Which Dress Did Emma Choose?

Another neat thing about living in Utah is that there are stores specifically for all your white dress needs. I loved this opportunity to go with Emma to try on dresses for her baptism in this store. It made me think of the day I will be with her again trying on wedding dresses. They have these three way mirrors too that she could come look at herself in, in each beautiful dress. I was joking with Madison and Mikayla because their dresses were blood red for their baptism. It was winter and no store had white dresses. Ordering online was too new so I don't think it was even an option back then.

Now, all of you that check my blog, get to try and guess which of these dresses that she tried on, she chose. Her baptism will be the 11th of April in California so you will have to attend the baptism to find out, or wait until I post pictures of her special day. Will it be dress #1,2,3,4, 0r 5 with the picture directly underneath this being #1 and down from there.
Sidenote: she was not feeling well when we took these pictures but she was a trooper.

I was messing with buttons on my camera and ended up on these color ones. Emma loves the pink hair and wants me to color her hair pink.

General Young Women's Meeting

Tanya(my cousin's wife) and I took our girls to the Young Women's meeting at the conference center. It is a neat opportunity to be back here in Utah and be able to participate in these programs. We went to dinner first and then the program. The start of another tradition.

Mikayla, Taylor, Renae(cousin) and Madison in the Joseph Smith Building waiting to get in to eat.

Awful picture(of me anyway) but it is a picture of all of us together... my flash didn't work either.

I loved that they had the flags up around Temple Square in the Young Women's value colors.

Madi grabbed my camera on the way home and the girls were goofing off.

So cute and happy.

Let The Competition Begin

Mikayla and Taylor both do dance. The dance they are doing here in Utah is competitive dance. Mikayla is doing jazz and Taylor is doing hip hop.
After practicing all year, competition has begun. Apparently, we chose the right studio because really, there does not seem to be any competition. Even with the obvious mistakes some of the girls on Taylor's team made, they still came in first place. Mikayla's group came in first the last two weeks. They are both doing well and having fun.

They dressed in 80's clothes for Mikalya's dance and Taylor's are just hip hop clothes.

I had to put this pictures in because Taylor was so mad because of the girls that messed up and made her look bad. They were in the wrong spot so Taylor had to move over to their spot in the middle of the dance in order for it to look right.

Mikayla dancing away.

Mikayla's in the back. I couldn't get pictures of Taylor because the camera was left out in the car. Next week. I will also try to put a movie up next time.

A Quick Visit From Uncle Tony

We had a quick visit from Uncle Tony this weekend. The kids love Uncle Tony. I love the food he cooks for us. He was heading to Colorado to pick up an airplane engine for his airplane he is rebuilding. Unfortunately, with our extremely busy weekend and his long drive to Colorado Saturday, we didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with him. He did find time to make us some really good macaroni and cheese for lunch Saturday. I came home from dance competitions and lunch was on the table. Later, while Tanya and I took the girls to the young women's meeting, he went to the movies with Jeff and Nathan. Between MOVING THAT WEEKEND, dance competitions, the young women's meeting, Taylor's birthday party, Jeff getting called in for a trauma case, I guess we were lucky to see him at all. You can't believe how tired I was that weekend! Or maybe you can.

Taylor's Birthday Party

Taylor turned 13 this week. There is no shortage of friends for Taylor since moving out here. This is only some of them that could make it to her party. Actually others showed up after this picture was taken too. She had a fun night of just hanging out with friends. We love having Taylor in our family. She is always so happy and positive and fun to be around. One of her best traits is her ability to love everyone. She is great with those that may not feel a part of the group(something President Monson spoke on at our Young Women meeting last night). I see this at church all the time and her leaders love her because of it. Happy birthday Taylor!

Look at all these girly colors. She used to be such a tomboy - not anymore.

They were watching Twilight, or it was on anyway, and I am not sure what they were doing here all gathered around the television but they were having fun whatever it was.

Love this picture. Do you see the swedish fish in the air she is trying to catch? She missed.

My second action shot. Look at the whip cream falling from her hand.

Emma's Big Day(s)

Emma had her birthday on the 22nd and turned 8 eight years old. Our last to be baptized. A milestone that says our kids are getting too old. Where are my babies? Thankfully, Emma has willingly agreed to always be my baby. Her teacher gave her a cake mix and candles for her birthday with a cute poem. I thought that was a creative and fun gift and so did Emma. Happy Birthday Emma!

Emma decorated her cake just the way she wanted it- even with no frosting and a few bites taken out of it.

She had a tea party for her birthday on Friday with some of her friends. They had a good time.

Madi and Mikayla were the waitresses for the day. I wanted cute little sandwiches and petit fors for food but because we were signing for our home that day, I ran out of time to do all that I wanted to do. Jeff suggested wheat thins with that spray cheese and lunchables. The kids actually loved them and ate everything.

See how fancy lunchable crackers can look on a tray?

Emma invited Olivia to her party too and they got matching dresses to wear.

On her real birthday which was Sunday we had cake with some of her friends. Actually Kennady,standing next to her, is her friend and we invited her sister and little brother to come too.

Emma before the guests came to her party on Friday.

We had a pinata for her party on Friday but I broke it. Jeff fixed it and we did it on Sunday instead while we had her friends over for cake. This is River hitting it. He is such a cute kid.

I like this picture because you can see River blowing also.

Sunday was a very long day for Emma. Before we had cake, we had the Draper temple dedication. She got to go since she turned eight that day. We had to go a half hour early to the church to get a good seat, then wait an another hour for it to start and then it was an hour and a half long program. I kept telling her how neat it was that she got to go with us but I don't think she was feeling the same way.

Too Many Pictures of our New House

I am putting these pictures up so mom and dad can see the house. That is the great thing about my blog. Mom and dad can see almost immediately what we are up to.
Here is our new home in Kaysville, Utah. I call it my practical home because it has everything I need and is the perfect size for our family. It is 5000 sq. ft. and has 6 bedrooms. I love that there is so much storage and that everything can have it's place. As Grandma Dorius always said, " A place for everything and everything in it's place".

The kids complain because it looks so small from the outside. I agree there are a lot of homes around it that put it to shame with their size and beauty, but it works for me.



This is what I do not like. There is a wall between the kitchen and family room but, oh well they are both still beautiful rooms.

Extra large garage. I can put my Suburban in it and still have room to get out(on my side) and even open the back door. Jeff plans on putting a shop in the very back of the single side again.

This is a hall in the basement. Two of those doors are storage closets. The other is a future laundry room.

Downstairs bedrooms. Jeffrey and Taylor's rooms. And guest/craft room.

Basement family room.

Another hall in the basement. The door on the left goes into the family room. I am considering taking out that wall to open up the basement more. The other doors on the right are more storage closets.

This is the loft upstairs. It will soon be known as the "Study" as soon as we get desks and shelves put in.

This is upstairs. There are 2 bedrooms and the loft. I am standing in one of the rooms so you can see from one side to the other. The bedrooms up here are huge. I think they are 14' x 17'.

Front door, office and the great spot we found for the clock.

Obviously the back of the house. One door is from the family room and the other is from the master bedroom.

Backyard. We have a lot of work to do. If you look closely, you can see the fence in the back where the property line is. It's just in front of all the farm stuff.

I love this just off the laundry room. Jeff is in the middle of putting hooks up.

This is the master bedroom.

Pretty fireplace with tiles.

Family room. We got the furniture and pictures with the house.

Breakfast nook.

Kitchen