As I was in my "office" working on this baby quilt, my kids were in their "office" working on building this Lego house complete with babies, windows, and a door. I think they are way more talented than I am!

The kids and I drove down to Burley last week for my mother's day day of radiation and also my 10 year high school reunion. It was so great to see family and also friends that I pretty much haven't seen for 10 years! I didn't even get a picture of me and my good friend, Ainslie, but she was there for a bit, I promise! Joe Preston "the Bad A," Jakobi, me, and John Jacob Gochnour. These boys I only have the best of memories with! They both now have gorgeous wives and great jobs and John's even got himself some cute kids.

Me and Anne Blauer Ringle and her son, Eli. Her daughter and my daughter are also about the same age. Anne was a great friend and also my basing partner in cheerleading. What a gal to rely on! She is the best!

And my adorable babies at the park as part of the reunion. It was stinkin hot, but lasted about an hour....

My twin sister, Jake and I at the dinner on Saturday night. We stuck by each other's side so as to remain the most comfortable. :)

And about 80 of my classmates that showed up to the reunion. I was happy to have remembered mostly everyone and pleased that my brain is not failing me completely, well, at least not yet. Everyone I ran into, I made sure that they knew about the reunion and were planning on coming. Because high school was 10 YEARS AGO, so let the past be the past and see fun people who have changed and blah blah blah, it's funny to know that some people have apparently NOT changed... ;)

Two of my greatest friends, Derrick Thornton and Hayley Moyes (now Coussens). Derrick was the mascot one year and Hayley and I cheered together as well. I sat next to Hayley and Jake all night. and yes, I convinced Derrick and Jakobi to help me paint the high school rock. It was humourous to me that Derrick had actually never even painted the rock?!?! I have so many great memories of that silly rock...

We even figured they couldn't stick us in jail for it and left our names on it. :)

Jakobi, me, and Derrick. Great memories and fun times!

Also while down in Burley we had a baby shower for my sister, Britni and yes, I made her wear those silly glasses and lei to break open a pink pig pinata to get to my presents inside for her and her soon to be baby GIRL! Yes, after 3 boys, my sister get herself a girl! I'm still convinced it will come out a boy, so I got her little girl stuff in mostly the color blue... Just to be a booger. ;)

We also had a little cheerleader reunion breakfast at Perkins. Cari Ramsey, Anne Blauer, me, Ainslie Duncan (as stated before bestie friend, but no pic of her and me together) and Derrick. Man, those were some good years!

And one of the main reasons we made the trip was that my mom finished her last radiaiton treatment! Yeah! We all drove down to Twin Falls and surprised her with roses as she was walking out of her appointment.

She really was quite surprised and didn't have her glasses on and thought she had ruined a birthday surprise for the reception gal of something, but nope, it was her rowdy offspring and all their kids!

My kids and I and my brave, hopefully cancer free mother!

the Beck Family August 2011 with Grandma Mimi

Front L-R: Beck, Paisley, Jax, Broxton, Branson, and Bridger. Back L-R: Korbi, Justin, Bruce, Dawn, Jakobi, Lizi, Chad, Kalan, Britni, and Grandma Mimi

Grandma Mimi and I

We had dinner at Applebees after I took Beck to Target to get his new "black Converse" shoes for his first day of Kindergarten.

We also got to take the kids to the Cassia County Fair and Rodeo. Paisley, and her new bestie cousin, Lizi, and Beck riding in the suburban into the fair.

Beck at the rodeo

My kids and I at the Rodeo. Their favorite part was probably the cotton candy and popcorn. I pretty much let them have what they wanted because it was only a $1! I was shocked! Free fair admission, free rodeo admission for kids, cotton candy and popcorn for a $1?!?! We had died and gone to fair heaven!Jax, Paisley, Beck, and Lizi with their cotton candy

Most of the Beck Burley cousins at Maimi Dawn's and Papa Goose's house. L-Right: Broxton, Paisley, Branson, Beck, Abigail, Chloe, Jax, and Justin with mom's dog Zeus

and of course 4-wheeler fun!

Jakobi telling my kids a story before bed, when actually all she did was totally rile them up! Thanks Aunt Jake! (They LOVED it)

Feeding cows and horses with Papa Goose

Paisley being a farm girl

grandkids Beck, Broxton, Paisley, and Branson with great Grandma Mimi

Kortni, Stephen, and I took our kids to the Grant County Fair on Tuesday the 16th. We walked thru the booths and saw the girl's sewing projects that they had entered into the fair... We walked thru the livestock barns and saw the Ashton couins sheep they were showing there.

And Beck, like his mama, fell in LOVE with the goats...

And both Beck and Paisley fell in love with the Elephant ears, and at $5 a piece it was hard to only let them have 1!

Welcome Home Caitlynn Lawson!

So for the last summer months on Wednesday and Thursday nights I have been glued to my TV set watching Caitlynn Lawson on So You Think You Can Dance. She made it into the Top 6! A little history of my brush with fame... I had just moved ot Moses Lake and AIM gym was located at the old buidling over on Marina Drive. I was teaching a tumbling class to a bunch of dances from Todays Generation where Caitlynn was a dances. She had to have been about 9 or 10 years old. I remember how tiny and skinny she was. She reminded me of my cousin, Alexie, who is also an amazing dancer. I watched her perform numerous times and was also in amazement, so it was really no shocker that she made it onto the show!!! But to be dancing with that caliber was so exciting! I had watched the show before, but never with so much enthusiasm and emotion tied to the performances. My sister, Kortni, and I got super excited and went around to over 45 local businesses to get well wishes and "vote for Caitlynn" up on their reader boards and enlisted everyone we knew to watch and vote for her. It was all so fun! We bought Team Caitlynn shirts from the drill team fund raiser and supported her any was we knew how, even by voting hundreds of times via FaceBook and text messages. (I hacked my dad's fb account and Stephen's to be able to vote more, but only got up to about 900 votes due to falling asleep or giving up voting) People pulled together and it was so fun!

My kids LOVED watching the show with me. We had to choose between another favorite show, America's Got Talent. One night while watching AGTalent I was commenting on how good a Latin Dance group's performance was and how much I loved them! and Paisley, my 3 year old, looked at me with sad eyes and said, "even better than Caitlynn?!?!?!" of course not! She did great and made it into the Top 6! Kortni and I got asked by a friend to help plan a Welcome Home Party for her last that was held at the Moses Lake High School yesterday and we had fun planning a dance off, prizes, Caitlynn trivia, and poster, and teaching some of the drill team how to make a balloon arch. We had an awesome time being on TEAM CAITLYNN and helping support a very talented and definitely deserving girl from the little 'ol town of Moses Lake! Way to go Caitlynn! Congrats and don't look back girl, go on and dance your little heart out!

Beck with Caitlynn "I liked her." He also stated that she was "the prettiest girl!"

Paisley and Caitlynn

Me with Caitlynn Lawson

Caitlynn Lawson Fans at her Welcome Home Party

Beck won the break dancing portion of the danceoff at the Welcome Home Caitlynn party. BeThis is Beck and his break dancing instructor, Shanner. This was at the last day of Moovin and Groovin Gym Camp where they did break dancing...

Once again another fun weekend evening/night that the Sand Dunes! Beck swimming in the lake!

The kids loved playing in the sand next to the lake.

Stephen's brother Scott and his family and some friends had camped over night and set up a huge slip and slide. Stephen had both kids go down it, but I think that he had the most fun!

Cousin Alizah LOVES coming with is to the dunes!

Day 2 of New York Road Trip

I promised Srephen that I would get going on our New York post and since he did Day 1, I will start at Mount Rushmore and the Corn Palace of Day #2 Those penny machines where you can choose an imprint of the place you are visiting. We were pretty consistent with these and hit most of them at the places we got to see. This trip really was the best trip ever...

Beck really liked how they "blew up the faces," or in other words how they blew up the big rocks on the side of the mountainto make the faces.

They had an area in the informational building where you could press down the dynamite press and watch a video and the mountain blows up. It was pretty neat and the kids did it over and over again.

Beck said that the "faces were big, taller than me!" I made Stephen drive 100 miles out of the way, so that we could see Mount Rushmore and it was so worth it! Very neat part of the Good ol U S of A!

After getting pulled over by a cop for trying to make a right hand turn in the wrong lane of traffic he gave us directions to the Corn Palace in North Dakota. Beck remembers that it was "made out of corn and we followed the corn feet. On the inside was a basketball place and I bought a smashed penny of the palace."

This isn't so bad, maybe I will actually finish posting about our New York Road Trip, just one day at a time though ;) SO stay tuned...