Fin Fun Mermaid Giveaway

Enter to win one of these sweet mermaid tails at 71toes.blogspot.com. I would have loved one of these as a child--I always wanted to be a mermaid!
Fin fun mermaid is the company who makes these cool tails and the link is www.finfunmermaid.blogspot.com.

Tender Tennessee Christmas for Tiny Dancer

Holly had an incredible year in dance. Just 2 weeks ago she and I traveled to Tennessee where she competed for an Outstanding Dancer scholarship. After two days of intense dancing and auditions, not only was she awarded the scholarship, but she received the only ballet scholarship in her age group (out of 70 plus girls). We were thrilled! Both our jaws dropped to the floor when her name was announced for the ballet award, as she does not like ballet at all and has not been as strong in it. She will now go to New York in July where she will compete in the national competition. It was such a great moment for us. Holly has worked so hard and come so far. Above she is posing with Joe Lanteri the director of the New York City Dance Alliance.



Holly, Rozy and Cassie also competed their trio "Spring Cleaning" and received a "platinum" award. Again, I was in shock as I was just hoping their piece would earn at least a high gold.

Holly, Rozy and Cassie

On the flight home we changed planes in Las Vegas. As we were waiting on the tarmac for our gate, this sweet flight attendant pictured below with the girls announced over the loudspeaker, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have two very special guests on board with us today: Holly and Rozy who have just earned Outstanding Dancer scholarships and will go on to compete in New York in the summer. I just know we will see their names in big lights some day!" The passengers on the packed plane all started to clap for them. It was so darling! She had talked to the girls throughout the flight, but we had no idea she was going to make such an announcement. As we waited for the connecting flight to Salt Lake, several passengers came up to the girls and congratulated them.
We took Rozy with us on our trip so she could compete and qualify their trio. Rozy's mom bought and packed these adorable matching outfits for the girls. People kept asking if the girls were twins. We loved having Rozy along! She and Holly absolutely adore each other.

It snowed about half an inch in Nashville and the whole city shut down. Seriously, the schools and many businesses were closed. Evidently, it hadn't snowed in Nashville since 2001. The dancers from Tennessee were screaming because some had never seen snow.
This is the view of the snow outside our window. The woman who drove our shuttle was petrified as she had never driven in snow. I offered to take the wheel and I think for a second she considered it. Snow and all we had a fabulous time in Tennessee!

giveaway

Alice Lane, the fabulous new store in Orem is giving away $100 gift certificate to a lucky reader. Check it out: http://liveatwillowcreek.com/alicelaneblog/?p=583&cpage=2#comments

First Day of School

Summer went by much too quickly. Here we are another school year. In spite of their moaning and groaning about going back, they were pretty excited this morning.

The traditional first day of school pose on the front sidewalk. My mom had me and my siblings pose like this every new school year. I, of course, have my kids do the same pose.

Piers Island

For Spring Break our dear friends, the Freedmans, invited us to spend the week at their beautiful and spacious cottage on Piers Island, a quaint tiny island located north of Victoria, B.C., Canada. We had a glorious time on this little getaway. First, we drove a suburban (which Den found) for the Freedmans up to Vancouver, Wa. where we spent two nights with Den's lifelong friend, Jeff and his wife, Rebecca and their new baby, James (a precious son who took ten years to get here). Sadly, I did not take one picture there. Ahh! We attended church with them (Easter) and then had a wonderful meal with some of their ward friends. The next morning we drove to Port Angeles where we (car included) all boarded the ferry for a 90 minute ride to Victoria. The Freedmans picked us and all our luggage up in their fishing boat in Canoe Cove Marina and ferried us to their gorgous home on the beach. We all had a fabulous time and did not want to come home. The weather cooperated too. Not too cold or rainy, as was predicted.

Bill took us crabbing and prawning. First, the pods attached to buoys and containing bait of salmon, chicken and lures were thrown into the water . Several hours later we would return and retrieve the pods. We caught around 12 crabs (but had to release the females) and countless prawn. Bill steamed or scampied them for us each night. They were divine! Dipped in drawn butter or cocktail sauce the prawn tasted like a cross between shrimp and lobster--out of this world! I must have eaten twenty or more each night.

The kids had so much fun in the hot tub. Can't beat this view.

We awakened to this view each morning

Getting ready to go catch more crab and prawn

More photos to come later ....

Jo Jo' 16 month check up

Last week Jolie had a well baby check up. She is healthy and progressing well. It is so sad for me to see my baby growing. This has truly been the fastest year of my life.

Weight 19.86 lbs (6 %tile)

Height 30.25 inches (32 %tile)

She is tiny.

She also had to get two shots-not fun. She only cried for a second, though.

Jolie is at a very fun stage right now. She communicates what she wants very well.

She says quite a few words now:

Mommy

Daddeeee

Hawyee (Holly)

Co ee (Cory)

baby

ba ba

sssss (shoe)

Be (when she wants to turn on the light switch. Not sure where this came from)

na na (banana)

grow (gross--when I change her diaper)

ewwww (" ")

chee (chesse)

numnum

hi

uh oh

When something is hot she will blow (fire, stovetop, etc.). The other day I put her in the bathtub and it was a little too warm for her. I took her out and she stood on the side and started blowing into the tub.

A couple of days ago I had a bag of flour sitting open on the kitchen floor (mistake!). She dipped her hand into it and of course, got flour all over the floor. I said "Uh oh". She went over to the garbage cupboard and pulled out a tissue and began to wipe it up. It was adorable.

Jolie also got the box of dishwashing soap and took it over to the open dishwasher to try and fill the cup. I let her close the cap after we fill it and she loves it. She also loves to help me empty the dishwasher--clean or dirty. She loves to throw the silverware and plates on the floor.

She is such a sweet baby. We all adore her. The kids all love to play with her. Every morning Cory goes into her room to get her up (He will wake her intentionally if she is asleep. Drives me nuts!) Holly is such a good helper. She will bathe her every Sunday for me.