Beauty and the Beast

We took Grace and Mae to Mountain View High School's production of "Beauty and the Beast." My sister-in-law was a singer and dancer in the musical. Of course Grace and Mae got dressed up for the event. Grace was glued to the stage the entire 3 HOURS!!! Mae loved it too, but got a little restless so Alan took her home at intermission.

They both got way too much attention with their Belle dresses on. Grace even got a picture with the star of the show and with Belle too:)

Enchanted

Enchanted is the Soelberg theme movie lately. I can get my girls to do anything by just playing the "happy working song." Here's Mae emptying the dishwasher while singing loud and clear.

Grace and Mae diligently scrubbing the bathroom floor, the toilet, the counter tops, and their stool with every toothbrush in the house. YUCK!!!

My dad is the bishop of a singles ward and they always have crazy parties and activities. My parents dressed up as Giselle and Prince Edward for the ward's "people's choice awards." Of course they had to show off their costumes to the girls before they left. Mae kept touching my mom's wig saying "It's Giselle, but it's really Grandmama, right?"

Aaaaaaah, aaaaaaaah, aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!

Every morning my girls rush out of bed to their dress up box. (I swear by noon they have changed 10 times - I don't know why I buy them normal clothes). Then they go to the back door and sing "Aaaaaah aaaaaah aaaaaaaaaaaaah." Once the birds sing back to them, they are satisfied. The other day they even sang a gecko out of its home.

Wish it were That Easy

Alan has been dreaming about these wheels for his truck for a LONG time. So much that he took Grace down to the tire store to check them out - just for fun. Grace ooohed and aaahed at them. She liked how shiny and pretty they were. Then she said, "Dad, let's buy them." To which Alan replied, "We don't have enough money." Grace had a great solution to that problem "Well, just buy more money!" It sounds like a novel idea:)

Daddy's Girl

Yesterday, Grace said "Mom, do you know how much I love you?" I got so excited, I ran over to her, gave her a huge hug and said, "how much?" She had just returned from joyschool at Abby's house and said "All the way to Abby's house." then, without skipping a beat said, "that's not very far. I love Dad all the way up to heaven and back." She sure loves her dad and makes it very clear that he is the favorite in her eyes. I would feel bad, except that I remember feeling that way about my dad too. I think it's a pretty healthy emotion for little girls to be in love with their dads.
She really wanted to have a wedding a few weeks ago while we were watching conference. She got all dressed up in her wedding dress and Alan in his suit and tie. They danced to the song, "Gracie Girl." I just had to capture the moment. I've never seen her blue eyes look so dreamy.

Easter Pageant

I LOVE Easter time here. I decided it's the only season that is "in season" in Arizona and it is BEAUTIFUL! The orange blossoms bloom at that time so it smells like paradise, the weather is perfect, the grass is still green (hasn't been scorched my the sun yet), flowers actually grow and look beautiful, and to top it all off we get to sit on the temple grounds with our family every year and watch the life of Christ portrayed on stage through song and dance. I LOVE IT!

My mom and my sister, Ashyln, have been in the Easter Pageant for years. My mom is the narrator, so my kids loved watching Grandmama and Aunt Ashlyn up on the stage.

This year I auditioned to be a dancer in the Easter pageant and I made one of the ten virgins. It's a dancing part. I did it in high school a few times and had a great experience. The only problem is that the practices go from 6:00 to 10:00 every weeknight for a month. Alan said he was up for it if I really wanted to do it, but Alexis' reception in Colorado was the same weekend as the mandatory dance super Saturday practice. So, I had to call and recline the acceptance. Fortunately, I had already told the directors I was unable to participate in it this year when the morning sickness started. There is no way I could have danced during that time. Plus, it would have looked really funny to have a pregnant virgin up there.

The perk to auditioning this year, which I didn't know at the time, was that Mark Mabry, our good friend and photographer, was called to be the official Easter Pageant photographer. He used the cast members for the Easter Pageant for his photos. I had no idea what it was going to turn out to be when I was asked to be in the ten virgin picture. He made a magnificent art exhibit of Christ's life through photography. It was shown in the Mesa Arizona Visitors Center for a few months and from what I understand, it will travel to other visitors centers in the U.S. He did not put the ten virgin picture on the website, but you can see the angel picture that Alexis is in. She is the angel at the very top of the picture. http://www.reflectionsofchrist.org/

Mark is so talented. It was very neat to be involved with this project.

Happy Easter

It was fun to be home this year for Easter. We went to the Ray Easter Egg hunt for the first time. It's always the Saturday morning before easter. We met at Red Mountain park and had a big breakfast and then listened to Grandma Ray tell her "butterfly story" that she tells every year about the atonement. After that, we had a massive easter egg hunt for all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It's so great to be part of such a neat family. We are so blessed to know Grandma and Grandpa Ray. On Easter Sunday, we ate at my family's house. After dinner my kids had another massive Easter egg hunt, except this time, they didn't have to compete with any other cousins. We got ALL the candy. Needless to say, we left it all there. 

Like I said in my last post, the weather was beautiful. Arizona is perfect in the Spring. I wish I had been feeling better to enjoy the weather with my children more. I'm sad to say we didn't even dye eggs or make sugar cookies. I barely got off the couch to go to the Easter egg hunts. We'll do better next year! Thanks to my mom, my girls had adorable polka dot easter dresses.