friends, romans, johnsons

Back: Charlotte, Corey Marian Front: Elliot, Ethan, Emily, Diana, Claire, Nora, Isaac

The Johnson's rolled through Arizona last night on their way to D-land (and smart person conference for Cort). It was grand to see them. And yes, I did chop all my hair off again - it's a disease.

hair a la emmy

As Summer has arrived here abouts, we decided to do hair trims. Emmy declared she wanted to have her hair cut "Up to here" indicating her shoulder. Being a confirmed hair chopper myself, I said OK, and here you have it!
Nora then declared she wanted her hair up to her ears. Being a totally inconsistent parent, I said she had to ask Dad, so we called him at work and he said, "No." Nora ended up perfectly happy with her little trim after all. We talked about it later and decided kids can make hair cutting choices when they are in school.

100% girl

One day of school left in our neck of the woods and then only a week until we get to the serious fun of the summer! HIP HIP HOORAY says this mom, and I repeat, HIP HIP HOORAY! It's been a good year, but I, at least, am tired of walking to the bus stop 3 times a day, doing homework and basically having my life run by the school district. Thankfully, they are a great school district, I'm just ready for bit of freedom.

This is a photo of Diana in front of her 100% door. Diana is not a naturally zippy student and the realities of how fast you have to go in 1st grade were a bit of a shock to her naturally slower rhythm. Thankfully she is a great speller so no matter what else went on in the week, she ended it with 100% on her spelling test. I think she missed one word all year. We started taping them up on the laundry room door and it ended up being a multi-layered mess of papers, but she loved it. We are in serious clean-up mode before vacation, so all the stuff that got taped up this year is on it's way out! We had to take a picture before tearing it down.

a conversation with Nora

Nora: "Mom, what are babes?"
Mom: "Babies or very pretty girls."
Nora: "We are babes." (emphatically)

Out of the mouth of. . . .I told you she was good for self esteem.

sparkles

Last Sunday the girls were digging through my earrings when Emily re-discovered my drippy rhinestone concert choir earrings - that clinched it - she wanted earrings. We called her friend Sage to invite her to jump on the band wagon but her Daddy isn't ready for that step yet in his daughter's life , so we went solo. Emmy chose the pink rhinestone studs and was an AMAZINGLY brave kid. Before we went, we had to review the Prophet's council on piercings (according to Emily that means, no earrings on your leg, belly, nose or anywhere else and only one in each ear) She promised she would follow it, even when she is big (good girl). Then I had to remind her that the concert choir earrings are only for shows and Halloween if you are dressing up like movie star. I anticipate some changes in Halloween orders.

Thinking of Concert Choir earrings trigger an interesting memory. There was a girl in choir who was VERY casual in her dress, usually sweats and a T-shirt. She was an English grad student, a great singer and had acted in the touring company of Les Miz, so not a slacker, just a very casual dresser. Occasionally she would add her HUGE choir earrings to her outfit just to be fun - I loved it!

turquoise puff paint shirt

Ryan and I went to an 80's themed birthday party last weekend and I was at a loss for what to wear. I took the girls to Goodwill and while digging, casually asked the lady digging next to me if she had any ideas. A few minutes later, she pulled out the above - puffy turquoise and gold glitter paint - WOW! I remember making a variation of this at girls' camp in 1989. I wore this gem with turquoise stretch pants, black knit skirt, and a stretchy belt. Sorry pictures of me in that outfit will not be appearing on this blog. For posterity, let it be known that I still know how to "do my bangs" - ikk.

Now, as many of you know; this summer on Emily's birthday, she is directing, producing, and starring as the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. David will be Joseph, Joshua is playing all the other men (brothers, guards, Pharaoh, Baker, Butler, and Potipher), and Nora and Diana are the wives and Egypt girls. Diana will also be appearing as Potipher's wife. Grandpa and Nathan are in charge of making a curtain and Aunt Mel is supplying a few costume pieces from her own production. Today I took the 80's shirt and created a PERFECT dress for our Narrator to wear. Here she is:

backpacks, dress-ups, preschool and friends

Ryan is taking Isaac to Fathers and Sons tonight - whoohoooooo! Now I just have to get our ward to sponsor a Fathers and Daughters. Isaac was SO excited to have his stuff packed in backpack. He was all ready by 2 for a 6 pm departure. I'm so glad we get to do so much fun outside stuff this summer. It will be good for all the kids.

We had a grand dress up session yesterday with friends; notice the back of Sarah's head - she was overwhelmed.
Nora graduated from Toro Tots preschool yesterday (the child development class at Mt.View does a 6 week preschool in April and May). Although it was a good preschool and the kids who run it do a great job, high school fashion disgusts me and makes me sad.

Emily and Sarah are buddies; I love it!

sewing and stuff

I've been doing a bit of sewing the last few days. It's odd how it goes in cycles. I will sew a TON and then not touch my machine for weeks or even months. Here is what I've been up to. #1 - make a dress modest for prom. One of my cute laurels was having a hard time finding a prom dress in her budget and so her fashion model, West Hollywood living sister sent her this number - problem! Thankfully it was 6 inches too long so there was enough fabric to add the insert at the rather low neckline. She will find shrug and hopefully be all appropriately covered - sheesh!



Diana's summer dress - I am in love with this, especially the belt from one of the outfits Grammy sent for Diana's b-day - it matched the green perfectly and is so cute!


Another green dress - this one is for Aunt Becky's daughter due in July. As you can tell, the love affair with ruffles continues.

skills

Sarah's Piltes Studio is open from 6am-7pm, closed for naps. I dare you to match her plank position.

guest post

This is a guest post from Ryan (at Marian's insistence).

A few of us hiked the Grand Canyon yesterday - down (about 4800 vertical feet) South Kaibab Trail to the Colorado River and then back up (about 4400 vertical feet) to the South Rim by way of the Bright Angel Trail. In all about 14.5 miles - http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/upload/backcountry_map.pdf. We started at about 5:30am and were out by about half past noon. The weather/temps were great - much better to plan so that you are climbing off the river in the cool of the day. Marian was pleased we were done as fast as we were.

Some of you may be aware that we did North Rim to South Rim last Fall. This trip had some challenges but wasn't like last fall. This trip left a lot fewer marks....

View looking west in the morning light from near the top of South Kaibab.

Shane Bowlby (left) and Jason Wolfe (right) still happy on the trail. When we got done we didn't look so clean and energetic.
Ryan and Jason - notice fewer layers now - about half way down South Kaibab. Ryan still has his backpack from high school.


The "Silver Bridge" from the banks of the Colorado River.


This is what they call the "Devil's Corkscrew" about a mile or so up from the river. It is actually not a lot of switch backs compared to some places up higher on the Bright Angel Trail but you can see that it would get a lot of sun later in the day. We hit it at about 8am as opposed to much closer to noon last Fall. It was a much more pleasant experience yesterday.

there is beauty all around

Emily accessorized Sarah's outfit the other day - she has "real talent".


This was just a random slice of life. Sarah LOVES her "Da" and he loves that she loves him!


Emily, once again accessorizing Sarah.


Same accessory, different model!


The rest of life is fine. Ryan and some friends climbed up and down the south rim of the Grand Canyon this morning - a nice "little" work-out.

I drove the kids to the zoo for the 8 am members get in an hour early time. We wanted to see animals before it got hot and then play on the splash pad for a bit. Alas, it was not to be. We got there about 8:10 and there was not a parking spot to be found. The zoo was hosting an Arthritis Foundation Walk thing scheduled from 8-9 and the place was PACKED! So much for members only at 8 - oh well, we will try again another day. Instead we went to. . . Wal-Mart - what a joy! Then we came home and washed the car and went for a swim. So it was an OK day anyway.

for aunt jessica

Aunt Jessica is directing, producing and costuming a production of Peter Pan at her boys' elementary school. She needed an idea for mermaid skirts. . . . Disney to the rescue!

watch T.V. and lay out

A long time ago, in Ryan's single days at BYU, he had a climbing buddy. One day on their way to, guess what????, yep, climb, they were talking about their last weekend dates. Apparently when climbing buddy asked Miss Date how she liked to spend her time, Miss Date replied, "Oh, I like to watch T.V. and lay out." !?!?!?

Ryan asked him if he just turned around and took her home.

It is with great regret that I tell you, if yesterday is any indication of what my girls like they will be in trouble. While waiting to Diana to get home from school, Nora and Emily watched a movie. And instead of doing homework right after school, we went swimming and the girls, after getting good and cold in the still chilly water, discovered; if you lay out in the sun, you get warm and dry. Diana also informed me it would make her skin darker. To which I replied, "Yea, right! You, my lily white bean pole, will just get red and BURN!"

So, there you have it, we are as lame as Miss Date because we also like to "watch T.V. and lay out".

dress

Kathleen over at grosgrain walked her readers through a dress construction last week and I thought the pattern was super cute so I made one with some fabric I bought for something else. I'm am pleased with the result and there is nothing like a free pattern! Yipee for sewing!

I think Ryan is bewildered with the whole ruffles thing going on - oh well - I LIKE ruffles and he is a great sport.

vitamin L

Two months ago, Diana gave a Family Home Evening lesson based on an article in The Children's Friend entitled "Vitamin L" about a girl who was trying hard to love her sister more so they would not fight so much. We read the story and talked about it and decided WE were Vitamin L deficient in our house. I made a poster with a big jar of Vitamin L pills and every night we would put a star on a vitamin for each nice thing we had done that day. I was a great activity and provided a fabulous catch phrase for us. If there was conflict brewing, all I had to say was "remember your vitamin L" and they knew exactly what I was talking about (not that they always stopped, mind you, but often they did). Well last night we finished filling our chart. . .


So we had to go here. . .


To get some of these.



THE END