Brooke and school activities

Thanksgiving is a fun time during Kindergarten. Brooke dressed up as a pilgrim for her feast and her friend Jaden dressed up as a native American.

Brooke works really well at her table.

They had relay races for the turkey trot. At this age, they fall and cry and get a hug from the nicest principal. Brooke loved it!

Brooke took this photo of Mr. Anderson, her favorite playground supervisor (shhhhh...don't tell the others). He plays organized games with the kindergartners after they eat lunch.

This is Allie and Brooke after school. We wait for about 50 minutes until the other kids get out of school to go home. Sometimes we go home or even make a quick run to the post office, but mostly wait. There have been times that we play card games and complete HW, but mostly wait!!!!!

Remembering Brian Salice

Reminder: Click on the photos to enlarge.

We still have good and bad days, mostly good. Now it has moved to mostly a few bad moments.

Just a few things that reminded us of "Daddy" during the memorial.

This is the hamster city "gift from God" that I found. While searching the apartment for items that belong to the girls, I heard something moving. It was 2 little dwarf hamsters. These hamsters have helped during this transitional time. The girls were thrilled to know that I found the hamsters!

These are the balloons that were sent to heaven with a note attached for "Daddy"

Sad times in our home...

Sage and Brooke's dad passed away last week. After telling the kids about it on Tuesday, we held a kid-directed memorial for him in our home on Saturday. He was a dedicated Father to his daughters. His love for them was great. While cleaning out his apartment I came across items that will help the girls remember him. One of the best things found, was a trunk filled with letters and photo albums from his mission. His last year he wrote (spoke) his journal into a tape. The girls (including Libby) are enjoying listening to his missionary stories at night while going to sleep.

Sage played a piece on the piano that was her Dad's favorite. She would play if for him on the phone at night. He called faithfully every night.

A video of Sage's balloon going up.

Many friends have sent thoughts about Brian, which I plan to include in a memory book along with family photos for the girls. Please don't hesitate to still write something, it may take me months to get it all together.

Brian's mother is still alive and has been very supportive during this time. Unfortunately, she moved out of state weeks ago, making it harder for the girls to feel connected as they were before that.

And it came to pass...

Brooke on 2 wheels!

Brooke is so lucky to have a patient step-dad that kept waiting for the right moment to take the pedals off her bike. He was ready for her after school last Friday afternoon. I believe it took less than a few hours to have her riding around our block 5 times. This video is a week later and she still has no fear!

Children or Angels?

Please click on the program to enlarge and realize the spacing was messed up during conversion.

The primary program was on my mind all year, took weeks and months to write and put together. The children learned and practiced the songs month after month. I couldn't help but be speechless about the performance. When they sang, "God gave us families, to help us become what HE wants us to be" - I just couldn't help but hope that they will realize what that means to the rest of us...someday. Thank you to the village of people that helped support this program, especially the parents and teachers. Big thanks to my mom that played the piano without even practicing with the kids. The beautiful full page program that Brother Lodwick prepared and labored over for several weeks is not given justice with this converter program I had to use. Blogger wouldn't accept a pdf file.

Highlights: 3 of our children singing in the program, Sage playing the prelude for 10 minutes as a duet with Grandma, my Aunt and Uncle coming to watch, Brooke actually speaking into the microphone, Perry and Libby's biological mom coming to watch, Libby singing a duet with Noah, Aunt Jenny (2nd counselor) left 1 week old baby at home to come and watch the program, shall I go on and on?

Service brings happiness :) Worth it? Absolutely!

New man in the house

This guy went from "Perry Hotter" to one fine young man in about 30 minutes. Look at how handsome he is. We can see him and better yet, he says he can see!

One of his young men leaders, Jon Mallette, has provided our family with so much service lately, I wasn't sure we could let him do one more thing for us...but he cut Perry's hair into this great style. Perry is excited to be using "gel" now. Perry has very thick hair.

Happy Halloween!

Presenting our Halloween costumes:

Perry Hotter

Native American Princess

Cowgirl Sally

Ariel

Snow White and the Clown

Work hard, then play hard

I lead a fun and BUSY life. Moderation in all things is key to being well balanced. I need to have PLAY TIME! Two of my girlfriends flew down from Utah for a weekend in Palm Springs. Our jaws never tired, even though we talked non-stop the entire 4 days. I miss these gals a whole lot. Thanks to the family members and husband that helped make this possible.

While driving to Palm Springs, we stopped at Glenn Ivy (Corona, CA) for a relaxing day at the spa. I will not be posting most of the photos (courtesy to my friends' wishes) because of the bathing suit attire.

We loved our time in several different pools, baked in the sun with mud all over us and even sat in a mineral bath that was very stinky. It is very affordable, you just gotta try it (all ages are welcome).

We went to In-N-Out

My parents hooked us up at a time share condo, "Cinamaron Golf Course Resort". We had a 2 bedroom, 2 bath place with a full kitchen. Not a care in the world...

We spent a day at the pool, since it was over 100 degrees every day we were there.

We had pedicures done.

While we shopped at the stores along the main street in PS, we found this soap store that lathered us up and let us smell combinations of all sorts of scents. Personally, I appreciated the fresh air outside the store, but it was an experience for sure.

This statue attracted many, including Holli. We had the best smoothies at the Mexican restaurant behind her.

I think we went inside almost all 130 outlet stores, including this new "Brighton" store. No kids and the whole day to shop. We were definitely exhausted, but we kept on going!

We ate at Ruby's on the Seal Beach pier and then they experienced Trader Joe's. They had to take another carry-on the plane with all their stashes.

I have been lucky to call these ladies my friends for about 11 years now. We all bought our first homes together, we lived in the same neighborhood, we went to church together, we had our first babies together, we even spent a week together on Lake Tahoe. There are so many experiences to list, but they are the best and I love them lots! Thanks for coming to Cali.

I highly recommend for moms to get away on occasion.