Ballet baby & Sneaky Jack

My little ballarina!! Isn't she so darling? I have to say that she is the least coordinated out of the ten girls in her class and her technique is a mess, but she has spirit. She has a hard time listening to the teacher (her mother. . . me). She says, "I don't want to. I can't. I'm too tired. I want the quite princess crown! Mom, watch me plie'. I want to be the fairy queen, not the sleeping fairy!" Oh, the phrases go on and on. Then she comes home crying that she didn't get the quiet princess crown! She doesn't quite get it that she needs to be quiet in order to get it! We practice at home, but she is such a social queen that everything flies out the window when we step into the dance room.






I took pictures of all my students. They have learned so much already! I hope they don't forget it all over the Christmas break.





See, this is what I mean about technique! The poor unfortunate soul! She refuses to let me teach her at home, but I keep trying anyway. She is only three years old so we have time. She is a hoot. She dislikes the slow orchestral music and much prefers the heavy beat, loud, fast music. Any time Marty is sifting through the radio channels and we come to a fast song. She jumps up and dances so hard she has to take a breather after a few seconds. It is hilarious. She likes to dance with Daddy a lot too.




Sneaky, sneaky! Jack has been so mischievous lately. In this picture he has stole a piece of Celie's puzzle. Oh, just wait until Celie finds out. He loves the anticipation for a reaction. He is into everything now. He can't even step hand or knee inside a bathroom or else I'll have an hour of sanitation and clean up to do. Not to mention a full roll of toilet paper gone to waste. Our office is the worst! Is seems as though every time I walk in the office, even just to get a piece of paper or something, Celie and Jack make it into that room in 3 seconds flat! Every time! It drives me nuts. I think they watch me heading toward the office and get ready to run/crawl-really-fast right in after me. No kids in the office!!
He is so sweet.

Tabernacle Choir

Congratulations Bob!!!! My brother in-law has made it into the choir. We are so excited for him. If you have never heard of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir before then you must check it out!

Jack's Birthday Party

Jack's party was so much fun. We of course went over board on the food, but that is never a problem for the guests, right? Thanks to Bree I was able to enjoy watching Jack eat his cupcake and play with the kids. Isn't he so cute!

Celie got the privilege to blow the candle out. She was very excited and proud. I don't know why she is lifting her arms up. Maybe she thinks that she can get more air than way???

Unlike Celie, Jack decided that eating the cake was a great idea. A little hesitant at first, but most are, right?




I think the kids had fun. At least they had cup cakes to eat. We also had races, musical pumpkins and a kids blowup jumpy thing (I don't know the name of it).

Happy Birthday song.

Some of the friends

Cute little Ava. Celie's new neighborhood friend.

Celie opening Jack's presents after all the friends went home.

Viewing Videos

I am sorry about the video thing. I guess you have to be a you tube user and I have to include you as a viewer. I need to find a better way to have you all view pictures and videos. If anyone has ideas - please let me know!!!

Present from Grandma

Thank you Grandma!!

Jack opening his birthday present from Grandma A. video 1, video 2

Halloween Fun

I promiss to get pictures posted about Jack's birthday soon. I am trying to stop using our laptop so much and use our regular computer more, but I can't put digital pictures on this computer. So I have to go to my laptop and insert them. I'll get to it. The Holidays slow everything down.

Halloween was fun. We had quite a few parties to attend. Our ward had a trunk or treat, Celie had a preschool party, and we both had the Ballet party and then there was Halloween of course. We only went to a few houses. Our neighborhood street was covered in masses of people! We were out of candy so fast! I have never seen so many kids (and adults) come to one house before. All the surrounding communities come to ours I think. Crazy fun!

In our new ward I received two callings. Senior nursery worker and Public Affairs representative. For those of you in Utah - I didn't ever hear of this either. They only have this calling for some areas. Anyway, one of the biggest projects we do is the "Nativity". It is where members from the stake bring their nativities to the church house for display (about 400 different nativities). They have community choirs and orchestras playing during the exhibit. Dress up in the nativity scene and receive a free photo, a craft for kids, and a cookie too. I am in charge of getting volunteers from our ward and getting the word out to the community. I m excited about this event. I think it will be so amazing to see and it will help the community understand that we are Christian. I guess it is a big missunderstanding here. So I will be busy doing that for the next month. Wish me luck!

My brother in-law tried out for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! I can't wait to hear the results. I believe he made it back to the third call backs - Go Bob! We are praying for you.

Jack still hasn't taken his first steps, but I think it will be soon. He will stand up on his own for a few seconds before he throws himself to the ground laughing. He has learned his first sign!!!! Finished. Holding the hands up and twisting the wrists side to side. He uses it for anything right now, but he recognizes the word when I say it and he performs the sign. so cute. Our next sign is More. I'll let you know when he grasps that one. He also has gotten his first two teeth! The bottom front two. Wow, a lot of firsts this week!

Nothing else new here. I hope you all have a great weekend.

The Brick Patio

This is Marty; I'm making my first post. I promised a few people I would post pictures of my brick patio project. It’s been a ton of work…most of the work was done after dark. I could never seem to find a full Saturday to work on it. I should have taken more pictures, that way you could appreciate the improvement it is to our back yard.

I started by cutting the sod out and digging down about 7 inches, and hauling it to the other end of the yard in hopes to create a garden some day. That was quite the chore; I’m just not the “Iron Man” I used to be. This office job has softened me right up. I framed in exactly where I wanted the edges of the patio to be and then started wheel barrowing 2 cubic yards of limestone base from the front yard to the construction zone, followed by 1 yard of torpedo sand…for final leveling purposes. Here you can see the limestone base.

Then the fun part began- placing the bricks. This really was the fun part, because I could see the final product come together. Fun that is until the piecing began; I had many bricks to cut and fit together. I finally bought a circular saw and I also bought a masonry blade to cut the bricks. It worked quite well, but was hard to hold the bricks without cutting my arm off. Half way through the project we got a massive rainstorm, which washed some of my sand out from under the bricks and flooded my work area. That required some repair before I could begin again. You can see the standing water here.

Well it’s done. I guess I don’t have a final picture of it, but we can take one and post that later. The project really was fun. I liked having Celie help me out. She always wants to help. Every day when I would get home from work she wanted to know if we were going to go “work on the brick patio”. She would pick up the bricks from the pile on the covered porch and waddle over to where I was kneeling to hand me the next one. They are really heavy for her; she would grunt, but never complain about the weight. She is such a hard worker.

Our back yard is coming together. We want to create a place in the yard that will accommodate small gatherings. This patio will really help. We enjoy having friends over to let the kids play and grill a few hamburgers and hotdogs; it’s cheap entertainment.

Happy Birthday Jack!

Today was Jack's 1st birthday. We are planning a birthday party on Saturday with our neighbors and school friends. Jack is the sweetest little guy in the world. He likes to put his head on mine to show affection - isn't that sweet. Although, sometimes it leaves a mark. Ouch! He really likes to hit Celie's face. He giggles like a school girl when he does it and he gets plenty of chances because Celie won't move. She takes the beating and most of the time she likes it! My strange desert flower she is. Anyway,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK

We love you little buddy!