Dance Studio

I'm trying to decide if I should rent a dance studio or not. There is a steel building right by Gilbert High School (the one that Gissels used to own), and it's a dance studio inside. There is a little lobby area, bathroom, drinking fountain, two dance rooms and even a window so the parents could watch from the lobby. The location is ideal, since most of our students live in Gilbert. It would also be great to have 2 classes going at a time. It's just scary to pay a big rent each month and wonder if we will even make a profit, especially in the summer, when we will most likely have less students. The hope is that once we move there we would gain students since we could offer more classes and it would be more professional than having classes in a garage. I wish I could know how many new students we'd get ahead of time, but instead it's kind of a gamble. Melanie and Amy are teaching with me, which is great, because I can't have this be my whole life. So I guess I'm asking for advice...Do we stay safe and keep doing things like we are, or do we rent this building and hope we gain enough students to make the rent worth it?

General Conference

It was great to be able to watch conference this weekend. I really liked Elder Ballard's talk to mothers. He quoted Anna Quindlen saying how she wished she had lived in the moment more while her children were young. She said something to the effect of " Enjoy the doing, not just the getting done". This is good advice for me! Has anyone read any of her books? Now I'm interested in reading some of her work. Something else that stood out to me was in Sister Tanner's talk. She talked about miracles in our lives today and how sometimes the miracle doesn't come until the final hour, or until we are pushed to the limits of our strength. I liked her comparison to Abraham and Isaac going forward in faith without knowing Heavenly Father would rescue Isaac at the last moment. I hope I can have that same kind of faith, even when the future is uncertain.

Spring Break and Easter

We had such a fun Spring Break! We were able to spend time with my family the first part of the week, then Ray's parents, two of his sisters and their families came for Easter! As you can see, Marinne was in hog heaven to have her cousins here to do girlie stuff with. Some of the relatives stayed at Camelback Inn in Scottsdale. One day we hiked Camelback Mountain and went swimming at the resort. It felt like a real vacation. I want to go stay there for an anniversary or something (hint, hint).


Ray demonstrated his hula hoop skills at the Easter picnic. He should probably keep his day job. On Sunday however, he shared his real talent by singing a solo in sacrament meeting. He did an excellent job! Yes, that is a black eye. I did not witness the incident, but according to Blake, it was an "accident" involving a broom and a metal chair.

We also attended the Easter Pageant and got ice cream after. I think James could have used a little help!


It was great to be with family and enjoy the wonderful weather! We topped off the fun with an announcement on Easter...
We are having a baby! The due date is November 13th, and we are excited to add to the Hammond chaos!

Happy Easter!

I wanted to share this cute card that Blake made for us.

This is what it says, in case you can't read it... Dear Mom and Dad, I love You. I think you are the best mom and and dad ever. Have a very fun Easter that is rule one. And rule two is do not forget about Jesus when he died. And rule three is hide the baskets karfully. By mom and dad. Have a wonderful Easter.

COUSINS!

Amy's back in Arizona, and Richard and Erica have been visiting the last few weeks, so here are all the Smith cousins together! The problem when too many Smiths get together is that we eat out for every meal!

A Bragging Mother

Marinne's teacher chose her for Student of the Month! I am proud of my kids for doing so well in school! We just had parent teacher conferences, and it's so nice to go in and hear only positive things! Marinne was the only one in her class to receive all A's this period. Blake is reading well now too, so we're able to take turns reading scriptures as a family. The kids are excited to do it, and even ask if we can read another chapter when we finish one. They are good examples to us! Now we need Marinne to learn how to smile! She's embarassed to show her teeth since some are gone, growing in, etc.

I heart underwear!!!

Hallelujah!!! We currently have a diaper-free house! James is finally potty trained! Just wanted to share the news because I'm pretty excited!