Senior Prom

Our pretty girl goes to her senior prom!
We drove off to UT so Tori could go to her senior prom with her fellow students at Liahona Prep. Academy.
Noah, who graduated from Liahona last year, went with us and accompanied Tori to the Prom.
When we got to UT, we went to Ty and Cami's house and Tori and Noah got all fancied up.
Tori searched all over for just the right dress. She found this vintage dress in a small show in Longmont. It was a wonderful find and we all thought she looked beautiful!






























Ty helped Noah out with a nice tie, matching pocket square and cuff links.

How did we get so lucky to have such good looking kids?!!

They had a nice evening. Very cool!!!

Snow, and Stuff

Not long before we left for Utah, we had the biggest snow storm since we arrived in Colorado. It even closed the school for two days. Cubby was delighted. It made her Spring break 2 days longer.

Snow and more snow! Kricket loves playing in it, but Zuzu tends to think it's just an invitation of her space. We would open the door, she would stand there looking at it, reach her paw out and touch it and then look at us like, 'ummmm, you need to remove this cold white stuff. It's in my way'. The next day, after the top layer of snow had hardened, Kricket would walk on top of it and then it would crack and she would fall in. It was pretty fun to watch.

This is a view of the park from our bedroom window. It was coming down so hard I couldn't even see the walkway or the bridge, much less the street.

Zuzu says,"Hi! I'm just chillin with my peeps"

Awe! Here is our Cubby.

You might not be able to tell from this picture that Cubby is a great help to me when I have a lot of packaging to do, but she is. She just happens to also like wrapping herself up with the end of the label er tape.

She's sitting by some of the boxes she helped me package. Cubby, you're awesome!!!

Another Day, Another Concert

Tori performed with the Allegro Singers from Skyline High School.

Tori is in the front row- 2nd from the left.

The concert was fine, but I guess with Ty haven't been taught by Mrs. Peterson in WI, no high school choir has measured up. Other schools version of the "Hodags" or even Ken's Jr. try-out choir in WI doesn't even come close. It really is a whole different kind of advanced choir. They use mics and have essentially no moves. I really wish I had some videos of Ty performing with the Hodags. It would be nice to show a choir teacher to give them an idea of what a high school choir can do. These are talented kids here, I'm sure they could do it. Anyway, she sang. It was long but nice.

Tori: Teacher Appreciation and A Night at the Opera

For three years now, our Stake has done a "Teachers Appreciation Night". All of the Senior High School Students are asked to choose a teacher that has been either a favorite ( for a good reason) or has had a special impact on your life.
Then these teachers are invited to attend. They had it all nicely decorated and had plenty of yummy looking deserts.
The students each took turns bringing the teacher of their choice (if the teacher was able to attend, about 4 weren't able to) to the podium with them. They were given a framed certificate of appreciation and then the student explained why this teacher is special to them.
Maybe it was just me, but I found it interesting that the most touching and more heart felt tributes were delivered by a student who attends a small charter school and Tori, who has attended a private school. Don't get me wrong, the others were nice and you could tell that the teachers were touched, but there was a difference.
Tori's tribute was (and anyone who knows Tori will have already guessed) to Bro. DeGraff from Liahona Prep. Academy.
Tori doesn't want me to include, in this blog, what she said because it is, "too personal".
I would just add that I am most grateful for the wonderful teachers that my children have had in their lives. The ones that have really made the subjects come alive and MEAN something, stand out.
Tori was the beginning and the end to the evening. After the opening prayer, she sang Maria Carey's "Hero". She did an amazing job and afterwards, nearly everyone there made it a point to thank her and comment.
Then our Bishop asked her if she would be willing to sing at a wedding the next day. The day after that, at church, people who had gone to the wedding told me how impressed they were with her singing. Proud parent stuff!
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The next evening, Tori was able to attend a local opera with a family in our ward. It was fun getting all "decked out". She had a great time
and was blessed to have been asked to go.
This picture doesn't do her justice. She looked even better than this.

Cubby's Concert

Yesterday morning, on the way to school, Cubby said, "oh yeah, I have a concert tonight".

Hummmmm

"What time?", said I. "Ummmm, I don't know", is the reply.

Arg!

Wednesdays are always busy. Steve gets home from work, just in time to gather things together so I take him to the church for Webelos. Then the girls are supposed to be to the church for cotillion class at 6:45 and Noah, as the 11 year old Asst. Scout Master, at 7:00. So, Cubby then needs to be to the school at 6:30 for the concert that would start at 7:00.

One of the complications of having one vehicle in a busy family is I end up doing a lot of back and forth.

Anyway, everyone got where they needed to go, and Steve and I made it just in time for the concert to start. (I had been feeling feverish and blah the day before and had been feeling better, but about this time in the evening, I was getting it back. Ugh!)

As for the concert:

Sadly, the one viola was terribly out of tune and added an unfortunate dissonance to the 5 pieces that were played, but Cubby and her purple violin looked great. I can't say that I could pick her playing out of all the others, but the violins sounded great and she certainly looked proficient and pretty.

Look Out, Mama's Got A Camera

I'm very happy to say that I now have my nifty camera up and running!
The cool camera that Ty and Cami got me for Christmas is ready to shoot. It has always been taking great pictures, but I was having a problem getting them downloaded to my computer. Now that problem is solved, so the "Picture Queen" is back in business. I love it!!!!
If you see me coming, just smile. :)

Noah To The Rescue!

Out with the old and in with the new.

Sadly, about a month after we moved here, a piece of glass went into the garbage disposal, and we didn't know it and it ended up breaking. We haven't had the money to replace it until now. So, Steve and Noah went off Lowes and bought a new one. Then Steve had to go off to work. Noah, being the handy and adventures guy that he is, decided he wanted to install it. By reading the instructions and having a natural gift for this kind of thing, in no time at all he was asking me to go in and see it. He had even done ALL by himself and did the testing to make sure it not only worked, but didn't leak or have any problems at all.
This is a BIG proud parent moment, and a BIG help to us all.

So, a mighty "Way to Go Noah"!!!!!!! What a guy :)

Happy to see the old one go.

"See mom, no leaks"