Bridals for My Niece-in-Law's Soon to be Sister-in-Law... Yeah...

Spring!

Can I tell you how excited I am that Spring is here.  I live in a family full of winter-haters, so even though I LOVE winter and the snow, we don't spend a lot of time playing outside, just the yearly expedition to the neighbor's snow hill...and someday we'll actually check out the skating rink they build in their backyard every year.  It's been a long time since I pulled out my skates.

Another fantastic thing about Spring is that, although it makes our schedule hectic, it is full of all the end of school year events, like dance competitions, summer internships/volunteer activities, etc.  Here's a little bit of an update on the kids, since it's been a while, as usual, since my last post.

Recently, Jessica competed in her second year of solo competition and first year at the intermediate level with a solo that she and I began choreographing over Christmas Break. (I'll post her dance later...)  It's tough to get really involved in something like that when you have limited time to work on, but it turned out pretty great.  Apparently, the judges agreed because she won first attendant (2nd place), beating out some of her friends who had competed at this level before.  Next year, she will be on drill team, so I'm glad she did as well as she did with her solo.  It may be the last time she competes in a solo event.

Also, Kailey and I have decided to volunteer at Utah's Hogle Zoo this year as Docents.  Apparently, they have a fantastic Teen Docent Program and you can become a volunteer at the age of 14 and stay with it as long as you like.  I hadn't really looked into it before, so when I was looking for future internship opportunities for Kailey, who wants to be a vet (or a forensic anthropologist, thank you Bones), I found out about this program.  Kailey had her first "job" interview and nailed it, so was one of the lucky ones to get into the program this year.  It's a lot easier to get in as an Adult Docent, so I had no problems either, and we are just about finished with training before we start really helping out.  We don't get to work with any of the animals, yet, but after the first year, we can get handler certified and work with some of the small animals.  Kailey is stoked.

Now we just need to find something fun to do with Austin, too.  He's a tough one, given that I am totally not into video games and he is definitely a typical dude in that respect.  He has been working on learning to cook with us and has been doing a great job.

It was also a pretty cool school term for the girls last term.  Both Jessica and Kailey had their first ever 4.0's and Austin maintained his usual good grades, as well.  Kailey is usually pretty close and is self-motivated in that respect, but Jessica had to endure quite a bit of text-pestering from me.  In the end, she rocked it and got really excited about it and pushed herself pretty hard to get that last A- up to an A.  Now if only I was able to keep her that motivated about her grades...

As always, there's always a lot on the horizon that we are looking forward to, especially the girls driving, which happens this September.  Yay!  Less trips back and forth to Payson.  Plus, you never know what will happen in the meantime...

Halloween 2012

 

Kailey was the Woman in Black from the scary movie that came out a few months ago.

The dress was my great grandmother's from the 1930s, as well as the veil/shawl.  I added a bit of ghost makeup and you have a pretty creepy costume.

 

My sister also brought her kids over to trick or treat and had me fix some face paint on Shaylee, as well. 

 Jessica was a gypsy, thanks to my mom's old skirt from high school and some scarves.  It actually turned out pretty well.  I wish that I had been able to get pictures before it got dark outside.  Instead I am stuck with pictures in front of the wall.  I should probably photoshop that plug out.

Austin really wanted to Golum from LOTR, but I just couldn't find a way to make his costume look good AND keep him warm enough.  Instead, we went with a Cowboys Football fan in Redskins territory.  In case you can't tell, those are tire tracks on his shirt, as well.

Christmas Throwback

Valentine's Prep Day

Well, it was hectic, but we got it all done in essentially the few hours that we have the kids on Monday nights.  Here are a few pics of the finished products.  Forgive the lighting.  It was late at night

Kailey and Jessica both did Valentine Crushes for their friends and literal crushes.  It's out of focus because it was a phone pic, but it says:  The best kind of Valentine's crush is the kind you can drink.  We has a heck of a time finding the Strawberry Crush sodas, but it was well worth it.  They looked great...even if the girls are at the stage where they are annoyingly worried about every little detail in their attached pics.  Like, seriously, they obsessed.

Here we have Austin's last minute Valentine box.  I spent I don't know how long convincing him it would be fun to do.  At the last minute, when he saw how awesome Lexi's was going to be (down further), he decided he needed one.  We whipped this up in just a few minutes.  Never fail, tinfoil is here...

AND here is the piece de resistance (no clue on the spelling), Lexi's toilet Valentine box.  Yup.  It's a red and white toilet.  She told me what she wanted, and I got a little too excited about the endless creativity.  She did keep us from adding unwrapped tootsie rolls in the bowl.  Dangit.  Oh, and Lexi is my niece, who we are staying with while in the trenches of house limbo.

Here is the Valentine that we did for Austin's class.  I'm sure you've seen them online.  I edited a pic of Austin  looking all Black Panther with his fist raised and then punched holes on either side of the fist to make it look like he was literally holding the sucker.  Pretty cool, eh?  Just wish the words had more pop, but I was strapped for time.  All in all, not a bad Valentine's Prep Day.

NOW for the real thing.

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Fiction v Real Life

I don't know what it is, the crazy warm, yet cozy weather, my soft snuggly bed, the homemade ginger cookies or the ready availability, but I have been reading fluff.  Lots and lots of fluff.  I possibly made it through 7 or 8 books over the weekend and have read a book a day after work.  I have self-inflicted headaches from reading too late and drinking too much caffeine to compensate.

I know.  I have gone overboard.  Don't worry, though.  I do this every once in a while.  Even in junior high, when my sister and I shared the guest room at my grandma's house, we would read all night, watch the sun rise and then get ready for school.

Why do we do these things?  I'll tell you.  This week, I have lived on farms, lived in several different time periods and countries, gone back to college, been involved in absolute silliness, and fallen in love a countless number times...a few of those with rugged cowboys.  How can real life compare to that?

REALLY?  How can life compare to that?  Just moments ago I set, yet another, book down, sighed and thought to myself, "I'm done with storybook part of my life; the moment you fall in love.  I'll never go through that again."  Then I realized how wrong I've been.

Recently my husband and I had a very candid discussion after having watched a movie where two friends spend years looking for love, finally find it in each other, and then the wife dies, leaving the husband lost in life.  (Why do they do this to me?  The reason I watch movies is for the happy ending!)

Though the movie wasn't as poignant as I thought it might have been, it made me ask the typical wife question, "What would you do if I died?"  It's not the first time I've asked it.  It probably won't be the last.  I sometimes gain perverse pleasure in asking Todd questions that I know he doesn't want to answer.  We were reflectively quiet for a moment before he wiped a tear away (yes, he is sensitive) and said, "You are my best friend.  I can't imagine what I would do if you weren't here with me.  What do you do when you lose your best friend?"  And I fell in love all over again.

Sometimes I have to be reminded that real life actually is better than fiction because it's real.

Hunter's Baptism Invite

Holy Trash!  I can't believe that Hunter is already 8 years old!  I took care of this little guy when he was a newborn in the hospital, because my sister had a C-section.  He is no longer the little "Chunk" I took care of.

I created this invite to his baptism, as per my sister's request.  We shot a few photos in the cold, barren weather, as well.  They are for his book.  Or if she is at all like me, his file on the computer that will eventually someday, maybe, might become a book.