Ballet girls

Elsie and her friend take Ballet together and they recently were before their recital, their studio sponsored pictures. Neither her friends parents nor us wanted to buy these pictures. Then, just a week after the show, Elsie's friend offered to take pictures of the girls in the studio. I'm so glad that we didn't get the studio photos!

2011 Interview of Elsie

Elsie's birthday has come and gone, and I love to interview the kids and see what is important to them and what they are thinking. Now that Elsie is eight, I'd like to hear what she thinks about a number of "issues."

1. What are your favorite things to do? Do you do them alone or with others? I like to draw and read. I do them by myself. Sometimes, I make books with my friend.
   

2. What do you like to eat? What do you dislike eating? Pasta!! I don't like tomatoes, squash, and bananas.
   

3. What do you think you will do when you grow up? Be an artist.
   

4. How have you changed this year: I've gotten baptized.
   Have you learned anything new? That it feels good when you're baptized.

5. What did you do on your birthday? I watched General Conference. We went to Nana and Papa's house.
   

6. What is your favorite color? Why? Light blue. Because it is pretty.
   

7. Do you have things to do every day that you don’t like doing? What are they? Get teased by my brothers. Get dirty, cause it itches. Do my homework.
   

8. What is your favorite thing to wear? Why? My "I love Horsy" shirt. I like horses. It is blue and it has a letter I and then a heart, and then a horse.
   

9. Who is the most important person in your life? Why? Jesus and Heavenly Father. Because He helped us a lot and He died for us.
   

10. What would be the best thing someone could give you? A book. What kind of book? A mystery book.
    

11. What is your day like? I go to school and then I come home and do my chores and then I eat dinner and go to bed.

12. What does your room look like? It has pink curtains, and on the left side of my room, I have my bed. On the right side, I have a couch. Caleb sleeps in my room with me, and my dresser is right by my bed.
13. What is your happiest memory? When I get to go to California with my cousins.
    
14. Why do you like being a kid? Because you get to play outside instead of working very much.
    
15. One word to describe you would be __nice_____.
    
16. What advice would you give your parents? To take us to fun places (excited).
17. If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why? A horse. They are cute!
    
18. Tell about a funny time in your life. I tell funny jokes. What's one of your funniest jokes? What do you call a dog with a fever? A hot dog.
    
    
19. What's your favorite computer game? Poptropica
    
    
20. What is your favorite thing to do with your friends? Play. Play what? Play princess horsies.
    
    
21. What do you love most about your brothers? That they're cute. What about when they grow out of cute? That they are funny.
    
    
22. What was the nicest thing you did for someone? Drew them a picture.
    
    
23. What do you think you will be doing 10 years from now? I'll be getting ready to go on a mission. What will you be doing in school when you are 18? I don't know because I don't know what grade I'll be in.
    
    
24. What is your favorite thing to do in the summer? Take summer classes. If you could take any class you want, what would it be? Arts and crafts.
    
    
25. What would be the ideal allowance? Tell me how you would use it. $20. I would use it on books or on art supplies.
    
    
26. What do you think makes a person good-looking? I don't know. (She named someone she thinks is good looking- and I agree-) He has cute blonde hair. (She's embarrassed.) He has a crush on me, also.
    
    
27. Name two things we should do as a family on the weekend. Work on the basement, and get my room finished. That's what I want to do. And. . . play outside.
    
    
28. What is the grossest thing you can think of? Dead snails. What? There was a dead snail on the corner of the tramp at Grandma's and Cy didn't clean it up. He just dropped it in the corner, and I stepped on it, so I had to wipe it off on the grass when I was sleeping over.
    
29. What does Dad do for a living? Goes to work. He buys the things for his company.
    
30. How much time does it take to make dinner? 10 or 20 minutes.
    
31. If you made dinner every day, what would you make? Pasta.
    
32. What is your favorite book? Sheltie. It's a horse book. (I found the other day that she had used her own money to buy herself a Scholastic book order. She bought two horse books and lent them to all of her friends, and she got a book on rocks and mineral that came with a little rock collection- $14. Wow.

We love seeing Elsie grow. I am especially pleased with the way she is recognizing the Holy Ghost. Since she has received the gift of the Holy Ghost, she seems to be struggling within herself about all her different feelings. Sometimes she makes the wrong decision, but she often knows she has and tries to change it. She has also felt Heavenly Father's love strongly at least two times- one when she was reading the scriptures, and another when she was listening to music.
She is also making lots of new friends and gaining a lot of freedoms. That comes with it's own learning moments! We love having you in our family, Elsie!

Talking about nothing

Anyone who knows Andrew will be able to understand this.

I was taking a nap and the kids were having quiet time in the living room when Andrew came in to talk to me.

"Mom, Elsie says I'm annoying."

"What were you doing?"

"Talking to her."

"About what?"

"Um, nuffing."

I couldn't help but laugh. He defensively added,

"I was just talking to myself."

That made me laugh harder, which made him wonder.

"Is it okay to talk to yourself?"

"Yes, it is honey, as long as you don't MAKE everyone else listen to you talk to yourself."

He has so many thoughts, he just can't keep them all in!

Funny shots from trying out the new camera

We just got a new camera for our company, and well, okay, for taking pictures of kids. My old camera would just catch fuzz if the kids were moving. And if there was real dimension, it still looked flat. I have NO idea what I am doing, but my kids sure can make me smile!

Elsie in Romeo and Juliet

Heather's comments:
Elsie's ballet performance was part of a beautiful ballet "recital" full-length production. They had about 300 kids- high school and down- perform Romeo and Juliet. It was very impressive. Elsie got to be a flower girl at Romeo and Juliet's wedding. She practiced this dance for months and months. As soon as it was over, she told me, "I'd like to take gymnastics now that dance is over." I had to inform her that there is still dance until May. They've been gearing up for this, she didn't think there was life after Romeo and Juliet (which there ISN'T for Romeo or Juliet.) We were so lucky that Grandma Redd, Steve, and Laura could come see the play too. Both sets of Grandparents were out doing fun and important things, so I tried to take lots of pictures, but my pictures-taking abilities stink. Elsie still looks beautiful in spite of me. I promise, I'm going to get better. Laura was out looking at photos while we took pictures, so I missed her! Watch Elsie's blog for things from HER point of view (and the same crummy photographer.)



Joseph's Comments:

Ballet Best! Going to Elsie's performance was a treat. I went into it not really knowing what to expect, I thought it would be good, maybe slightly more than a recital where different groups of kids danced to different music, 30-40 minutes and we're done. It wasn't just good, it was better, it was a full blown ballet - Ballet West-esque. We had a Christmas time tradition for many years that included the nut cracker so I know what I am talking about when I say wow! I came away with the same sense of awe for the girls who can not just stand, but can dance, leap and pirouette on the tips of their toes. In imagining me trying to attempt something similar,I am impressed that nobody left in an ambulance. My mind does make me look good in a tutu though. Elsie was beautiful, graceful, and balleretic. Seeing her on the stage made me want to shout, "that's my girl, that's my Elsie;" it was the best. Isn't there a scene in The Music Man like that? Some ballets are good, some are better, this was BEST!

Gettin' grizzly with the Grizzlies

We went to our first hockey game with the kids on Friday night. To prepare them, I showed the boys some videos on You Tube before to teach them about the game. After watching the videos, Cy determined that he would cheer for the red team. Andrew just wanted to know how old you had to be to play. Well, turns out there was no red team. There was a fight within one second of the puck drop, and as you would expect, the most exciting part involved injuries. But not during the game. The most exciting part happened AFTER the game in the parking lot. Just as we reached the car, we heard a loud THUD, screams, and looking in the direction of the sound, saw a huge cloud of dust. People went running from all over the parking lot, Joseph included, to see if they could help.
As I sat in the car with the kids, I was sure something awful had happened. I imagined pedestrians being hit and horrible injuries. I remembered a book on the Emergency Room I had read recently with the kids. It started out saying that one minute, you could be going about your life, and the next minute, it could be completely changed. As we waited, we saw 2 ambulances and 2 fire trucks making their way through the crowded post-game parking lot. The kids and I said a few prayers, and I was imagining all the terrible things Joseph could be witnessing.
After a little while, Joseph came back to the car and told us what had happened. And I must say, two teenagers got a lucky break.
A yellow car, with two young men in it, was driving up the freeway on-ramp that is on a hill above the Maverick Center (formerly the E center) parking lot. The driver noticed, too late, another car trying to merge, so he swerved sharply, causing his car to go off the road and down the hill. At the bottom of the hill, the car bent around a tree, ripping it out of the ground, and continued to smash through a fence. The car landed in the middle of traffic exiting the Grizzlies Hockey game. While the car was on its side, folded in half, the boys were both able to climb out of the car, and neither one seemed to have even a scratch. We were actually among the first out the doors, and the parking lots was not yet full when the car ran off the road. Had it been, they could have hit another car or even a person after going through the fence. After looking for this accident in the news, I could find nothing about it, yet there were many other accidents with real injuries. Maybe there will be some lives changed in a split second of mercy. I, for one, was grateful to be able to show my kids how dangerous driving can be, how important it is to wear seat belts, and that our Father does answer our prayers.

Funny video from the Doorpost Film Project- Table 7

We loved this movie