Ballroom Superstars

Naki is the sweetest. He knew that I was seconds away from losing my mind and that I desperately needed some time away from a cute but seriously time consuming 6 month baby girl. So he arranged for Line, Malia, and I to attend the most fun thing ever! He found out that BYU was hosting this years United States National Amateur DanceSport Championships. Ballroom! Now, we've never danced ballroom and neither have our girls . . . yet. That's a yet for ALL of us. Naki and I will some day be taking lessons. Mark my words. And we'll be dang good, too! But since we're such huge Dancing With the Stars fans, he thought that the big girls and I would really appreciate watching it. It was such a blast.

After watching them for a while you start to take for granted just how fast they're able to move their feet. They were incredible. They would compete in heats, starting with all the couples in the first heat. Then they would only bring 24 back, then 12 back, and then the final 6. We had such fun picking our favorite couple in each heat, and then watching to see if they made it through the cuts on to the next heat. Both girls really liked this particular girl, and were taking pictures of her.
We were amazed how much energy everyone there had. We finally had to leave at 11:15 pm because we were just too tired and they were still going strong! I asked the girls if they would prefer taking this kind of dance lessons or the one their currently in, and they both still prefer to stay in their current classes, but we'll see what the future holds. I don't know, they look pretty good to me, don't ya think?

Wordless Wednesday

What in the WORLD, Malia!

Naki and I are not huge fans of our girls and makeup at their young age. We don't believe in buying it for our girls yet, but also know that there will come the time when it is appropriate for the girlies to use. But, for Christmas, Malia won some makeup and some press on nails at the Maile Christmas auction that Uncle Rex and Auntie Misty so lovingly finance and run for all the Maile cousins. Simply put, Malia went a little crazy. In addition to having no makeup experience, it didn't help her efforts that the color palette was in the range that no normal human being would ever wear.
We have a lot of work cut out for us, I think.

Are you ready?

It's getting time for this again. . .

Some Crazy Cute Kiddos

Candy came and babysat for me last Wednesday so I could go visiting teaching. These moments are just so cute, I had to take some pictures. This moment lasted for all of 3 seconds until Eva realized I'd put her down and she was no longer in Mama's arms. It's a miracle she's learned how to be on her tummy or roll over at all, considering how much she hates to be out of my arms.

They look pretty innocent here, right? Don't be fooled...see Eva's crazy hair?


It's because they'd been busy for some time doing this...


I remember sliding down the stairs when I was little, except I would do it on my tummy head first. I'm waiting for them to try that next. *Gulp*

Wordless Wednesday

Maile Princess of the Week

For any of you who have met them, you know that we win the Best Neighbors EVER Award. Mark and Connie Payne are the biggest blessing to our family. When we moved from our condo into this house, we knew we hit it big by having them as our neighbors.

5 Weeks ago we ran into them in the grocery store on a crazy Friday. Macey's Grocery shoppers know just how crazy it gets in there on the weekend. Usually we try and avoid it, but found ourselves in there anyway. We found ourselves with our 6 littles and 2 carts, pulled over to the side, and the Paynes pulled over to the side with their carts, just so we could catch up on things. It was at the time when we had just started recovering from all of our winter sickness, and they also were on the road to recovery from some yucky stuff, too, and so we hadn't really seen much of one another. While we were visiting, Mark asked Naki and I, "Who's been the most helpful to you these past couple of days?" It was easy to answer that Line had been the best helper during all those sick days. Unknown to us, they had a plan.

The next day, on the way to getting to the church for Eli's birthday party, Mark called Naki and Line over. The other girlies and I headed over to the party to meet everyone there and Naki and Line later joined us. After heading back home when the party was over, Naki and Line showed us all the exciting addition to our house.
They had decided to take this trophy, with this princess figurine on the top,

and renamed it the "Maile Princess of the Week".

We were instructed that each week we were supposed to let them know who had been the most helpful, the best listener, the best sister and most deserving of the trophy. Then the winner not only received the trophy from the previous winner, but they were also to come over to the Payne's house where they received a bag of goodies all for them.

Aren't we the luckiest? To have neighbors that would do this kind of thing, to have a crazy Maile girl knocking on their front door every Sunday night, there to get their goodies, and not feel imposed upon, I think is the sweetest gesture from true friends. Thanks Mark and Connie Payne, for making us all feel so loved.