Saturday, June 27, 2009

Superstardom!

The past 2 weeks Olivia and her cousins Tatum and Maya have been involved in a Musical Theater Workshop program.

They learned 6 different songs with choreography and solos too.

They went to rehearsal for 2 hours every day Monday through Thursday.

And they LOVED it!

Here they are on the first day of workshop when I dropped them off.

I'd take them straight from swim team to workshop and they would sing at the TOP of their lungs the entire way practicing all their songs.

It was in a word...adorable.

They each have very unique styles of singing and performing and it was fun to see.

This past Thursday was their actual performance and I'm pretty sure Olivia has gotten hooked on becoming a superstar.

When Morgan asked if she would be able to do it too Livy told her in her most 14 year old dramatic voice, "Oh Morgan, you will LOVE it.  Singing and dancing is the BEST!" 

Here is her pre-performance pose.  (Blowing kisses to all her fans, no doubt.)


Here are the beauties in the "green room" after their performance.


Who knows what the future holds.

Yesterday, after a good swim at my mom's Olivia told me she was ready to do triathlons.  Then she begged me to "train her" when we got home and wanted to go for a bike and run.

This morning she was lamenting the fact that there are so many things she would like to do: sing, dance, swim, art...and more.

It's fun to have a child that is so full of life and wants to grab all the opportunities she can.

I have a feeling that whatever she does, she will do it well.


Best View From My Hallway

Potty + Reader's Digest = Good Times.



She's figured it out young. 

As You Wish...

This past Christmas my brother Eric & his wife Jody gave us a gift card to "As You Wish".  It's a really cool place where you can paint your own pottery and then they fire it for you and wah-la, you get this:

And this:
And this:
It was a lot of fun.  

We just picked up the finished products today and they were very excited to see their work.

Livy asked Owen if he liked his piggy bank more than her.

He heard her say, "Do you like your piggy bank more than my plate?"  To which he of course responded, "Yes."

This hurt Livy's feelings and she told me what Owen had said.

I explained what he meant so she decided to ask him again.

"Owen, do you like your piggy bank more than ME?" she challenged.

"No." he shook his head, "Livy, you're my best, best friend."

Livy giggled and smiled....all was right with the world.

These two truly love each other (when they aren't fighting and teasing).

Owen is so sweet with Livy and instinctively knows the right things to say to her.

Whenever she is getting ready for something and trying to look fancy he will say, "Oh Livy, you look beautiful."  

She will always smile coyly. 

He will generally indulge her and be her prince when she needs one.

He will dance with her when she needs a dance partner.

When he gets excited about something he wants to share it with her.

She really is his "best, best friend".

And for now he is her "Wesly", doing things for her "as she wishes."






It's great to have a best friend as a sibling.

I've got 5. :)

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Feelings--They're Dangerous.


I have thoughts.

Lots of them.

Some deep, some stupid, some really weird, some inspirational, some worth sharing and some not.

Really, Jack Handy would be proud.  

I've always thought I'm a very open person; however, there are some places I just don't go.

I never have.

Truth be told, I'm usually pretty safe with what I share.

Now, for the first time in my life I go there with Shane.

He's my tour guide and he's wonderful.

Shane wondered aloud to me the other day if it might actually be helpful to break down some of my walls and share certain emotions, certain imperfections, certain feelings on the blog...to bring them out in the open.

Maybe it's a little harder to be transparent in an open forum when you know your ex-husband reads your blog (what's up Cameron?), but I want to be able to be completely comfortable with myself no matter what.

So here comes my first admission.

I am terrified of feelings.

It's bigger than it sounds.

I have tried for a long time to feel nothing but happy.  

To BE nothing but happy.

I got caught up in those sayings, "You can choose how you handle a situation."  "10% what happens to you 90% attitude." "How you feel is up to you."  Etc.

So I decided I could paste "happy" over everything.

Nothing mattered because I could choose to be happy.

I think my interpretation was a little bit off.

It doesn't quite work like that and all I ended up with was a bunch of unresolved emotions and false situations.

Many years worth.

I figured out something further today.

The reason I am so terrified of feelings is that I don't trust feelings.

They are subjective.

When do I listen to them?

When do I fight against them?

When are they genuine?

When are they manufactured?

In the past, when I've allowed myself to feel and trust my feelings, I've gotten very hurt.

Also, when I've chosen to go against my feelings and not trust them, I realized I should have trusted them, and I got very hurt again.

Feelings keep messing me up.

"Why Dixie, I had no idea you were such a mess." I can hear you all thinking....

Surprise!




Friday, June 19, 2009

Ice Cream Attack

She sized up her competition.



She attacked with Gusto!




...But I think the ice cream won.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Puff

Remember this cat that had kittens in our shed?

There was a brown one (or a "Tabby cat" as Shane tells me it should be called) and a white one with black spots.

This is them a few weeks ago.
We moved them out of the shed to the other side of the fence (long story) and they moved themselves back over the fence to behind our shed.  

We see them every now and again.

Unfortunately we have not seen the tabby cat for awhile and think it may have died.

Last night the mama cat was playing with the spotted one on our back lawn.

We opened the back door and watched each other for awhile.

The mom shooed her baby behind the shed, all the while keeping her eyes on us, but the baby was too curious to go because he was looking at my babies. :)  Eventually he did as he was told.

Awhile later the mom took off and the kids decided to look for the baby behind the shed.

It was there and Morgan couldn't do anything else but look at this kitty.

Here she is, in classic Morgan fashion, checking out the kitty.


(I don't know why she ALWAYS puts her underpants on backwards and refuses to put her pants on after going potty...but whatever).

She ran in and out telling me all about the cat.

Once she ran in and said, "Puff is so IN-DORABLE!!!" 

"Puff?"  I said.

"Yeah, I love Puff!"

And just like that, she had named our stray kitten.

She showed me all the faces Puff was making and even made a card for Puff.

I never thought it would happen, but we have a kitten named Puff.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Bikini Babies--All Growed Up!

Lana's comment on my swim team post made me remember this picture of Olivia and Tatum at 4 and 2 months respectively.  ( I always forget how HUGE Olivia's cheeks were and Tatum's belly was).


Here they are, 6 short years later, all big and on swim team!


Next installment...16 years old, headed to a pool party.  (I don't want to think about it yet).

Today was time trials for their meet tomorrow and Livy got 1st in her heat.

Nothing could have made her happier. 

Luckily she didn't have to swim against Tatum, who is faster, all she knows is she got 1st against the girls she swam against and that's all that matters.

She was beaming, absolutely beaming, when she finished.

She wanted to hear over and over again how proud I am of her--which I most certainly am.

I could see her confidence grow in an instant. 

She is starting to get stronger physically.

She is starting to get stronger mentally.

She is starting to see that hard work pays off.

This is why I love swim team.


Saturday, June 6, 2009

Girls Rule, Boys Drool

Recipe for an AMAZING "Girl Weekend", 6 year old style.

1.  Send all the boys away to do an icky boy activity like camping or something.
2.  Get all dolled up by curling your hair and putting on the outfit you've been saving ALL week to wear for this special night.

3.  Meet up with other girlfriends (cousins) at a fabulous restaurant with outdoor dining.
4.  Order up the most amazing and unexpected Arizona summer-night weather.

5.  Eat french fries and giant chocolate milkshakes until you're sick.
6.  Run around chasing each other to work off said milkshakes & fries.
7.  Drive to the party house with your windows rolled down listening to Hannah Montana's "Let's Get Crazy" as loud as your ears can handle.
8.  Request Hannah Montana song to be played 5 times in a row until your destination is reached.
9.  Jump around and scream because you are so excited to have a sleep over.
10.  Watch movies until you crash in your sleeping bags on the living room floor.
11.  Wake up and eat french toast and bacon.
12.  Take a morning swim.
13.  Get dolled up again, this time with make up, to go to the mall.


14.  Play and chase each other in the mall play place.
15.  Finish up by going to Build-A-Bear and building your own bunny, dog or bear.


16.  Fall asleep in the car on the drive home because it takes a lot of energy to have this much fun.

Girl Power! :)

Swim Team--Not for Pansies



In the Shumway family, swim team is a right of passage.

We had to do swim team every summer, no questions asked.

"It's good for you." Mom would say.

I hated it for a long time.  It was hard.  It was grueling.  I wanted to quit.

So of course I had to enroll my own children on a team. :)

Olivia started her first summer of swim team on June 1st.

She was excited and a little bit nervous before it started.

Here she is pictured with cousin Tatum before they started practice on the first day. (She has no idea what's about to go down).

Right off the bat they have them swim all the way across the 25 yard pool.  

She could never do this before but lo and behold, with a coach telling her to do it and other kids doing it all around her, she busted across the pull with gusto! (I must say my heart was bursting with pride).

What most people don't realize about Olivia is that for all her girlishness, she is actually quite competitive, driven and athletic. 

When she is playing baseball her eyes light up with fire when she swings at that ball and she almost always connects.

Now with swimming she pushes herself hard to pass kids up and swim as fast as possible.

The only problem with this is it stresses her out to no end.

"My throat hurts" & "I can't breathe" are top complaints and apparently just hearing the words "swim team" makes her stomach drop.  (I remember feeling the same way).

But when she's at practice she won't let up.

She just wants to be the best.

I like that. :)