June Events

It felt like October yesterday. I think we've had a total of 2 true summer days thus far. Regardless, summer is upon us and there are a few events I'm hoping the Tias and grandparents would like to know about, so here you go:

June 14
~Matthew leaves for 3 days to Mill Hollow. Tear.

June 15 (even typing the # 15 and June makes me cringe. how can half of June already be over???)
~Katherine will perform at 1pm at an Honors recital at Juan Diego High School with her violin company. It is institute week which means we will pretty much live in Draper this week. The final performance in a larger group setting will be Saturday morning.

June 17-19
~Big girls leave for Youth Conference at Reid Ranch. Horse back riding with a fractured wrist sounds mighty scary to me. Be careful Lisey!!

June 22
~Analisa and Katherine perform True North at the Sandy Amphitheater at 10am for schools and at 8pm the same evening for the public.

June 24
~The famous Linda Eder will perform at the Scera Theater in Orem. We will be camped out on a blanket enjoying her awesomeness. Want to come?

June 26
~Girls perform at the Utah Arts Festival 6pm downtown. Should be a fun time!

June 27
~Family Dinner to celebrate Analisa's Birthday. 5pm our house.

June 28
~Analisa's 16th Birthday. The vultures are already out in droves circling our house;) Brett is not looking forward to this!

~Sarah leaves for a week at BYU SOAR. There is a talent show Friday night but she hasn't decided if she's going to participate. Go figure. I'll keep you posted.

The Boyfriend

Miss Sarah and a few of her friends have been hard at work preparing for their upcoming production of The Boyfriend. It is a musical spoof set in the 20's that will surely leave you smiling and wanting to do the Charleston.

Don't ask me how but somehow I got ropped in to heading up the costume committee. (As well as the advertising, concession, and program committees. But more on that another day!) When I heard that the cast consisted of 18 kids I thought it would be no big deal to offer some help here and there. Little did I know that there were 3 separate acts with total costume changes in each and act 2 consisting of full on swimsuits set from the 20's!

With my full entourage of help consisting of a lone twelve year old girl named Katherine, I set out to do the impossible and commenced outfitting this lovely cast of 18 x 3 acts.

Very long story condensed, and thanks to the generous help of two local high schools, I have been able to rent, borrow and salvage almost all of the costumes for act 1 & 3. Act 2 took a little more creativity, and well, you'll just have to come to the show to see for yourself. While pictures will inevidably make their way to this humble blog, nothing compares to seeing it live. We are still short 7 cloche hats and long pearls if any one out there has any ideas???

Many small miracles have happened along the way and I have grown close to the kids I have been helping along the way. Watching their faces light up when they try on something that fits and that looks good on them has made it all worth the effort. They are really terrific individuals and it's been fun to be a small part of the magic.

Sooo, if you are in the Salt Lake area the first weekend of February and would like to come and be thoroughly entertained, please join us. You will be glad you did. Promise.

Tis the Season

Children's Choir Christmas Concert at the Cathedral of the Madeleine this weekend. Read article here.

little black dress & the neck

Here are some pictures I neglected to put up of Sarah and her sweet friend Clayton. They had a great time at Olympus' Homecoming. They went with a group of kids to Macaroni Grill for dinner, go-cart racing after the dance, and hot fudge sundays after that. We are now gearing up for the Halloween hoopla, concerto recital and a couple of plays this weekend. Oh the fun never ends!

(Note to Crystal, Moni, Mom and Dad, Lindsay and Chris and whoever else wants to come. We are having a post Halloween party at our house Sunday at 4:30. Costumes, food, games and fun. Come if you can!)

Remember when she use to throw fits as a 2 year old and Brett would say, "Oh, here she goes, she's giving me the neck". Well here she is at almost 17, giving me the classic "neck" pose, again. She'd obviously had enough of me and my pictures.

Back on the Wagon Again

After a nice long summer break and a good six weeks of getting into our back to school groove, I am finally ready to start this little blog back up again. As I ripped pages off the calender in June, July, August and September I realized a lot of albeit small yet special and significant events were ignored on this fun little blog I use as a journal of sorts. I'll have to go back and play catch up. Someday when I look back on this time of my crazy busy life and wonder where all my time went, I'm sure I'll be glad I took the time to write a few things down.

And as always, please feel free to join us at any or all of our "Looking Ahead" events. You are guaranteed a good time.

Week of May 3- 9

Sunday May 3rd,
~We were invited to share a supposed pre-mothers day sacrament meeting with Mom and Dad Nielson only to find out we were really there to see a new Bishop Nielson called to the stand! We were taken by complete surprise. I thought Sarah was going to jump up on the pew and shout "GO GRAMPY!" There was lots of shushing and smiles going on. We know he will do a wonderful job as Bishop of the Salt Lake 27th Ward.

Monday May 4th,

~Analisa teaches piano to 6 very cute kids, bringing her studio up to 9 students. She loves teaching and is preparing them for a recital on June 6th. 

Tuesday May 5th,

~ I ventured out to Redwood Road and found a 10$ Power Ranger piñata that I ended up buying for 5$. Long story :) We invited some neighborhood kids over and had a fiesta. Jody said he was proud of me for getting in touch with my Mexicana side. Ha! The kids had a blast. We had delicious flautas for dinner with fresh guacamole and salsa. It was a fun day. 

Of course it would be Analisa to bust it open. I'm just glad no one got hurt. 

Thursday May 7th,

~ Papi comes into town for Jody's graduation and gets straight to work on a project he's being dying to do. Yep, you got it right folks. You will no longer have to worry about getting walked in on while using my front entry bathroom! The boys LOVE helping grandpa on these types of things. Maybe he can put a lock on our bedroom door next!

 

Friday May 8th, 

~I am officially related to a Doctor! Dr. Jody Wihongi receives his Ph.D. in Education. What an example to us all! We are so proud of him and Moni for years of school and sacrifice. We had a great time at the party that evening. My camera died so I was thrilled to get this picture of him and Matthew. A future Doc himself. 

Saturday May 9th,

~Sarah and her handsome prince pose for a picture before prom.
 

Her date wasn't bad looking either. She had a wonderful time and admits this is the best part of high school!

Later that night Grandma Martha treated Joseph and Sammy to hair-cuts and dinner. Wish I had a picture of that adventure. Matthew had his first performance with the Salt Lake Children's Choir. I will try to post a short video of the event soon. It was fun to have some of his loyal fans in attendance.  

Week of April 26-May 2

April 26
~Cousin Michael and his fiance Rebekah came over after church. They were so cute together. They held hands and played with each others ears, neck, hair and jewelry. They were googley eyed. Brett did what he does best and played 20 questions. They didn't mind it to much. I couldn't be happier for Mike. I'm sure his mom is smiling down from heaven to see him so happy and strong in the church. The wedding is scheduled for June 6th. All family is invited. Katherine ran outside as they were leaving and snagged this picture. Gotta love it!


April 27
~Spring cleaning and more cleaning! Here is a funny picture that Katherine took of me a while ago. Let's just say I did not look like that on this day ;)

April 28,

~Analisa tennis match

~Duet Piano recital for Matthew. 

~ I found this cute picture of  "the brothers" on my camera today. Joseph is so incredibly patient with Samuel. Sammy boy sticks to Joseph like glue from the second they wake up, to the minute he walks in the door from school. I hope someday Sammy realizes how lucky he is to have such a great buddy. 

April 29,

~ Analisa tennis match

~Sarah had a belt voice class today with our friend Mary Driggs. It was challenging to say the least. Belt technique is so different from classical. This teacher was all over her personal space. She had one hand on her face and the other pushing in her diaphragm as she shouted "forward, forward". It will take some work but she's starting to get it. As we were leaving, Mary got a phone call offering her two extra tickets to see Miss Saigon at the PTC. She offered them to us and we gladly accepted. Since I had already seen a show the week before, Sarah took her Dad. They said it was fantastic. 

April 30,

~We hear loud banging on the front door. An, oh, so, familiar sound. We rush to the door and find a package from a suitor hoping to take Sarah to prom. She had to open and read every fortune cookie to find the name of the boy asking. It was from a boy in her Disney group. The blond with the green shirt on the far right in the Disney picture below. She responded by gluing together grains of rice and writing the letters Y.  E.  S. on three of them. She then added them to a container full of rice and attached a cute rhyme written in a Chinese font that said: "Rice is nice it can tax your brain. To find my answer check out every grain." She is so excited to go with her big group of Disney friends. More on prom next week.

May 1,

~Quartet rehearsals for Sarah, Analisa, Katherine and Matthew

~ Primary Party

~Lunch date with Brett

~MAC class

~Baseball games

~More loud banging on the front door. This time it was for Analisa.  A beautiful red rose and a card from Casey. He said it was for the dance concert he missed and he thanked her for being his friend. 

May 2,

~Lots of rain! Everything is turning so green. I love this kind of rain. As Sarah says, "It makes everything look like it's in H. D."

~Duet Federation

~Chamber Concert

~Barbeque with some of Sarah's friends parents. Very nice. Very interesting.