The Dance

 Ashlin just went with this sweet group of kids to Prom last weekend.

She was asked all the way back in March, by a nice young man named Trevin.  He put tea light candles in our driveway, and lit them to spell: 

 (with a poem on a mirror next to it)

Then the stress followed of finding a beautiful dress that is also modest. We did it though, so pretty!  Ashlin's friend Lyndy did this beautiful braided headband thing with her hair.  She asked me to curl the back for her (aaah, the pressure).

 She looked so beautiful.

The Ladies:

The Gentlemen:

The Group:

The Moment:  My 12 yr old niece Lexi came over to see Ashlin get picked up for Prom.  Lexi and Emma scheduled their babysitting job around being here for "the moment" Ashlin was picked up.  All the little sisters were so excited in anticipation.  It is so so so sweet to have lots of girls.  They love this stuff.  They kept telling Ashlin how pretty she looked, "like a princess".  I was trying to get the house clean so it would look nice in the picture, and Bruce was not thinking of anything I needed his help with on his own.  I threw down pajamas and yelled for him to put them on Sophie so the baby had clothes on when the handsome date arrived.  Did he do it?  No.  I discovered that when Trevin knocked on the door, came in, and Ashlin walked down the spiral staircase in her beautiful dress, perfectly sprayed hair, looking like a princess.... holding hands with her naked baby sister who walked down the stairs with her.  I groaned inwardly.  Oh well, so much for the perfect moment.  ha ha.  (PS- the mother cared, not the daughter... when naked Sophie walked over to Ashlin at the top of the stairs and cried, Ashlin just lovingly took her hand and walked down smiling and elegant with the naked happy Sophie by her side) Then we discovered that I am not a wise mother who knew how to pin the boutonniere on any better than Ashlin, we took some pictures... and they were off.  When they left our house, Bruce said sadly,
"She looked so grown up".

PS)There has been a lot of talk around here lately about boys, boyfriends, getting together, breaking up, sad tears, new boys coming around, etc... and I am just so thankful for a daughter who talks to me about it all.  I love this girl.  Aren't I annoying that I say that so much?

Grandpa's Slide

The framing on our house went up so fast!  I can't believe it.  

This picture was taken weeks ago.

Turns out there are a lot of choices to be made when building a house. 

I LOVE our stairs to the basement.

But this is NOT how they originally did them. They originally framed them like a hallway down to the basement (mistake) and we had to change that, move walls, and add beams, so it would be more open.

You can access our stairs from the family room or the hallway.  Love it.

And once you get down to the basement, you can see that our slide has arrived.  Yes, we will have a slide going from our main level to the basement.  Kind of crazy.  Bruce's dad designs playground equipment for schools, and he got us a deal.  It's going to be called the "Grandpa Vernon" slide.  He really is having a dedication plaque made to hang by it, ha ha.

 On top of making lots of choices for the new house, we are trying to get some projects done in our current house so we can list it for sale here in a few weeks.

Re-stain the stair bannister, Check.

That was probably a little deceiving that I started the post with "Welcome to our house" then didn't follow with a picture tour of the whole inside, ha ha, sorry.  More pictures to come.

A Boat Ride

Sophie, age 2, was coloring for a long time.  I noticed later the picture she left on the counter... and I couldn't believe it.
It was her first ever PEOPLE picture!

She told me its me, Ashlin and a boat.

We all think it's the cutest thing ever.  

Even Emma wanted to take it to school to show all her friends.  

ha ha. That made me laugh.

PS) I haven't blogged in a few weeks cuz its been busy.  It cracks me up that this is the first thing that motivated me to do a blog post... not Logan's mayor award, Prom, the school talent show, our new framed house, Bruce and Dallin wiring the new house... or that I sold the last lot in Rockwell last week!!!  ha ha, priorities.

A Big Sister...

~TEA PARTY~

Our high school put on a "Cinderella" musical/play last weekend.  Ashlin's sweet friend CariAnn called her and wanted to plan a girls outing with Ashlin's little sisters Lily and Emma, to take them to the play. {So sweet} My girls were so excited all week. CariAnn brought the little girls she babysits. {So sweet} All the little girls wore their fancy dresses.  They had a little "Tea Party" at CariAnn's house before the play with shape sandwiches, little fruit kabobs, lemonade, cookies, etc.  

They painted all the girls nails sparkly pink, of course.

 {Lucky for Lily, CariAnn brought her good friend Sadie!}

The girls loved the play.
(Except the kissing scene. Sadie yelled, "Thats disgusting!" ha ha)

They even met "Cinderella" afterwards:

How sweet is that big sister date?  

We ♥ CariAnn.

A Sunday Documentary

Thursday Logan came home from school with a head/stomach ache.  Then friday he started to get these weird bumps.  At first it looked like Chicken Pox.  And his lips got swollen and red.  We kept telling him he had "Suga Lips"... ha ha.  But by saturday, the bumps looked more like a rash.  We think it was a Strep Rash, and has been going away with Anti-biotics.  He was so disappointed it wasn't Chicken Pox, ha ha.

On sunday I called staying home from church with him! Poor Logan, it looks bad, but actually he feels much better.

I want to remember just a normal sunday as a family, so here was our day: 

Dallin stayed home too because of a stomach ache, and we had our own little church at home, read church magazines together and I watched "Called To Serve" with my 2 boys.  It was nice.
Then the rest of the family came back.  And when Bruce walked in the door he said our house smelled like the Celestial Kingdom, because of the roast cooking. ha ha

Then Bruce came and laid on the living floor.

Then Sophie came in the living room and we saw she took her cute pony tails out, so her hair looked like it had wings.

Then Lily came in and said to me, "You are a bad guy, I am a dog, and I scratch you!" ha ha, her pretend play makes me laugh.

Then her and Bruce did daddy/daughter acrobatics.

Then I told Dallin to go help peel potatoes, and he complained.

Then when he went in the kitchen, Emma had already started without being asked.

 Then everyone else followed in, Lily washed the potatoes and Sophie climbed on the counter to watch.

{Everyone was excited about the dinner that Emma had planned.  Saturday night I had to go to the store to get stuff for sunday dinner, so I asked the kids what we should have and Emma said, "Can we have roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, salad, rolls and strawberry pretzel salad ?"  And I thought it was so funny that she responded so thoroughly, that I said "Yes".  Then I took her with me at 10pm and we bought everything to have that.}

Then I went to find why Ashlin wasn't helping us... and she really was in her room preparing her talk like she said she was.  

{She was asked to speak at an adult Stake leadership meeting 

and was SO nervous}

  (But I discovered that she DID NOT clean her room like she told me she would the day before, or put her clean clothes away)

Then we ate our yummy dinner Emma planned.

Then after dinner, when we were serving dessert, Logan opened the dishwasher to get a fork and his dessert slipped off his plate in to the dishwasher.... 

 ...then he cried for like 10 minutes.  Not because it spilt (he got a new piece) but because I told him he had to clean it up.

 Then Logan and Lily went outside to play, and Bruce, Ashlin, Dallin, Emma and Sophie ALL took naps.  

Then I saw a picture on Facebook of my friend lounging by some resort pool and I thought, "I wish I was there".  

Then I realized it was beautiful in my own backyard, and I got OFF the computer to go lay by our 2 turtle baby pools and watch the kids play.
It was so lovely.

Then I laughed at this picture of Lily trying to put her mask on.

...Then her and Logan both put masks on and they explored in their pools, ha ha.

Then Emma and Sophie came outside after their naps, and Emma begged me to let her have a Facebook account for most the day.
But I didn't.

Then Ashlin and I got ready to go to the Stake Center so I could hear her speak.  She was the only youth speaker in front of lots of adult leaders. Sis. Chipman had come to our ward meeting and heard Ashlin share her testimony about receiving her Young Womens Recognition award and asked her to come to the Stake meeting.  She did a great job.  Ashlin said she noticed how working on her personal progress goals helped her to feel more love and respect for her mom, and that was so sweet to hear.  I know there are lots of beautiful wonderful girls out there, and moms who are so proud of them.  But I looked at her up there and thought, "I can't believe she was my little baby girl that I held in my arms, and wondered who she would grow up to be."  She is not perfect, but she is very good, and I am so thankful. 

It was a lovely relaxing sunday.

Here She Goes AGAIN...

Why does Emma have Alisa Clegg's awesome light bulb hat on?? 

... Because she was running for office, again.

Emma ran for 6th grade Student Body President, and did not win.

Now she is entering Junior High and running for office again. 

She had to write a little essay and get teacher recommendations.  They called to say she made first cuts. Then she had to be dropped off at the Junior High for a pizza night and deliver a prepared speech to a panel of all adult judges.  She was running for SPIRIT COORDINATOR.

 .... And there she went with her "bag of qualities".  It was filled with different things she put on to represent qualities she possessed... then once she had it all on she sang them this crazy song.  She was SO excited, and not even nervous.

When I asked her how it went, she told me:
"I rocked it".  ha ha.

And she must have, because.... GUESS WHAT??

They called her the next day to say she won!

CONGRATULATIONS MISS EMMA...

HER JUNIOR HIGH'S NEW SPIRIT COORDINATOR.

Friday was a busy day,  because I spent the morning at Ashlin's Golden Scholar assembly.  Way to go Ashlin!  

I finally remembered to take a picture that night at 1am in her bedroom.  ha ha.

We had gone out that night together.  I was going to the new Zack Efron movie with 2 of my friends and Ashlin said, "WHAT?!  I want to go!" I said, "Do you really want to hang out with me and my adult friends??", and she was like YA.  ha ha. It cracked me up.  Luckily Cheri and Rachelle have daughters that age... so they came too.  We went to dinner and the movie... Ashlin covered my eyes with her hand during all the kissy parts (not joking)... then we went to DQ afterwards to meet Vanessa's boyfriend.  We laughed all night, and poor Vanessa's boyfriend looked scared to death to meet the 6 of us.

I love my daughters.