Father's Day!

Tomorrow I go girls camp and won't be back for a week.  I couldn't leave with out saying something about these two guys for Father's day.  I have way better pictures of the both of them but I love what these pictures say about them.  This picture of my dad says it all.  My dad is a tough guy.  He is a retired Green Beret that served our country for more years than I remember.  He could hurt bigger men than him with his eyes closed.  Yet he is gentle enough to snuggle his puppy and chat with her on the Fourth of July.  He is this way with lots of things.  He talks to strangers and is friendly with everyone he meets.  He is a gentle giant and almost always happy with others.  I love that he is SO tough and SO gentle.  I can always depend on him.  He is a great dad.  Always was and always will be.  

 This picture of Brandon shows one of the reasons I married him.  He PLAYS!  He works hard, then he PLAYS hard!  We got him a t shirt for Fathers day that said "work Hard, play HARDER".  He Loves to play with his kids.  He is the first to make memories with them.  I am usually the one to put the bobosh on something but he will always put the book down, or the set the cleaning aside to play something with his kids.  He is always singing too.  Life is a song for him.  If it doesn't fit the song then he will make it fit by putting words to it.  Change the words to fit.  He has been singing Les Mes for SO long that now that it is popular our kids actually know it.  Sometimes they know different versions of it but they know the tune.  One time he sang a scripture version of Les Mes.  Our kids sang that for a while!  He is more fun than we know what to do with sometimes and it's hard to stay mad at a guy like that!  I'm sure grateful he is my kids dad!  We love you B! Happy Father's Day!

Daddy's sidewalk chalk.

So this is what happens when Brandon gets a hold of the sidewalk chalk.  There was a whole lot more all down the patio.  It look like a whole scene had been storyboarded from the movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" in our back yard!   He is so much cooler than me.  sigh.  ;) 

A quick tour of B's work!

Then we went to visit Brandon's work!  It always fun to take a tour of the studio.  I love this one of my dad.  At work they all called my dad Big Papa!  

Granny and a Spiderman monster!

you can see how big it really was!

Nana and some Hotel T. Zombie!

Finally some "Cloudy" stuff!  We can't wait for this movie to come out!  Brandon has been on this film for a couple years now.  His part is finally done and he has moved on to something else.  We are all excited for it's release in Sept.  though.  He was head of Story on this one and he loved the directors and team he got to work with.  This is a "watermelophant"

Flint Lockwood!

Juliet's favorite....STEEEEEEVVVVEEEE!!!!!

My dad's favorite!  Earl!  classic!     They/we are all so proud of Brandon and can't wait to see the movie!

Pedicures and Manicures!

When my parents came to visit my mom took Juliet and I for pedicures!  Juliet has gotten her toes done before but never has she been able to sit in the coveted big girl chairs.  She has only had her toes polished!  She was waiting and waiting for this day!  

You can tell by the smile how happy she was!

Then she promptly came home and filed Papa's nails for the next 2 hours.  Literally 2 solid hours.  I'm sure she filed of some skin too.  I love that he is perusing a coloring book while she does his manicure.  He is truly the most patient grandpa ever!

At one point she got tired from all her filing and and had to lie down to file.  But she kept on filing....I'm sure down to the nub! ouch!   Reel men get their nails done and don't cry!

Play Production "Broadway Magic"

Max was in Play production this year! "Broadway Magic"!!!   Darby did Play production for 2 years when she was at Wilbur.  This was the first year for we had seen this show though.  (They rotate the same shows every 3 years so Max will do Darby's first show next year) 

 He was able to be in with his best buddy Aiden!  Aiden sang "Tea for Two"

Another one of his best buddies Joey.  Joey sang "Tonight"  from "West Side Story"

Max had a solo... usually only 5th graders get solos but there are a lot less boys than girls in the play production world so boys tend to get a few more parts.  That was just fine with me because he was AMAZING!!!!  His Solo was a song called "A Pretty Girl", an old Irving Berlin song from an old movie "Blue Skies".  It's actually even older than that.  It was originally done in the Ziegfeld Follies in 1919 the redone later by Artie Shaw then again by Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in "Blue Skies"  (Wow...how is that for a History lesson)  At any rate....My Max B did it now in 2013 and he was AMAZING!!!  I loved every second of it.  I cried.

Here he is waiting stage left with some of his "pretty girls" for someone else's part to finish.

Joey, singing his part.

Max also had a solo moment in "Hello Dolly"  Another one of my favorites!  His friend Started singing the first verse.  Then Max sang the second.  Then they sang together.  So it was a solo then a duet.  I love this movie so I was really really happy he was in this section too!

He was also in "Be our Guest" chorus!  He was a chef in an apron.  You can see him just barely on the right.  I loved this number too.  Very very cute!

This was Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Lizzy is in our ward and one of our good friends.  She was Mary Poppins and sang this song.   I think it was the hardest song in the whole production!  She has an amazing voice and was the only girl that could have pulled off this song.  She was AMAZING!!!  I was very proud of her too!

The Lion King!  Circle of Life.

Newsies.  Max LOVED this number.

These two ladies were the directors.  They are the two that put up with ALL these kids (and all their crazy parents) for the whole year and then put on the most amazing productions I have ever seen!  They work so hard and I am so grateful for them.  I know I said that I loved each number but I really did.  All the numbers were SO good and it really is the best grade school production you will ever see!  I can't wait for Max for next year and "The Evolution of Rock"!

New Scout and Old Scout!

We have a new Scout!  He loves it almost as much as his brother!  I can't wait to blog their pine wood derby pictures!  They were awesome and together with their dad they are getting better and better even year!  I am so proud of the choices he continues to make.  I can't believe in a few short weeks he will be baptized. 

I can't believe this one is a Webelo all ready.  He REALLY loves scouts.  It just makes sense to him.  I love that he loves it.  I have never been a fan of scouts but I am a fan for Max because it is really good for him.  He was just voted the Patrol Leader for his pack when they went to camp.  He was really excited and we were really proud of him.  I love this sweet boy and love his black and white view of the world love his scout lovin' heart!  

Girls Camp Pillow Cases!

We're getting ready for girls camp here and these are the cute pillow cases that all the girls in the ward made to take with them.  I love them because I love polka dots.  I may have bought WAY to much fabric so we will be making a table cloth and maybe a couple skirts and some more pillow cases and a dress for Juliet and some dresses for the rest of her primary class!  Yea next time I may have to take someone with me when I buy the fabric.  BUT what really matters is that the girls had fun and they felt good about what they did and learned a new skill......and I have a lot of polka dot material.  :) 

Coco the spoiled family dog!

This is Juliet and my mom's dog Coco.  Coco is one of Juliet's (and Dash's) favorite people/dogs.  I am not sure if Coco feels the same way about them but I am not sure she really has a choice.  I know in this photo it doesn't look like she is enjoying herself but she really was snuggling with Juliet while being held hostage.  Coco is a great dog and I have to finally admit it, part of the family.  She brings my parents TONS of joy and my kids tons of joy too!!!  I have sometimes wrinkled my nose at her because she is thinks she is a princess.  She IS spoiled ROTTEN though.  She only eats people food....my parents say otherwise because they put dog food out for her....but she doesn't eat it because she just waits for her portion of their meal to be shared with her.  She often gets her own happy meal....Juliet gets the toy...but Coco will chew it up if you leave it on the floor.  She eats more candy than my kids then gets a tummy ache and gets treated like a baby.  My dad ALWAYS knows where she is even if Dash is playing in the street.  ;) We are no longer aloud to have chocolate in the house in case Coco gets it she will die.  (not really but it's under very strict lock down because she will die if she eats it so we have to be really careful not to drop any on the floor while eating it.... a feat that is hard to do with a lot of kids!) 

 BUT  Even with all those CRAZY things how can you not look at those little eyes pleading for help and not give her some more candy?  She has won me over with how good she is with my kids.  We love you Coco loco puppy! 

I am Poem by Max

This is one of Max's year end projects.  It is one of his teachers favorites.  It is now one of mine.  She asks them to put a lot of thought into it and for Max he takes that very seriously.  This is called an "I am Poem"  It basically talks about everything that Max is and feels and thinks right now in his awesome 4th grade mind and heart.  And that mind and heart is amazing and more special than a lot of 40 year olds than I know.  His handwriting is a bit crazy (we are working on that) and so I am going to translate below but I wanted to show it in it's full glory!  I sure love this amazing boy of mine!  He makes me want to be a better person.  I couldn't ask for anything more.  

Max's "I am Poem"

I am  Unique and Creative
I wonder how mankind first communicated
I hear pedestrians everyday talking
I see random things
I want a Jurasic gumball machine

I pretend to like things my brother likes
I feel happy to learn greek so easily
I touch the Heavens
I worry if Juliet will run into the streets again
I cry when my grandpa died of cancer
I am Unique and Creative

I understand when a door closes another one will open
I say Life isn't fair deal with it
I dream to become a history major at the U of U
I try to draw good
I hope to become a fellow traveler
I am Unique and creative

He loves me, he loves me not?

before Rye and Amanda got married he had to make sure it was going to be ok by one little lady in his life....Juliet.  When they came out for a visit he surprised her with some purple flowers and later gave her a pink ring to show in undying love for her.  They will always have a special love for each other.  She has had a special thing for him and him for her since she was 2 weeks old!   She still says all the time that she is going to marry him even though he is married to Aunt Amanda.  I had to tell her that if she did marry him she would have to move in with him and never live with us again.  That was almost ok.  She decided she would wait awhile.  

visit from Grandma Jan

Recently Brandon's mom came for a visit.  She actually was visiting is brother but we got to steal her for a couple moments here and there.  Any time we can get with her is fun!  We would have had more time but our toilets flooded and were down over Mother's Day.  Nobody wants to ask there Mother in Law to pee at McDonalds especially on Mothers Day.  This night she came over to watch Darby and Brandon perform in a talent show.  We were helping with an Eagle Scout Project that happened to be a talent show too.  It was awesome that she got to see them perform.  

My talent was helping in the kitchen.  Sigh.  Maybe in another life I will get to be on stage.  ;)  At any rate, we had a great time with Grandma Jan and can't wait to be able to visit with her again!