Saving the Earth

last year...

Emi's kindergarten teacher was an amazing woman from Oregon... Emi became an advocate for saving the Earth and its inhabitants. I love it!

Emily is a firm believer in not eating cows...after all, they already give us butter, cheese and milk. She would prefer us not eat chickens either since they give us eggs.

It's not nice.

She monitors the water usage in our house as well...gently reminding Reuben to do all his spitting in the sink when he brushes his teeth before turning on the water.

She loves recycling! She walked very importantly and responsible when I sent her to take the newspapers down the block to our designated dumpster.

One thing, however, makes no sense to her. Reusable cloth grocery bags. After all...we need the plastic ones in order to recycle them at the school for money, and we reuse the plastic bags all the time for all sorts of stuff!

She's doing her part!

trying to freeze a moment

I need to capture the moment I am having right now...quickly before it fades. quickly, pause my playlist.

I am having a very rough night...still detesting the fact that I was trying to escape at a computer, submerging myself in google searches...any distraction. Then of course I come to my cafe to check if friends have visited...looking for a little note on a napkin. Following the trail...I stumble upon this video...and oddly I pushed play, which I never take time to do. It's amazing what can happen when we hold still for a little while...especially when you are alone, exhausted, grasping...



http://www.reflectionsofchrist.org/index.html


...there is that moment again. I guess it works each time. It reminds me of prayer...those rare times for me, when I feel swept up..."in the arms of an angel"...actually the part that makes me swell inside is when the men are watching Christ ascend and you see their faces, our faces...and then we see Him looking down, leaving yet outstretched towards us and everything inside of me rushes out "come back"....and then...did you feel it? I want you to know I did. I felt Him come back and fill me and everything is going to be ok. peace. be still. you are real. what you do matters. be still.

Lunch at Nae's

From back in the day...during the charmed life. Let's see...about seven or eight years ago all of us were thrust into each others lives...during the time we needed each other the most...building the foundations of our families...serving together and serving each other. My fondest memories of each? wouldn't you love to know! too many. But thanks to the amazingness of Alex we still get together for lunch to marvel at the interactions of our children...which seem to be multiplying!

Disneyland Slideshow

Disneyland...happiest?

We realized right away that Disneyland is much more than "the happiest place on earth." In fact, it is the land of every feeling. Emi soon began to ask "what feeling is this ride?" and the rides started to fit into catagories:

storybook-by-cart (such as Alice, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh and such) spinning (tea cups, dumbo, etc.) make-your-insides-move (like splash mountain & river run) creep-you-out (ie: haunted mansion and bugs life show) and the dreaded "tipping rides" which were in a seperate catagory from make-your-insides-move because only some coasters actually take you sideways, which became the deciding factor for Emi if she would ride...we basically traumatized her with ridng space mountain entirely unprepared.

And then there was this other curious feeling at Disneyland...right around 2pm, that feeling when you have sweat dripping inside your clothes and your personal space is limited to an inch around you...and you realize you can actually walk away, but really you can't because you've been standing here too long...i think it's called resignation. It meant it was time to go back to the hotel for a while. But honestly, our trip was brilliantly wonderful, and we got to go thru all the sensation overload as a family with nobody's schedule but our own. We learned a lot about each other and how to help and love each other better.

Here is our Top Ten from Disneyland:

10. riding in our hot car on top of a tow-truck for two hours into cedar city...this is in the top ten because Amber made out like a bandit with a new Pacifica!

9. Churros, Pomme Frites and the Monte Cristo sandwich, yes it is entirely deep fried...and the Pineapple Dole Whip Float in the Tiki Room

7. splash mountain and the grizzly river run... riding Indiana Jones with Lynzee...the second time.

6. Club Libby Lu makeovers (even though Emi took hers out a few hours later to wash it in the water at the puddle park)

5. The fireworks...watching from our top of the hotel pool, from Adventureland, from Fantasyland, and the last night, from the castle...great show...although I think I'm having respiratory difficulties as a result.

4. this amazing acrobatic cirque du soleil bird girl with her rope on The Lion King parade float, seriously worth an autograph.

3. Emi says,"when we shrunk in the cereal box to go into the bug land"

2. Lynz says, "snowglobes" (both are currently broken)

1. the ultimate Disneyland experience came moments before we left the park near midnight on the last day...we had embroidered some mickey hats at the last minute and the girls were having a meltdown outside...lynz was bent over this post sobbing and exhausted when Mickey Mouse suddenly appeared from behind the building and started rubbing her back, it took a while for her to turn around, she was that tired...but when she did...it was disney magic. Walt would be proud.

Lola had Six!

I love our dogs! I was never really a dog person, and especially an inside dog person, until we got Lola. And having Charlie actually does make it twice as fun. If you haven't seen Charlie and Lola on Disney...you are depriving yourself. She had six puppies on Sunday around 4am on the middle of our bed. True story. Reu was sleeping with our girls (I was at sisterhood) with both dogs curled in the family bed for the night. And she just delivers amongst them all. By the time I got home around 11am, poor Reuben was out to the world. The girls had taken the only hours old puppies all over the house, making beds for them and hauling them up and down the stairs. Lola was so stressed out she had peed everywhere they had taken them. I was gratefull my sisters were with me and we cleaned up in 20 minutes flat! The puppies are currently still alive :) There are two girls and four boys. I will keep adding photos to the album as they grow...and maybe a video if I can figure that one out.

Sisterhood Weekend 2008

We went to Park City this year for our GoddessFest. We always begin our weekend by cooking dinner friday night...Brittney didn't hold back this year. The Napa Valley Basil Smoked Hamburgers were incredible. We also share things that have impacted our life over the past year and glimpse into everyone's life...that's my favorite part. The plan was to walk around Main Street the next morning and we were in luck since the Arts Festival was that day! Go figure! We went to Midsummer Night's Dream at the outdoor theater in Sundance that night and ended Sunday morning by learning about a women in our ancestry and adding her as an honorary sister in the amazing book Brittney is creating. This year was Elizabeth Carson, a beekeeper among other things and we all took home raw honey in remembrance of her. Sisters are powerful

Dance Camp

This year's camp was amazingly fun. The dynamics of the group made every day exciting for me...I wanted to sit and share some photos of what I do most days. I so very much realize the impact I make in these children's lives, and I know my job makes a big difference in their awareness of their bodies, an appreciation for differences, and most of all their confidence to take on the world. Of course it makes the most difference in my own life, the drawings and little treasure gifts I spontaneously receive mean the world to me. This studio...named after reuben actually and a combination of the magic ruby slippers and the red shoes ballet...it is such a safe place and the expression that takes place there is truly magical.

Pocatello with Brittney

I went to visit Brittney and her girls for a weekend in their new home. We spent all night talking about things we can't remember now, sharing our favorite websites and planning for the sisterhood weekend. The cousins had fun swimming, playing with a bubble wand, putting on plays, some dizzy hill-rolling and a bit o' drama, of course. The only unpleasant part of the trip was when emi choked at applebee's...she's still a tad traumatized.

Gymnastics with Kirra

The girls did a summer gymnastics camp with our friend Kirra, who happened to be on the BYU team and now teaches the current team, we love her! So now Lynz and Em will be in Bejing later this month so you'll need to cheer them on. Well...at least they have the salute down...and a great backward roll and backbends! I got the 'team' medals for the end of camp...Reu made a beam, we attached a bar between the doorway, and used some foam mattresses and yoga mats. I was impressed with how the studio really became a gym. Thanks Kirra, Emi has been practicing like crazy and will start taking official classes this fall, we love you!