OUR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE

After 12 years of school Ammah
has graduated from Red Mountain
High School. It has been a
wonderful journey. Lets take a
quick look from the beginning.


17 and 1/2 years ago David and I
brought our sweet little Ammah into
this world. It was the most
special day we had ever experienced.
What joy and happiness she brought
to our lives.

Our world revolved around this little girl.
We felt so blessed.


Many days were spent, trying to make her
laugh, talk, sleep, learn and love.

School days started and Mom wept with
sadness at how quickly life had
been passing by. It was time
for school and books and other people
in her life besides her Mom and Dad.
Ammah started reading with in 2 weeks
of attending Kindergarten at Noah Webster
Basic School. Mom cried that day too.

Ammah learned what fun was at a very young
age and always wanted to be doing something
or going somewhere special.

Rocky Point was the most "special"
place Ammah wanted to be. The
ocean and beach have always been
her favorite vacations.

Ammah started dance lessons when
she was only 3 years old and
studied tap, jazz and ballet
for 14 years. Watching Ammah
dance over the years has been
a privilege and a joy.


She has been able to perform
at many venues over the years
including parades, balls, Senior Centers
Disneyland, competitions and
the State Fair.

Graduation into Jr. High was
a big step in growing up. Studies
were harder, relationships with
both boys and girls were
formed and I could see the
beginning of my letting go coming
straight ahead.Cheer was a
wonderful highlite of 9th grade.

I love this picture of Ammah
and Amelia at recital time.
She is an amazing big
sister and loves Amelia and
Andelyn with all her heart.

It has been so fun watching Ammah
turn into the beautiful daughter
she is.Shopping for clothes together
wasn't always the easiest adventure
but I'll always remember how proud I
felt when she walked out the door
in appropriate, fashionable attire.Her
last two years of High School were busy
with dance, dates, friends and group outings.

Senior portraits! So pretty. How
could the time have passed by so quickly?
Ammah has blossomed into a smart,
thoughtful, reserverd young woman. I'm
sure her Heavenly Father is well pleased
with her and all she has become.

Graduation Day. It rained.. no it poured
the entire duration of the ceremony.
I think it was very memorable. The graduates
seemed to enjoy themselves very much.
Congratulations Ammah. It seems like
an end but really it's just the beginning.
Here is to our new relationship as
parents of an almost adult daughter.
College here she comes.

DANCE PHOTO SHOOT

I took all three girls down to the dance studio a few weeks ago for a 'dance style' photo shoot and we had so much fun. I loved how so many of the photos turned out and thought I'd share some of my favorites.. In no particular order...

This is my absolute favorite~

One of my earliest memories as a little girl was knowing what made a good twirly dress. I remember shopping with my mother and putting my nose in the air over many of her suggestions for purchases because I knew what she didn't...... If it didn't have a long loose skirt part, it wouldn't twirl and if it didn't twirl I didn't want it. I wish I had pictures of those dresses but it doesn't really matter, I remember many of them and I have vivid memories of twirling away.. especially on Tuesdays during primary on the big green lawn in front of the old white church in downtown St. Johns. I don't think twirly dresses will ever go out of style. All of my little girls have had them and Amelia is no exception. Twirl away my pretty girl.

SCHOOL LUNCHES

I know its sounds ridiculous but I take pride in my girls sack lunches. Ammah has been taking them to school for 12 years now and believe it or not...it's her choice. Now that she is a Senior I figured she would go out more often with her friends to local fastfood places but she actually prefers my sack lunches to greasy cheesy pizza and hamburgers and french fries. Maybe all my talk of calories, protien, fats and fiber are sinking in. The past few years we have decided to ditch the actual lunch boxes that come in so many styles and colors and have opted for the much prettier "brown paper bag". To show my love for each girl I often decorate their bags with pictures of hand drawn flowers, trees, hearts, their names, special or nick names and even once spelled out their name and what each letter meant to that daughter. Sometimes I stamp them and once in a while I purchase pretty colored paper bags. What ever they look like I hope they feel the love that goes into them every morning. I often ask the girls "Did you enjoy your lunch today?"

A list of the girls favorite lunch items:

1. Fresh baked muffins

2. sliced up oranges

3. cheese sticks

4. pb and apple slices

5. pbj's

6. carrot and celery sticks

7. apple juice boxes

8. home made soft cookies (some to share too please)

9. sandwiches with the works. ie.. mustard, lettuce, tomatoes and pickle.

10. any sandwhich on white bread (mom prefers wheat)

11. pretzels, cheezits, raisins and prunes (yes prunes)

Senior Pictures For Ammah

Maybe posting these pictures I took of Ammah will help me come to terms with her impending high school graduation. (Probably Not!) I'm having a very difficult time thinking about her being out in the "adult" world and her not even being a real adult. She just turned 17 you see and I wish I could send her to school for the year she skipped. More photos to come a little later.

Hollywood or Bust

In November we took a much needed weekend vacation to California. The "PLAN" was to leave at 4:00 a.m. and drive straight to Hollywood, take in the sights there, shop and then head to the beach for bike ridding and family pictures at sunset. We did get out the door at 4:25 a.m. which is an amazing feat considering 4 girls that had to do all their pre primping for pictures to be taken 12 hours later. We arrived in Hollywood in record time 5 1/2 hours. Ate lunch and headed out into the great WEIRDNESS of Hollywood. There were cross dressers and a lot of impersonators including a black Wonder Woman, Batman with dreadlocks and Cat Woman who looked like her costume had been through a few to many battles. Elvis was our favorite and decided to have our picture taken with him. This same Elvis has been on the Walk of Fame for many years because I've actually taken another picture with him 5 years ago.

As we were walking around Hollywood David spotted a place where vacation brochures are plenty and a black and green cover pamphlet caught my eye. It was for the musical "Wicked" a Broadway musical we have always wanted to see. We found where the theater was, walked the 8 blocks and asked for prices and times. Now it was up to the girls. "Do you want to see this amazing show (from nose bleed seats) or ride bikes and take pictures on the beach at sundown”? Hands down we all wanted the show. Plan changed! These clothes were all we had on us and we didn't want to make the long trek back to the car to TRY to find something more presentable for a Broadway show. The show was to start at 8 p.m. that night which left us with plenty of time for shopping and eating. When 3:oo rolled around we found ourselves spent and wanting to sit and have a nice long rest but there was no place to do that and we weren't hungry. We decided to see a movie and HSM 3 happened to be playing at the Hollywood Disney Theater. It was a beautiful theater and we had our choice of decks. We chose the front seat of the upper deck and then were treated to a pre-show entertainment which included a sing along with games and prizes. HSM 3 rocks! Best of the three for sure.
Following the HSM 3 we ate at the Disney ice cream parlor and then headed to the musical via the LA subway sytem. Who knew they had a subway??? This was the girls first time ridding on the subway and it was fun wathching them experience it. As we took our seats for Wicked Amelia promptly fell asleep and I was having serious 2nd thoughts as to why we pushed ourselves this much on a “vacation”, alas the orchestra began and Amelia refreshed from her 15 minute cat nap woke up and enjoyed the whole show with wide eyes. It was both her and Andelyn's 1st big show and they loved it. We all did. It was witty, funny and the two main characters (Ga) Linda and Alphaba were played by amazingly talented women.

Upon leaving the theater we discovered Edward Cullen from the Twilight series making an "appearence" and Ammah just had to steal a sweet kiss.

We didn’t get to bed until 1:00 am that night and dragged ourselves up the next morning to get the girls to Disney Land where all three were performing with their dance studio. Disney was practically deserted for the fist ½ of the day and we were able to ride and re ride everything we wanted with out much of a wait.

We did have to suffer a little from all the ash and nasty smoke cloud that had swept over Disney Land from the Santa Barbra fires. We felt bad that we were enjoying a family vacation while others were loosing their homes to a fire. We thought we would leave when the park closed at 11 p.m. but pooped out at 10:00 and headed back to our Hotel for a much needed good night of sleep! We always need a vacation from our vacations. Someday… maybe we can have a “relaxing” vacation that's not all crammed into a long weekend!

TRADITIONAL TREE

Our Christmas tree is not a beautifully decorated tree with matching shiny ornaments, one color scheme or themed as I have seen in department stores and other peoples homes. We call it the "traditional tree". It's filled with ornaments that we as a family have collected or made over the years. Every year the girls get all the ornaments out one by one and "ooh" and "aah" and remember. They always linger on a few special ones they have loved more than the others and gently try to find just the right spot on the tree for it. I even have a few favorites. There are the ones that Dave and I made by hand and gave away as gifts to family and friends, mementos of trips we have taken, some the girls made in school and some that bring me back in time to when we started as a family. This year I gave a brief thought to having a more "glamorous" tree with matching balls and ribbon and lights and flowers but I would have been sad to see our ornaments sit in a box untouched for the year. I didn't even bring it up to the girls and I'm sure the idea would have been vetoed quickly. We love our tree and all that it represents, of course the Christmas tree and ornaments and bows and candy canes all have their own symbolism's but really, our "traditional tree" symbolizes FAMILY to us.