The Sledding Hill

We've been lacking in snow around here, so the local sledding hill that the kids so enjoyed at Christmas was unusable.....then we had the forecast this past week for snow.  We waited, and the days passed with an inch or two falling, but finally on Friday the big storm came!  We woke up Saturday morning to 6+ new inches.  I was surprised the kids weren't suited up and ready to go by 7 AM, but they held out until after lunch.  Nana and Poppa came out so Ron could help set up Poppa's new cell phone.  Then we had lunch and finally headed over to the sledding hill.  Pure joy!

 

Apparently Poppa makes a good sled too!

 

The Little Match Girl

Nicole and Ellie's dance studio put on their winter production of "The Little Match Girl" in December. Wow! Lot's of extra practices and rehearsals to get them to, and they weren't even any of the principal dancers. I thought they did a great job, and really appreciated all the hard work of the director, Wendi, and all her teachers and other studio help. So much extra stuff for them, and right before Christmas. I wondered how the story would be portrayed, since it really is a sad story, but I thought it was done beautifully.

Nicole was a village girl, right at the beginning, and then was a part of the candle dance at the end of the show, after the little match girl has died and gone to heaven. The dance was lovely, as all the girls came in holding little battery powered candles with the stage and auditorium unlit, and that's all you could see, were the candles moving in unison. Then the lights came up and all the dancers were in white and the little match girl was there dancing with her mother that she'd been dreaming of. Ellie was a dove in an earlier dream scene.

I had to laugh. Nicole is very easily distracted, and even though she knows her dance, if something catches her eye, she keep sort-of doing what she's supposed to be, but you can tell she's distracted! She's done this same thing at both piano recitals she's been involved in...I guess we need to work on her focusing skills! Ellie got out there and was a bit overwhelmed by being on stage, so she did a couple plies(sp?) and a turn and other than that, pretty much stood there with a deer in the headlights look, and seemed to forget that her arms could, and were supposed to, move! But as you can see in the picture below, she wasn't the only one feeling overwhelmed!

Here are some pictures I managed to get of them....they sort-of worked despite the fact that my ISO was maxed, no flash, and I was sitting in the back!


*Nicole is front standing girl*



*Nicole is in there: in the back, just to the left of the girl in the black leotard!*

Next up early this summer: "The Lion King"!

Nicole's Baptism Day

Okay, be prepared for picture overload.....I narrowed my favs down to a few, but there are still alot! We found Nicole's dress the week of her baptism, and I planned to take her out thinking it was going to be a bit warmer that day....then the weather changed and we had an arctic blast blow in! Think 20's with wind....and here's my poor girl in a short sleeved dress. :( We tried to do some pictures around the temple, but she was so cold she couldn't smile and her nose turned pink immediately! So we headed into the American Fork amphitheater which created a nice wind break and were able to get some good pictures there, thank goodness!









Her baptism day dawned cold, cold, and a tiny bit snowy. It was a beautiful day with family surrounding us to congratulate Nicole on her decision. I cried through my talk, Ron baptized and confirmed Nicole, and we headed home for a nice lunch with family. I am so blessed to be the mother of these children, and to be entrusted with their care and teaching upon this earth. I am also so thankful for my good husband, and that he is worthy to use the priesthood that he has been blessed with. It was a good day. A very good day. :)

Eight is GREAT!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, eight is a big deal, and that is because that is the age the children are baptized and become members of our Church. I took Nicole out for a little photo shoot, first, so we could catch her at 8, and second, so I could send out some invites to Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles for the baptism! I, of course, procrastinated until the last possible day, so I was just praying I got some I could use. Nicole is funny....her fake smile is obviously fake and forced, but if you get her laugh for a genuine smile, she either throws her head back and laughs as well, opens her mouth up too big, or squints her eyes down to almost nonexistent....makes for fun pictures! But here are some of the good results:







We used the one above for her invitation. Not the typical baptism look, since she wasn't in a white dress, but the door was perfect to put words on with photoshop, so I was thrilled!

Since the other kids were there that afternoon, I caught some quick ones of them:







Riley hates having her picture taken and is highly uncooperative when we try.....Ron had to grab her and hold her arms down to her side in order to get this.....someday, she'll be sad she was such a stinker about it since she'll have hardly any pictures of these years. :)

Birthday fun....

Unbelievably, my oldest baby girl (that I birthed, giant noggin and all) turned EIGHT in November. Told you it was unbelievable! Since 8 is a somewhat big deal around these parts, we had to have a little shin-dig with friends. I took the easy way out and took them all to Jump-on-It, the best party activity place ever. A thousand times better that Chuck E. Cheese. Just a giant room with trampolines all strapped together, padded and netted up for safety.....pay for an hour of jumping and you've got some happy kids.




Come home to some lunch, presents, and cake (the infamous cupcake cake...turned out okay) and you have some even happier kids and birthday girl!

Costumes, Round 1

The kids were able to wear their costumes to school today...poor teachers! I honestly think they should get hazard pay for dealing with a room full of over-excited kids all day, and then the sugar rush of the afternoon halloween parties?!

I scurried around yesterday getting the rest of the "stuff" for the kids costumes. Had to get make-up for Nicole the Geisha(and wish I'd gotten it earlier to practice it before this morning, but she was excited about how it turned out, so I'm not going to worry about it.) I even had to make a quick run to Panda Express for chopsticks for her bun. I realized as I was resizing the pictures and posting them on facebook that we completely forgot about a fan. I couldn't find one at the store, so I was going to see if she wanted to make one....oops! I don't think she even thought about it though. I had to get both of them some warmer clothes to wear under their costumes as it might get into the 40's today....as the high. Jared was not happy about having to wear sweats under his costume since he now looked like a "puffy" ninja! Better than freezing though!

Ellie has announced that she is no longer going to wear her flower princess costume as she is pictured in the posts below. She now wants to be a ballerina, which was the original costume she was going to wear....sigh. Oh well, it just isn't right if they don't change their mind the day before, is it?!

Here they are before I schlepped them off to school....I'll post the new Ellie costume later!

Four - three = one, and a SMILE!

Back to school today for the three oldest! I'm left with my little one at home, and so much more peace and quiet that I can't help but smile. Don't take me wrong, I love and adore my children, but how can you miss them unless they leave the house?! That, and too much together time for them equals more and more arguing and fighting, which frankly, drives me bonkers! But onto the point of this post:



Riley entered the world of high school this year. It literally seems like yesterday that we were walking her to 1st grade, so it is just so weird to think of her in high school. She was nervous, but excited. I hope everything goes well for her! I caught this picture as she was waiting for her friend to come pick her up...lucky Riley has a friend that is a junior and has access to a car. :)



Here's a look at our newest 2nd grader, sporting her new hairdo. Nicole and Jared are back at the charter school, and Nicole happily got the teacher she was hoping for. :) The only thing that could've made her happier was if she'd ended up having more of her friends in her class.....but no worry there, she'll see them at lunch and recess, and she'll make new friends in 5 minutes flat anyway!



Jared was so excited this morning he woke up all on his own, and came out all dressed and ready with even shoes on before he'd even had breakfast. First grade. I will admit, I will miss him. All day is a long time to be gone! He is very excited about three recesses and taking his lunch to school though. He told me this morning how he was going to organize his desk as soon as he got there. He is a funny kid! :)



So now, it's me and Ellie. I'm glad I have my little princess here with me for a couple more years! When we were out school shopping, Ellie decided she needed a lunch box. So we let her pick one out. She brought it with her today as we dropped the kids off. Then she asked if it was time for her to go to ballet. Nope, not until Monday! When we got home, she asked that I pack her lunch box with, what else? Lunch. So I did. She then put her cereal spoon down, and ate her lunch. At 8:30 AM! Ellie and I are doing a co-op preschool here in the neighborhood, but that doesn't start until September, so we have to figure out how to fill our days until then. But I'm liking the quieter and peaceful mornings just fine! :)

Get it right!

sigh.

Nicole. The girl loves music and loves to sing, but she can't carry a tune to save her life! Even worse is when she puts headphones on and the sings along, loudly, with the music. Quite painful and frustrating for the rest of us in the car with her. :) Ellie was quite certain that she didn't have the words right....oh my, if that was her only problem...in her defense, she was a little more in tune than an earlier song that we didn't catch on video.

Or how about this one:


Jared joins in and really helps out the beauty of that one!

We love Nicole. She keeps us on our toes!

"Katie Cricket"

Piano recital time again. Last year's selection was Matt the Cat....this year, Katie Cricket. Honestly, I don't need to hear either of those songs again. :)

The only thing I wish is that she'd play her songs at her recital like she plays them at home, with the rhythm even, and the dynamics correct. It seems that once she gets on that grand piano and she can see into the piano box and see the hammers going as she plays, that ALL her attention goes to that curiosity and her playing doesn't get a second thought! I guess we'll just have to replace our digital piano with a baby grand so that playing on one at recitals won't be a problem. (If you watch the video, it's the videogpaphers fault...mine...that it starts in the middle of the song! I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing.)

"The Little Mermaid"

Last week, Nicole's dance studio presented "The Little Mermaid" as their end of year recital. Nicole has had such fun this year taking dance. I think the funniest part about watching her dance is that she gets a little distracted by the other dancers, scenery, and what not that she is always looking around while doing her little dance steps. I guess the realization that she is part of the show and she needs to dance for the audience will come with maturity!

The show was really fun, and I enjoyed it, twice! I of course took pictures, which was interesting as I hadn't ever attempted taking pictures in a dark theater with no flash. After the first set of botched ones, I figured out where to set my white balance and such for a better looking outcome....of course once I had figured out the settings, when Nicole came out for her longer dance piece, she was right behind someone else and I couldn't even see her! Murphy's Law?!

Act 1 - Under the Sea
Nicole the Jellyfish

I love this one! She was watching the bubbles coming down from above! :)

Act 2 - "Les Poissons"

(I love her tongue sticking out! Concentrating on her moves.)

These were the botched ones, previous to figuring out where the White Balance, ISO, and shutter speed really needed to be. Oh well! Live and learn. :)

We were sure proud of Nicole for all the work she put in all year, and especially that long day at the theater (dress rehearsal, and two performances all in the same day!). She's excited to get started back into it next year.

Nicole: Class of 2020

This first lovely photo is what Nicole brought home after emptying her desk the last week of school....I'm not sure how she fit anything in there! Little bits of crayon, a dried up glue stick, markers without lids, all sorts of papers, a plethora of books, a broken pencil box, her Hannah Montana journal (wherein she proclaims her love of all things H.M.), winter gloves, and three socks(?!)...from off her feet at various times of the year.

I added to my list of things to work on with her this summer: Organizational Skills


Next we find Nicole with her teacher, Ms. Smith. Loved her. She is such a fun teacher that instills a lot of "hands on" learning and just a general excitement for education. She was also very helpful in pointing out a few "things" we needed to work on throughout the year, and was great to keep me updated on how Nicole was performing. Nicole is a very smart little girl, almost too smart for her own good, but needs to work on some social skills pertaining to working with others. Ms. Smith was very attentive with Nicole on these things and was just wonderful. She is moving into the Jr High this next year, and we are sad that Jared won't be able to have her as a teacher.

Nicole's class TA was Miss Gail. She was a no-nonsense kind of lady, which put me off a little bit at the very beginning, but she did it with enough love that the kids just loved her. Nicole especially enjoyed watching TV at Conference time trying to spot Miss Gail, as she sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!


These are Nicole's little practice poses and shots for me against the black sheet. I thought hers turned out pretty cute. Welcome to second grade, my little lady!

Pick Up the PACE!

The kids competed in a 5K/1 mi Fun Run today for their school. We did the 1 miler due to time constraints...and the fact that I wasn't sure the kids would have fun running almost three miles! So Jared and Nicole ran....I wimped and rode my bike alongside. :) Which turned out to be a good choice since Jared blazed through the race and Nicole needed some encouragement. It also made it possible for me to see both of them finish as I could go between the two! Jared ended up finishing around 7th place, and we are pretty sure he was the first one for his age group. We have yet to see the "official" placements.

For your viewing pleasure....a little video my husband put together of the race highlights! (Oh, and if any of you are confused that you can't see this video on Google reader, it's because the hubster set up the security settings that way. Just click over to my blog and you'll be able to see it just fine!)

Our park in the foothills

Anyone else have one of these?

My husband MUST have a secret identity and be doing this undercover.....because there couldn't be another kid like our Nicole to give ideas for material like this, could there?! :)


The only difference is, you don't even have to ask Nicole a question for her to go on, and on, and on, and on like this....

You gotta love her. ;)

Cool School

The school that Riley, Nicole, and Jared attend was nominated and selected as a "Cool School" by our local Fox affiliate. Today the school was featured in a few different spots on their morning news show. Riley got to go bright and early and perform with the choir, and when the elementary kids got there, they included them in a couple spots about what the different grades did for the Presidential Pageant, and about the school becoming a "Gold Medal" school in physical education, and health awareness.

Here's Riley's spot. You can catch a glimpse of her in the back row when they pan to the far right (at 2:13). Not only does the choir have 2 more concerts left this year, but they are traveling to California in April for a big festival competition at Disneyland.



And next, here's the spot Nicole is seen in. You'll see her run by at 0:32 sec.....she's in the skirt and flowery coat!


Jared was very sad today that he is in afternoon kindergarten, since it meant he didn't get to be there with the TV guys....you can't win them all. :)

Poinsettia Festival

Nicole's dance studio had a performance at the "Poinsettia Festival" yesterday. She was very excited to wear her new costume and get all made up like a ballerina, albeit a fluffy-haired ballerina! She did well, and it was evident she enjoyed herself with her never-ending smile while performing. It made her very excited for next months performance in the "Nutcracker"!

Happy Birthday Nicole!

I can't believe it's been seven years....