Miss Springville/Mapelton Competition

Last night Natalie participated in Miss Springville/Mapleton. She did it in hopes of getting some scholarship money. She did not win, but did fabulous. She worked so hard preparing for this and did amazing and looked beautiful. She has natural stage presence and poise. For her talent she did a monologue called "Roller coaster break-up". It was a funny piece about a southern girl breaking up with her boyfriend while riding a roller coaster. She is natural performer and really shined. We were so proud of her!!!!

Junior Miss

Cousins and friends
Oma and Opa came to cheer her on. (John in background is not crying--he got something stuck in his eye--haha)
Natalie in her interview suit in front of her poster board.

Natalie participated in the Junior Miss program last Saturday night. It is a scholarship program for juniors in high school. They are judged on their scholastic (high school transcript, ACT), talent, interview skills, athletic, and self expression. Natalie went to workshops with the other girls a month before to learn the aerobic routine and opening number. This is something she has never done before and she felt like she learned a lot from the experience. She preformed a monologue from Shakespeare's play Much Ado about Nothing for her talent.

She did wonderfully and really shined on stage. She "sparkled" as she preformed the opening dance number, her aerobic routine, and monologue. She also was very confident and poised with the self expression question. We could not have been prouder!!! She was not one of the overall winners, but she won the 200 dollar Be Your Best Self scholarship award and $1700 scholarship to some random Alabama schools. Yeah Natalie!!!

Summer Jobs

Caroline and Natalie have restarted the bagel business. They renamed the business, Bibbity Bobbity Bagels. They made samples and fliers and took them around a wealthier neighborhood. They went to about 10 houses. They ended up talking to 5 people and leaving fliers on the other houses. They had one success, but 4 rejections. They hated this and refused to go to any more. John and I were in the car laughing and thinking what a great experience this was for them. We told them this is what Josh does everyday. Which Natalie stated, "I am not going on a mission!" They plan on going around our neighborhood to people they know. They have about 6 returning costumers from when Caroline did the business and hope to get more.

Snow Cone Shack

Jake and Natalie work at the snow cone shack a few times a week. It does not pay well, but they have fun and usually their friends drop by to visit them.

Soccer Tournament--"Mud Pies, Anyone?"

Natalie and I just got back from her soccer tournament. I was really looking forward to the warm weather of St. George and watching Natalie play, but on the first day it was only 37 degrees and rained all day. The tournament was held on a turf farm and the parking lot turned into solid mud. Cars were sliding and many became stuck. Natalie had two games on this day and was very cold and wet. She played 3 games on Monday and the fields were even muddier from two days of solid rain. Needless to say, instead of enjoying a lot of sun, I did many loads of laundry. It was a very memorable trip.

This was the parking lot!! ha it was crazy!!!

Natalie's team after winning one of their games and diving into the mud to celebrate (Natalie with red headband).
My cool rain boots my friend and I developed because we had already ruined one pair of shoes. Some guy told us, "great idea, but a little dorky." ha ha I didn't want to ruin my Dansko shoes!!

Natalie after her championship game. They came in 2nd place.
Everyone had checked out of the hotel by the time the team played their last game--so we took all the girls to the car wash and sprayed them off and they changed in the car before heading home. :)

Homecoming Dance 2010

Natalie had a fabulous time at homecoming. She loves getting dressed up and feeling like a princess and she loved going with a cute boy she likes. :)

For this dance I told her she needed to be ready on time. In the past her poor dates are always waiting about 5 minutes for her to come out. Well, she was right on schedule and putting her make up on in her sweats and listening to music when I glanced out the window and noticed her date driving up 15 minutes early. She screamed and frantically tried to finish her make up and get dressed. I guess they had a miscommunication about the time. Porter, her date had to sit in the living room for a long time as she rushed to finish getting ready. I think I might leave a nintendo ds in there for future dates to pass the time, since Natalie never is on time!!!

Also, her boutonniere was so thick that both Natalie and I could not get the pin through it. We finally got John to put it on after breaking a couple of pins in the process. I don't think Porter felt too comfortable with John putting the boutonniere on him. Ha-ha -- I should of got a picture of that!!!

The art of asking a girl to a dance. :)

Natalie came home to find chocolate kisses all over the floor of her room and roses with a note on her bed. She was so excited. She turned the kisses over to find the ones with letters on them to discover who her date was. She was extra happy because it was the boy she likes a lot, needless to say, she was all smiles the rest of the night. Now she is trying to figure out a cute way to answer. Any ideas?

First Day of School!!!

Because we had such fun and busy summer that I have not blogged in a long time. Hopefully I can post some of the highlights in the next few weeks.

The house is getting quieter. Johnny moved into his apartment last week and Josh goes up to BYUI this weekend. The remaining children are excited to all have their own rooms now. ha ha Joseph started 2nd grade, Caroline started 7th grade and now attending the junior high. Jake and Natalie are in High School in 10th and 11th grade. Jake and Natalie even have Chemistry together which will be nice for studying.

Pioneer trek

AUGGGG!!! I couldn't get the movie to download-- to see a short video of this awesome trek I put it on my boys blog.

Last week I went on a pioneer trek with Josh, Natalie and Jake. It was a wonderful experience. It help us all gain a greater understanding of the faith and courage the pioneers had. I feel it helped my teenagers realize that they could do hard things too and that even though they do not have to pull handcarts across the country, that they have strength and courage to face their own challenges and trials. Before going, we read stories about a couple of our own pioneers ancestors-William Lobark Skidmore and Leopold Wirthlin.

Me trying a black powder rifle. :)
Natalie helping push
All dressed and ready to go----Natalie did not like the "grandma" clothes she had to wear.

Prom

Last Saturday both Josh and Natalie went to Prom. Josh really liked wearing a tuxedo and he looked really handsome. Natalie looked beautiful too. I think her date was really nervous because he only said two words when he came to pick her up and continued to shake his head or laugh. Natalie said that she had never talked to him before at school so she decided to treat it like a blind date. hahaha She said that during all the slow dances she just taught him how to waltz so it wasn't awkward.

Her dress we bought at DI and I added the sleeves from the material of the slip underneath. They did not turn out exactly how I wanted them to and I envisioned her a little more covered, but she was thrilled with the dress. They both had a nice time and had fun getting all dressed up.

Dresses for Less......formals on a Budget

A stag dance.

Her other dresses

Last summer I was on a mission to find some formals for Natalie as I garage sale shopped. I ended up with finding 6. I then found 4 at a thrift store. A manufacturer had donated their old inventory and all the dresses still had the tags on them. Some of these had original price tags of $200. The thrift store sold each of them for $35.00. It was always a risk when I purchased these at the yard sale, because Natalie usually was not with me, but I figured I could always alter them or or resale them. I think only two of the dresses will not work. One, Natalie does not like and the other requires too many complicated alterations to make it work. Here is what I spent;

garage sales:

black dress 8.00

red dress with shawl 15.00

short green dress 5.00

light blue dress 8.00

light blue dress (one she doesn't like) 3.00

red dress (too many alterations) 40.00

thrift store

light blue sparkly 35.00

royal blue 35.00

magenta 35.00

princess blue one 35.00

TOTAL: 196.00

That seems like a lot, but I figured she has 8 dresses she will wear and it works out to be about $26 a dress. I told her earlier that I would buy her one dress a year, so this year for the price of one she has 8. I do need to work on my sewing ability, though. The top light blue dress, she is wearing above, I had to take in and altered the sleeves. When she gave her date a hug goodnight her right sleeve ripped off. hahahah :)

Winter Recitals/Concerts

The past few weeks have been filled with concerts and recitals. Jake also played in a winter orchestra concert. He did a great job and I feel bad I forgot my camera and did not get a picture.

Caroline singing a solo in her Christmas choir concert. She did great!! She sang a Ghana song with just drums to accompany her.
Natalie and Caroline playing "Let it Snow" duet.
Caroline dancing for the nursing home.

Winter Dance

Josh and Natalie both went to the high school winter dance last weekend. They went in different groups. Josh's had a group of 28 kids. One very energetic mother made a sit down turkey dinner for them all. All the other mothers brought side dishes to share. Natalie's group went to Olive Garden, which Natalie reported she out ate her date. :) Natalie had a nice time, but admits that there were some really awkward moments and would rather go on a more casual date.

SURPRISE!!!

On Friday I had a surprise party for Natalie. It was really hard to keep it a secret, especially on her real birthday when I had not planned too much to celebrate. In the future I will always do surprise parties before the real birthday. Her girl friends came over first and surprised her and we had dinner and games. Later a bunch of her guy friends showed up. I think at one point we had at least 50 kids here. Everyone seemed to have a fun time. Joseph said the next day, "Our house was a rock-in everywhere."

Happy SWEET sixteen Natalie!!!

Natalie has been counting down the days till she turned 16--the time she could both drive and date. She got her drivers license yesterday and her friends surprised her by decorating her room. As you see in the picture they put a life size "Jacob" from the Twilight movie in there too. Late last night when checking on something in her room, I about had a heart attack when I turned the lights on and there was this "man" standing there. I told her when she is not home he has to go in the closet.(--a little creepy) We love Natalie's zest for life and her passion for things she is involved in and her ideas. Most importantly we appreciate that she is kind and sensitive to those around her. WE LOVE YOU NAT!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Dating, Dances, and DRAMA!

Natalie turns 16 next week. There is a Christmas Dance 2 days after her birthday and she has been really hoping to get asked to it. Well, tonight at 7:00 pm just as I was leaving for Jake's concert the doorbell rang and there was a Christmas tree sitting there. I hurried and put it in Natalie's room. Later, when Natalie came home there was wrapping paper all rolled up and a candy cane with Natalie name on it sitting at the front steps. Two boys asked her within 1 hour of each other!!!!! Then the drama began..... Natalie was so excited to be asked but very traumatized at the same time to turn one of the boys down. They are both nice boys and she is friends with both. She could not focus or function for about 2 hours because she was so indecisive as what to do. She finally decided the best thing to do was accept the invitation of the first. She still really wants to go out with the other boy too and she hopes he will ask her out again. John and I told her if she doesn't date at all it would solve everything. She didn't like that answer. Above are pictures of how she was asked and how she responded.

Modest is Hottest

• Natalie thought up the post title. Hmmmm :)
• Caroline and Natalie are modeling the dresses I bought for 7 dollars on clearance at American Eagle. The only problem was that they were too short. Here is how I refashioned them. On Caroline's dress, I let out the hem and added some eyelet. For Natalie's, I added a 2 1/2 inch trim to the bottom. They both were happy with the results.
• Funny story about Natalie's dress. Natalie wore this to school the other day. While practicing in social dance she notice her partner had a funny look on his face. She followed where his eyes were staring and realized her dress had slipped down past her chest!! (good thing she had a shade t-shirt on). For the test, he told her he would hold it up. hahahaha---I guess I need add some ribbon or straps.

"Old fashion" Photos

We went up to Grandpa's Bear Lake Farm House for Labor Day weekend. On Sunday we had some time to spare before church and I convinced a few of the children to come outside to take pictures around the property. I put the pictures in Sepia, because the kids had on really random colors. When Joseph saw them in Sepia format, he said, "wait I don't remember being old." I told him, no I made it look that way and he said, "a yeah old fashion like you." ha ha :) I think next time we are up there I will try to do a "real" photo shoot and coordinate the outfits and talk the older boys into participating.