Film Festival

Some of my favorite videos on my phone .....

Noelle finally learning how to ride a bike.  She's constantly outside riding her bike around the circle now.

My niece, Maddie, opening her mission call.  Still makes me emotional.

Paige's dance company performing in the spring concert last year.  Brought the house down. :)

Christian and cousin, Sam, rockin' out after Sunday dinner.  They're both considerably better than this now, actually.  Two talented musicians.

My niece, Ali, singing a solo at their choir concert last fall.  She blew me away.  I knew she could sing but had no idea she had this inside of her.

Christian performing with his 8th grade jazz band at school.  He used to play trumpet but has recently switched to electric guitar.  Easily one of his favorite things about school is getting to jam with these kids.

Wedding at a cupcake cottage

A few weeks ago, my big brother got married to his 4th grade crush. :)  They loved each other all of those years ago and then fell back in love a few years ago.  Pretty sweet, huh?

What was even more sweet was that they got married at Carmela's Cupcake Cottage -- a quaint, picturesque little cottage that sells cupcakes and cakes by day and hosts fun events by night.  

The mothers were escorted down the aisle...

... and Quinn's youngest daughter, Sofi, was the flower girl.

My whole fam all together!

My beautiful little sister, Kelly, and her cute family.

Love my mom.

Emmy & Christian -- cute as babies together and now cool teenage cousins.

My niece, Maddie, reunited with her mom & little sis. :) Maddie is at BYU so doesn't get to see her California family as often anymore.

Christian meeting new step-cousins for the first time.  You can usually find him surrounded by girls wherever he goes.

So happy for the cute couple.  Here's wishing them the best of luck for their 2nd start at romance together. 

Noelle

I have a gazillion pictures saved up on my phone, which does nothing for anyone except me.  Let me share a few of my Elle .. I mean, Noelle.

Noelle's new favorite place to hang out is under daddy's desk.  He even tells her a nightly story under there. This time, she zonked out before he got to the end.

Crazy child with her primary class.  Someone has some spunk.

Tea parties with little cousin, Kate, are a must.

And striking a pose in a sparkly shirt is a must, too.

Yes, that would be a 6 year old driving a car.  Why is it so fun to steer a car around a parking lot?  It just is, though.  And we do it ... often.

Great way to get the floors clean.

Seriously, how will I survive without my little sidekick when she goes to 1st grade next year?  I'll be the teary mess at my back-to-school breakfast this time.

Anubis, Mandulis & Reherachte

Haley's 6th grade class put on a play about King Tut and ancient Egypt.  These kids are no novices to performing plays together.  They performed an original opera in 3rd grade that they wrote -- Rainforest Rumble (click here).

Haley was a hieroglyph, which came to life and sang about King Tut's life and adventures.  Her friend, Kate, was a modern-day pyramid tourist and Emma was Hatshepsut, a female Pharaoh from back-in-the-day.  I seriously love all of these kids.

King Tut (aka Sam) hiding out in his sarcophagus before his grand entrance ....

King Tut with Osiris, God of the Dead (who sounded suspiciously like Elvis).

My favorite song was called "The God Counting Song" which named and explained all 50 Egyptian gods and what they were the god of.  For example, Ra was the sun God, Hapy was the god of the Nile.  But there were 50 and these kids rattled their weird names off like nobody's business.  It was pretty fun.

Haley has 2 amazing teachers, Mrs. Gould and Mrs. Higley.  Any teacher who undertakes helping all of these kids learn, sing and perform a fun production like this is a fan of mine.  So sad that these kids will separate next year to their various junior high schools.  They've been a little family for 4 years now.

Easter 2013

We haven't been home for Easter in this house yet, since we spent Easter in California last year.  So Elle was a wee bit excited to have our first celebration here.  I'm sure the Easter Bunny does different things at each house depending on that family's tradition .... At our house, he hides jelly beans all over the house and then also hides the Easter baskets in increasingly more difficult-to-find places.  Took the older kids quite awhile to find their baskets this year, but it only made the fun more drawn out.

Haley got a full-on pineapple in her basket, because her favorite tv show (Psych) makes pineapple references in every episode.  She was a little bit shocked and happy.

We also had an egg hunt at grandma's house.   Can't remember the last time we hunted for eggs in actual snow but welcome to Utah.  Christian had no interest in finding eggs until little Spencer needed some cousin-help.

Paige reminded me that we forgot to color eggs ... for the 3rd year in a row.  Yeah -- gotta get with the program.