ABBA says it best, these are the DANCING QUEENS

I recall one afternoon about a year and a half ago right after we had started our first school year in Elko.  Romney came home from school, plopped on the couch, and said, "Everyone at Elko High School has something.  Volleyball, soccer, cheerleading, they all have t-shirts that they wear that name their activity and proudly display the Elko Indian.  I don't have one.  I feel kind of....hollow inside."  Poor Romney.

Well, fast forward now to the near-end of the second year at Elko High School for both Romney and Raegan.  THEY RULE THE EHS DANCE TEAM.  I'm not just saying this because I am their adoring mother, either.  Romney is the captain, and Raegan the co-captain of the team.  Both girls just completed their third season of dance.  They have lettered several times, are the favorites of both coaches, have recruited enough Mormon girls that the team is now almost half LDS, have even the non-member girls reading the Book of Mormon (at least praying before each performance with them and singing and doing actions to "Book of Mormon Stories"), and are front and center in every single number.  With both girls in dance, I'd guess that now between the 2 of them we now own about 60-68 t-shirts/sweatshirts that say EHS Dance.  The hollow-ness is gone!

Romney 2012-2013 Dance Season Junior year

Raegan 2012-2013 Dance Season Sophomore year

They're all over that zebra pose.

I mean, they're the most beautiful girls at the school (and the friendliest, and the nicest, and the smartest), but they also own the EHS dance team.  

We had the closing season dance banquet a couple of weeks ago and were proud to see them presented with every award given by the coaches and the team.   They both gave speeches and presented the team gifts to the coaches, and then were called up to receive the award for lettering...again.  In addition, Raegan received Best Showmanship, Most Valuable Dancer, and special recognition for having a 4.0 or higher GPA.

I was telling Brent that in a way I felt a little guilty that our girls kept going up to the front and the other girls around us just sat with their parents most the time.  He said, "Don't feel bad, feel PROUD."  I am.  I wish I could put all their routines here to save them forever, but I think they'll last that long on facebook.  They coreograph routines and the coaches want them to get with them this summer to get several routines ready for next year.  R and R performed a dance together for the concert last month, and the coaches found me afterwards to tell me that they had tears streaming down their faces, they thought it was so beautiful.  Just another day in the life of Romney and Raegan.

We had a great time at the banquet, we got a couple of pictures to prove it:

Romney and Raegan with coaches Amy and Dani...Romney made the banner for Dani as a gag gift but she loved how it hugged her pregnant belly.  And Sierra.  Which girl here needs a copy of the "modesty" section of FTSOY?

We're proud of these girls!

The team was able to accompany the EHS Varsity Basketball team to the State tournament in Las Vegas.  They stayed at a nice hotel and had a great time.  They'd have to blog all about that, but I know their combined halftime with the cheerleaders was a huge hit.  This dancing thing has turned out to be all right for these girls!

I found a couple of pictures of a previous banquet.  Might as well add them here since they need to be documented on the blog, eh?

More t-shirts...just what we needed.  And Romney with braces!  I don't think she misses them much.

You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life....see those girls, watch that scene, diggin the Dancing Queens!

V Day Love

I remember coming home from school when the Taylor family lived at 1858 in Orem and seeing pink frosted heart-shaped cookies all over the counter on Valentines Day.  Mommy was always so good at making the holidays extra special for us.  Throughout the evening on Valentines day, we would hear the doorbell ring and run to answer it and find Valentines and treats on the front porch.  We loved this activity so much, we would run around the neighborhood leaving Valentines on neighbor's porches as well.  So fun.
What I have carried on from this Valentines Day tradition is the cookies.  I have spent the entire day in years past (several times very pregnant) making batch after batch of sugar cookies to make our kitchen counter look for my kids, like the counter my mom set up for us.  What I have found is that it takes ALL DAY and is quite exhausting!  But the V Day love must continue!  My sisters clued me in on what they do, just one BIG cookie per person.  This is much easier!

Raegan's friend Kyra was with us for the weekend of Valentines Day this year, as her mom had to travel out of town.  So 10 large, charger-size heart shaped cookies had to be made!  It was fun.  I can't say they lasted too long, especially when Hartman and Scarlett decided to lick all the frosting off of all of the cookies over the next couple of days, but eventually every bite was eaten.  We also have made it a tradition to eat Chinese take-out every Valentines Day.  We love the Great Wall here in Elko.  Romney's friend Griffeth showed up to help her study, so we had a full table for dinner!  And don't worry, we had some extra cookies for Griffy.  I always make two double-batches, so we have plenty of regular-sized cookies to hand out to neighbors in Elko as well.  It's a lot of frosting, I tell ya!

If Sophie's outfit looks familiar, it's because it was Disney Day at school...although she does LOVE these comfy gold pants.