Tale as old as time.......

Makala's major activity in the fall and January was to participate in the Northwest High School's production of Beauty and the Beast. Sadly, I don't have pictures of the play itself due to copyright laws, dang it! But suffice to say, it was amazing! If I didn't know it was a high school production, I never would have believed it. It was so well done! With a live orchestra no less! They were high school kids too!! The whole thing was just fantastic. So impressive. Makala was in the chorus so was onstage as a "townsperson" and an enchanted character. She got to be a plate in the "Be our Guest" number!! They did such a great job. Makala is so very talented and I'm sure this is only the beginning of the stage life for her. I'm very grateful to have such a great school with the opportunities that it allows for our kids. They are able to do some fantastic things.
WAY TO GO, MAKALA!

New Year's Eve, 2011

As you can see, I'm kind of going backwards, trying to catch up on my blogging.
This was New Year's Eve. Kathleen and Makala were headed out to a Stake Dance.

Our three beautiful girls!
Aunt Robin did Makala's hair. How cute is that??

Sam, always the center of attention....

Super Seventeen

So Kathleen turned the big 17 on Feb. 1st, which just happened to fall in the middle of the week that Tony and I were on our cruise. Once she got over the initial annoyance at that little fact, she settled into the fact that 25 or so people were coming to the house for dinner and cake to celebrate. Yes, they were also coming to attend Makala's high school musical debut, but that didn't make it any less important.
Kat: "Yes, it did." Me: "No, it didn't!"
(You can imagine what went on in our house for a couple of weeks.)
Anyway, I think she had a great time in spite of it.

Kathleen and her oldest sister, Jaynie and Jaynie's daughter, Ellie. Don't Kathleen and Jaynie look alike?

I made ice cream cakes!! How cool is that? And they were so easy!
(Too easy. We've had two more since then.)

We had lots of friends and family with us. It was great fun! A little crazy and chaotic, but still great fun!
Tony: "No, it wasn't." Me: "Yes, it was!"

Any fans of Akhmed, the dead terrorist out there??

I can't believe she's 17. A junior in High School, been driving for 2 years, close to getting her Young Women medallion, thinking about colleges and careers, sniff, sniff.... Okay, enough about that. Anyhoo, we couldn't be more proud of the young woman she's become.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KAT!

Second Honeymoon

So my awesome husband called me at work one day and as soon as I picked up the phone, he said, "Wanna go on a cruise?" I said......"Hold that thought." I put him on hold and finished with the patients I had and got back on the phone and said, "Excuse me?" He said, "Wanna go on a cruise?" So he gave me the details and I spoke to my boss who is the world's most generous guy, and it was done. Two weeks later we were on board the Carnival Triumph headed for Mexico, just the two of us.

This was our head waiter. What a nice guy. Everyone is so nice on cruises and its so fun to see where everyone is from!

I just had to have a picture of our towel animals every night. I wanted to collect them until the end of the cruise but the steward kept taking them each night when they brought the new one.

This is our boat.....um....ship. We kept calling it our boat.

Real guy painted as a statue. Kind of creepy in a cool sort of way.

A couple of the critters roaming around the grounds where we went zip-lining.

These are a couple of the towers we were zip lining between. It was SO FUN!!

This is where we went snorkeling. Much better than the last trip. We saw some really cool fish.

There were a couple of Royal Caribbean cruise ships docked in Cozumel the same day. They took some of those little yellow life boats down and were driving them around the ship! It was hilarious!

We had a wonderful time getting to know each other better/again with no one calling us mommy or daddy for 6 whole days!! It was so nice, but we were so happy to get back home to our kiddos. We missed them! Already planning the next one!

Masquerade!

Kathleen and Marina went to their school's winter formal in February. It was a masquerade ball. They looked beautiful and had a great time.

Makala's school also had a masquerade ball. She looked gorgeous too, of course.
We are so in trouble having these girls running around loose....