Published!!!!!

Ok, so I am soooooooo not the majority of people that read this blog where you are amazing talented and oh so accomplished. I know that a published author, a revered costume designer, an amazing photographer, Ms. I can make anything in the world, the best smooth talker in the world, athletes and an organizational genius all read this blog fairly regularly (don't I keep an amazing circle of friends.) I just want to humbly throw my hat into the very very very very outer part of the ring and say WOOOO HOOOO! I got a pattern published on a trendy craft site.

Ok, now before this gets too far out of hand, it is super simple and I have been selling the pattern on another site for almost a year, but it is kinda difficult to get your patterns up on this new site. I had to do a lot of revisions, but it was worth it. I am just excited to have it up there with so many talented creative geniuses. The cool thing is that they are interested in my other patterns as well. I am in the process of drafting them up as we speak! I just had to share!

Oh, and if I do say so myself, I think that my models are adorable!

HERE is my link.

Just a Preview...

Of what I have been up to.

The Princess Festival

Last year, I heard about The Princess Festival as we were driving around and seeing all sorts of billboards advertising this grand event. I thought that Nena would LOVE to attend seeing as she is the girliest girl that I know. However, I received quite a great deal of sticker shock when I looked it up online last year and saw that it was $30 for each girl. Wow. In my book that is a bit pricey.

This year, I got an email announcing that the Utah Kids Club had obtained some tickets and were giving them away. I immediately emailed and we got them! I was so excited. Now, admittedly, I had to take Nena out of school for part of the day to attend, but I figured that this was a pretty rare occasions.

We were thrilled that Nena's friend Bailey was able to come with us. She is Nena's oldest friend and she misses her since she moved further south. Hopefully, we will be able to see a lot more of Bailey and all of her siblings this coming summer!

The festival was cute and it is really a fund raiser for African children. The girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves which made it all worth it to me.

They started off by visiting Cinderella, her prince and their enchanted carriage. Who hasn't dreamed of this experience~!
And you HAVE to do the cardboard cutouts!They found their way through the enchanted tunnel.


And were off on a magical tour of the property. They were in search of the Winter Queen and wanted to turn her from evil to good. I LOVE this shot as both girls reached for each others hands at the same time.

The tour took the girls over the entire fantasy land where they met every princess imaginable. It was better than Disneyland.

At the end, they were able to conquer the evil winter queen and see all of the characters rejoice in the grand castle.

The cute blue fairy (who DOES have a name, not that I can remember it) sang a great song that enchanted all of the princess.
After their touring journey was over, they got to go on a treasure hunt. They each got cards with clues on them. They had to follow the clues to find the Prince. This booth was washing hands. Random, I know.

At the end, they were introduced to the prince. They told the prince the magic word that they had learned along the way and he magically knew their shoe size. The slippers fit perfectly and they were pronounced genuine princesses.



After meeting the prince, they received their own souvenir storybook complete with autograph pages. We spent the rest of our time chasing down the characters to add their names to their books. Sadly however, Ariel had disappeared and no one knew where to find her. We will have to get her next time.




I love this shot of Bailey and Nena!


Just as we were leaving, the girls spotted the Sword in the Stone. They pulled and pulled and managed to pull out that sword. I say kuddos to them. Nothing better in this world than a super buff princess!




Thank you Bailey for coming with us!

My Ballerina

This year I started Nena at a new dance studio. She joined with one of her friends and the other friend joined at Christmastime. I have to tell you how impressed I am with this new studio. They actually teach real ballet and their recitals are quite the show.


The girls have been working so hard on their dance recital piece. This year they danced to "Lonely Goatherder" from the movie "Sound of Music" (It is the song from the part with the marionettes.)

Nena really enjoyed her backstage time with the dancers. She felt very professional.
Here is Nena with two of her gal pals. Seriously. Aren't they beautiful young ladies!
A look at all of the dancers. I love that they use the same costumes for BOTH recitals during the year.

She was thrilled when her cousin came to watch her dance.

I am very biased, but I think that she is quite a looker for a nearly 8 year old!

The end pose!


This year after her performance she was thrilled to receive so many flowers. Grandma and Grandpa brought her mini roses. Her dad and I each gave her a bouquet of flowers! She was thrilled.
Posing with Grandpa and Grandma!
Nena and two of her best friends.
The proud mamas! This was a long day for me and I was SO exhausted.

Nena and all of her flora!


I am so grateful that we got an amazing dance teacher. Angela is the director of the ballet studio and happened to be Nenas teacher. I am thrilled that she will be her teacher next year.


Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa that were so thrilled with her performance that they paid her tuition to go to the intense Summer Dance Classes. She has progressed so much. They say that the summer class is amazing and almost more helpful that a whole year of classes. Thank you so much mom and dad.

Love This Kid!

I LOVE MY TOAD!!!!!!!!!!

The Cousins!

My kiddos have a combined total of 6 uncles and 2 aunts (and I guess technically 3 additional aunts that married into the family but, I am just talking blood family.... NO OFFENSE to all of you cute aunties!) Out of those numerous aunts and uncles they have 3 cousins. Two of those cousins have made their way to Utah to visit their dad for a month and a half. We are thrilled to have them!