Journey

Happiness is a Journey, not a destination.


Namaste.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Shakespeare...Opening night.

Kyle has been working hard learning his part in Hamlet over the past couple of months.  Cole has been working hard on designing Kyle's costume.  It all came together on Monday night....the first performance. 

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Kyle and I before the performance...

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The Ghost (Hamlet's Dad)....

I tried using the tracking focus on my camera...it didn't work very well in the low light. 

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I've been reading in my camera manual about how to use the manual focus, and I'm hoping to get some better pictures at his performance tonight. 

The play, however, was wonderful....I was really impressed.  My son played his part very well, but I also thought all the kids did a great job, and I'm very grateful for the people who've taken the time out to direct the kids in this endeavor....Kyle has learned a lot about performing and teamwork. 

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Finally, Sunshine!

I love spring weather, usually.  However, we haven't had much of it...I don't mind the rain so much, but when the ski season is over, I want the snow to be gone too.  Plus, the kids have felt house trapped lately...I was delighted to have some nice spring weather last week. 

My sister in law Brenda was out of town with her sisters, and my brother got delayed at work, so I picked up my nephew Hunter from Pre-school last Thursday.  Hunter attends the pre-school at the elementary school where my boys attend, so it was really easy for me to go get him. 

Hunter has not always been an easy child, but over the past 6 months or so he's turned into an absolutely delightful little man, so I was happy to have him come over and play for awhile...

He and Talia wasted no time going outside into the sunshine....
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Happy Spring!

The 3rd Grade Program...

Alec's 3rd grade program was on May 11th.  Of course, WE only found out about it the Friday before.  A certain child of mine didn't bring home the 2 NOTES that were sent home...he just mentioned in passing that he had a program coming up.  I was a little perturbed when his teacher told me that 2 notes had been sent home....

Talia and I headed over to the school Wednesday morning.  We got pretty good seats...I thought.  Until the people saving seats in front of us had a 6 1/2 foot guy sit right in front of my 4 year old...who then proceeded to be upset she couldn't see.  (I mean, come on, they had 6 seats, and he saw her there...) And then of course, there was this...

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I mean, really, if you have seats on the front row, you shouldn't be holding your camera so high that it blocks the view/pictures for anyone else that might want a shot of THEIR child...this was actually the LOWEST she held her camera the entire time...I wasn't able to get any decent pictures of the entire group without her head and camera stuck in the middle.  I mean, common courtesy, people.  (Okay, enough ranting :))

Alec loves to sing and perform, and I could have been hysterically laughing through the whole program....he is soooo expressive!

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Alec's class recites a poem...
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(see what I mean?  Expressive...a little like Kyle, who tries to "kill" the song :))

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The last song was a salute to the Military...the fight songs of the Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force followed by the National anthem.  I was really touched, and very grateful for the sacrifices made by the members of our military so that we can enjoy the freedoms we do.  I really enjoyed the entire program, it was fantastic. 

Unfortunately, I had to rush home after to get Talia lunch before heading off to staff meeting and work...another day where I was awake for 21 hours.  Of course, by the end of the night at work I was showing signs of a nasty virus taking hold....side effects of having 2 days of being up for 21+ hours in a weeks time. 

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Happy Mother's Day 2011!

I had a pretty good Mother's Day.  I slept in...and woke up by myself, without the help of an alarm.  I love not having to wake to an alarm.  After waking, I read the newspaper while Cole cooked the breakfast casserole the young women in our ward sold to raise funds for Girl's Camp. 
Then the kids gave me their gifts...
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Maybe it's silly, but I am soooooooooooo thrilled about new measuring cups and spoons!  My old set of spoons, a tupperware set, has slowly had spoons come up missing over the years...only the 1 Tb 4tsp, and 1 tsp are left.  My mom always had metal measuring cups, and I have always missed not having a set of my own.  I can hardly wait to bake something...not that I'm going to have time for a couple of weeks. 

We went to church, and Cole had a delightful time taking over the Sunbeam class.  I cried through Sacrament meeting. 

Sunday evenings are always hard, with the long day, no naps, and the threat of Monday looming.  We decided we would treat our family to dinner out....at our favorite restaurant, Goodwood Barbeque.  We love Goodwood because the food is great, the service is great, it's reasonably priced, but most importantly....
EVERY SINGLE ONE OF OUR CHILDREN EAT THERE HAPPILY.  That's important for us. 
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After dinner, we went to visit my mother in law and my mother.  It was a really nice mother's day. 

It should be called May Madness around this house....

Friends with kids older than mine have been telling me for years, "The older they get, the harder it gets because they have so many more things going on." I now have personal confirmation of this information. My month is terribly, terribly busy. Fair warning, I may be abandoning my blog completely until the chaos of this month is finished, then catching it up later.

Our May Madness actually started last month, when Alec started preparing for "Mini Society", an economics lesson/experience for the 3rd graders at our school. The busy-ness of the month, however, started on May 5th.
Talia and I spent the morning shopping for Mother's day. I took her to lunch at the food court in the Layton Hills mall...

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Lately this is the face I get whenever the camera comes out....

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Which makes me laugh.

Thursday night was Kyle's Choir Concert.
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(we arrived pretty early so I could get a good vantage point for pics)


This was Kyle's last choir concert. He's been in the school choir for 3 years, from 4th to 6th grade, and loved every minute of it. He's been dedicated to getting up early every Wednesday morning for 3 years, arriving at school at 7:45 for practice. He only missed 1 practice in those 3 years, on a day he was sick and had no voice. Since I work a lot of Tuesday nights, he's been on his own to wake up and get himself breakfast (good practice for Junior High next year). He's only overslept once or twice. I'm really proud of his dedication and his love for music.

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The choir did a fantastic job with there songs. It was really fun, and I'll admit, I shed a couple of tears thinking about my oldest baby being almost done with elementary school.
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(Kyle during his speaking part)
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(the Choir...Kyle is on the back row, 7 in from the right).

May 6th brought Alec's first day of Mini Society.

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Alec decided to make skulls when Kyle told him how much money HE made from them when he was in 3rd grade. He made 10 large ones, and 40 small ones. We decided to take a chance and paint some of them a little girly...that was my job in this whole process.

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(the girly ones actually sold before I got a chance to take pics...I had to track them down to their new owners to get these pictures).

Talia loved going around to the booths and spending her money...and was in heaven when she found this stuffed animal!
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Alec sold every one of his large skulls, and 35 of his small ones. He would have sold out, but I had to leave early to go to work, and Cole had to leave to go pick Kyle up from the choir party to get him home for his scout overnighter. Like I said, May Madness.

I had the weekend off, and finally, the weather was good. Talia had a birthday party for one of her little friends from daycare, so I took her out to Roy for the party. While I was out there, I went to a boutique at our favorite Nursery, Country Gardens on 4000 South in Roy. I bought some beautiful glass bowls, some cute earrings, and had a 10 minute chair massage, which was great. I went back to the birthday party, and Talia was having a ball...

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Talia loved decorating her own butterfly wings with glitter pens. They also had a big bounce house,
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a large pinata,
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and lots of Princess/Star Wars dress up fun.
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(My well rounded girl...had to be both a princess and a clone trooper at the same time!)
and of course, all the kids loved the present opening portion of the afternoon...
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When Talia and I got home from the party, we decided to take advantage of the weather and go out to Lagoon. Kyle was completely wiped out from his scouting adventure, so he elected to stay home while the rest of us headed south.

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On the new Bom Bora coaster...a good coaster but shorter than I would like...

Me and Alec on the Roller Coaster...
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There was a dance competition, so Lagoon was packed. We didn't get to do a lot, but we had fun for the 3 hours we were there.
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Talia's "mad" face...
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We headed home, had a late dinner, and we all crashed into bed exhausted, with good reason.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Easter

We had a lovely Easter Weekend. We started out with coloring eggs on Saturday night...

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Only at my house...where every holiday has a spooky twist...
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Our very own "egg-o-lantern"

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Easter morning came entirely too early for my tastes, especially since I've come to enjoy sleeping in on Sunday's this year.

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Cole herded the kids into the basement, then came to wake me up.
The kids headed straight for their baskets...
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Then we had a fun Easter Egg Hunt...
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As usual, the egg hunt took about 5 seconds, but it was fun while it lasted. Talia had the most fun...every egg she found was thrilling, and she was so cute! After the hunt, it was right back to the baskets...
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Besides the candy, Talia got Littlest Pet Shop pets and Squinkies, and the boys each got a new DS game...

The kids sat down for breakfast and I went back to bed for a little bit. When I got up, I decorated the cake I made for Easter dessert...
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And, of course, I tortured my Family for some Easter pictures :)
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We enjoyed Easter dinner with Cole's family.
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My FAVORITE standing rib roast, with salads and rolls.

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(my nephew Hunter is a bit of a spaz...)
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Dani...
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The kids all enjoyed playing Just Dance on the Wii....
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Mmm...cake!
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After hanging out awhile, we headed over to visit my parents. The kids had a little egg hunt there, and we got to see my sister and her family for a little while, which was fun. It was really a fun Easter!