You've had a birthday, shout hooray!

And maybe shout hooray because I finally paid to be able to blog with pictures again. Yay! Our little diva turned seven last week and she wanted to have a rockstar party. I designed the invitations to look like concert tickets. And by the way, I spent a bit of time on them, so if anyone ever wants to copy this idea, email me and I would be happy to send you the file I used so you don't have to create your own from scratch.

First the guests walked up the star lined sidewalk.

They could locate their name on one of the stars.

Then they picked out a leather bracelet to decorate.

Then it was over to the rockstar buffet table to get glammed up. (Or for the boys, I don't know, duded up I guess.) The boys didn't get quite as exciting a selection as the girls.

The boys selected a rocking bandana to wear. The girls got a sequined shrug, face glitter, sticker earings, chain necklaces, and glitter spray for their hair. Both got black streaks in their hair.

Partly because I am insane, and partly because, well, we'll just go with insane on this one, I made a sequined glitter shrug for each girl to wear. This fabric is not easy to sew on, and I made ten of them total. Plus I made Sareny a matching dress to wear over leggings.

Then we had a photo shoot. The group (minus the boy who walked in, said it was too girly, dropped off his present and left, and the boy who arrived a little late.) Renae, Allie, Abigail, Sareny, Emily, Emily, Sammy, Isaac, Finley, Bobbie Jo, Keira.

Sareny the rockstar.

That fabulous new group Falltrocity

The cake.

I took it as a compliment when I asked Sareny if she thought this was the coolest cake ever, and she said it was really cool, but last year's cake was even better.

She used one breath per candle, and let me tell you there were some scary moments where I thought her hair might go up in flames considering how close it was getting to the candles, and how very much hairspray and glitterspray was on it...

The kids got to take home with them their shrugs, chains, bandanas, and a cd we made them with their rockstar picture on the cover. I think everyone had a great time!

How Can One Possibly Look at a Book With No Pictures in it?

Last week was Sareny's spring break and Keith took the week off so we could have some family time. We didn't have anything major planned, and a lot of the week was just spent chillaxin'. (Wish I was doing that right now instead of listening to the kids possibly committing a capitol offense in the next room...)
On Monday we went to a matinee showing of Mars Needs Moms. Maybe it's because I had pretty low expectations, or maybe it's because I just came off of seeing Rango, a real stinker in my opinion, but I quite liked Mars Needs Moms. It was much more engaging and fun than the previews made it look.
On Tuesday we celebrated an early St. Patricks day and a late pi day and invited some new friends over for corned beef and cabbage and key lime pie. We capped the evening off with some Ticket to Ride (thanks, Shauntel, for introducing that one to us years ago.)
On Wednesday we met friends from our old ward at a park and had a lot of fun catching up with everyone. As the Beehive advisor in our new ward, I also attended the YW campout at one of the leaders' homes that evening. It was a lot of fun with good food and good conversation. We set up a screen outside and watched the movie Forever Strong, which was pretty good. The girls all ooed and aahed over the main character, who was so obnoxious the first half of the movie that I didn't care what he looked like, I wanted to slap him.
Thursday we ran a few errands and ended the evening with dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the BYU basketball game. Fun, even with kids. :)
Friday we went camping with some other new friends at Estrella Mountain Park, which is quite literally 10 minutes from our house. But it was actually super fun, and the kids especially loved having friends there to hang out with. The campground has a fun playground and had more trees than I expected as well. The weather was perfect, and I think we all had a good time.
Saturday we bummed around most of the day recovering from our one night camping trip...(what is wrong with us?) then went to some friends' house to watch the BYU game. Parents happy--visiting with friends and a good game. Kids happy--playing with friends and don't have to sit in a restaurant and watch BYU game. In case you're wondering--we don't get any TV channels, so watching the game from the comfort of our living room is not an option. And yes, somehow we are surviving without TV.

What the??

Did you know you can run out of storage space for your blog, and in order to upload any more pictures, you have to pay a yearly fee? I just found this out about a week ago, and it is why I haven't blogged in a while. I suppose I'll have to pay the fee, but I'm not very happy about it.

Why, It's a Major Award

I have a confession. Sometimes I forget to take my camera to important events. Like Christmas. Or like when your dad is receiving a major award. The events in this post took place on October 1st, but are too important to let slide without a major post, and since I finally got some pictures together, here it is.

My dad has been a teacher and coach at Moapa Valley High School for 37 years. Yes. For 37 YEARS he has been teaching, inspiring, and changing the lives of students and athletes. This is always how I will remember my dad.

I have been attending football, basketball, and track events at MVHS since before I could walk, and I gotta tell you, I have always been proud to say my dad was the coach.

When we found out the school was naming the football and track field after my dad, we all made every effort to be there to see him get a small piece of the recognition he deserves.

All you have to do is look at this group of people who all came to see my dad and you know that he is loved.

Pictured: Uncle Mike, Grandpa and Grandma Q, Baden, Taden, Tiffany, Jake, Charles, Kollin, Chase, Blakely, Uncle Tracy, Kaitlyn, Kelsey, Frank, Grandma Keel, Truman, Cassidy (sadly, no James.), John, Sandy, Art, Hillari. Front row: Aunt Laurie, Isaac, Keith, Finley, Lexi, Sareny, Grammy Jo, Rhys, Holli Jo, Joshua, Liz. And though he isn't pictured, I think we all felt the presence of my Grandpa Keel, who would have been so proud of my dad.

In addition to all the family members who came, I talked to one of my dad's old students who told me she drove several hours to be there after she saw the announcement in the newspaper.

Here is my dad standing by Larry Moses, who was principal at MVHS when I was there.

My Dad was honored during halftime, and the school really went all out to make this a special event.

 The current principal made some very nice remarks, and the cheerleaders used their pom-poms to spell out W-E (heart) K-E-E-L. Now, I've never been overly fond of cheerleaders, but that was actually really special and appreciated.

The sign had been covered up with cloth for the big reveal, and the when the people tried to take it down, it got stuck. There were a couple of moments when we wondered if they were going to manage to get it down, but they did.

The principal told us later he would have ran over there himself and somehow managed to uncover the sign.

My mom has always been my dad's biggest fan! These events actually took place on her birthday.

Here I am with my snuggly girl watching the events.

Sareny and Joshie at the game. Josh wanted to wear this hat the whole time...

Before the game started, we had a nice dinner in the school lunchroom. This is the only photo I have of that event, but you can see that Finley is sporting her Pink Floyd shirt.

And here is one of the reasons why we love my dad so much. He is so good at playing with the kids, and they all love him. Although I can't tell from the look on Rhysie's face if he is actually loving this exact moment...

The kids had fun playing outside in the water.

And here is a nice shot of Sareny's missing teeth.

These gals helped supervise the kids.

Another photo with tia Lexi.

And I absolutely love this picture! It is completely darling. The only thing it is missing is Josh and Charlie, and then it would be perfect.

Anyway, it was a really great weekend.

What do you do when you forget your camera on your Christmas trip?

You wait for everyone else to post about Christmas first, then snag photos from their blogs, of course. We had a fun trip to Grammy Jo and Bampa's house this year. All my sissies were there, and Jake and Liz came down the day we were leaving. We decorated some yummy sugar cookies.

As every kid's favorite Tia, Lexi helped out with the cookies.

Probably my favorite thing we did this year nobody took any pictures of. But the girls had a "super Saturday" activity and made some really cute felt Christmas ornaments while the Dad's walked down to McDonald's with the kids. We had a lot of fun together, and the ornaments turned out really cute.

We took a hike on Christmas Eve day.

It was also fun, but unfortunately my shoes had been left outside the night before and were all soggy, so I had to wear flip-flops. I was glad the hike didn't last too long...

Keith kept hiking up really high with Sareny and Isaac, which they loved. Those of us on the ground were a little nervous...

It took Finley a couple years of her life before she decided she like Lexi, but she has come around.

The sisters.

Me, Mom, and Dooze. 

Cute cousins.

A different day we went to the park to let the kids burn off some energy.

On Christmas Eve, we put on a nativity. Isaac had fallen asleep already, and so missed out on this. The Notos came over to join the festivities, and we also had a lovely feast. We had the traditional "crook cracks," or Swedish dumplings, bacon wrapped lil smokies, and lots of other delish stuff.

On Christmas morning, Truman was so cute with his new little stroller. I miss this guy! (and the other cousins too, of course.)

We had a great Christmas!

School Time

Sareny's class had a craft day in December and we all went to help out. It was pretty fun.

above: Susan, Abigail, Kristopher, Tahlia, Lindsay, Reyghan, Sareny, Isaac, Jacob, Jared, Isabella, Danny.

It was really fun for the little kids to be in Sareny's classroom working on projects.

Sareny loves art.

She made a snowflake Christmas ornament.

Hard at work.

The whole classroom.

I realize this is kind of a boring post. Possibly its because I am just really tired right now and am just not feeling it at the moment. But I just couldn't take looking at that last post for one more minute...