Cha-Cha-Cha

Ana's school offers Ballroom Dance as part of their after school 4H Club. So guess what Ana will be doing this year....yes, you guessed it, Ballroom Dance. She's actually fairly excited about it. It helps that we live in pretty much the Ballroom Dance Capital of USA (UVU's team is #2 in the nation and BYU's is #1--Yeah! BYU!!!) All the high schools, junior highs, and a lot of the elementary schools have teams.

The program has only been going 2 years at their school, but they've placed 1st in their level those last two years here:
Yes, they do compete at the National's, which is pretty darn cool if you ask me. Also very convenient because the National's are held at BYU. (Yeah!!! BYU!!!!) So if anyone (family members) would like to see her compete or see one of her shows, let me know, I have the schedule for the whole year.

Anybody want a Monk?

I'm making Robin Hood costumes for my sister's kids. And well, I don't know what I was thinking but I forgot that Friar Tuck wears brown not black. So is anyone in desperate need of a two-year-old monk costume? Maybe I'll try ebay.In other news, Sebastian not only thinks he can sit but also stand AND get into my plants.
What's with that?!?!! Slow down, buddy! You're too little for that yet!

Queen Isabel

Sweet siblings

What Ana was up to.

So while I was outside taking pictures of the other girls, this pretty girl was getting into the salsa.

Leo was her co-conspirator.

Model Pose (even with a mouth full of food)!

I really don't know what he was doing.

Pretty Girls

Random

Eagle hunting in Mongolia. Gotta love it, right?



And here's some of my future dogs, Salukis. I even convinced Leo to get some after he watched a couple of these videos of them chasing down a gazelle. (I just think they'd look nice walking by me and me wearing one of my cool hats.)


He said we could name it Yussef and he'd buy a turban to wear when he took it out for a run. Hmmmm..... maybe I should rethink my dog choice. Sorry it's terrible quality but you get the idea.

So here's my second choice. Because they are from Tibet. Yeah, that's my only reason.


Now this is why I started on this random video hunt--I was reading my sister's Encyclopedia of Horses and read about this Caspian horse. Fascinating--they think the breed dates back to King Darius of Persia. Sweet. Anyway, I was trying to convince my dad to buy some and get a cart. Him and Wyatt have been scheming about a cart horse for some time.

They're a beautiful breed (not a pony although very small) and they're supposed to be super intelligent and very gentle, and they make excellent children's horses. Anyway, you can google them if you want.

However, my father was more in to these horses. Norwegian Fjord horses for his someday cart. Umm, I just uploaded this particular video because it was so completely random.

I have to admit they are pretty cool too.

But I think Dad should teach his Arabians this. Just a thought. Coco V (my horse) would look gorgeous.

And this is for Leo. Just because. I could have ridden a Paso Fino in Colombia, but I was six months pregnant, so I declined.

And this is just because Canada is cool too.
So there you go. Consider yourself edified. Or not.

Real Salt Lake and other things.

Sebastian loves soccer. Look at him, he's so focused on the game.
We had a blast at the game. I've almost convinced Leo to buy Real Salt Lake jerseys for all of us. Wouldn't Isabel look so adorable showing her team colors?!?!
See, Sebastian wouldn't even look away for a picture. Although the ladies beside him seemed to be oohing and ahhing over him more than the game.
We went with my awesome sister Andrea and her husband Tim. Fun times. And of course, Real Salt Lake won.

And here's another picture of me with my new hat. Yes, I sleep in it. (No, not really but I LOVE it.) Leo was appalled that I wore it to church.

And Ana on her first day of school. Yeehaw! She's in for an exciting year. She's signed up for soccer this fall. Competitive Ballroom Dance in 4H after school, and then she'll be in volleyball this spring. And of course, piano. Busy, busy. Too busy in fact, she wanted to be in orchestra, but I don't think it's going to happen.

Have a good night.

North Dakota

I completely ripped this off of someone's blog--I was looking up rosemaling. Anyway, I read it and thought, "North Dakota." So I had to share it. If you don't get it, you've obviously never lived in North Dakota.

"The Sons of Norway asked me to teach a class. Who knows what went wrong, but nobody showed up. Meanwhile, some senior members happened by the lodge. They saw someone (me!) inside and called the lodge president and asked if anyone was supposed to be in the lodge. He said "No!" They decided I must be a burglar, so they locked the outer door (to trap the burglar inside until the sheriff came!). I had left the outer door open. When I heard it close, I thought it had blown shut. I tried to open it. It seemed jammed. So I pushed against it really hard and it flew open. A senior couple stood outside looking deathly pale. I asked them cheerfully, "Are you here for the class? But, all the women could reply was, "My heart! My heart!" as she clutched her chest.After they recovered from the shock, I was able to convinced them that I was there to teach a class. I couldn't help asking, "What are you so worried that a burglar would steal from the lodge?"The reply? "We have 300 dozen lefse in the chest freezer!" I didn't know there was a black market for stolen lefse! Uffda! "And just because that started me thinking of Nodak, here's a picture of an ice fishing shelter on Devil's Lake. Why would anyone ice fish? I don't get. Look at that freezing terrain. Who would go out there--even with a shelter??!??! I do have a good impression of Devil's Lake in general because one time while driving from Minot to Grand Forks with my sister Amy and two of her kids we stopped there to get gas. And well, she told me to fill the car with ten dollars worth of gas and instead I filled it with ten gallons (I had never put gas in a car before.) And so then she had all these treats pulled out to give to her kids at the register and we didn't have enough money for the gas, let alone the treats and the guy just let us have all the treats and said not to worry about the gas. Nice, eh?

And this was titled, "A Global Warming Rally in North Dakota." Hee. Hee.

The Many Faces of Elena

At least Ana looks good in all of them!

Parte Dos

So after dying of heat stroke at the Heritage Village we headed to a park in SLC called Memory Gardens, or Memorial Gardens, (it had a bunch of war memorials) or I really don't remember, but I'm not going to look it up because Leo is telling me to come to bed. Anyway, it's close to downtown and beautiful! It was our favorite part of the day. We had a picnic there and then the kids played in the water.

Elena and her new friend.

Umm, yeah, Isabel eventually took off her diaper too. But she got in trouble for that.

Visiting one of the memorials.

My husband is so gorgeous. Ahhh, I really should head off to bed with him. Hee. Hee.

This fountain was built by a guy in memorial to his wife. Sweet.

My cute kids.

My cute kids, and one goofball.

After the park, we went to the Church Art Museum to the kids' I Am a Child of God exhibit and then we went and toured the Conference Center.

This was on the roof.

It's still weird to me to be on a roof and feel like your on a mountainside.

Ana was picking on Leo. (Actually, I think it started the other way around.)

We ended the day by driving by the State Capitol building.