Julia in Cinderella

In June, Julia's Innovations Dance Academy performed "Cinderella." Julia takes ballet and her group danced to the song, "I've Been Dreaming" from the movie "Enchanted." It was so cute. However, the night before we had a flat tire, missed the dress rehearsal, and discovered the importance of attending the dress rehearsal the hard way... Oh, well... Despite missing that all too important practice time, Julia did great! She is quite the graceful dancer and since we were not allowed to take pictures or record anything, we had to buy the dvd. It was so fun! Julia felt like a princess and that is what really mattered!

PS. She has since told me that when she grows up she wants to be a "Star," singing that is.

Ana turns 3

(Disclaimer: this should have been posted in June.)
Ana turned 3 years old June 1st and I just found the pictures today. : ) She was a happy little thing as most 3 year-old kids are. She was able to celebrate her day with us and her grandparents. Here she is wearing one of her gifts: a Little Mermaid Dress-up with matching slippers and sparkly wand.

Ana looooves bandaids! In fact, she uses them as if they were stickers much to my frustration... So, we gave her Strawberry Shortcake ones especially for her! And of course she had to put them on right away!

So, Ana changed again. This time into a new church dress, which she loves to wear.

Ana on the phone with Grandpa and Grandma Young.

It was a fun day, especially for Ana. She enjoyed all the attention and loved her dessert, ice cream!

1st week of school

So, Nicholas and Julia started school on Aug. 18th and they were so excited. They had to get up at 7am, but they did it and were on time! : ) They had a good day. In fact, they have had a good week. Nicholas is getting used to having more than 1 teacher, while Julia takes to all day school just fine. She loooooves it! And Nicholas does enjoy it too. Our school received an Arts Education Grant and so we have a full time music/dance specialist. Nicholas said she makes them dance... something that boys might be a little shy at doing in front of their peers. : ) He's a sporty little guy ya know! Anyhow, so much fun to go and we are all loving it.

LDS Church takes a stand on traditional marriage

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-divine-institution-of-marriage

I am so grateful to have the leadership of the church speak so boldly on the topic of marriage between a man and a woman. Take a moment to view the recent article put out by the church.

Nicholas catches one!

So, Nicholas went fishing with Uncle Neil and Uncle Isaac in Oklahoma in June. They woke up at 6am to go to Pole Cat Creek. Nicholas actually caught this one. It was a totally worth getting up so early. : )

Grandma Halliday Retires

So, today was the official BYU retirement party for Eric's mom, Irene/Grandma Halliday. It was so fun to see what she has done over the past 21 years as a Music Cataloger in the Harold B. Lee Library Music Dept. She and her good friend, Janet Bradford, sang about their various MLA trips, which was so fun to hear and watch. We all had a good laugh. It was definitely an entertaining program. I wish the kids had been there to see it because it's not everyday that you get to see your Grandma entertaining a crowd! : )

Irene as a little girl. So, sweet!

A student in the library made this cake especially for Irene's party. He said he'd never made a cake before and that it took him 3 hours to frost it. Wow! It's the "Y" mountain with the trail, the cougar, trees, and on the back side was Bridal Veil Falls with it's recent fires and burned trees. It was in impressive piece of geography-art. Eric said it was delicious and we brought some home for the kids.


It was a special day of memories. I captured Eric, Greg, and Dustin giving some funny literary-musical takes of Irene. The college kids who work in the music section of the library also sang a Cannon to Irene, which if I had been thinking, I would have recorded that too. It was so fun and we all wish Irene/Grandma Halliday the best retirement ever!

I recorded this in a couple of takes as my camera battery died.

Nicholas gets baptized, August 2, 2008

What a special day for Nicholas! Our ward was scheduled for 2pm at the Cedar Hills West Stake Center. Nicholas was very excited and happy! Eric gave a talk on baptism and I was given the opportunity to share my testimony. It was a neat day for the whole family and now Ana says that one day she's going to be baptized too and then proceeds to show us how it's done. : ) Many cousins, aunts and uncles, and Grandma and Grandpa Halliday were here to support Nicholas. At Nicholas' request, the cousins and friends in attendance sang "Baptism" before Nicholas was confirmed. It was so neat and touching to see all these young kids up there singing, even Ana was up there and singing! We went home to our house after wards and had an early dinner with all the company. It was a great day for all of us, but especially for Nicholas.

Julia, (Diann's boys: Jakob, Joshua), Nicholas,
Ana

Ana gets a bike

Since Julia was given a new bike, Ana inherited Julia's Dora bike. Let me tell you that Ana could not be more happy! She's always been an independent soul and now, the minute the garage is open, she's off on that little bike. It's so cute to see her just go! You can sense the freedom it gives her to be riding that bike all by herself.

Miss Julia Turns 6!!!

Julia asked for a Maggie Moo cake, but she let me make her a cake with ice cream sandwiches, chocolate topping, cool whip, and sprinkles. It turned out great! And it sure tasted good!!!! Julia asked at what time she would turn 6. I told her at 3:04pm. She could not wait! She had a great day, even though she didn't get a locket that she reeaaallly wanted me to find. I honestly didn't know where to look for one. (She later informed me that our neighbor said that maybe your mom will get you a locket when you turn 8...) At least that gives me 2 years to look for one. Ha!

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Grandma Halliday shows us how it works!

Julia was so happy to get a new bike! She was rather specific in the items she wished for her birthday. In fact, she went so far as to remind me that a few months ago when we were shopping for her cousin's birthday gift, " Remember the play makeup that we saw? Well, that's what I want. And remember the doggies that I saw at Justice for Girls? I want one of those too." She's a girl who knows what she wants alright! : ) What a cutie!
Happy 6th Birthday Julia!

Riding her new bike

Oklahoma Friend Gathering

So on Wed., July 23rd, 2008, a few Oklahoma friends got together at the Heritage Park right up the street from our home. Scott Henry made the calls to get us all together. It turned out to be quite a fun night not just for the adults, but also for the kids as they had playmates. A few of us haven't seen each other in over 14 years!!! Wow! It was fun to look through scrapbooks and go down memory lane. Next time we get together, let's hope it's not another 14 years!!! : )

L to R
Robert Fife, Scott Henry, Mandy Moon, Valecia Sarmento, and Me!