The Lost Year

This year will forever be known as my lost year. I was so focused with teaching and Michelangelo kept the camera at his studio so I wasn't able to take as many pictures as I would have liked during the year. So some pictures are borrowed and some events are not recorded with pictures. I think I got most of the important ones though. Here is my attempt at a quick catch up.

In the spring Monkey turns 8 and Bug turns 5!

 For my Dad's Birthday we went on a Penguin Excursion at The Living Planet Aquarium

. This penguin laid beneath Bug's feet for most of the visit and kept all the other penguins at bay. It was pretty funny.

 I took the girls to our Friend's campout this summer all by myself. Michelangelo had to work and I was pretty proud of myself for pulling it off. It was also nice to know there were plenty of friends around to help if I needed it. We had a lot of fun.

 For my side of the family's extend family reunion we went to Cove Fort and Bryce Canyon. It was beautiful! I love being with my family.

 All the girls started school. I started teaching for my first full year. Monkey started 3rd grade in the Spectrum program. Bug started Kindergarten. Boo started Daycare at the High School. They take great care of her and she gets to be with her sister for part of the day.

I began the school year with my own class of 2nd graders. They are the cutest people in the world. I love being their teacher!

 Monkey and Michelangelo entered the State Fair. This was Monkey's first time.

 Michelangelo won the Grand Prize award and First place in the Professional Sculpture category! In other art related news; Michelangelo made a strippling warrior sculpture to go along with the 2000 young men that marched in the Bountiful Handcart Days Parade. It was so popular Deseret Book has started selling them in their store. He also continues to receive orders from all over the country for his Native American Lacrosse pieces. Things are going really well for him.

 We spent alot of time on the Soccer Fields this year with both Monkey and Bug playing Soccer. Monkey is getting pretty good! Bug is starting to get the hang of it and loves making new friends each game. Boo loves to play games on the sidelines.

Boo and I had our Birthdays. Boo turned 3. I am 10 times that plus a year. Boo loved blowing out the candles but got a little confused when everyone sang Happy Birthday to Mommy as well.

Thanks giving was wonderful. Monkey was in the school musical, "Annie", and she and Bug were also in a singing group called the Gingerbread Kids. Monkey had 5 or 6 solos depending on which night it was and Bug kept us laughing withe her antics. She finally figured out that if she wants a solo next year she has to sing all the time this year. Needles to say the last two performances were much improved. Lets just hope she gets a solo next year.

Christmas was wonderful! The girls were so cute together and we had a grand time with family. I may post more about this later.

I got a camera for Christmas so hopefully I will be better at posting. My goal is once a month.

Photo taken by Amy Carlston at http://serve-sunshine.blogspot.com

 Despite being a lost year 2012 was a great year. I am so excited for 2013!

The weekend festivities

This weekend was so fun. I got to go with Monkey's class to Red Butte Gardens. That was a fun trip. I haven't been there since I was little. It was beautiful. Monkey's teacher brought a container of ladybugs and the kids had a blast letting them go. I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with my oldest.

Michelangelo had a lot going on this weekend. He was in charge of curating an exhibit at our local art center. He did life drawing sketches collected from art professors he has come in contact including Dean Keller who passed away in 2006. It was to educate the community about the importance of learning to draw the figure in order to create quality art. There were sketches from professors from BYU, U of U, BYU-I, SLCC, Lyme Academy of Fine Art and some of his own to show the progression of what an art education can produce. There were a lot of late nights, but it was beautifully done.

For the past 7 or 8 years our city has done a Chalk Art Festival. It such a great community event to see all kinds of artists come out and create such beautiful pieces of work.

The weather was great and didn't rain on the finished paintings.
Michelangelo did a quick drawing of Boo's pouty face taken from this picture. I think it turned out awesome. Boo loved seeing the "baby".

They also have a spot for the kids to create their own artwork. It's Monkey's and Bug's favorite. They had been talking about going to draw with chalk all week.

Monkey drew a blue bird with a girl and a sunset. All my pictures of the finished product have my shadow covering it so your just going to have to believe me.

This is Bug's drawing of a girl with a butterfly net on a hill and a bird flying above.
Boo wanted to get right in there but it was causing problems. Here she is on her side of the sidewalk with Daddy. She is definitely his daughter. Look at those faces. I love those faces!

November in review

I think I have changed my background more often than I have posted this month and for that I apologize. Here is an update for my records of November 2009.
With the new baby and two little girls excited for Halloween I asked my husband and my mom to hold off on my birthday for a couple of weeks. That is why I didn't post anything about it in October. And some of you probably thought I was being humble or not wanting to celebrate. No way! I was actually being selfish! :) I didn't want to share my celebration! I did have a birthday dinner with the Calls and that was fantastic.

Our good friends who were like 2nd parents to us in Connecticut came to visit for my birthday and that made me so happy!

Ok so maybe I wasn't the sole reason for them to visit, but we'll just pretend. Shhh.

• Monkey bore her testimony in church for the first time. Of course I missed it, but I heard it was great!
• Daddy and Monkey got to go to two U of U football games. Monkey is now officially a Ute fan. grrrr.
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• Bug's sentences explode. She is a lot easier to understand and she hasn't cut her bangs in over a month! We are making progress.
• Monkey starts Girl Scouts as a Daisy. She loves it!
• Birthday shopping with Mom and Grandma. Wahoo! Thanks family and friends for all the birthday wishes! I feel so old.
• Night out with the girls. Thanks guys, lets do this again soon!

• Mr. Call finishes new sculptures
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• Monkey makes her own pie with Oma
• Lala at 5 weeks with Opa. My best guess is that she is about 9 lbs at this point.
• Thanksgiving: Family and Food = Fantastic! Not able to use any kind of water in my house= Frustrating! These are our grateful leaves, I would also add working plumbing to the mix if I had to do it over. Some of my favorite leaves: Bug= Eyes and face, Monkey= Food and vegetables, voice, Daddy=Beautiful wife and volleyball, Me=my family and parents. I couldn't have survived this year without my parents and mother in law's help.
• BYU vs. UofU football game. Bug yelling go Cougars whenever somebody wanted her to yell go Utes. :) And then BYU winning the game!
• Pulling out Christmas decorations.
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• Lala at 6 weeks. She now looks like an infant instead of a newborn.
  
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Happy 29th and a plug.

Happy Birthday Kurlz!

Saturday was Kurlz' birthday and since he will never read this, I will tell you why I am so grateful he was born 29 years ago.
I love this guy. I love that because of his dream we moved across the country where we made friends with some truly incredible people.

I love that he is supportive of me while I go to school. He usually makes dinner, helps me clean the house, and frequently even breakfast, all while holding two jobs.

He loves playing with his girls and is so good to help me out with them. He also loves his Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and takes his priesthood responsibilities seriously.
I love that he will carve pumpkins and go to parties with me even though he'd rather skip the pumpkins and stay at home being with me or else working on his art.

Which brings me to these pictures and a shameless plug for my husband's work. I love that my husband is passionate about his art, and that he is willing to explain to me the processes that sculpture requires.

(His senior project at Lyme Academy of Fine Art)

(Bas Relief of Monkey)

(Drawing of the Salt Lake Temple)
(Drawing of a friend's son)

I love that he is passionate about scouting. He is willing to camp in single digits during the winter and he cares about the boys he works with. Not to mention scouting has created one outlet for him to sell his work.

You can also obtain original neckerchief slides at Ebay. His business is called neckerchiefsllc.

He is so sweet to me, and I am so grateful he is mine.

(A shout out to my brother. Happy Birthday tomorrow!)