Saturday, March 13, 2010

Snow Bunnies

Wow! I did it! After a 10 year hiatus, I am back to skiing baby! (o: I grew up skiing ever since I can remember. I think I was 6 when I first learned, maybe younger. I had cute little skis and my family went on ski trips every winter. Not to mention the local skiing that living to Salt Lake makes convenient. I used to be pretty decent when I was a teen, but the last two times I went I was pregnant with Sarah. Something happened. I got VERY cautious, I guess for good reason. This most recent trip I was worried I would hurt myself. Luckily, no injuries for me. Unfortunately, not everyone came out scott free.
Randie (my 1st counselor in the red coat above) was such an awesome sport and let me talk her into trying skiing for her first time!! I had so much fun watching her and helping her and trying to teach her how to do it. We laughed a lot. She was seriously the best sport. I was so proud of her!

It had JUST snowed the day before. Some people told me I'd be disappointed with Oregon snow, but the fresh powder made me feel right at home! It was freezing cold, but a beautiful night of skiing. I forgot just how much I MISS the mountains. Absolutely breathtaking.

I was one of the few skiing. I guess I should have called this a snowboarding trip. Skiing is kind of "old fashioned" these days. I'll still hold out for it to come back. I'm sticking with what I know.

I loved going up with the girls and other leaders - and the boys too, but I'm, of course, partial to my girls. We had lots of fun. Heidi, one of the girls I rode up with, was very surprised I was actually going skiing. She thought I'd just sit in the lodge. Oh, plus I was texting on the way up. I guess she thought I was an old fuddy duddy. Good thing I helped her see that I'm cool. (o: The car ride was so much fun - it's a good hour and a half ride and we had non-stop conversation both ways.

Katie and Jordan goofing off.

Just a handful of our big group. Everyone left with smiles on their faces. Even Kelly - and she deserves HUGE kudos for that. She's the one that didn't make it home back in one piece. Or at least in the same condition that she left. Going down a run she fell forward snowboarding and landed hard on her right arm dislocating her shoulder. The worst part is that she was stuck - she couldn't move or get her boots out of the binding to get up and she could see all of us. She called out to us several times and no one heard her! Poor Kelly found a stranger to help her out of her snowboard and walked all alone carrying her board to the first aid/hospital. We all felt horrible when we found out. She is such a trooper. If she could have reset her arm in the socket by herself she probably would have. OUCH. She wasn't even mad at us - or didn't show it - for completely abandoning her. I made her dinner to try and make it up to her. I hope I can grow up to be like Kelly. She is a tough cookie and so fun to be around. Even when she's in pain! Kelly rocks! She's the one smiling next to me in the black coat. The only thing she was mad about was that her fall wasn't more spectacular or the story of how it happened wasn't better!

Love these girls - I can't help but smile when Lizzy and Katie are around!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Birthday Treat Disaster

From Blog Favorites #3

Well, it's hard to do good coverage of a person's birthday who likes to remain anonymous. (o: I don't have any pictures of the birthday boy that I can legally post and he wouldn't want me to share that he got a new BMW convertible for his present or any details like that. (ha ha) But I can share the disaster of his birthday treat! I got the recipe for Pretzel Jello from Frank's* family - I think it was aunt Danna's recipe. Anyway, those on his side of the family should have a good laugh when they see just how disgusting it turned out in the picture above. I don't know what my problem is! I used to be able to make it just fine, but the more I make it lately the worse it turns out! It's really a delicious recipe when someone else makes it!

From Blog Favorites #3

Luckily, Safeway had German chocolate cake slices that looked appetizing and this happens to be Frank's* favorite. (o:

We love you Frank*! Happy Birthday whoever you are!

Shapes!

From Blog Favorites #3
Because Kayelynn was still very ill during her pregnancy - we had to do some switching around. I got to teach with Monica and Tina instead for a couple weeks which was fun. This was one of my favorite days as far as pictures go - some of my favorite preschool pics are in this post. I put the above one on our preschool slideshow DVD cover. This was the week Monica taught the shapes lesson.

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Rylan's crazy gelled hair do's always made us smile.

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Ahhh - the rice tray - I thought I'd try doing this rather than the big bin. I mistakenly thought it would be less messy. Ha! check out this...

From Blog Favorites #3
I started out trying to control the rice spillage, but the kids were having so much fun and I thought "what the heck? Let 'em live a little!" (O: Even though it took me quite a while to vacuum and I still find little pieces of rice in corners of my kitchen - this was such a fun memory! Look at the girls' faces! I love it!

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Sweet Lucy Loo and her shape picture.

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Going on a shape hunt in the neighborhood. I love this picture because Lucy is airborne as she is skipping along. Angela tripped and got a bloody knee on the way back. I swear - she needs to wear knee pads every day.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Art Class

From Blog Favorites #2


I while ago I heard about an after school art class called Young Rembrants from my friend Kim. Allie took a class and came home with the cutest works of art. I decided to do some homework and see what it would take to get the art class at our school. Mei, the director, was excited and had been wanting to get the class in more schools on the west side so all it took was a phone call and talking with Lauri, the principal to get permission.

Sarah and Natalie really enjoyed the class. Shannan and I came to help for the first few times as Lauri wanted me to make sure everything went smoothly. It was fun and I loved the cute things the girls brought home. This fish is one of my favorite. I think the class focused a little two much on copying a picture that the teacher brought each week, but it taught the kids that they just have to divide up something into its basic elements in order to draw something that might initially seem hard. So while it did not inspire a ton of expression and creativity - it gave the kids more confidence in their abilities to make beautiful things.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Crazy Hair Night!

From Blog Favorites #3
How could I have let this one slide??? I can't believe I didn't blog one of my favorite young women's activities! We had a crazy hair night where each of the girls was paired up with a team member and they had to do each others hair in as wacky of a style as they could dream up. We had some great ones. We laughed our heads off that night. It was so fun!

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Britlee in her 80's 'do'.

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Nina looking fabulous! Ready for a Jane Austin movie.

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Janae looks like someone in Whoville! Penny used a plastic cup under her hair to get the height she needed! Hilarious! I wonder what her husband thought when she came home - this was when she was fairly new to young womens. (o:

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I think Cleo was everyone's favorite! What a great sport!

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Melanie ready to go to Whoville with Janae!

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Yes, these are the leaders of our teenage girls in our ward! Would you trust your daughters to them? (o:

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Kelly, another leader - looking very youthful in her hairdo!

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Penny and Katie (in the background with a balloon tied to her hair!)

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Close up of Penny - she is our resident hairstylist - the professional and the one who came up with the whole idea!

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Tylin - this wacky hairdo goes well with her hilarious sense of humor! I think she would actually go to school with this 'do' if it stayed in all night.

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Me looking a little scary with Ellie

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Lunch Date

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was really surprised a few weeks ago just how much it meant to Natalie when I came to eat lunch with her. So, we had lunch again and I brought my camera for fun. Natalie and Sarah get to have hot lunch once a week for a special treat. It's not the healthiest and can get expensive so I figure once a week is a good compromise. Natalie loves the little salad bar.
Natalie and her sidekick Emma. They are attached at the hip. (o: Cute girls.

I like to play at recess for a few minutes afterwards with Nat, boy do the kids go nuts. If I am anywhere near the swings I get tons of requests for pushes. Or several kids ask me to watch them do a trick, etc. It really makes me appreciate our wonderful recess teachers. They are the sweetest ladies and really make recess fun for the kids. It's a tiring job! (I know - I did recess duty at Franklin Elementary back in my college days.) They laugh when I get roped into pushing. This time I told the kids 'only three pushes'. (o:

A Seussical Birthday

March 2nd is Dr. Seuss' birthday! We LOVE Dr. Seuss!
We LOVE (well some of us) to eat green eggs and ham on Dr. Seuss' birthday to celebrate.

This is also a special day because it is grandma's birthday too!
As you can see by Natalie's expression - this was no ordinary rendition of the Happy Birthday Song. I don't think grandma's sides have stopped hurting from the performance. It was opera, punk rock and heavy metal all at the same time.


I helped at the school that day and loved seeing the Kindergarten and first grade teachers celebrating as well! I had on my Dr. Seuss shirt too.

Natalie was feeling very creative - perhaps inspired by the Dr. Seuss tales she'd been reading all day. She made me this crown to wear while I fried our green eggs.

And I LOVE this creation! I hung it on our door. It's a cross between Dr. Seuss and Tim Burton. She presented this to me while I was cooking as well. I love her imagination! This cute piece of art is about 2-3 feet tall.

The girls wearing Horton ears, a "Who" headband and a Cat in the Hat hat.

I suspect perhaps these . . .

made this little girl sick the next morning?

Monday, March 1, 2010

Two Peas in a Pod

From Blog Favorites #3
Emma and Natalie - two peas in a pod. This was a picture I took when Emma came over for a play date. I love listening to these two giggle and laugh together. Emma has been Nat's best friend in her class this year. I am so grateful when my girls find friends who are good to them and make them happy.