Mother's Day and Kylee's Recital

Mother's Day! Everyday that I get to be Kylee's Momma is a day of celebration to me....but it's fun to get gifts on one of those days! Kylee and David got me work out clothes! LOVE THEM!

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Every year the Montez women get together for our annual Mother's Day lunch at Olive Garden. It's a tradition I've come to love and look forward to every year. I love all the women in my life!

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This past weekend was Kylee's dance recital. She danced at the Suns game back in February and now this was the end of the year recital. She had two performances and did great! She had a lot of people come to support her!

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Kyrstin...Kylee loves her cousin! We get to go watch Kyrstin at her dance recital in a month and Kylee can't wait!

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Kylee and her dance teacher....Miss Melanie! She is awesome and we loved her!

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Aunt Nanny and Kyrstin! They both surprised us. We didnt' know they were coming. Kylee was so excited!!

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And of course Kylee's best supporters came....Grandma and Papa Montez!

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Family pic at the end of the recital. We are so proud of our dancing Queen!

Something special happened at the recital. In Kylee's first dance performance, all the girls had pom-poms as a prop during part of the song. They placed their pom-pom's behind them while they danced to the first part of the song and then went back to get their pom-pom's during the second part of the song. Well, Kylee's pom-poms accidentally got taken and she couldn't find another set of pom-pom's close to her. She was frantically looking around while all the girls kept on dancing. I wanted to cry for her! I was afraid she was going to cry and run off stage. But instead....she made us SO PROUD! After 5 seconds of looking and not being able to find her pom-pom's, she jumped back in with all her dancer friends and started dancing as if she was holding her pom-pom's. She didn't skip a beat! My tears of sadness and feeling sorry for her quickly turned into tears of pride.

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I quickly ran back stage to comfort her, thinking she was going to save her tears for backstage....but she had a smile on her face and was quickly changing into her next outfit for her second dance. She wasn't sad at all. If you know Kylee, she is a very tender-hearted girl. So I was certain that she was going to get upset about this. But she kept a smile on her face and was professional about the whole thing. I was so impressed and learned something new about my princess that day. She never ceases to amaze me everyday! She makes me so proud. I don't know how I got so extremely lucky. What did I do to deserve to be her Mother? I'm thankful for her every second of every day. She is the best example for me....and now she is an example of never giving up and keeping a smile on your face no matter what happens in life. She gave me the BEST Mother's Day gift ever by showing me her strength and optimism. Words could never describe how much we love our princess!

Girl's Trip for Jodi's Wedding

I just went on the quickest, yet "funnest", trip ever this weekend!!! One of my best friend's got married this weekend in St. George so Heather, Tausha and I packed up and made a fun girl's trip out of it! We decided to stop in Vegas and stay the night at the Circus Circus. Did you know it's only $34 per night there?? Amazing!! Here we are after arriving from our 4 hour drive, getting ready to drive the strip! We were too tired to walk it!

The next morning, curling our hair and getting ready to make the 2 hour drive to St. George for Jodi's big day!

At the Jolley cabin! The scenery was gorgeous and perfect for a Jodi wedding!!!

Heather and I decided it was necessary to test out the wedding spot! It was perfect!! Well, perfect for now until they get sealed in the temple soon!!

The beautiful bride herseld!! LOVE HER!

The happy couple! New fresh love!!!

Welcome to the MP family McKay! We love you already!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my friends. I am so lucky to have had the best friends in high school and to be able to still have an amazing bond with them to this day. They kept me on the right track and were great examples for me during those crazy tough teenage years. I'm so thankful for them everyday and I love them all so much!

PS...we missed you Heidi Marie!!! Get off that cruise ship and come home so we can celebrate with you too!

Kindergarten Program

Last night was Kylee's "Kindergarten Celebration". This is in lieu of a graduation. It was super cute and the theme was based off of a book called The Sleeping Time Alphabet....so all the kids were wearing pajamas. They have been working hard on this for weeks and it turned out amazing! I volunteered to help make the set/back drop and I think that turned out just as amazing as the program!

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Here is Kylee's group talking about the letter Z. Kylee got to hold the letter!

Kylee's teacher, Mrs. Wright. WE LOVE HER!

Kylee has made so many great friends this year. We are sad to be leaving....but there's a chance we will be back for 2nd grade. If we do move back, we hope that all her friends will still be here too!

More friends!

They had a slide show of all the kids "profiles". They drew these pictures on a computer. Some of them were hilarious!


The set!!!!! Isn't it cute!? It's hard to see all the detail but it is so cute!

I can't believe Kylee's first year of school is almost over. She has done amazingly well in school...even with preschool the past couple years. I'm so glad that she loves school and loves to interact with all her friends at school. She is progressing well and we couldn't be more proud of the student and person she is, and is continuing to become. We love her so much and are so blessed to have her in our lives!

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This video isn't the best but I wanted to catch some of the program on film for the Grandma's and Papa's! Kylee looks a little scared in this film. Haha! But I caught some of her friends smiling for the camera!

Easter 2011

Have I ever mentioned that Easter candy is my favorite candy of all the holidays? Well...it is! A tradition that Kylee and I have come to be "famous" for is dying eggs for the egg cracking game we play every year. It's been a Montez family tradition for as long as I can remember, and 4 years ago, I brought it to David's side of the family. So we had A LOT of eggs to boil and dye this year since we have added a few more people to each side of the family.

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Friday was our Montez Easter celebration at Grandma and Papa Montez's. Kylee is my best helper...she loves dying the eggs! Pretty soon, she'll be doing this job all by herself and Momma can take a break!

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Let the games begin...



Can always count on Dad to make a classic "doh" face whenever his egg loses the battle!

Caleb won this year! He's trying to make his toughest "egg winning" face right here! Haha!

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Today (Sunday) was the Higginson/Oram/Pew Easter celebration. There are too many of us and I couldn't get us all in the picture. But it sure is a fun gang!

Sweet baby girl Quincy Lola! The only baby left in the family. Sure hope we can add a little Pew baby soon!!

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As always...we have the BEST time celebrating the holidays with our family. We are so blessed to have the best families on both sides. Church was great today and I'm so thankful for this holiday season that we have it to remember Christ our Savior and that he died for us and was resurrected so that we too can live forever with our families and be happy! I know he is my Savior and that he loves me. I am so blessed....we are truly so blessed because of this day. I love my family SOOO much. LIFE IS GOOD!

Daddy Daughter Dance!!!!

Last Friday was the Daddy Daughter dance at Kylee's school. Kylee has been looking forward to this for weeks! We went shopping for a new dress and new shoes for this VERY special occasion. We even bought Daddy a matching PINK tie! They were the cutest couple there. I was so lucky because I got to go as a volunteer Mom and help. As we were setting up, I was so excited because the colors were black and pink....the same colors as Kylee's dress! It was so meant to be! :)

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Here is the princess herself all ready to go!

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Kenzie and Kylee...one of her good friends at school

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Mallika and Kylee....another good friend of hers at school

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Daddy doing the cha-cha! Hilarious!!!

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Daddy spinning Kylee.....so precious!

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The cutest couple ever! Kylee always says that she wants to marry her Daddy. As long as she marries someone JUST like her Daddy, Mommy will be extremely happy!

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It was so fun to watch them dance together and to see Kylee having so much fun with her little friends. The hit song of the night was "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz. As soon as that song came on, all the girls went running and screaming to the middle of the dance floor and sang and danced to the entire song. It was so cute!

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Kylee has the best Daddy ever! I'm so thankful for the special relationship that they have and to see how much Kylee ADORES her Daddy. She is definitely Daddy's little girl.

Spring

Spring is here, and it has pretty much come and gone in a matter of a week! I've lived in Arizona my entire life and I've come to realize 2 things about this state:

1. Arizona has 2 seasons ("warm" winter, and "crazy hot" summer)

2. Arizona's weather is only consistent during the middle of summer, when the temperatures consistently stay in the triple digits. Otherwise, the weather can be 50 degrees one day and then 100 the next. Case in point....

This is Kylee and Emily swimming last week in 100 degree weather.

3 days later....it was 41 degrees and the heaters were cranked up! What the heck??

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As of lately...

Kylee was given an assignment in school a couple weeks ago and it was all about what you want to be when you grow up. This was Kylee's paper! I couldn't be more proud! Haha! If you can't understand it, it says that she wants to be a "volleyball girl"! YES!!!

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My latest obsession.....I can't get enough of these things!

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So David has been a police officer for almost 3 years now and I still have an extreme fear of guns. I always have. I have NEVER shot a gun before! Whenever I see his gun, I think death and accidents! So I make him keep them hidden from sight when he is home....in the safe they go!!! Well lately I've been wanting to go shooting so I can get over this fear and gain a little "gun knowledge". So yesterday we went to a shooting range and David taught me gun shooting 101!

David said there are a million things wrong with my form in this picture but I think it looks pretty good! Haha! Below is the "master" at work! I guess he does look a little more comfortable and relaxed than I do. I guess my posture shows what I'm really feeling inside....FEAR and anticipation of what's going to happen when I pull the trigger.

I bet you can't guess what bullet holes are mine in this target picture below?! Hahaha! This was the first target I shot at. It got better as the time went on. I almost hit the X!

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The "debt-free" journey has begun! We have officially moved out of our house and rented it out to an amazing family who is going to take care of our house....and we have moved in with family for the next few months so we can start paying off our fertility/medical debts! The past 4 1/2 years of uncovered fertility treatments and surgeries have really put us in over our heads with bills. I'm so thankful that David has an amazing SECURE job to help us pay off our debts fast! But we can't do it without the help of cutting WAY back on our day to day expenses. We have the most amazing family, on both sides, and they are more than willing to help us out by letting us live with them. We can't wait to have a clean slate so that we can prepare for our future children (through adoption or more fertility treatments). I joke and tell people that we literally have to make these sacrifices so that we can "buy" our future children. Not sure why it has to be this way for us but we are taking it as it is and know that this is the plan for us, and that blessings await us! We are willing to do whatever it takes to give our sweet Kylee girl a sibling and to have more amazing babies to love!

We just love her SOOOO much and are so thankful to have her in our lives. We wouldn't be able to keep a clear focus on our ending goal without having her sweet smile everyday. She keeps us going! She has given us the ambition to have more sweet spirits in our home no matter what it takes. I thank my Father in Heaven EVERDAY for blessing us with Kylee before sending us on this incredibly difficult infertility journey. I see friends and loved ones going through their infertility journey's without any children, and I just don't know if I could do it. I pray for them daily and feed off of their strength and faith to keep going. No one can EVER know the heart-wrenching pain of infertility unless they have gone through it themselves. It's a cancer of the heart...slowly killing you everyday. I am so thankful for the knowledge that I have...that I know I have a Heavenly Father that loves me and wants me to be happy. That I have a Savior that died for me so that I can live with my family for eternity. That even if I don't get to have more children here on this earth, that I will have that opportunity someday. I'm so thankful for an amazing husband who, even though he feels the same pains I feel, is my rock and supports me through all of it! Life is good and I LOVE LOVE LOVE my little family!