Finishing up at Capitol Theater

Well, with Audrey's 11 performances behind us, I think it's safe to say she's been officially bitten by the big stage bug. It's been a very busy and exhausting time (for her and me both) but she's built some memories that will last a lifetime.

                                  

Here she is in her "lady in waiting" costume. "The dress felt like it weighed 20 lbs" is what she said. She was cast for her grace, height and beauty. There were several playing her part in their early 20's. She didn't dance ballet in the show but did a promenade type of waltz around the stage and was also on the stage to keep watch during the sugar plum fairy's dance. She looked very beautiful and we're so proud of her!

The dressing room for Audrey was located under the stage behind where the Orchestra performs. So needless to say she's now extremely familiar with the beautiful, classic music. She also said while they waited she and her fellow dancer friends would wander the corridors underneath the stage, exploring and meeting other performers from the show. She also got plenty of exposure to the professional ballerinas and their beautiful dances.

My parents came and took all the daughters and grand-daughters of our family to see the show. It was so special to be able to share the show with my family. We had quite a few of us. Oh, and of course my cute brother Kyle came along for the female-charged outing. We made sure to pour on the love for him!

After the show we headed to the Gateway for some frozen yogurt. We showed up just about 15 minutes before the shop closed. To the attending employees' dismay I'm sure-but they sent us the message when they started blarring the song "Closing Time".....you don't have to go home but you can't - stay - here.

The Last show was on New Year's Eve. A matinee show. Our good friends the Hoopes came from Logan and my sweet friend Jessica and her family came. The performances on the 30th and 31st were converted into the "Nutty Nutcracker" which was a lot of fun. They throw in all kinds of crazy surprises and after seeing it so many times it was a fun change.

 It's been a fun Christmas break, now I think we're ready to get back to reality!

Merry Christmas

I'll have to do quite a bit of explaining about this post,but I think I'll do most of it next time...This year not only was Audrey cast as the snow queen in her local ballet but she tried out for the professional production of the Nutcracker by Ballet West in Salt Lake City and made it for the part of a "Lady in Waiting". So, while I know that I need to post pictures of her as the snow queen, this is what's consuming us as of late. Here we are, at the Capitol Theater. She performs every day sometimes twice a day from the 22nd through the 31st except on Christmas day. These pictures with our little family are from the Christmas Eve matinee. She's not allowed to wear her costume out of the theater and I'm not allowed to take any pictures of it. We are allowed to purchase professional pictures from Ballet West's Photographer -of course..- and so I'll be scanning those in and posting them soon.

 

Due to it being Christmas Eve, Santa was on hand. Also, Sam's mom, her husband and her sister Michelle came for Audrey's performance on the 23rd. They left the 24th but we were so glad to have them even for a short time. I had to add this picture of Michelle, she slept in Elle's bed and Sam insisted I get a picture of his Aunt all tucked in nice and cute into Elle's little girl bed. Pretty funny.

I can't even tell you how many times I told Reese to tuck in that shirt!!

These pictures were from Audrey's first night - we had several friends come to support her. My friend Cassidy from Georgia came, Kate and Reagan from across the street and my Friend Brooke, her sister Heather and all their cute little girls. Audrey felt like a star!

As you can see in the group photo below, I finally didn't crouch - and the result that I usually try to avoid... I look like a giant. Oh well, Cassidy's right up there with me. I did, of course have heels on as well, so that probably didn't help. It was a great night and Elle said "that was the best Nutcracker I ever saw!" There really is something so incredibly magical about a professional ballet production. I actually got teary a couple of times. I think just seeing the amazing talent of the dancers combined with the live orchestra just made me think of how perfect and beautiful the human body is, and what a gift we're given by Heavenly father of amazing bodies and minds with talents that are beautiful. That and the fact that I was sitting in a grand, warm, historic theater, waiting to see my daughter take the stage - it was a little overwhelming. All in a good way.

Even though there's been plenty of driving back and forth to rehearsals and shows, somehow we've been able to squeeze in all of our usual traditions. We hope everyone has had an amazing and blessed Christmas season. With Love Sam, Kim, Audrey, Reese and Elle.

The Reason for the Season

Go ahead, Crank it up. Merry Christmas :)

Oh, come, all ye faithful,
Joyful and triumphant!
Oh, come ye, oh, come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him
Born the king of angels:
Oh, come, let us adore him,
Oh, come, let us adore him,
Oh, come, let us adore him,
Christ the Lord.

Sing, choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation,
Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above!
Glory to God
In the highest:
Oh, come, let us adore him,
Oh, come, let us adore him,
Oh, come, let us adore him,
Christ the Lord.

Yea, Lord, we greet thee,
Born this happy morning;
Jesus, to thee be glory given!
Word of the Father,
Now in flesh appearing!
Oh, come, let us adore him,
Oh, come, let us adore him,
Oh, come, let us adore him,
Christ the Lord.



Life's curveballs

Amidst all the craziness that this time of year brings along, Sam had knee surgery the day before Thanksgiving. Then, on Thanksgiving in the early morning hours, we found ourselves in the ER with what looked like a possible blood clot for Sam. They did lots of tests and the conclusion was made that it was a "Vagal nerve response" or in other words, due to the pain he was in, Sam's body was in essence trying to shut down "unnecessary" extremities. With that scare behind us, unfortunately more challenges were on their way. Sam's Dad, David passed away the week following Thanksgiving. He has been battling cancer but his death still came as a shock. We will miss him very much and possibly even more the missed opportunities that will have to wait for the eternities. But we are thankful for the knowledge of the gift of the resurrection and the the atonement for each of us made by the Savior. For this we can be thankful! With all of life's trials, we've still been trying to keep up the pace during this winter and holiday season and find joy in our everyday events. Here's some pictures from before Sam's surgery of a sunny day out sledding.

Beautiful Utah Sunny Day!

They Love their Daddy!

We decided to paint..... finally! Just cause we didn't have quite enough going on already...

We hosted Grandma Mary and Grandpa Tony for Thanksgiving, and thank Goodness they were there with all of Sam's shenanigans (emergencies...)We were so thankful for all of their help. Here's a picture after Mary had gone to Elle's Thanksgiving feast with her. So fun.

Some friends and I kept up with tradition and went out to the latest twilight movie. Not sure what we were going for in this picture. I think I said be serious, so some did, some didn't and I apparently went with the ol stand-by of  duck lips. The movie was about as good as this picture....

We've put up all three of our trees. This one is the "kids tree" so they get to decorate it. We did this one when Sam was gone so I got to be the one to boost Elle up. It's our family tradition to have the littlest put the star on the tree. She was pretty excited, pretty excited and pretty cute!

And for a post on another day, Reese turned 10! I can't believe how quickly he's growing up! We love you Reesey! More on this soon. We hope everyone is not only holding up but thriving throughout this busy holiday season!

 

Celebrating a life lived with humor, mischief and love. We will miss you Grandpa Dave. 

Fall Follow-up

Oh my goodness, it seems each time I get on to blog is getting farther and farther apart. We're rounding the corner into the holiday season so I know I need to post about the remaining events of our October and November. Here's some pictures I took on a nature hike of ours. This hike marking the beginning of Audrey's more self conscious years perhaps. She was there with us but refused to be pictured because I had put her hair in braids in order for it to be wavy the next day - she requested no photos...

Reese also wrapped up an eventful first season on his competition soccer team. He's grown so much as a player and has really enjoyed being on a team that has a great coach and plays to compete. He'll be playing indoor soccer throughout the winter to keep his skills up, so we'll be keeping up on that too.

Elle had her 6th birthday! We were lucky enough to have some of her cousins and her Grandma and Grandpa come up the Sunday before her birthday so the lucky girl, she got to have two cakes! This year for  she wanted a puppy party - so that big basket of puppies was to give away one to each of her friends -(Lucky me, I found them for only 2 dollars each on a sale! yay mom! )

Here they are, the puppy litter! All but Reese, he opted for a bit more mischievous face-art.

The party was a big hit, they had a pinata, played pin the tail on the puppy, they had a fetch relay race, played puppy-puppy-dog (duck duck goose) decorated their "doggy bags" and got to jump on the trampoline with their new puppies! They were a very active bunch but we survived!

Elle loved being able to give all of her friends a present- makes everything that much more fun when your friends are excited too.

Audrey and her friend Kamri were a big help in wrangling all those little munchkins and helping me run the games.

The big 6 year old present = a new big girl bike! It's really was big, she almost couldn't touch her feet to the ground, but hey, she's gotta have room to grow!

Here she is, our sassy sweet six year old!

Now it's on to Reese's Birthday!

This is Halloween!

We had Dorothy..

Two ballerina mimes - Audrey and her best friend Kamri

A scary Dementor from Harry Potter... and one Reese who didn't want to humor me and take pictures.

Sam and I were Goose and Maverick from Top Gun... he made me be Goose.

A new tradition as of last year - a friend party but this year everyone chipped in to rent out the Stansbury Clubhouse.

Lots of creative costumes - I think Sabra took the best advatage of her assets

 

It was a busy fun Halloween season! Now on to the big Leagues! Here comes Christmas.

Fall Catch Up

Before I can even think about posting Halloween stuff, I decided I'd better at least chronicle some of our October activities. Here's the kids, playing around up in the canyon, in their candy corn hats - because I begged them. The light was disappearing so unfortunately the pictures started becoming blurry. In case you're wondering about Audrey's hair - I let her use a wash out temporary dye. I thought it was actually quite cute.

We went to Wheeler Farm over UEA. Elle and I and some friends did that is. Audrey and Reese were busy having fun with their cousins down in Provo. I missed them but it was a good time as always and absolutely gorgeous weather for seeing all the animals and playing around the farm setting. The picture with all three kids is from our local pumpkin walk. I'm so glad my kids humor me and let me take countless pictures of them. I always think if I have lots of pictures of all our activities then somehow I'll help them remember how fun their childhood has been.

Another fun day over UEA, we went to "This is the Place" monument park with my friend Liesl and her girls. They live in Logan and we don't get to see them all too often, so this was a big treat - This day, Reese opted to stay home with Sam for some daddy time. Notice Audrey and her friend Navy in the picture? They're the exact same age, born in the same month even. It's so funny to see genetics really start to take their roll as the kids are getting bigger. Either way, it all adds up to cute!

Ah, getting closer to Halloween - the pumpkin carving. We carved the night before this time because the weather's been so warm we knew that meant less porch-life for our creations. The kids did a great job with little or no help in Audrey's case - we roasted seeds like always and enjoyed our Sunday afternoon activity.