The girl likes her music

This is the story of how Sara's first CD lead to her first concert.

It all started about a month ago when I took Sara out to buy her first-day-of-school outfit. We went to Target (the best store EVER) and found absolutely nothing for her to wear. But we did find Selena Gomez's newest CD and Sara wanted it soooo bad. We bought the CD, headed over to Red Mango, got some yummies, and sat in the car eating our treats and listening to the CD.  It was a great night. Ever since then, we can often find Sara in her room listening to her very first CD. Or talking about Selena Gomez. Or asking to watch Wizards of Waverly Place.

I knew that Selena Gomez was coming in concert and thought that it might be a fun thing for Sara so I looked online for tickets. Stub Hub = $70 to $180 for tickets. Yikes!!!! There was no way that we were gonna do that.

Then last week, Than and I went to the Heart/Def Leppard concert. As we were there I kept thinking about how much Sara would absolutely love to go see Selena Gomez.  It just wouldn't leave my mind. So Than and I talked and he went to the box office the next day and got us the last 4 tickets in the arena. On the back row. But hey, they were only $25 each. Soooo much better. My friend Allison and her daughter Hannah came with us. Sara and Hannah have been friends since they were infants (if that is possible). That was all planned last Thursday. I had almost a whole week to wait. I could barely take it!!

Yesterday, Wednesday, when Sara got home from school, I told her that she had to get all of her stuff done because when dad got home we were going to go on a Mommy-Sara date. So she did her homework, s l o w l y. She kept asking me if we could go roller skating for our date. My answer: maybe. She asked if we could go get her a new book. My answer: sure. I stealthly got the video camera set up and when Than finally got home we sat Sara down and I told her we wanted to give her something. She was weirded out by this point. I handed her the tickets and asked her what they were. She said, "Tickets to a basketball game?????" I said, "READ IT!!!" She looked closer at the ticket and then just got up and gave me a giant hug and said, "Thank you, mom." No hysterics, no screaming. Turns out she was saving those things for the concert.

Us before we told Sara what we were really gonna do on our date.

Sara and Hannah outside before the concert.

Me and Sara on the steps.

Sara's reaction when we sat in our seats and she saw all the people and the stage.

Funny girl.

The camera flash was a bit much for her.

Yay!!! That little speck of people to the left are Selena Gomez and her dancers.

Selena Gomez

Sara really got in to it. She doesn't like really loud things so I brought some earmuffs. They definitely came in handy.

Hannah and Sara dancing like crazy.

Now I'll take a moment to explain our seats. Like I mentioned before, we were on the last row. When we got to our portal we saw that the last row was row 22 but our tickets said row 23. Hmmmm? So I asked the lovely lady at the entrance to the portal where we were to sit. She pulled up 4 folding chairs right there and set them behind the railing. So we got padded seats and no one directly in front of us to block our view. Notice how the people right in front of the railing were so much lower than us. They were the perfect seats. Sure, we were far from the stage, but hey, that's why I brought binoculars.

More dancing.

Look at the cool stuff we got! Sara got a t-shirt (that will fit her until she's 12) and a necklace, Hannah got a bag and a necklace.

We had a fabulous time! Sara wants to do it again, but next time she wants to be on the front row. We'll see about that.

We Went On A Hike

Last weekend we had a great time going camping. It was just a short trip (2 nights) but tons of fun. This year we have decided to be a serious camping family and planned 6 trips. Six camping trips in one summer? Yikes! I am still getting used to the whole camping thing and hopefully next time we will be more efficient with our planning and packing.

The only time I thought to take out the camera was on our hike. Silly!

We saw this really neat-o tree that had grown sideways for a little bit. It was the perfect photo spot for the kiddos.

And for the grown-ups too!

It was no suprise that Aaron's legs got tired and he needed a little ride from Dad. This happens all the time and it wears Than out but I love to look at my guys like this. Is there anything more precious than a dad giving a kid a shoulder ride?

We saw so many different kinds of wild flowers on the hike. Sara made herself right at home in the middle of a bunch of pretty yellow flowers.

And then it was time for a family photo. Maybe next time Than should hold the seven-year-old and I'll hold the four-year-old!

The perfect way to end the hike was with kisses for dad!

Dressing Up

 Why is it that kids love to dress up so much? I used to love it and now that I've got some kiddos, they love it too.  I remember being a kid and going to this awesome daycare (as awesome as daycare could be) where they had tons and tons of dress-up clothes. I remember having special treat days when we would go to a thrift store and buy the most beautiful dresses. Fancy polyester dresses.

Sara began her love of dressing up at a very young age. It seems like soon after she could walk, she was experimenting with fashion. Pants on head? Awesome! Socks on hands? Beautiful!

 Then Aaron came along. When he started getting fun, she started dressing him up. Of course I have some pictures that can be used as blackmail when he starts dating. Here they are in some gender appropriate clothing. You can't tell, but they are double-y dressed up. Sara: BYU Cheerleading outfit under Princess Belle dress with her faithful unicorn. Aaron: BYU shirt, Superman cape, riding his stallion.

As Sara has grown up, she has become more sophisticated in her tastes. I swear she is 7 going on 18. The other night they begged and begged and begged to get dressed up in our clothes. Sara is sporting my slinky black top and black boots while Aaron is drowning in Than's shirt, tie, and shoes. 

I had forgotten how fun it is to dress up. I guess it's time to take a trip to the DI and find some fancy polyester dresses (and ties too!).

Monster Madness

The thought of doing a Christmas post is weighing on me like a ton of bricks. I think I have to write about Christmas before I can write about anything else. Well, forget about it!! I'm not gonna write ANYTHING about Christmas and I'm not gonna share even ONE picture from December. Wow, that feels good!

Here's what I want to write about: MONSTER TRUCKS!!!!

One evening Than and I were watching TV and we saw a commercial for the monster truck show. Well, Aaron just loves his little cars and monster trucks so we thought that this would be a blast for him. Sara hates loud noises so we thought she would not be so happy about the adventure, but just maybe she would have some fun. So we bought some tickets and set out for our big day. We brought earplugs but we were still woefully unprepared for the level of loudness at this thing! Sara was scared at first and had to sit on my lap with earplugs in and my hands over her ears, but she really got into it.  She was cheering at the top of her lungs for her favorite truck, Rockstar.  Aaron loved it all! It was cool to see these big loud trucks smash cars and stuff. We had a really great time, but maybe this is an event to participate in once every 5 years? Every 10 years? We'll see. If we ever go again, we're gonna need those big earmuffs that they use at airports for the people who are outside with the planes.

A little truck stuck in the mud.

Some nice lady let Aaron wear her earmuffs cuz he wouldn't keep his earplugs in.

Sara's number 1!!!!

This is her favorite pose of the moment.

Blue lips

This place is LOUD!!!

November

November is always a busy month at our house with our anniversary, Sara's birthday and Thanksgiving. This year we celebrated 9 years of wedded bliss!!! Sometimes I am amazed that we have been married this long. These have been the most wonderful years of my life and I am so grateful for an amazing man who loves me despite all my crankiness and laziness. And he honestly NEVER complains! In addition to putting up with me, he is so loving, caring, and hard working. Gosh, I really lucked out!! To celebrate this year we stuffed ourselves silly at Red Lobster and then went to the mall to walk it off. It was perfect!

Sara turned 7 this year on her birthday. At our home we only do friend parties every 3 years and the 7th birthday is one of those years. We had our family over for her real birthday and then the friend party the next night. She got tons of stuff from the family. We splurged this year and got her an American Girl doll. She has been wanting one for a few years. We told her she couldn't get one until she was 8 so she was way surprised. She also got her first pet--a betta fish, clothes, some jewelery and toys.

Yay presents!!

Beautiful betta fish.

Look at that happy face! I love it!

And now for the friend party. Since we only do this every 3 years I thought I should go all out. You see, I'm not a great hostess and parties really stress me out so this is a big deal for me. She wanted a horse party so that's what we did. I made horse tails for all the girls to wear (all 13 girls!!!) out of yarn. We played stomp the fly and pin the tail on the donkey; we made pony wands out of painted dowels and silk flowers; we ate pizza and cupcakes, opened presents and finished with a cowgirl boot pinata. The girls were crazy loud and hyper but Sara had tons of fun and after it was over I locked myself in the bathroom and took a nice long hot bath.

The happy girl with her cute cupcakes that my friend made.

 I made this awesome banner!!

 Here are the kids playing "stomp the fly". They each had a balloon tied to their ankles and had to try to stomp on eachothers balloons to pop them. It was wild and crazy and so fun!

Getting ready to open presents.

Oh my sweet Sara. I just love this girl so much. I can't believe how she is growing into being a big kid. She is so happy and fun and a great helper.

Then there was Thanksgiving. We first went to Than's folks' house to say hi to Andy and have some pie because we were eating with my family later. But we ended up snacking on some turkey and potatoes and such. We hung out there for a few hours and then headed to my sister's house. We ate tons of yummy food and desserts and then we got to talk to my niece Jain who is in India for BYU study abroad. She has been gone since August so it was great to talk to her.

I know that lots of other things happened in November, but I have no idea what. Really, no idea.

Halloween

It's crazy, I know. I'm posting again. Already. I've been feeling pretty blah about blogging. Like, what's the point, anyway? But I guess posting the other day was actually FUN for me again, so I'm giving it another try.

This year for Halloween we went all out. We all tapped into our inner groovy and voila......

Sara was a disco girl and Aaron was a rockstar. He had a guitar with his costume, but he decided that it was too hard to carry that thing.



This is my photographic experimentation with no flash. The kids were willing models, especially Sara. She's got that whole "no smile" thing down.



 Aaron got to dress up for his preschool this week and they had a little party. It looks like he had a great time.

Sara had her share of fun at school too. On Friday, there was the Halloween parade and then her class party.  After school, I took the kids to Aunt Emily's work for the Halloween party and trick-or-treat thing they have for the kids. Sara and Aaron got soooooo much candy there. They had a little sugar crash on the way home. 

Saturday night, we went REAL trick-or-treating. By "we" I mean Than and the kids while I stayed home and passed out candy. It was soooo rainy when they left, but soon it cleared up and they had a great time.

When they came home, I asked Aaron, "Now do you want to eat lots of candy and get a tummy ache and then go to bed? His answer: "YES!!!!!!" I have never heard him say "yes" so enthusicastically. I've come to the conclusion that this is what he must have heard: "Now do you want to eat lots of candy and blah blah blah and then blah blah blah?"

Peace Out!

A long time ago school started ...

Waaaaaay back in August Sara started 1st grade!!!! When did she get so OLD? When did I get so old?

Sara wanted a pair of Sketchers "Twinkle Toes" shoes soooooo bad for months and months. I'm not one to normally fork over mega $$$$ for kids shoes, but this time we made an exception. She had been working on learning to tie her shoes for awhile, but wasn't really motivated. So we bribed her: "Learn how to tie your shoes by yourself all the time and then we'll buy you some twinkle toes." Now she knows how to tie them, but they have no laces. Silly us!!

 A few weeks later, Aaron started preschool. We are doing a sort of neighborhood, co-op preschool where we rotate who gets to teach and host the kids. He goes once a week and is loving it! The first time he cried when I left him and I felt HORRIBLE. But he stopped crying as soon as I left. Kids sure know how to make their parents feel bad.

Of course, he remembered that we took a picture of Sara's feet on her first day of school, and we HAD to get a picture of his shoes.