365+1 Week 46

Photo's #316-322:

"Music" Abby at home practicing before we go over to Grandma's for a lesson.  She has now passed my ability to help her- I am so proud! Today she started learning "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" in preparation for the Griffiths family Christmas Dinner Talent Show.

"Reflection" Tonight the girls discovered that if they shined their bed reading lamps against the closet doors they could put on a shadow puppet show.  I was particularly impressed with Olivia's cute doggy- it appears to be wearing a sweater :)

Tonight we had the chance to go and see the High School presentation of Peter Pan.  A couple of kids from our neighborhood were in it and they did an excellent job! I was quite impressed- the music was fun and the cast was very funny.  Abby loved when they all took flight (on strings) to Never Land,  Olivia was entranced by Tigerlily, and Eva- of course- loved Nana the dog as well as that hilarious Crocodile!!

"Handmade" Olivia has taken to stealing empty toilet paper rolls and turning them into masterful pieces of art.  Here is her latest, in honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Shortly after I snapped this photo she discovered a few more empty rolls. A cute little Pilgrim girl and Indian now completed her set.

"Drink" In preparation for the Turkey Trot 5K race next week, Abby and I have been going on evening runs together. She is getting faster, in fact I almost can't keep up with her when we run up the hills! She is dedicated and determined to place next week and I am positive she will achieve that goal. I have found it really fun to have her as a running partner!  Also, when we get our cold and chilly bones back to the house she insists on having a cup of hot chocolate, why not right?!!

Olivia had her school class devotional presentation today.  She was so nervous, which is a new development this year! I had to really talk her into going up on stage, but she conquered her fear and you would never have known from the audience. The theme was "One voice to change the world". They talked about hero's in history from the beginning of time up until the first Thanksgiving who stood up for what they believed and in the process had an enormous impact on our world for good.  She was cast as an angel in the pre-mortal world making a choice to follow Christ and come to earth to receive a body.  It was beautiful and heartwarming and she did an excellent job!!

My parent's celebrated their 40th Anniversary today!  5 of their 8 children and spouses were able to take them out to dinner and celebrate.  We had them share how they met and when they got engaged. It was fun to hear and wonderful to spend the evening together. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Guess what!

It's Eva's 6th Birthday!!!

Hooray!!

She couldn't have been more excited about it.

AND we have been celebrating for the last three days!! 

AND this is her new favorite sweater dress from her Grandma.

It's pretty much beyond words cute and perfect :)

Happy Birthday Eva

We love you!!!

365+1 Week 45

I am really enjoying the photo's for this last week.  As I look at them, they show the complete evolution from fall to winter that took place in our little town over just a few short days! One day it was 70 degrees, the next it was 25 degrees.  Hello Winter, don't stay too long!!!

Photo's #309-315:

"Screen" This is the screen that everyone in my house has been enjoying, the new Google Tablet that Paul surprised me with for my birthday- although I think the girls have adopted it as their own!! I have to say I do love the screen size and it is a joy to blog hop while sitting on the couch watching ANOTHER basketball game with Paul- thanks honeycup!!

"5:00" The leaves on our tree turned a brilliant bright hue of glorious gold just about overnight! Liv, Eva and Kate went to work raking up the first of the leaves to let go and flutter to the earth below.

Yes, we too braved the two hour wait in line at our local elementary for the 2012 Presidential Election. It felt good to let my voice be heard, and I sported that sticker proudly about town.  Eva wanted to know why all the adults were getting stickers- I told her just because you grow up doesn't mean you lose the love of receiving a sticker for a job well done!

I was going through the photo's on my phone today and came across this one. It is a terrible quality, but it made me smile!! The girls thought this was the greatest presentation of a burger on a plate EVER!! Paul was pleased with his order and I have to admit it was pretty impressive :)

The winds of change had started to pick up today.  In fact, almost every leaf in our previously gorgeous tree were now on the ground.  We pulled in from school and the girls saw the neighbors out raking and jumping. They had to immediately join in.  I am sure the pile was much larger in their youthful hearts than reality would suggest, but they jumped and played and threw leaves for a long while together- good times!

Sure enough, as predicted, we awoke to snow falling and it continued to fall all day and into the night.  Let the bundling up begin!

Liv spent most of the next morning out building her very own snow girl- she was cute and stylish with just the right amount of sparkle to reflect well on her creator. :)

365+1 Week 44

Ok, and NOW for the updated photo's! These include not only my photo a day but some of the girls in their Halloween costumes because they just looked so cute and had such a fun time on one of the warmest spooky nights to date! Abby went out with friends, Eva had a fun time, but only wanted to go around two neighborhoods, which left Liv and I out for the long haul together.  She really got into it this year! She could have gone all night if the houses weren't turning out the lights and calling it quits on her!!

Photo's #302-308 (plus a few more!):

"One word" These cute little words hang from my chandelier during the month of October.  I thought it was a fitting word for the upcoming week.

Family night carving.  Each girl picked out a pattern that they loved and then Paul helped Eva to carve her "Worried" face, Abby did her spooky ghost completely by herself, and Liv and and I worked together on the Hello Kitty.  By the time we were done it was dark but they insisted on being in the photo- what ev's :)

Crandall Historical Printing Museum in Provo. This afternoon I was a chaperon and driver for Olivia's class field trip.  This was the first time I have been able to go with her and she was so happy!! I thought it was a very interesting place to visit.  They have one of the very first printing presses ever invented, through to the one that printed the first copy of the Book Of Mormon, right on to the last one in the seventies before they went automated.  So fascinating- and I still can't believe that they used to line up the print one letter at a time!!

Halloween!! We had a fun time getting all dressed up and hitting the streets for some goodies.  I was my usual witch (I know, I need to get more creative next year) and Paul was my partner as a Salem Puritan- don't worry, he didn't set me on fire that night!!!

Eva was a cute little witch from Halloween's past!

But no witch is complete without a set of glow in the dark spider gloves!!

Olivia was our sweet little Monarch Butterfly

sometimes morphing into a scary Butterfly!!

Abby has been dreaming of becoming a Mummy since last year! I had to make that wish come true, even though it took FOREVER to wrap her, and she didn't break character all night!!

She was so creepy!!!

"Something starting with C"  Candy of course!!  We have so much candy in this house!

Happy 35th Birthday to ME!!! My wonderful mother in law took me out to lunch at my favorite place- the Cheesecake Factory- and then we spent hours out on a shopping spree in Salt Lake.  A really fabulous day.  Oh, and these shoes are my current favorites- velvety raspberry- LOVE them!!!

"Breakfast"  Not very glamorous, but it gets the job done on a very busy Saturday!!

365+1 Week 43

As you may have noticed, holiday's, my birthday, and fall clean up around the house has kind of put the photo posting on hold!! Never fear though, I have still been taking photo's- here are the photo's from two weeks ago for your enjoyment and I will be back tomorrow with last week!!

Photo's #295-301:

This Sunday night was our Young Women in Excellence event.  As part of the program I had my Beehive class do a runway fashion show to display the skirt sewing project we had worked on over the last month.  This is the skirt that I made- having wanted a chevron print skirt for some time I figured "Why not make it now!" and I just love how it turned out.  All the girls looked great and it was a blast MCing the event on the fly!!

First time back on the old tread mill this season.  Paul and I purchased this trusty rusty 11 years ago, nine months into our marriage.  A week later I was surprised to find out I was unexpectedly pregnant! Sadly, 12 weeks later, things took a  turned for the worst and ended in a painful miscarriage, and was promptly followed by another equally devastating pregnancy sorrow.  My heart was broken beyond repair. After a couple months of despair, doubt and fear, this tread mill nurtured my feeble heart back to the living. It helped me rebuild my lost self esteem, confidence and knowledge that my body could do hard things, and achieve whatever I desired it to do.  Is it silly to have such an emotional response to a piece of plastic and electronics? Maybe so, but it will be a sad day when it decides it is done supporting me along and helping me move forward one step at a time.

"Jack o lantern" was my prompt, but we had not carved any yet! So this was the best I could do!! They are such cute little guys, sitting up there on my shelf all happy and smiley!!

Play date with a school friend.  Liv and her sweet school buddies like to take turns going home to each others houses after school.  Today we hosted her bestie and they had a great time playing games and giggling together for hours.

"In My Town" First snow of the season! The girls were out of school and kept thinking they could go out and build a snow man or make a snow angel.  They had forgotten just how much snow is needed for those things and sadly it was all melted by that afternoon.

Today (with the girls out of school still)  was the semi-annual-great big-closet-change-out.  Every fall and spring the girls clothes have to be rotated. Summer things have to go to make room for the winter wardrobe.  It is a completely daunting task!! I kind of detest it!! But the girls look forward to it because what was old is now new again.  In the end it was great to purge out all the items outgrown and worn out. Piles were packed away until the next girl fit it, some were bagged up to send to family and others were shipped off to the donation center.  All the coats, hats and scarves made their way back to the closet, but only after a few hours of Eva placing them on her fav's so they could be stylish cute and cozy to!!

Sneak peak of our Halloween costumes next week!! We went to a neighborhood costume party and had a complete blast with all our friends.  We took these lemon coconut cupcakes (a current obsession of mine) and had a spooky good time, young and old alike.  Thanks again Gutke's for hosting!!! (Please disregard the dirty old pan that was somehow selected to display these darling cupcakes!!)