Yeah, she might look all cute and innocent (when she's not giving you the look of death), but Macey is a tornado!!! Just today I decided to rest a bit upstairs, and when I come down this is what I find:
Crayons, pens, and markers everywhere. Crushed up Frosted Flakes all over the place. Marker scribbled all over the floor. (Thank goodness these were all Jewelia's waterproof ones!) Really this picture doesn't do justice because this was after I cleaned up the marker and pen marks all over her face and down her legs and arms.
She was pretty cute in her little cow dress today though. But seriously she is one minute away from disaster if she isn't being watched constantly. She knows how to open doors and unzip things now. I guess it's back to hooking up the chain on the pantry door that we installed back when Caleb was a crazy baby. The terrible twos are coming!
Last night Caleb performed at the University of Utah in his 2nd piano recital. He was a little bit nervous and during practice he had a problem remembering to do the repeats and sometimes he played way too fast, so we took a marker and wrote "repeat" on the top of one hand, and "slow" on the top of the other.
This helped him with the repeats, but then I think we made him go a little too slow! Oh I wish he could have a secret metronome earpiece or something, but oh well. He was the only student to play 3 songs. He was excited about that.
It is hard being the parent that sits at home with him hearing his practice day after day after day. I mean we know exactly the right notes he should be playing and can hear any little mistake. We know how fast or slow or loud or soft. It is difficult to be in the audience knowing all that. We have to take a step back and just listen and watch as a regular audience goer. Yeah, he may have made a few mistakes and forgot some things, but they weren't that big a deal and he was cute anyway! He's only 6! We love our little Caleb.
He got some flowers from his Grammy for his performance and at the end of the night he says, "Mommy, boys aren't supposed to get flowers. Next time I'm getting legos, or maybe I can have pokemon cards!" Yeah, we'll see.
Today Micah went up to the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center downtown to audition for a part in the Ballet West Nutcracker. We had to park far away and hope that nobody was paying attention to when we got there being the sign said 2 hour parking....
It was really hot, and we had to wait a very very very long time. Finally Micah went in for auditions. Then I had to wait a very very very long time.
Then a lady came out and announced that some of the boys had been cut and whoever came out of this door was not going to be in it.
I stood there and stared at the door FOREVER waiting and nervous. Finally after about 20 minutes boys started to come out. I'm waiting and scanning the boys and looking behind them, and I don't see Micah! This means he got in!!!
A lady announces the next group coming out are all in the Nutcracker this year. They open the door and out comes Micah!! Hooray!!! Here he is with his Congratulations letter:
We are so proud of Micah! He gets to live out his dream of being in the Nutcracker this year! Way to go!!! We love you!!!!
Tuesday was Jewelia's first day of Preschool! She didn't go when she was 3, so this really was a first for her. She was so excited to go with her new outfit and new shoes and Princess backpack. Macey wasn't so sure about all of this.
Before Preschool started, Jewelia was asked to decorate a star any way she wanted and bring it on the first day of school. So Jewelia decorated hers with lots of stickers and wrote her name drawing a rainbow next to it. Now, unknown to us, the teachers have name tags and name labels for each of their students where they pair up their name with a different picture, and interestingly enough, when we showed up at Preschool, Jewelia's just happened to be an exact replica of how she drew her name with a rainbow next to it. It's like she's psychic! Ha ha!
See, here she is holding her star she designed, and then next to that picture is her holding her Jewelia "rainbow" name tag. I though it was pretty neat.
Anyway, she had a great first day and told me how wonderful it was and how she couldn't wait to go back.
Here is a picture of her signing her name in when she got there:
Good job Jewelia! I'm glad she likes it. So far I haven't had any scared or clinging children dropping them off at Preschool or any other school. We'll have to wait for Macey's turn.
Today was my birthday! I turned super old. But not super super old. Double digit double numbers today. What? Did you guess 22? As you can see, here is my fancy Zinger cake!
I actually started my birthday with going to work! How exciting is that? Well, it is Labor Day, the day to labor! Well, time and a half is as good a reason as any! Here's me in my spiffy work clothes:
It wasn't too bad, and Troy and the kids came to work to visit and bring me a strawberry cheesecake blizzard and a special surprise. My mom and brother Mark called me while I was at work to wish me well.
When I got home my dad was driving right in front of me without me even paying attention and arrived at my house right before me with flowers!
Troy and the kids came home shortly after and I decided to torment them with some family pictures! Of course Macey was tired and non cooperative. Not as bad as the "look of death", but here is the "piggy face":
Then we loaded all up, grabbed a pizza and my favorite, Crazy Bread, and headed out to Wheeler Farm for a picnic and stroll around the park. Here I am enjoying my nummy crazy bread:
We had fun looking at animals and posing on different set ups. Here's Troy and I on the horse:
It was a pretty good birthday and I spent it with the ones I love! Nothing extravagant. I got some pairs of earrings finally and the kids made me some cards, but best of all was Troy's gift recording one of my favorite songs for me with him singing. (I'm sure he'll enjoy that I'm posting this on the internet!) Here he is singing Michael Buble's "Lost":
It was a wonderful birthday that goes to show you don't need fancy stuff, just the people you love to show you they care! Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes and calls and everything! I'm excited for tomorrow to get the mail since today was a holiday.
Troy seems to like this picture. It's as if I'm a ghost. Quite interesting.
Well, I'm not really a ghost, although I haven't blogged in a while.
School is going well for the boys. They seem to like it and Micah has come home telling me about 2 friends he has and plays with everyday. Caleb tells me how he practices "leaping and hopping" at recess everyday. (Weird kid!) They did have him play the piano for everyone at school during lunch time. He seemed to enjoy that.
Micah and Jewelia are taking dance classes on Monday and Tuesdays, then Caleb has piano on Wednesdays. Jewelia starts preschool next week. I work the marathon Friday to Saturday night fun, and then Sundays are full of church stuff.
I don't know. I like to have things going on, but sometimes it feels like I am a ghost with all the lessons, classes, cubscouts, meetings, school stuff, and work going on every week. At least a ghost to my husband, or mostly a ghost to my disastrous house and weedy yard.
Hopefully everyone will work back into a routine around here and we'll all adjust to life after Summer.
This last Sunday was Troy's 33rd birthday. 
