Fiddler on the Roof

Two summers ago, Kylie had the opportunity to participate in our stake's production of "A Trail of Dreams" about the Mormon pioneers. We are so fortunate that our Stake does a play every other year.  Kylie could hardly wait until the tryouts came for this years production.  We quickly learned that it would be Fiddler on the Roof and so we realized we needed to rent the movie and fill her in on the storyline.  I remember watching the movie often when I was young, so even I was really excited.

 

 

 The night of tryouts, about ten girls near to her age came together and sang a line I will always remember, "And who does Mama teach, to mend and tend and fix, preparing me to marry who ever Papa picks!"  They all sang so beautifully and I was so impressed.

 

Kylie was chosen to be part of the cast and practiced all summer long.  She loved the music from the show and could hardly wait for opening night.  Here she is just before the show began.

It was so hard to decide which pictures to use on the blog.  This production was almost at the professional level.  It was so good.  The costumes, lighting, music, acting, directing....everything.  It was such a good experience for Kylie.  Here are some pictures from some of my favorite scenes of this amazing production.



 



 

 

 

 

Kylie had many friends and family come to watch.  I didn't even get pictures with all of those that came.  We are lucky to have so much family close by.

 

 Being silly after taking their final bow...

First Day of School 2013

The first day of school was in August this year again.  I always feel like it should still be summer and so its almost hard to be excited - but the kids were!  Thank goodness they love to learn.  We always have a first day of school photo shoot that morning, and some of my favorite pictures have come from these early morning pictures before the first day back to school.

 

My two boys heading off to school together.  :(

     

  Cameron - Kindergarten - Mrs. Romain

Chad - Fourth Grade - Herrera

Kylie - 6th Grade

On the first day of school we had kindergarten orientation for the first half of the day.  It was fun to be there and watch Cameron become acquainted with new friends and surroundings.  He looked so grown up.  It is still hard to believe that I don't have any kids at home anymore.

Cameron gets out of school about 20 minutes before Chad, and then we head over to pick up Kylie.  He was asleep after ten minutes in the car.  Kindergarten must be very tiring!

 We had to wake him up for our first day of school tradition.  Every year we go out for frozen yogurt.

We are looking forward to a great year.   



Middle School?!

 

This summer my little girl was getting ready to go to middle school!!!  I don't know where the time went, but we decided we needed to have a girl day before school started.   We started out at middle school registration, got her books and ID card, and then went out for a day of shopping.

 

I thought it would be fun to take her to a new store that she might think was a little more grown up.  We ended up at Forever 21 and could have spent all day there.  It was so fun trying on clothes with her and she LOVED the things that she picked out.  I love that she is getting older and is enjoying shopping.

 

 

 

Our plan was to come home that day and shave our legs together, but it ended up happening on a different day.  You can't start middle school with hairy legs, and so it was fun to sit down with her and show her the process of having smooth legs.  :)  She is turning into a beautiful young girl and I love to spend time with her.  I know that she is going to love middle school and will be an example to those around her.

Countdown to Kindergarten

My last baby started kindergarten this year!  Starting school has always been a big deal in our house.  Our kids have always known how important school is - they have a teacher and a principal for parents.  :)  We have a tradition of counting down the days until kindergarten, starting at about two weeks before.  Cameron woke up one morning and found this on my door.  This was the start of the fourteen day countdown until school started!  He was very excited, but I could also tell that he was a little bit apprehensive too.  Each day there was a little question he had to answer or a little phrase he had to read.  It was fun to help him get excited about his first day.

 

 

We read books about kindergarten every night, worked on little sight world flashcards and talked about what his first day might be like.  Finally, the day arrived and he woke up excited.  His biggest concern was whether or not he would meet any friends.  We were so excited for him on his big day.   I just knew that he would love it, and I was right.

Fourteen Years

Fourteen years ago, David and I were married here for time and all eternity.... 

 

We were babies!!

I still love him so much.  We are lucky that we found each other so young.  Every year, we go away for at least a night for our anniversary.  I have a great husband that likes to plan.  This year we stayed up in LA and ended up staying very closed to where we were married.  It was so nice to go to the temple one night and walk around outside.  It is such a beautiful place.



 

 We were having fun taking pictures in the hotel before our night out on the town.

Can't get any better than the sunset at the beach!

We love the pier down in Santa Monica.  Yummy food and a beautiful walk on the beach made for a perfect anniversary.  Looking forward to what the future holds for us and our family!