Our Christmas Tree

And yes, I was having fun with my camera...

Christmas in the Heart of a Child

Callie's play opened last night - it is really a collection of 6 mini-plays. Callie appeared in 5 of them, mostly in minor roles.
The first one was "Santa and the Gimmee Gimmee" I bet you can guess the plot:

Then the "Nutcracker" which was primarily a made-up backstory to the ballet. In the backstory, Callie played "Madamoiselle Mouserinks" who is the mother of the Mouse King. The backstory was played out in shadow while Drosselmeyer narrates. Callie is the middle one in the shadows below:

In the "Gift of the Magi" (which was just the traditional story) Callie was a background player in a scene on the street. You can see her in the purple dress in the picture in the bottom middle:

After intermission was the LITTLE plays, starting with the "Little Match Girl". Callie's only role in this play was to be the Match Girl's dead body lying on a corner of the stage in the scenes where the match girl is in heaven. Being the mommarazzi that I am, I still got a photo:

Then came "The Littlest Angel" - the only play Callie was not in:

And finally, "The Little Drummer Boy". Callie was part of the "Child Angel Chorus" and did a lot of ribbon twirling:

Then came a big finale number with song, dance, and the various casts taking a bow:

Callie has had a lot of fun and really enjoyed her stage debut!

(The photo on the bottom left is Kyra talking to Chris Heimerdinger, Callie's castmate and author of the "Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites" books. She used to LOOOOOVE those books and so she went and introduced herself to him.)
The play runs through Dec. 7 if you want to see it....

Brigadoon!

So Kyra is doing an amazing job in this show! There is one more show Monday night if you haven't seen it yet and want to! Here's a bunch of pictures from Thursday and Friday's shows:
















And.....I think that's enough!

November's half over....

So I thought I'd post a wee update. Notice the Scottish accent? That would be because Brigadoon is opening this week, and Kyra's practicing her accent is kind of rubbing off on me....
So what have we been up to?
Well, I had a birth up at LDS hospital, and the view of the capitol as you're leaving the parking garage is stunning at 4 am:

And Darrin got a new laptop:

And Callie & Brynn won a trophy and a medal at school for their poem and drawing. (respectively)

And Darrin & I went to a hockey game. (Yes, a hockey game!)


But I didn't know the women were supposed to bring their knitting:

And just in case you were wondering if Satan is real, he is. We saw him at the hockey game. I got photographic proof.

And that's about it!

Halloween 2009

So Brynn made her own ballerina costume, Callie was Little Red Riding Hood, and Kyra was Thing #1 from Dr. Seuss. (Everyone always wanted to know where Thing #2 was, but Thing #2 forgot to make a costume...)

The bottom picture is from the IAT party, so it also has cousins Zack, Syndnee & Ashlyn (Dave's kids) in it. Bonus for you, lucky readers! Sadly, it is the only one I got of Kyra in her costume. Not sure how that happened!
We carved Jack O Lanterns from pumpkins we grew ourselves this year. Brynn even carved hers all by herself!


It was a busy 3 day affair this year, with the school festivities on Thursday, several parties on Friday (Including one Callie hosted for her friends) and then the church party and trick or treating on Halloween itself!

So you don't miss it...

I added the promised photos to the post below...

What's that flying by the window?

Is it.... could it be.... a PIG? Yes, it's true, pigs are flying, and I'm updating my blog!

It's been a crazy couple of months around here. Want to see what we've been up to?

Well, first off, I went to Atlanta for a conference. Took an extra day to see the Georgia Aquarium, the largest one in the world, and very, very cool!



You can see more photos from the Georgia Aquarium HERE. The conference was great, had some good southern food, and very much enjoyed the break.

Then school started. Kyra is a Junior this year, Callie is in 6th grade, and Brynn in 2nd grade. I got first day pictures of the 2 younger ones, but I was barely coherent when Kyra left to catch the bus at 6:30 am and totally missed that. Sorry kiddo!



(That's Brynn's teacher Ms. Demke. Brynn thinks they look alike.)

September brought some fun stuff. Darrin's extended family put on a play written by Darrin's grandma Janet in honor of Grandpa Lynn's 90th birthday. There were also other birthday celebrations throughout the month. We also took a day and hiked to Donut Falls:



We also replaced the carpet in the office, living room, stairs, landing, upstairs hall and downstairs hall with hardwood. Replaced the stair railings, too. It looks great!



September also brought the finalization of Charlie's adoption to his daughters and on October 1, Charlie & Dara were sealed to them. I got to play photographer:



Our October can (mostly) be summarized in one word: REHEARSALS! With Kyra starring in Brigadoon, there are plenty of them. But then Kyra had to go and add a role in the school's ensemble scene for the Shakespeare competition in Cedar City and a monologue in that competition as well. And then (since we needed more rehearsals in our lives) Callie auditioned for and got several small roles in the Draper Arts Council's Christmas plays. So yes, rehearsal craziness!

Kyra went to Cedar City to see plays and compete the second weekend of October. No one from Jordan won anything, but she really enjoyed performing on the stage of the replica of the Globe Theater they have there.

Last Staurday we took the kids to Gardner Village for the annual "see the witches and buy fudge" trip. Lots of fun was had, even though it was insanely crowded!





Kyra is in the Women's Chamber Choir at Jordan as well, which means (yup, you guessed it) more rehearsals and performances. Some photos from the choir concert and the Shakespeare Showcase where they perform their competition pieces at the school for parents:



As for me, I've been busy with births, teaching at the hospital, teaching at the midwives college, doing maternity, newborn and birth photography, and with my new adventure: blogging for Lamaze International at Science and Sensibility.

Oh, and learning to make collages in photoshop. (Can you tell?)


And when I am lucky, catching my breath.

Hiking Alta Ski Resort

Kyra was off at Trek, so Darrin & I decided to take Callie & Brynn off for a hike, too. We went up to Alta Ski Resort and hiked through Albion Basin to Cecret Lake. More photos are on my photography blog, but here are the ones with people in them:
At secret lake where they climbed out on a natural jetty


On a big flat rock that looked out over Albion Basin:

At a point where the trail branched off and they took the other way:


It was not a very long hike, but Brynn had a hard time. Darrin promised her fruit snacks at the lake if she didn't complain on the way up. She got her fruit snacks, but as soon as we started hiking down, she asked "Can I complain now?" and when Darrin said something to the effect that it would be best if she didn't, she said "Well, I can if I want, I already got my fruit snacks!"
And then she just reached a point where she sat on the trail and didn't want to walk any more because "all my legs hurt so much I think there are 4 legs."