New Beginnings

Amazing! Our little girl is officially in Young Women's. This week we attended Sarah's first New Beginnings where she was formally introduced and presented to the group. She was poised and radiant and we couldn't have been more delighted to be there with her.

(If you click on this picture to enlarge it you can see the portrait of Sarah when she was three.)

Sarah was given this pretty Gerber daisy by the Y.W. leaders. She's going to help me plant it this spring.

Congratulations Sarah! We love you and are so grateful to be your parents.

...for the times, they are a changin'

"Mommy... I borrowed some of your powder!"

Actually it was Shower to Shower powder, but Emily was pretty sure it could be part of any girl's beauty regimen. Em was in preschool when this pic was taken and oh so shmoopy (when used here meaning 'smallish and absolutely adorable').

Last night as the girls were getting ready for bed, I called them into the kitchen to see the ballroom dance championship competition on PBS. The one with the professionals and without pro football players and octogenarian actresses. We watched for a while and were amazed by how good they all were. I was putting some dishes in the dishwasher and was somewhat distracted but heard Emily comment on one of the male dancers, "He's good lookin." insert pause... no one replying... "I'm just sayin!"

What?!

When did my smallish and adorable little one (who is almost nine) start commenting on beefcake? Sarah and I looked at each other and then cracked up. She is so funny.

Nancy Drew

Since I mentioned Emily's enjoyment of all things Nancy Drew in my last post, I thought you might like seeing Emily's interpretation of the famous girl detective.

Here she is giving her latest case a good think.

Emily doing a dead on impersonation of Miss Nancy Drew.

Sarah dressed up for Halloween as the Greek Goddess of Rainbows. Her fabulous glittering toga and the Nancy Drew ensemble were all found at the DI. Woo Hoo! Nary a stitch was sewn (by me) during the making of the costumes. Sweet.

Saturday Stuff

This morning we got Sarah ready and out the door to go with the young men and young women to the Draper Temple open house. We've already been as a family and it is so beautiful she was excited to go again.

No Saturday morning cartoons for us... just a Nancy Drew Mystery computer game thank you very much. Emily loves Nancy Drew and in fact dressed up like the famous sleuth for Halloween this year.

Rich is good at helping Em when she gets stuck on a clue. He's her trusty detective sidekick.

After some breakfast we headed off to watch cousins Maddie and Hillary in a swim meet. They did very well. Little fish is what they are. Sarah and Emily are also swimming with the same program but have only 4 weeks under their belt so it was a great chance for Emily to see what a swim meet is all about. Next meet I'll be cheering for my girls too! (side note- when we got there and Tatiana saw us, she gave me a hug and then looked carefully at Rich's shoes. See earlier post. Hee Hee)

By the time we were done with the swimming, Sarah was back from her outing and it was time to practice the piano and get ready for their recital.

They both did so well. We are very proud of their hard work.

Now Sarah is at a neighbor's home babysitting 3 darling children. I just called to see how she's doing (she hasn't done a lot of babysitting yet) and she couldn't have sounded happier! Her words, "these little kids are adorable."

Its been a good day.

Eccentric?

This is my wonderful husband Rich, laughing at...

this.

I've worked 12 hour graveyards the last two nights and am just beat/useless. Rich got home and made a fabulous dinner featuring pork chops, steamed asparagus and pasta. He then offered to take the girls to the library. They got home and the chillens got ready for bed. I called for the fam to come into the living room for scriptures and prayer and Rich came up the stairs laughing. This is what had transpired:

Sarah - "Dad!! You've got the wrong shoes on!"

Rich - "No I don't."

Sarah - "Look!"

Rich - "Oh."

My good husband had been at the public library for 40 minutes with an assortment of footwear. He is an engineer and very, very smart. I think this sort of thing should be expected. If at some point he leaves private industry I believe my honey will adjust easily to teaching physics at the high school or college level. Everyone needs a mismatched physics professor in their education.

He's such a good sport! Love him.

Being sick stinks!

On friday, Emily was sick with a miserable cold and had to stay home from school. Very boring! I set up a television in her room so she could watch the Wizard of Oz. We tried to keep her occupied and as comfy as we could. We can really tell when she's sick because all motion stops. If Emily is in bed in the middle of the day, she is sick.

Happily, by saturday afternoon she was congested but feeling a lot better. Well enough to practice the piano and be unpleasant about it. Because of the exchange Em had with her mother, Emily did not earn computer privileges for two days. Ouch! Those of you who know Emily will understand what a blow this would be to my girl. She was disappointed but took her loss bravely. For nearly 36 hours she spoke longingly of the far too distant monday morning when her computer privileges would be reinstated. On Sunday night as we were trying to wrangle the girls into bed, I saw Em prancing out of the computer room. I was angry at first thinking she had been on the computer without permission. But Emily denied any wrongdoing and hurried to brush her teeth. I walked by the computer and found this -

In true parade going fashion, Emily had tied her scarves together and roped off the computer chair to reserve her seat for early the next morning. She makes me laugh!!

6th Grade Fun

Last week I had the delightful opportunity to help decorate and then chaperone (which used here means 'take pictures and sling cake and punch') for Sarah's 6th grade Valentine Dance. The 6th graders have been learning some dances in gym and were able to put them to good use at the dance. All the kids got dressed up and were on their best behavior.

Here is the crew doing the Electric Slide. I was impressed at how enthusiastic the boys were to be out there shakin' their groove thang. Some of them had some pretty good moves. Of course, never was there any direct contact between the gentlemen and the young ladies but they all seemed to tolerate each other fairly well.

At this age the guys and the gals are starting to eye each other just a touch, and when we woke up on Sunday we found that someone had created a Valentine in our front yard. We're not sure who... but we're pretty sure it's for the newest Beehive in the ward!

Catching Up

On December 27th, Richard and I enjoyed a milestone...our 20th anniversary! We decided last fall that we would take another cruise to mark the big event and we wanted to bring Sarah and Emily with us. So in November we flew to San Diego and spent two days playing on the beach and at Sea World and then boarded a ship and headed South.


We had so much fun on the ship and on our excursions snorkelling and horseback riding. We dressed up every night and ate in the formal dining room where our girls were spoiled silly by the nicest waiters. We were so proud of their table manners and willingness to try almost everything on the menu! It was so wonderful to have them come with us. We would do it again in a heartbeat. Time to start saving our pennies again! We've created some cruisers!

I can't believe twenty years have gone by so quickly! I feel so blessed to have such a kind, patient and hardworking man for my sweetheart. I have it so good!

Valentine's Day

I have decided, with a little coaching from my sister Tatiana, that it is time for me to start a blog. I have been horrible about keeping a journal and even worse at scrapbooking. I hope this will be an easy way to document what's going on with our family and to stay in touch with friends and loved ones.

I worked two graveyard shifts this week and have been very very tired. It's hard to recover from the sleep loss and funky schedule but it's sort of family friendly in that I'm home before the girls go to school and and here when they come home. On Thursday afternoon, the girls walked home, made a snack and then gently woke me up. Emily had a surprise for me and once my eyes were clear enough to see, she opened my bedroom door to show what she had done. She cut out lots of hearts and taped them along with a poem to my door. She also had a little bouquet of red tissue paper roses for me. Very sweet.

This morning we were treated to a yummy breakfast made by our Daddy with Valentine cards by each of our plates. He topped it all off with an assortment of chocolate truffles. He is such a good man... and so handsome! Lucky me!! It was a wonderfully relaxed day with lots of laughing and tickling and watching the snow come down. It was a perfect February 14th.