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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's true we invited 21 of the cutest sweetest girls!. 10 of these girls are on her softball team.

Teila felt no need to hurry with the unwrapping. The girls were trying to help her and I couldn't even keep track of everything...

Good thing Heidi Selover helped me by taking notes. It was close to a bridal shower. But nothing is too good for our little Teila. Plus I totally flaked out by not having a party last year. This party is all she has talked about for a year... I'm not exaggerating. Ask any one of her closest friends.

Wondering about sweet Savanna Harris? She had her tonsils out on the day of her party and couldn't come. We were all really sad about it. But she assured me that I could send anything home with her sister Kacie. And we did!! This is Teila and Savannah at a cheer performance they did at a Carson basketball game during half time. It was REALLY cute and Teila is quite the little mover. Ask her to do it for you, she'll show you her moves with the counting to 8 and everything. Pom poms here we come!!

Teila's party

More pictures from Teila's birthday!

The FAMOUS Miss Serena on the left and her wonderful 2nd grade teacher Ms. Erb (who Teila threatens to tattle tell on me and Eddie too. She has assured me that Teila forgets by the next day. Whew!!) Miss Serena is Teila's aide. She has introduced Teila to so many things. Top of the list is Twilight. In fact, she got a Twilight key chain from Miss Serena as her gift. It's hard to be beautiful, hip and SOOOO cool. We hope Miss Serena will be her aide again next year. She really is fabulous!

Teila and friends Mercedes and Faith getting their nails painted by Heidi Selover and Auntie Beth.

Sami and Belle Rowley. The second cutest twins I know.

Macy Tingey and Emma Dale. Sweet girls that are very kind to Teila. We love them!!

Mom/Grandma Freestone and Ms. Erb. They talked the whole 20 min. Teila took to unwrap her presents. They are both teachers...

These are some pictures I WILL NOT be blowing up and framing!!!

This day we took these pictures it was REALLY cold. We were a bit unprepared. Joey of course fell asleep in the car and so he was grumpy when we woke him up. It's just so typical. Then Annie was so happy that she didn't want to sit and smile, just run around and laugh and I didn't have any candy to bribe her. But after all the tears, we got a few good ones. Thank you BETH!!!






Thanks to Beth, this little beauty(below) was copied and given to grand parents and great grandparents. I wasn't upset at first because her and Lydia convinced me it was one of the best and I was resolved. Then I actually looked through them and I have to admit I can't totally appreciate Beth's sense of humor. At least my hair looks good. FYI, I was signing 'please' to Annie to come and sit in my lap. At least I was trying to be a patient mom.

More pictures of the fam

Eddie and Teila

Our little Annie... happiest when she could do whatever the heck she wanted.

John and Teila... at least they were pretty happy during the photo shoot.

Beth took these as well. I'm going to copy what she said on her blog...

"This would be the cutest picture ever..."













"If you didn't know there were 4 siblings"

Annual Jarman cousin pictures Summer 2008

Thanks to Auntie Beth (Eddie's sister) we have a fabulous very talented photographer in the family. These are the grand kids on the Jarman side taken in July of 2008. Everytime Iris comes Beth wants to take these. If you could only see all the pictures she actually takes or be there while she takes them. It is ridiculous. Half of them cry in most pictures (different halves mind you), if they aren't crying they aren't looking. I give them candy to be happy and then it drips down their faces. I usually have one (cough Johnny), that is suddenly shy and won't even look at the camera. If you taken pictures with kids hopefully you know what I'm talking about. Beth does a great job. And after 100 pictures taken in a 30 minute period, this is what we got.













Joseph, Jane, John holding Eve, Charlie holding Eleonor, Adden on ground, Petra, Teila, Annie and Opal





Joseph and Johnny




Johnny, I like his hair better combed but this was a day not to fight about it.














Annie and Eve










The Jarman Cousins!!