A Long Day at the Studio

One fortuitous day, Curie just happened to be wearing her super cute, hand-me-down, pink cowgirl boots.  She gets a lot of comments on those boots.  And all the mammas want to know where I got them.  We were sitting next to a dad at Bethelle's basketball practice (post on the season to come soon) who also noticed them.  But this man was special; this man was... a photographer.  If you are a regular reader of my blog, you have probably picked up on the idea that this is one of my favorite kinds of people.  Not only was this man a photographer, but he had an idea.  A cowgirl idea.  He just needed a cute little girl with cowgirl boots.

Well, that fortuitous day turned into a very busy couple of days for me, collecting clothes and making bows, and making sure we had the right props for a wonderful, FREE, four hour, in studio session with a talented man behind the camera.  Well, I should let you make that determination for yourself, but I'm pretty confident that you'll like the fruits of his labors.  Take a look at some of my favorites.  Ok, about 27 of my favorites.  How could I cut any of these?!

PIERCY:

  

 CURIE:

RIGBY:

BETHELLE:

GROUPS:

Click here if you like what you see and are interested in contacting him!

First Day of Sun

Mark it down in the books, the first day of serious sun around here this year was March 4th.  Outside we went.  And it seems that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Pierce was less cooperative.

Princess for a Moment

This picture may not look like a lot to you, but it's all we have of a very special moment for Bethelle.

Last March, my parents and I took my kids and some of their cousins to see the traveling BYU dance team, The Young Ambassadors.  I can remember seeing them and/or their close relative, the BYU ballroom team, as a child and being filled with wonder.  I wanted to do that.  I wanted to grow up to be just like them.  I was going to be a ballroom dancer.

Well, that didn't exactly pan out.  Physics and ballroom majors have very few overlapping classes.  But what was really important in that memory was the strength of the emotion in the moment.  When my mom told me that the Young Ambassadors were coming through, I was eager to take the kids.

A few minutes before the show began, my mom had taken most of the kids on a pre-emptive trip to the bathroom.  Bethelle and I remained in our seats.  As we waited, Shana, the girl in the above picture who Bethelle is hugging, came by and asked if Bethelle would like to be in the show.  The second song.  Bethelle loves attention and the limelight, so she was happy to help.

It was a magical moment.  I took Bethelle backstage and then got to watch the number from my seat.  Bethelle came out with a young couple, her "parents."  They were reading a story to her (singing, actually) about a princess and a castle and a rescue and dragons and danger and singing trees and I don't know what else.  As they sang, the story came to life around them through props, dancers, and costumes.  Bethelle was walked through it all as the princess.  The magical players swirled and paraded around her, lifted her, sang to her, and placed a sparkling tiara on her head.  You should have seen her. She was perfect.  Her face was all lit up as she looked at each new character.  She really interacted with the scene and added just the right touch to the song.  Ahhhh.  Alas, no recording was allowed.  All we have is this little picture from after the show, when the dancers came out in the crowd to greet everyone.

If Bethelle's existence wasn't already so magical, this could've been the best moment of her life.  Poor thing, she seems to have moment after fantastic moment.  But this one ranks pretty high on her list of perfect nights.

Mac and Cheese

You have a set of standard recipes, right?  I certainly do.  One of ours is Macaroni and Cheese.  I'm not a box girl.  We make this recipe.  I could make this in my sleep.  I probably do, sometimes.

Being made with real cheese (imagine that!), this stuff is pretty stringy.  So I started catching pics like this.

 Ha ha ha!  That first one was too funny.  These pictures have now become tradition.

 I told you that I make this a lot, right?

They now insist on taking pictures of the first few bites.  It is a part of the recipe.  And just a little tradition for us.  Isn't that what families are made of?

If you give a kid a haircut...

I gave Rigby a haircut, which I wanted to show to Nick (who was at work), so I took a picture.  The picture was so cute, I wanted more pictures.  Taking pictures looked like so much fun, Curie wanted in on the action.  Having pictures of two kids, I wanted to complete set of individuals, so I snapped Pierce (Bethelle was at school).  Having so many pictures, I needed to do this blog post.

(These was all taken at the end of February.  Still catching up!)

One Last Party

We are sad.  Everyone is leaving us.

Let me set this up for you.  Nick and I were born and raised an hour from where we currently live.  We may have come and gone a bit for school and training assignments, but ultimately, we came back.   We have been in this area for nine of the ten years that we have been married.

You would think that we have friends and family here.

Ok, ok, let's not discount the friends and family that we have.  I said that more for shock than out of truth.  But there's at least some truth to that statement.  Let me 'splain.

All of my best friends from high school live far away.  Many live in other countries, on other continents.  I grew up nextdoor to my cousins.  My six cousins.  My parents and their parents owned those homes for about 30 years.  But now every one of them are gone.  Again, one is in England.  Of my own siblings, most were still around until recently.  My oldest brother just left for three years in England, taking some of our favorite cousins with him (We love them all.  I'm just playing with the word, "favorite.")  Now I just have one brother left in the area.  My parents are still here though, and will probably stay forever.  Phew.

Nick's family is as large as mine.  Of his three siblings, all but one were around here until recently.  The youngest is newly on a mission in Las Vegas (we couldn't be happier... but we miss him).  His parents threaten us with a love for Arizona, where Uncle Casey lives, and just recently, Trish and Josh (Nick's sister and her husband) announced a move to Phoenix.  These are the cousins who have a matching child with each of our oldest three.  Twin cousins.  And just to rub salt in the wound, they are pregnant with Piercy's little pair, and just learned that it is even a boy.  Four for four on matching genders.

We had one last, long sleepover with the kids while Trish got the move ready.  I don't know why I assist and support these things.  Except maybe because I love these people.  But that is the only reason.

There was a lot of dressing up.  This picture is the curtain call of a play they put on for me.

 

I made them sherbet floats in Strawberry pop.  Whoa!  We are not accustomed to that much sugar.  That'll last me a while.  

Here are all the cousins.  Together.  It's going to be a while.

And here are the pairs.  These pictures make me happy.  And sad.

Could anything be better?  No.  Not even a job and sunshine, right?  Right?

Why do I feel like I am talking to myself?  Who turned out the lights?  Hello?