4th Grade Musical - "School Daze"

Before the show shots.

We got to listen to the song "The Concert Etiquette Rap" for WEEKS before the show.  The title of the song really points to how truly annoying of a song it is.  At least Capri struck the best pose during the actual performance.

Capri Singing

"Drive" by Imagine Dragons.

First Day of School

Kindergarten

Fourth Grade

Capri was beyond excited for school to start.  She is everything I wished I was growing up.  Responsible, organized, stylish, beautiful, and oh so confident.  

Third Grade

Jeff gave all the kids father's blessings before school today.  The spirit was strong for all, but especially for Rome's.  Jeff said some things that struck me in particular.  Afterwards, Jeff whispered to me "Rome is a very special spirit".   I know he's right.

I managed not to cry when we dropped Sable off at her classroom.  But only because I cried at back to school night a few days ago.  She's tough for me to send away.  In my head, she is still my "Sable baby".  Her hair hasn't grown, and she is the easiest child in the world.  In my head I bounce her on my hip and she smiles at everything. 

In reality, she's 6.  Her hair is long (longer even last night before I cut several inches off).  She gets grumpy and has a lot of opinions.  She has crushes and likes to put up a fight. 

But she still is ready for a snuggle anytime.  She is kind to others and thinks of them often.  She would happily let me bounce her on my hip - if only I wasn't worried I'd break in two. 

Be bold and strong my Sable baby, I'll miss you terribly.

Just a little comparison

2009 Dance Recital



2013 Dance Recital

Yeah, 4 years.

It goes fast people, FAST.  And they grow.  Boy do they grow.  No matter how hard you plead for them not to. 

I've been reading some old blog posts and realizing how much chattier I used to be, and how many more comments I used to get.   The blog world certainly is different now.  Facebook has taken over and eaten all of our desire to write complete sentences.  Some are still valiant bloggers (ick, what a horrible word).  To you, high praise.

Corrie, if I'm back - that means you're back too my dear.  Move it. 

Venn Diagramming

I walked into the kitchen a couple weeks ago and found this on the chalkboard.

Apparently, I am "always happy". Awesome! Oh, and I like to sow. Er, maybe that's sew.

We haven't been doing this in school or anything. She did it on her own. Ya know, just a little venn diagramming fun.

Baptism

Capri was baptized on the 20th. It was a wild and crazy ride to that baptismal font I'll tell ya!

Jeff and I stayed up late the night before setting up, preparing for a big birthday party to take place after the baptism. At about 1:30am a HUGE storm suddenly started. Very high winds and tons of rain poured down. Soon the power began to flicker. That's happened before, but this time it flickered on and off at least a dozen times before going out for good. In the 6 years we've lived here, we've NEVER lost power without it coming back on in a few minutes. There was still lots to do to prepare for the next day and some was stuff I definitely needed power to do! Capri woke up about 30 minutes into the storm. The kids usually never wake up during storms but I think Capri was already on edge, nervous and excited about her baptism. Jeff and I worked on what we could by candle and flashlights. Then Jeff headed to bed. I did the dishes in the dark, with Capri holding a flashlight as best she could. Then I had no choice. I headed to bed too, hoping the power would come back on in the night.

It didn't.

In the morning I did my makeup next the the kitchen door for the light. We all got ready as best we could, there would be no flat ironing my or Capri's hair! And then we were off to the church. We prayed on the way that the power would be on at the church so that we could actually go through with the baptism. Thankfully the power was on, but NOT the air conditioning. We got everything set up and started right on time.



Capri was beautiful and SO excited.



Like Sable's shoes? I didn't notice she had flip flops on until we were walking into the church. Way to go Sable!



With Gramma and Papa (my parents, more on their visit later).



Baptized and the newest member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.



The baptism went so wonderfully. Except for it being hot, everything went just as planned. The Grandpas gave the talks and both were exceptional. Capri sang the song "When I am Baptized" and sounded wonderful. She was nervous and a little shy, but did an amazing job.

When I went into the changing room to help her, she proclaimed "I did it! I'm baptized!" They were the words I'd been longing to hear.

Congratulations Capri! We are so proud of the wonderful decisions you are making every day!

Fiesta!

Capri and Sable had a joint birthday Fiesta after the baptism. With the power out when we left the house I was praying that it would be on when we got home. The whole house had already been decorated, everything was there. Moving the party would not be possible. We needed to do a bunch of cooking for the taco bar and with all the people coming we really needed the air conditioning. Driving home from the church all I could think about was how much we needed the power to be on. But I was trying to tell myself to roll with the punches if it wasn't. As we pulled on to our street I was scanning for ANY evidence of power. Glory be, the neighbors had a porch light on! We opened our door and felt the AC. That was it, the tears started immediately and I made a beeline for my bedroom. I fell on my knees in thankful prayer. Honestly, I was beside myself with joy and thanks.

The fiesta was ON!




Taco bar! (Mostly consumed by the time I took this picture.)



Cupcakes!



Friends and family!




Pin the tail on the donkey!



Presents!





It was a massive unwrapping with presents everywhere. Even Rome and Oz got a belated b-day present each. Uncle Jon, Aunt Katie and their kids picked out such fun stuff for them both.



Adorable kids!




















Pinata!



This is our "super duper safe" (I say that as sarcastically as possible) solution to not being able to do the pinata outside because of all the mud and sticks in the yard from the storm.



It actually worked really well and was HILARIOUS to watch. Luckily nobody got hurt and everybody had fun. You can't see it in the pictures but all the kids and adults were instructed to stay behind a coffee table I'd moved to behind "the hitters". But try and imagine keeping 16 kids and 12 adults back at a safe distance. Honestly it's amazing nobody got smacked!



Singing!







All done! (And tuckered out.)

We successfully made it through "birthday party season". Phew.

Till next year!

No more exclamation points.

I promise!