Pampering

For one of Teila's Activity Days activity, they did a pamper night with mom, where us mom's got to eat a lovely spaghetti dinner made by the girls and be pampered by our daughters. After we took a quiz on how well you know your daughter, (who knew her favorite pet was a fish) Teila and I were tied for first but lost the tie breaker of a number behind the back trick. I should have known her favorite primary song was "A Happy Family" and not "I am a Child of God" how unoriginal of me to guess. Anyway, we had a good time. Teila esp. We were encouraged to have an open mind, a 'clean slate' and to have fun. Something about it being more fun for the girls or something if we had good attitudes.




Teila put my hair in a pony tail first thing. Her ideas are so radical sometimes!! Then the eye shadow as you see. We also did blush and she painted my nails. She actually did a pretty good job. All those ballet performances have paid off. You should have seen some of the other mom's!! She did try a bit of mascara and only stabbed each eye once!


The end result.


When I got home Eddie looked at me and when I made some comment about what Teila had done he said "oh that's where you were. Whew, I thought maybe you had lost your marbles." No seriously, he said that. I think Teila should be offended. But I guess at least he didn't make a rude comment to me. I think that says something about him.

High School Musical

Grandma Freestone has been wanting to take Teila to a play to be cultured or something. So she bought tickets to Thr Broadway Palm, dinner and movie theater on Higley and Brown to see High School Musical. Teila is all about music and dancing. It was late, but Teila had a GREAT time. And even though she fell asleep on Grandma's lap, she still woke up to clap at the appropriate time. It was fun and I would recommend it to others , esp. if you get good seats.
Oddly enough, Sharpay and Ryan were her favorite... hmmm....

Teila with Troy and Gabriella cut-outs. She's holding her hand. I think it's so cute. Troy didn't cooperate though.


One of the cheerleaders that came out before the show. Her name was Brooke.


My mom hates it when I take my own pictures like this, with my arm extended as far as it can go, but I've gotten a little better at it. And let's face it, if it bugs my mom it makes it more fun!

Latest and Greatest

This is my new haircut!! It's short I know, but like my sister Shyla says, you only live once! I really like it. You know it's funny, I want new haircuts but only on the condition I don't have to figure out new ways to style. Some people just don't have those skills. My rule is usually my hair can be whatever as long as I can wear it in a pony tail, but Shyla assured me I could just wear headbands when I'm exercising or whatever. I'm excited about it; it doesn't seem too difficult to do and it's similiar enough to my old style. Anyway, because Shyla whippped out this clever little poem, I'm posting... (and yes, I had Johnny take pictures and I emailed them to Shyla ok! Someone had to tell me they like it!) Thank you Beth!!

Ode to Tecia's New Haircut

There once was a girl with long hair

happy, but wanting a change.

So, full of determination and dare

she stepped right outside her range!

She put her hair in trustworthy hands

and sat back to wait for the new "do"

not caring where the scissors would land

as long as she got something new.

And wa-la! There it was

shiny and short, and in vogue

That stylish cut was the neighborhood buzz

and the girl looked hotter than hell!

Teila reading "Go, Dog. Go!"

This makes me VERY happy!

SHOPPING!

Some of you may or may not know that I enjoy shopping. Mostly when you can get really GREAT deals. So I went by the Tempe Marketplace Old Navy and they were having their 50% off all of their clearance. Of course I drive out to the O.N. on Frank Lloyd Wright because it has a better selection. And I was sure right this time. After 3 hours of shopping that felt like 1, I left with this...


7 bags! One bag is actually already gone!!! I dropped it off at my friends house on the home. Some of you may be shocked and unable to speak. But when you can get shirts for $1, and Slim jeans for Johnny for $4, you take advantage. And since I have people that I love, who like me, like great deals and need to save money, I shopped for them. The big one on the right is mine. Mostly Annie's winter clothes and baby gifts. Another one is pants for John. Then Mary had a bag, and a bag for Hannah, a bag for Steven, a bag for Tegan, and like I said I dropped off Laura's bag. Mary wanted to take a picture. This from a girl who didn't like shopping. That's right, "didn't". On the way home, she said that she understood why I liked shopping if I could find deals like that. AND I DO!! It is pretty exciting.

I had a cart and by the end of my trip little children were pointing and saying " mommy, look at all that stuff!" Really, several kids stopped and looked. The checkout lady was so nice. I had everything organized into family's so it would be easy and she rang it up and put it in all in different bags. They were really nice. I did have to tell some people behind us too that we were seriously going to be awhile.

AHHHH, that was a great shopping trip... How much did I spend? Well, after my additional 20% off for opening a card, I spent $300. But the people I bought for pay me back. So I didnt' spend that much myself. Although Annie does have like 12 long sleeved shirts. And then when I got home I was organzing trying to "regroup" as my mom says and see what else I needed to get for the school year, and I had forgotten about several other pairs of pants I had bought for John these past few months. And I kept finding more and more until I counted 16 pairs of pants for him to start the school year!! I had only bought a few on this trip, and at the prices I spent, it was hardly worth taking back. So we found new homes for them. And they are happy homes.

I know, I'm ridiculous. But I love it. And since Mary wanted to take a picture, I thought I should share. It's not as embarrassing as the graduation card for my nephew...

My Caricature from Chicago

Ok, I was cleaning off my dresser and my caricature from Chicago was there. I can't put it up, it's not very modest. But the lady who did it posted it on her website!! She was pretty proud of herself. Here is the link if you want to check it out. Click on my name on the right!

http://www.khilden.com/chicagohist.html#

Jensen's Graduation

Alright, so I had a nephew graduate from Mountain View last night. This was his graduation announcement-

ME!!

Now this one below was my first picture John took. I admit it took me a few pictures and practice poses in the mirror to get it close to how Jensen did it. I guess some people have it naturally and some of us have to work to make 'the look' jsut right, but I improved.



I felt inspired by his announcement and decided to make my own card for him using these very same pictures on the front of the card. I couldn't upload the actual card because when I scanned it in to have Shyla look at it, I did it under a word document and it wouldn't upload for some reason even though I tried twice. But you get the general idea. Like I said, I did confer with Shyla first to see if I should be totally embarrassed or only a little embarrassed. After she told me she laughed out loud she said I should only be a little embarrassed and that I should definitely use these pictures. Eddie also liked the pictures, his brother David was confused and couldn't even comment. Then we showed him Jensen's announcement. I think he thought I should be Totally embarrassed. Eddie did say I should delete them from our computer. I guess he only liked them for the card. He said it was all about context and in ten years if our kids look at this without Jensen's announcement.... well, that is really all he said. It is what it is. Shyla told me to post this especially for Tay since she was not able to come. (Eddie still advises me not to post these because then they are around forever).

This card made Jensen laugh out loud which I was proud of. And my brothers and sisters who were at his before party also seemed to like it. With laughs out loud and slight rolls of their eyes.

On the inside of the card was this old picture of Jensen, me and my nephew Steven, hiding in the back. They would often come in on a Sat. morning and get in bed with me and wake me up. They are probably a couple years older than the ages of my boys right now. I have this picture framed in my room and I LOVE IT!! I have so many memories with these boys. I was a good aunt then and I love my nephews. I of course wrote some tender and inspiring things in his card, which everybody read, but I guess if I'm going to show some embarrassing pictures of me on my blog then I would like to say that I LOVE YOU JENSEN!! Congratulations!! I hope you always know how much I love you!

Anyone? Anyone?

Have any of you ever posted had your pictures all come out in numbers when you are posting but come out pictures when you post? I don't know what I've done. It didn't always do that and now I can't figure out how to get my pictures to be pictures all the time. It's kinda a serious issue for me. Anyone?

CHICAGO!!!!!

That's right my sister, Shyla, and I went on a trip to Chicago this last weekend. We went for 5 days and it was fabulous!! We took the El, their subway system, most everywhere we went since our hotel wasn't right where all the action is. We spent 2 full days at The Art Institute and Field's Museum of Natural History.
We went and saw the broadway show Jersey Boys and we liked that. We went to the Chicago History Museum and I had a caricature done of me that looked nothing like me. They did have a Dior Gown exhibit that we saw and the artist drew me in one of the gowns. The gown I picked was because it was modest and I still ended up showing quite a bit more cleavage than I was comfortable with.
We walked EVERYWHERE and were a little sore to tell you the truth. I ate a Swedish pancake and tried some swedish sausage. We tried not to look like tourists and we did a pretty good job except for the very last day we were quietly looking at our map because we went in a store one way and came out on the other side and needed to get our bearings and he asked us if we needed help. We could have easily figured it out. We had all the other times before.
I didn't take all the pictures I wanted because Shyla isn't one for pictures. She had a good attitude about the ones we did take, but I didn't push it. Some of the things we really wanted to do we couldn't because of weather or they weren't running them while we were there, like Buckingham Fountain usually does a light/water show. And we couldn't' do our boat tour or the Frank Lloyd Wright house that we wanted. Even though Shyla wasn't thrilled about sharing a queen size bed with me, we still had a wonderful time. And we even missed each other the next day.

This was the Tribune Tower. Here reporters travel all over and they bring back pieces of stone where they have been. They had some pretty cool pieces. Many Shyla saw when she was in Europe. Shyla really liked this building.




Below are pictures of us at the Hancock Observatory or 'Big Ben'. It was the first thing we did. It gave us a great view of the city and a free audio tour guide was pretty cool. It was David Schwimmer on our tour guide if any thinks that is cool. Shyla didn't know I was taking these pictures, which is funny to me. This was probably one of my favorite things.



We also saw some pretty cool statues. They are EVERYWHERE around the downtown part. We tried to do a self tour form one of Shyla's books, but all they told us the name fo the statue and the year it was built or something. It was dissappointing.
This first one we saw on our way to the Field's Musuem. They had these legs going on for 1/4 mile I swear. It was pretty cool. Shyla choreographed this photo. I was resistant to wrap my arms around the leg, but Shyla insisted.




Come on, tell me you wouldn't have snapped some photos underneath this awesome statue!!

They had some REALLY cool buildings. But like I said, I resisted taking pictures of every cool building I saw to not try to look like a total tourist, but they did have some unique buildings I thought. One of my favorite things about the trip.


This was a huge statue they call "The Bean". It was a huge silver statue shaped like a bean. I had no problems taking pictures because EVERYONE else was too. I know the one me and Shyla with the huge glare isn't the best, but at least we are together. Me and/or Shyla are in all the pictures, you may have to find us though. On this first one we are kinda towards the middle left. I am wearing green and Shyla blue.





The last one was of Buckingham Fountain. We waited like 15 min. for the show of the lights and water spurting 100 ft. in the air, to see nothing!!


One evening after walking around all day we went to Cosi cafe where we got Smores. I had to help Shyla toast her mallows because she burned hers in like 2 seconds holding it over the fire. Mine were perfect!!! Good idea Shy.



Another bonus to the trip was vising Shyla's dear friend from her mission. Jenn fed us dinner on Sunday night and let me tell you it was DELICIOUS!! And not just because we had been eating PB&J for lunch.


The best part of this outing was making a new friend Joseph who is almost 4 just like my little Joe. He was fun. We played with trains, threw around Winnie the Pooh, put 40 stickers on his 'poster', he invited me to play in his room and he let me take these snuggly pictures with him. I kinda miss him.

TEILA TURNED 9!! LET'S PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(sample craft the girls got to create. Eddie disliked the color a lot. We got looks and comments in Home Depot it was embarrassing. But it just confirmed to me that it was PERFECT!)

Wow- so we had a party for Teila. I told her to invite any one she wanted. Although, when I had already sent out the invitations and she wanted to invite her new friend from the sand box I told her no. I had to draw the line somewhere. So 21 cute little girls were invited. What did we do? Good question-

We had Mom Jarman paint some amazing masterpieces on their cheeks. They really were incredible. She is very artistic and just doesn't get to use her skills enough.

A good friend Heidi Selover (who Teila sits with nearly every sacrament meeting with) painted nails along with Auntie Beth who had just gotten back from taking Teila out of school to go shopping for her birthday. They came back with 2 beautiful dresses from The Children's Place and a matching one for Annie. Oh just wait till you see the pictures. They are REALLY cute.

Anyways,
I had made around 150 sugar cookies (my first time) and enough pink and purple frosting to last a year, for the girls to decorate.

And they did an incredibly cute craft thanks to Laura Richins (her idea) and Eddie because he cut and sanded all those wood pieces.

The theme: PINK! PINK!! PINK!!!

It was fabulous. It turned out really well. And I could not have done it without all my help. Auntie Hannah Jarman was in charge of the craft table, my station was sugar cookies and entertaining my mom, Grandma J- face painting along with wonderful cousin Hiedi Engler who was so sweet to come and help me do whatever I needed her to do. Auntie Beth who helped where needed at craft and nail painting and Heidi Selover who did nails and a great job at that.
Thank you THANK YOU!!!!



Am I so proud of my self that on my blog I actually take a picture of her invite and then post what is said?!! Heck yeah! Don't mess with me... This party rocked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!