DOGS and BANGS

Those who know us well know that my children are not really animal lovers, ESPECIALLY dogs. There is a little old lady who walks her dog twice a day past our house and 2 years ago Charlotte did a major freak out, DOG DOG DOG!!! running around aimlessly. This poor old lady (her dog is probably her best bud) now crosses the street when she gets to our house, 2 years and she still crosses the street, I am have even seen her do it when we are not outside. It must have really shaken up Suzie (that is the dog) But 2 years have past and Charlotte has made a few babysteps toward keeping it together when she sees a dog. Today I turned a movie on for her and she likes to watch all the previews before the menu comes up and on this particular DVD the preview was for "All Dogs go to Heaven" needless to say now Charlotte is the one all shaken up!

Isabel's hair is just a mess. I admit it is my fault, I should just grab her every morning and force elastics/clips...but Lets be honest she is stronger than me. But I did cut in some bangs so it is a little cuter when it is down.

R & R

I know it, look at me blog....
So we bought a condo in St george almost a full year ago and because Roland's school was always over the weekends we had never been down. But we finally made it. Over Memorial Day weekend we enjoyed so hot weather while it was snowing at your house. Girls had fun at the pool and we did a little hiking and we meet up with an old friend of Roland's and Charlotte and Isabel were quick to make some new friends. Charlotte is so good at making friends, she is just so natural at it, i am a little jealous. She makes it look so easy. Mostly we just relaxed. And of course some pictures.

Tea Party GIRLS!!!

Charlotte and I often brainstorm ideas for things to do with her friends. She has often said that she wanted to have a tea party with her friends. And I did realize that she really would have been fine with the mini tea set and water in the pot but me...not okay. If you are going to have a party you have a party! So we invited the cousins and some all the girls in her school class (there are only 3 other girls) and we planned a party. We planned to serve lunch and do some crafts. We didn't even get close to finishing all the activities (but I had to be over prepared--didn't want 8 bored girls sitting around) At the end there was glitter everywhere but no one cried (except Isabel) and I think every girl went home wishing they could stay longer. The school friends walked home with and held hands chanting 'tea party girls, tea party girls....etc' all the way home. My favorite part was i set up the party while Charlotte was at school so she hadn't yet seen the table all set and decorated and she was beaming when she saw how special it was. Here are some oics of the lunching ladies.

Spring Sporting

Charlotte was finally old enough to join in the spring sporting this year. She chose to do soccer, but she ened up signed up for both soccer and tee ball, so we had days where we would rush to one game, change uniforms in the car, pass her a sandwich and a juice box to gobble up as we rushed to the next field. I sadly don't have any pictures of the tee ball, i don't have an excuse ready for that. But they were the 'Orange Crush Bees' and she played with her cousins and Coach Carole. She had a lot of fun. Soccer was fun too but on the soccer team she was the only girl and loved being the only girl way too much. But here are some pictures of her 'playing soccer'

Coach came up with a great method to get the kids to spread out. Sometimes they were a little too concerned about spreading out to realize that the game was happening.

She did make contact with the ball several times at every game, her really really wanted to score a goal--maybe next season. She did have many assists.

She made it very difficult to cheer for her because if she heard any cheering for her, she would stop doing what she was doing to see/acknowledge the cheering.

Charlotte on the sidelines. Such a girl....

The Graduation

Life has been a whirlwind the past month. Tax season ended, Roland went to China from 2 weeks. Girls started dance classes. Charlotte has had soccer and tee ball. It seems we always had somewhere to be. It has now calmed and I am in the stage of there is so much to do but they are all the things I have been putting off for months. Blog of course priorty number one (as you all have observed) No, but really we need to tell the world that ROLAND has GRADUATED!!!!! He compeleted the Excutive MBA program at the University of Utah. And he did very well. We (I am sure all family is included in the we) are so proud of him. Sometimes it was fun and others it was certainly tough and I know that he would have rather been doing something different than studying and meeting with groups for projects. But he heldfast and finished the entire program. And he even made some friends. But for those of you who missed the actual ceremony here are the highlights:

Roland walked to his seat waving at his family (we are sitting top row of lower bowl in the huntsman center and he is on the floor opposite us, I am glad I brought the zoom lens)

Roland's name was just called and he is walking to get diploma from the Dean.

Receiving his diploma.

Roland now heading back to his seat (all graduated) high fiving and hugging and hand shaking (Roland was a class favorite) I lost Roland in the crowd while he was hugging ALL the professors and aides.

Here he is all graduated!! Isabel was thrilled, she just tries to hide her emotions (she is just like her mom)

Roland and his parents. They were so great to come and they even rode the train with me and the girls to the school. I & C are still talking about it and probably expect that we will again take the train downtown with Grandma and Grandpa. We had a lot of fun afterward. The EMBA school had a big party for the grads and families. So much food and a candy bar with cupcakes and cake bites, everything in red and white. A balloon artist!! It was fun and with a train ride home we were worn out. After a couple days of recovery we had a party. We celebrated mothers and graduation and all of those who had been there these past 2 years to support me, Roland and our little family. Man oh man, I definitely know that families are divine and every member has a purpose and life is just harder without all the parts.

I was too busy with guests and food to take pictures before the party started so I missed the fruit bouquet (made by Charlotte) and all the rest of the beautiful food. But roland did take a picture of the empty table before we got it all cleaned up.
We had a lot of fun, and a huge thanks to famliy and friends who have been close at our sides cheering roland on, helping me with everyday life. But I am glad this chapter has ended. I do look forward to the future, what will he choose to conquer next? Stay tuned.

Getting ready for Easter

I don't know about you but I always have the hardest time choosing an Easter dress for my girls. There are always so many cute things out there and what if it snows? What if it is hot and sunny? This time of year it is hard to predict the weather from day to day, so how can we possibly know a month or two before when all the Easter stuff comes out. This morning we did an Easter check, what will be 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc choices for this Sunday. To make it more fun I took pictures. Which do you think Charlotte likes the best? Hard to tell. She was doing these poses undirected. Isabel not so into the posing, or trying on her dresses. Lost interest after 2 dresses.

Check out those legs!

I think we are going with the pink and red polka dot twirl dress for Charlotte and the gold dress for Isabel. Now we need to practice the hair, I am not good at doing hair on the fly.
Happy Easter to you all.

Little Monster

Our Marathoner

Roland around Halloween decided for his next venture he was going train for and run a marathon. As if he doesn't have enough on his plate, I know. But all of us who know him know that once he decides to do something there is really no stopping him. So the training began and on February 5 he ran the Death Valley Marathon. And he finished. Roland stated a blog to record and track his training. I have added his link to my blog list which for now is at the bottom of the page, thanks to Charlotte. Check it out if you would like to read his thoughts and struggles and highs of running the marathon.
We are proud of Roland. And we can't wait to hear what he is going to conquer next.

For Charlotte

Roland had more time than he is used to having over the holidays (school was out for a couple of weeks) and so he started to make video montages with the footage on his phone. The quality isn't the greatest, it you make it full screen you can actually see the pictures.