let us start another inning! Unfortunately, they were up by a few too many and after a very noble effort we lost that one too! But it was a ton of fun and a great experience! Evey is looking forward to next season already!

I took pictures at these games, and loaded them on the computer and then erased my memory card. But, something happened and only the thumbnails are in the compute! Argh! So no pictures, sorry!

Fun with Photos

For the last couple of weeks, we the children of the Lindsey household, have been collecting pics on a app called Photo Booth. I have put these pics in a slide  and will now present it to you.

                                                      

                                                      I hope you liked our slide!!!!!!!

Redo Part 1

It has taken me FOR-EV-ER to finish the kids rooms. We started in March with the construction, and it was done pretty fast, but it has taken me so long to paint everything that needs to be painted. I'm still not totally done with the other room. But I am telling myself it has to be done before I start making anything baby. So it gives me a deadline....
Anyway, what used to be Lex's room -and never really got "finished" when we moved in- turned in to Evey's room and soon she will share with her littlest brother. So really this room still isn't complete either.

My dad is the original mastermind behind this bed design. He built one for my brother once so he could fit all of his guitars and trap set in his small room. Jon is the mastermind behind the cubby stairs. And I contributed with the desk design. And Jon is the lone (plus 4 little helpers) carpenter for this whole room overhaul. He has built things before, but has never really taken on this kind of project by himself. He took much care and pride in building everything so that it looks fabulous and is sturdy. I am super proud of him!! And the kids absolutely love their new beds and rooms.
(pics of the other room to come in near future...really really!)

Dance Shows 2011

After a week of dress rehearsals for both the
Jazz show and the Ballet, the girls did a
fabulous job at the performances on Friday and
Saturday nights. We weren't allowed to record
during the actual performances, so I had to
make sure I was at the rehearsals at the right
times to film them. Unfortunately, because they
are rehearsals, you can hear babies crying and
the directors telling them to smile and a
choreographer's hand come in the the picture, she
was right in the way and I was trying to film
around her. Anyway, The girls are just getting
so much better and they are so fun to watch!


Paris went through a period of not loving ballet for
a while. She has been telling me her feet hurt. I got
her new ballet shoes, but it didn't help much. I'm
thinking we may need to see a podiatrist, she
walks a little funny and complains about her
feel every now and then. Anyway, but as soon as
she knew what her classes part was in the ballet and
what their costumes were going to look like, she got
really excited and loved ballet again.  Her costumes
were a huge mess, and long story, short, the beautiful
midnight blue ones ordered for them were given to a
different class on accident and then problems upon
problems later, her class received the leftovers of many
other classes. I know this because I was a seamstress
this year and was given these random tutus the day
before rehearsal to sew and make semi pretty and matching.
They ended up not looking too bad on stage mostly
because the wings made them all match. Paris' costume
was one of the prettier ones and thankfully her favorite color,
so she was happy!

Again, this is a rehearsal, so the lighting wasn't right and
they didn't have up the really pretty woodland set.


I got to see Evey dance her ballet, but not sure why I didn't get it on
film, but just know she was beautiful!!  She can't wait for September,
when she is 11 1/2 and they will evaluate her for pointe shoes. She is
confident they will let her, it's all up to her own little body. We have
to take her to the dr to make sure she is at 90% of her adult height,
and that the bones in her foot are formed enough to put them through
the torture of pointe! She's not going to be a tall girl, so hopefully she
has a little growth spurt this summer, so she'll be ready!

Paris loved her Jazz/tap class!! When it came time for choreographing
the number they would do her teacher held a vote in the class on
weather they would do a tap  or a jazz dance. She said it was tied, but
one girl was missing that day, so her vote would be the deciding vote.
So obviously that girl chose tap.  Paris had voted jazz, but was still
happy, especially because she really likes the song.  It makes me laugh
though because in both of her dances, Paris knew the steps, but
because the teacher stands off stage and does the dance for those that
may forget, she looks over there, and misses steps sometimes.  She did
it perfectly at the show and didn't even glance at the teacher! We will
get a DVD from the show later down the road.




This is Evey's company (JDC) dance. I have loved her teacher and
the choreography she does, it is very beautiful and Evey loves her too.
Evey is hoping to move up to the next level company, CDC, at auditions
in August.  CDC does more dances per show and Evey is so ready for
that! But you have to be 11, so this is just her year as far as advancing in
dance!




I hadn't seen any of the girls dances until the rehearsal. I just drop them
off and pick them up. Evey's teacher had told me a while ago that she
had a special part for Evey in her Jazz piece. This is the same teacher
as JDC, Emily, and Evey said that Emily had told her she choereographed
this piece with Evey in mind as the featured dancer. So when I saw this,
I was crying like a baby. I would say it is from pregnancy hormones,
but I'm not sure I can shrug this off on that this time! I was just so proud.
She dances really well and had such a pretty smile! I think all of the other
video taping mommies there at rehearsal thought I was crazy, bawling my
eyes out.  Hey but it wasn't bad enough that you can hear me on the video,
so that's good!! Wink!
Evey also got recognition from "the star" dancer at the show on Friday.
We had left our makeup bag and  hair straightener at the Covey center
and when we found the bag on Friday, the straightener was gone, so I
couldn't curl Evey's hair, so we had to go in the big girls dressing room
to use one of theirs. When Angel (this is the most featured dancer in the
whole studio!) saw Evey she said "oh, I love you!!" I think it was a great
boost of Evey's confidence, but she is just so wonderful and humble,
she didn't let it go to her head....I guess it went to mine!!

Soccer!!

I waited until the last game of each kid to take pictures.
It's been a crazy season, lots of rescheduled games for weather.
I'm glad I waited though, They all played fantastic games!

Paris has decided she likes playing again. I'm pretty sure it's
because her friend's dad was their coach and her bestest friend
was also on the team. At this level it starts to get harder to score,
because the kids start getting it, and the numbers of kids starts to
dwindle, it starts to become the kids that actually enjoy and want
to play.She really did good at most of the games.
Her favorite positions are defense and goalie, but she plays
offense rather well too and has some super speed when she
turns it on!
She was really close to scoring a couple of times in this game,
and had an awesome breakaway!

Evey has just gotten better and better every season.  As I said
before it gets harder as they get into the older leagues, Evey
is now in the highest league provided by the city. I guess it
just goes to school teams after this and there are a few club
soccer teams in the valley.  Evey loves to play offense and
is generally put as a forward. She is also one of the smallest
in the whole league and it is so funny to see her show down
with a huge girls that dwarfs her. She has no fear though and
is awesome at being aggressive and charging.  She has been
so close so many times to scoring a goal, but either the goalie
gets it, or it just misses. Her last game was a double header,
and the team has never looked better! They worked so well
together to move the ball, and coach was on top of giving them
rests so that even in the second game they weren't overly tired!
Well Evey got her goal in the first game, and I amazingly got a
picture of it!! We were so happy we sent all of the family texts.
Then not 10 minutes later in the next game, against a different
team, she got another!! And I got a picture! Amazing!
She was so happy and we were so proud!

Goal # 1

Goal #2

And there was much rejoicing! 

Evey missed team pictures, even though
 we were at the field watching Lex,
 we didn't hear my alarm...oops!
So this will have to do this season.

Lex is absolutely amazing! The kid is a natural at sports!
He absolutely understands everything that is happening in the
game and will help his team mates to know what to do, or help
the coach to know who the ball went out on or whatever, he is
just totally focused on the game and it is so fun to watch. His
league is the beginning league, where there are a million kids and
only a handful that really know what to do. Most of them don't follow
the ball or cry if it touches them. There are 8 on a team and only 4 on
the field at a time and no goalie (see why it's easier at this younger level)
and the games are only 24 minutes long, so each kid would get to play
for 6 minutes then rest for 6. Lex had a teammate that was awesome
too and they would dominate! They would break away from the pack
and run it down to score every time. The coach ended up trying to not
play them at the same time because the score would end up being like
15-0! But, we don't keep score in this league!! Lex's average goals were
about 3. But sometimes would score as many as 6. We started telling
Lex to help some of his other team mates, so he would pass them the
ball or throw it to them. He was so good about it even when though he
would usually end up having chasing it back down to get it to the goal.
He is so fun to watch! Next up (no break, we are already playing) T-ball (Lex),
Coach Pitch (Paris) and softball (Evey)

Winter can't wait to play! She is such a good cheerleader. She shouts
"go,go,go, (insert sibling)!!"  I think she'll be great too, she loves to dribble
the balls around on the sidelines and even understands that she can't cross
the white line.

HOPE OF AMERICA

This is Evey's second year performing in this awesome show!
Last year I had just had Winter and decided I wouldn't chaperon,
but I got to this year and it was so fun!!

Hope of America is just a part in the huge effort that is
America's Freedom Festival here in Utah, that ends
with the Stadium of Fire. It was so awesome to be a part
in something so patriotic. I was telling Jon that, at the
rehearsal I would just cry through most of the songs,
mostly in the ones about our service men and women

and the military and they always have incredible videos
playing on the huge screens in the arena. Trying not to cry
as I write this!! I did okay in the actual performance though!!
Other songs were about MLK I Have a Dream, Declaration
 of Independence, Bill of Rights , Constitution, VOTE, and
Utah. It is just awesome how it's such a learning experience
for the kids too. They know all these lyrics and so can recite
portions of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence
and Bill of Rights.  It's amazing too, how much knowledge is
retained learning things through song!



Off on a little tangent My kids love to watch School House Rocks.

Old and silly I know, but they really do learn stuff, like, even Lex
knows some multiplication facts, or they know what adverbs are
silly stuff like that, but that comes in handy in school. The kids
can also tell you all of the States in alphabetical order, because of
a song Jon taught them. Anyway, hurray for learning through music!!

So back to Hope of America, since I was in the flag with Evey,

Jon had the other 3 on his onsies.  Apparently they were awesome,
except on the last song, Winter got mad so that is why it is cut off,
but only seconds. The video is just 3 songs including the Star
Spangled Banner. We performed in in sign language, but I failed
to mention that to Jon and so he didn't zoom at all. But oh well it is
just so amazing anyway. If you are in the Utah county area, I would
suggest going next year. It's free and just too fun. They have a little
pre show and a few acts in between songs and the cutie Old lady line
dancers!!

Okay another tangent these ladies are sooo cute! Jean's Golden Girls
are all between the ages of 50 and 94 and they dance so amazing!!
There are about 50-75 women in this group and they boast in their
introduction  that between them all they have something like 500
children, 1500 grand children and at least 200 great grand children!!
The founder of the group, Jean, is 94 and is as limber as any dancer
I've ever seen. She always does a little solo where she does amazing
high kicks and splits. It's so fun to watch! She has even been on
The Tonight Show. Okay here's a video of them, this isn't at the
Hope of America, obviously, but this is the routine they did.
The kids were really into it singing along with the music...
You have to watch this!!

If you watch some of the other videos that it shows after this video, 

there are a few others of Jean's golden Girls, 

but if you click on the "92 year old dancer!" 

one it also shows more Hope of America, 

and the WAVE that the whole arena does. 

I forgot to have Jon tape that one, it's pretty fun!

Okay really this time, here's a few songs from Hope of America!

Busy, Busy, Busy!!

Evey is amazing! She is so busy with all of
her activities and still manages to be one of
the top students in her class. It's funny to see
her on days when she doesn't have something
going on. She'll help her brother and sisters do
a science project or clean and organize something,
or reads one of the many collections  of her books.
Oh I'm supposed to add, jumps on the tramp with
siblings and plays angry birds, to her list of
down time activities.

Just for our records and for her to look back
when she is older, here is  a week in Evey's
life just recently, April 25-30.

Monday:
7:30-8:00-Orchestra
8:20-3:00- school (somedays she is taken out of
normal school and bussed to the School of Accelerated
Learning for science or other days for Math Olympiad)
3:15-4:15- choir
4:30-5:30- Softball clinic
5:30-6:45- Ballet

Tuesday:
7:30-8:00- Orchestra
8:20-3:00- School
3:15-4:00- Homework
4:15-6:15- JDC & Jazz
(4:30-Softball clinic, skipped)

Wednesday:
7:30-8:00- Orchestra
8:20-3:00- School
3:15-4:15- Choir
4:15-5:00- Soccer Practice

Thursday:
7:30-8:00- Orchestra
8:20-3:00-School
4:30-5:30-Soccer Game
7:00- Spring Orchestra/ Choir Concert

Friday:
8:20-1:10- School

Saturday:
8:00-10:00-Soccer Double Header (rescheduled for snow)

Most Fridays she adds in hanging out with friends and
twice a month she adds in Church Activity Days.
She was recently put in charge of a class talent show
and is having so much fun organizing it. She can't wait to
be in student council.
I am surprised they don't have it yet at school.

We are so proud of her and all of her accomplishments!
She manages to be very happy most of the time,
and is always a huge help around the house!
I hear every now and then that she is bored,
but I never hear that she is tired. She seems
to have endless energy.  What will High School be like???

She loves to take pictures so I let her use my old Rebel the other day.
She has an amazing eye! I told her she could do her own post on the
blog to show her work. I think she did some sort of collage or series
or something. But I love these few too much to wait!

I love this one so much I want to frame it!!

Monster Concert

Evey had a District Orchestra concert in March.
It was a crazy ordeal. Mostly because I wasn't
informed of the details until the day before and so Jon wasn't
able to arrange getting the night off to help me.

You see,
Evey had dance from 4:15 to 6:15, Paris had a soccer
game at 5:30 and Evey was supposed to be at the
concert at 5:45. Yikes! Most of Paris' games have been
during Evey's dance, so we drop her off ,in Springville
(only a 15 minute drive on the freeway, but I like to complain)
then drive back to Provo for Paris' game then go back
to Springville to get Evey. Why didn't Evey just skip
dance this day you ask. Well, This class on Tuesday
is JDC, the company in which she has a contract with
and is required to be at. But the class after is just a jazz
class so she did miss that.

So, here's how it went...
We drove to Springville and Evey went to JDC while
we grabbed fast food dinner. Then Evey skipped her
second class and we took Paris to her game, dropped
her off with her friends and then headed across town
to get Evey to Timpview High School for the concert.
Normally getting across the city isn't that big of a deal,
even with the massive amount of construction that is
going on right now. But, on this particular day when I
needed to get across town and back quickly, they had
shut down a major artery, so we had to take an extra
long round about way, and for some reason there were
A MILLION people out. Okay it was rush hour!
Anyway, I got Evey to the school, ran in with her and
the 2 other kids to save a seat, and then got back on the
van to get Paris from her game. It took me the whole
hour of her game to get across town and back, so I
missed seeing her play and her sweet friends mom had
to wait a few minutes after the game for me. Then it
was back across town to the concert. But by this time
the home bound rushers were mostly off the road, so
we made it before 7, happened to find a decent parking
spot (there were 12 elementary schools, 2 middle
schools and 2 high schools orchestras worth of parents
and cars)and went in to our pre saved seat
(oh so glad I did that!!) and sat down right as the lights
went down. Whew!! So after all of that here is all of the
  elementary's orchestras together.

After their songs they got off stage and the middle
schools went up and played a few and then switched
again with the high schools who were amazing!!
They played an awesome arrangement of the
Pirates of the Caribbean. I recorded it for Jon
and Evey but won't post it here.

* Why don't I make it easier on myself and car pool??!!
Paris' friend at soccer, even has an older sister who is in
orchestra with Evey, and believe me I did try to make
an arrangement, but they had 2 parents and one other
kid in something else, and so it didn't work this time.
But I tried, I tried! And, I have to give my lovlies Paris
and Lex and Winter some credit because they are always
so good and let me record the concerts with little
interruption!! Love my babies!!

Spa Treatment

Evey chose to have a Spa/Makeover party this year.
Not really sure how it happened, but we were
throwing it together 3 days before.  She chose to
only invite a few of her closest friends. It ended up
working rather well!  The dollar store was my best
friend in those few days before and it ended up
having most of what I needed. I thought it would
be awesome for each girl to get her own bath robe.
But this would have required more time for sewing,
or a me willing to fork out over 20 bucks each, ha, I think not!

I wanted everyone to have their own mirror,
and I was worried that would end up being a big expense,
I really wasn't willing to spent more than a dollar
or 2 each so I was really happy the
dollar store had some, and they were pretty cute too!
We also got monogrammed kleenex for each girl
half of at Hobby Lobby. Love that place!!

We kept with the monogrammed stuff and made personalized water bottles.

Pretty cake right! Well...Jon helped me in the
kitchen with all of the goodies,
so we made this , as per Evey's request,
 Red Velvet Cake. But after it was done baking
we set it on the oven to cool, forgetting that
we were using the oven still, so it was hot.
Well after a while and when we went to ice
it with super scrumptious icing,
the cake was all dried out and crumbly.
So Sad!! I went ahead and iced it even
 though Jon ran out and picked up a store bought Red Velvet cake.

We did a fresh finger food dinner for the girls. Lot's of fruit
and see those deviled eggs back there,
we almost didn't make those after all,
which would have been a huge mistake,
The girls DEVOURED them.
Evey also contributed to the cooking and
made zucchini bread all on her own...super delish!

Fruit salsa and cinnamon/sugar chips....mmmm nom nom!

Allowing her facial mask to dry and beautify!

I guess she got a little hungry.

Girl Party Rule # 1: Must be goofy at all times!

At some point during the night the girls were talking about someone's
family tradition of smashing the birthday person's face in a cake.
It just so happened we had an extra cake,
so they gave Evey's face a nice cake mask.
She, like, had to totally redo her, like, make up after that!!
 Funny thing though the girls ended up eating a lot of the
smashed cake because it tasted better than the store bought.
Awww, made me feel good.

A lot of steps are left out of the pictures,
Jon had the other kids watching movies in their room,
and so I was helping them with all of the different things on my own.
I told my sisters how much I wished they would have been here to help,
it would have been so fun!
Anyway, this is soaking feet before pedicures while creating bath salts.

OO lala!
I really love 11 year old birthday parties!
The girls can do most everything on their own,
and move at their own rate, and a 5 hour birthday party flies by,
they had to rush their manicures. But they had a great time being girly!

This is Evey's real birthday with all the family.  Trying to decide which wish to wish for is hard !

Cake #2 We asked Evey what kind of cake she wanted for her family party,
and she said ice cream cake. So we decided to retry the Red Velvet,
but make it ice cream. So while looking for a ice cream to complement the red velvet,
we stopped by the Ben and Jerry's section to check out their new flavors.
One happened to be Red Velvet Cake. Perfect!
Turned out a little messy, but it was Go-ood!