Boogie Shoes

You can now check out the dance Roderic did with his tumbling class!

It's Always Fun For Everyone...

When Grandpa Comes!



We had the pleasure of hosting not one, but 2 Grandpa's and 2 Grandma's this past weekend! The occasion that brought them here was Roderic's first tumbling recital.



Roderic waiting to perform at his recital. The Blue Dolphins

Roderic has been taking "Tumble Rhythm I" from Wright Foot Forward dance studio this past year. Mrs. Wright is an amazing teacher for young children. She keeps them moving, learning and having fun. Her studio does a recital in the spring. On a stage. In sparkly costumes. With an audience of parents and grandparents (according to Roderic). Roderic was so excited to learn that he was going to dance on a stage with curtains. He asked if it was the day for his recital weekly for 5 weeks. He asked both sets of grandparents to come see him perform. And they both said yes!

As luck would have it, Sabrina's soccer team played in the Championship game of the Idaho Rush Select Classic tournament that same day. And it didn't conflict with Roderic's recital, so we were all able to go and cheer for her team! The game was tied 2-2 after regulation, then they played 2 5-minute overtimes. Finally the game ended in a shootout. The Sharks beat the Blue Dolphins by a score of 5-3. I had butterflies in my stomach, telling myself that this was my 3rd grader playing, not a professional troupe of athletes. Not even playing for a college scholarship. They were playing for fun.



Grandma & Grandpa G and Meggan brought presents to celebrate Sabrina and my birthdays.



I made a cake to celebrate Grandpa C's birthday. Roderic got to help blow out the candles. (I love Ryan's facial expression in that picture!)



My kids sure do love "The Pied Piper" (Uncle Carson)!

Sunday mroning Hyrum decided that he needed to chime in his gratefulness of his Grandpas coming and learned to say their names, "Bamba!" Now we have a picture of them as the background on our computer and he says "Bamba" every time he sees it! It's good we'll be visiting UT this weekend, so he can see them in person again.

Due to unforseen technical difficulties, the video performance is not yet available. Check back later.

Spring!

I love the flowers in our yard that bloom in the spring.
Although, I don't think I have enough of them blooming this year.
I'm going to plant some more in the fall.
This is one of the trees in our front yard, with the 3-headed daffodils underneath.

On a side note, today at the park with friends, we were 'snowed' on by petals falling from one of the trees.
I can handle that kind of snow in May.

Musicals, Musicals, Musicals

This has been the year of the musical for us. We started off the year with Sabrina being a performer in "Jack and the Beanstalk" with Missoula Children's Theatre. She was a merchant.

A few weeks later, after we watched our neighbor's kids while they went to see "Riverdance," and I was trying to come up with a great date for Ryan and I to go on so they could return the favor, Ryan pulled out 3 tickets for "Little Women," which was coming on a National Broadway Tour. One for Ryan, Sabrina and me. I bought the soundtrack so we could all get familiar with the story line. Then, I decided I should read the book as well. I don't believe I had ever read that book before. It is really good. I recommend it. We went to see "Little Women" the night before our trip to Oregon. The show started at 8pm, was playing at a theatre 30 minutes away from our house. Needless-to-say, it was a late night for us. Especially with an early morning drive the next day. We listened to the soundtrack throughout our trip. LOVE THE MUSIC!

While eating at Burger King one snowy/rainy day (April 9) with Stacy and kids, we got our hands on a copy of the Idaho Statesman. It had an ad for Boise Music Week. Free music events for a whole week. Including a free Broadway musical. Apparently they have been doing this for 90 years. This year the musical was "Singin' in the Rain." I really enjoy this musical. I don't know how many times I saw this movie growing up. Keturah was in the chorus of this musical when she was a sophomore in high school. Loved watching her in it.

I requested 4 free tickets for any of the performances with the official request coupon from that copy of the Statesman and mailed them in with a SASE on the due date. The next Tuesday, I received that envelope back with NO tickets in it and NO explanation as to why. So I sent an email and got a reply that they had 20,000 tickets available for "Singin' In the Rain" and more than 22,000 requests for those tickets. They even ran out of 'sorry' slips. Not to be deterred, I planned to go standby. We invited Sara S. to accompany us and left our house a little after 6 pm. When we arrived at the Morrison Center ticket office, we were #20 on the standby list. While waiting for our number to come up, I taught the girls the hand game about the McDonald's menu. The tickets we received were on the first row of the balcony, on the side. Perfect for the girls, there were no "big heads" in front of them. They absolutely loved the musical. I asked them during intermission if seeing this was causing them to want to learn how to tap dance and both said, "Yes!" It was a late night, with musicals lasting 3 hours. Sabrina was asleep within minutes of her head hitting the pillow.

On Friday, Stacy and went to the Egyptian Theatre downtown to watch another Boise Music Week Event, a silent movie accompanied by a live theatre organ! The featured movie was Laurel and Hardy staring in "We Faw Down." Before seeing that movie, we saw a Charlie Chaplin movie and then had an old-time sing-a-long. I think next year, I'll pull Sabrina out of school and take her to see the silent movie. The organist was amazing. He sat at the front of the Theatre facing the movie screen, playing the organ to match the mood of the movie. Talk about talent! And either they put a fire scene in every silent movie because the organ has a siren sound, or they put the siren on the organ because there is a fire scene in every movie.

This was my second time going to Boise's Egyptian Theatre. The first time was December 31, 1999. I went with Sabrina, Shanda, Jason and Keturah to see "Singin' In the Rain." They were showing classic movies all day for free to celebrate the Millennium. If we would have had food and Sabrina not needing a nap, we would have stuck around to watch "Superman."

Ryan-head

What is his name? Ryan Robert
How long have we been married? Eleven years and 4 months
How long did we date? We met right before my 14th birthday. Needless-to-say, we didn't date until he returned from his mission, when I was 17. We then dated off and on for 2 years and 5 days, then were married. If only Dec 23 hadn't been a Sunday that year, we could have been married on the anniversary of our first date.
How old is he? 34
Who said I love you first? Me
Who is taller? He is, unless I wear heels and/or stand on a stool.
Who sings better? We sing duets together. His tenor and my soprano. Need I say more?
Who is smarter? We are smart in different categories.
Whose temper is worse? I think me.
Who pays the bills? Automatic Bill Pay. ;)
Who does the laundry? Me, with a little help from our kids. And he helps fold the clothes that are piled on the bed before we can go to sleep.
Who cooks dinner? If it's fish, he makes it. Otherwise, I enjoy cooking.
Who drives when we are together? Usually Ryan.
Whose parents do you see more? Our parents live less than a mile apart. When we go to visit family, we stay at his folks' house but we spend time at mine as well.
Who eats more sweets? Me. It's easier to eat them, when there are a lot of options of sweets to eat at home. And I can make cookies with my children any time I want. Now I want something sweet to eat. Great.
Who mows the lawn? Sometimes I do, sometimes he does. In a couple more years, we hope to let a kid of ours share that task.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does. But I don't usually get up on the wrong side of the bed. haha
Who asked who out first? I called and asked him, on the day after he returned home from his mission, to go to a concert. He was unable to go because he had to go see his little sister sing in a concert that same night. He asked me to go ice skating a few days later.
Who kissed whom first? It was mutual.
What is my favorite thing about him? Ryan has a way with words. The letters and notes he would write while we were dating and the ones he still writes are beautiful.

Sewing with Stacy

Last Wednesday, Stacy took me out to celebrate my birthday. We went to JoAnn Fabric with no children! There was a great sale on fabrics and threads, so I bought some material to make me a skirt, Sabrina and Roderic some shorts and Hyrum a romper. On Thursday she invited me over to sew in her sewing room. Sewing with a friend is great. Sewing with a knowledgable seamstress with 3 sewing machines in one room is amazing! I got all the fabric cut out for the skirt, shorts and romper and then sewed the romper. When I had Hyrum try it on, to see how it looks, this is what I got:




Then, on Monday, my mom emailed me about costumes for our upcoming family chorus barbershop concert. I had the idea that I could make them up for Sabrina and Janica. Stacy provided the patterns and once again I spent yesterday and today working on these 2 dresses. I may even be brave enough to make matching shirts for Mom, Shanda and myself.


I hope to soon get back to making my skirt and the shorts for Roderic and Sabrina, but at least it is not shorts weather yet.

Big Surprise

Ryan really likes to spoil me. A lot. Birthdays. Christmases. Anniversaries. Valentines. One year for Mother's Day, he got me matching towels, bath mats and accessories for our bathroom. This birthday was no different. I felt my birthday couch was overflowing with presents from him. And then at dinner he pulls out another surprise.

It's an ION Tape2PC Cassette Archiver. The name says it all. It's a dual cassette tape deck that has a USB cord to attatch to my PC. Press play on the tape deck, press record on my PC and all of a sudden I can digitize our ENTIRE tape collection! You may have noticed that I haven't blogged in a while. Well I have been on the computer. I've just been turning my favorite tapes into mp3s.

I now have the 1993 Utah All-State Choir concert on my mp3 player! The Book Of Mormon Seminary music "Free to Choose" can be played again at my house! Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy", BYU University Chorale from 1995. Even piano accompaniment practice tapes of songs I sang in high school. My playable music library has been expanded!

The software is easy enough to use. I'm hooked. Anyone have a tape they want me to digitize?