Daddy Daughter Winter Ball

On Saturday night December 11, 2010 was my oldest daughter's Winter Formal Ball, which I was in charge of setting up, decorating the gym, getting the food, and doing the invitations. Here is the cute invitation that I made out of my digital scrap-booking supplies. Please note we had to make a date change a week later after the invitations went out, due to a wedding reception going on that same night at the church. It worked out better for most us to move the date anyway!



I used Winter Wonderland kit by Shabby Princess, the snow man and snow girl doodles are by Kate Hadfield @ The Lily Pad, and the font is sister-frisky.

We wanted to do a special fun activity that the girls would remember always with their Dads. So we thought a dinner, dance lesson, dessert, and small gift exchange between the girls and Dads would be a perfect memory to cherish forever. There were three other Primary leaders Sister Law, Sister Montoya, and Sister Sister Johansson who helped me that day. We did a silver, blue, and white winter ball theme with tons of snow flakes and white or blue Christmas lights. I made the silver glittered snow flake place cards as well as several paper snow flakes. A couple weeks ago for one of my activities, I had my 8-11 year old activity day girls help me cut out the snow flakes, write letters to their Dads, and glittered the snow flakes for the place cards. They were able to count that activity as a service project since they helped us with the decorations for the ball.

Here is what the table looked like with the place cards and centerpiece.



It was a fun fairy tale night! Everyone was dressed in their best dress. First the girls and Dads received their "king" crowns and "princess" tiaras from a basket then they got their pictures taken in the foyer. We made a backdrop out of a portable chalk board, white sheet, Christmas lights, and snowflakes. When I get the photo back from Sister Law, I will post it on here.



Next, they all gathered in the gym and looked for their place cards. They socialized for a few minutes until we had a blessing on the food. We had the food catered from BYU catering services. We ordered fettucini Alfredo, brownies, and bread sticks from BYU. We picked up some drinks, Ranch salad dressing, salad mixes, and ice from the store. Sister Montoya and I delivered the food right when the ball started. We had to hurry home and change into formal wear and get back to help serve the food,etc. During the lovely dinner, the girls and their Dads seemed to enjoy it very much. In fact, one of the Dads said, "Is this food from Olive Garden?" What a huge compliment for BYU catering. I even got to eat a plate of the food and I was very impressed with it too and thought it was delicious!



After eating dinner, Sister Law and Sister Johansson taught the Dads and girls a waltz. Annie Law is a talented dancer with a lot of dance experience. We played several fun Christmas songs that they all danced too. It was fun to watch the little girls smile and giggle while they danced with their Daddy!









My daughter is stepping on her daddy's toes while dancing, lol!





After dancing for about 30 minutes, we had dessert. While Sister Montoya read The Pearl Necklace poem, the Dads and girls ate their chocolate brownies.

The Pearl Necklace

The cheerful girl with bouncy golden curls was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them: a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box.

"Oh please, Mommy. Can I have them? Please, Mommy, please!"

Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl's upturned face.

"A dollar ninety-five. That's almost $2.00. If you really want them, I'll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them for yourself. Your birthday's only a week away and you might get another crisp dollar bill from Grandma."

As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her penny bank and counted out 17 pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores and she went to the neighbor and asked Mrs. McJames if she could pick dandelions for ten cents.

On her birthday, Grandma did give her another new dollar bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace.

Jenny loved her pearls. They made her feel dressed up and grown up. She wore them everywhere--Sunday school, kindergarten, even to bed. The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath. Mother said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green.

Jenny had a very loving daddy and every night when she was ready for bed, he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story. One night when he finished the story, he asked Jenny, "Do you love me?"

"Oh yes, Daddy. You know that I love you."

"Then give me your pearls."

"Oh, Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have Princess--the white horse from my collection. The one with the pink tail. Remember, Daddy? The one you gave me. She's my favorite."

"That's okay, Honey. Daddy loves you. Good night." And he brushed her cheek with a kiss.

About a week later, after the story time, Jenny's daddy asked again, "Do you love me?"

"Daddy, you know I love you."

"Then give me your pearls."

"Oh Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my babydoll. The brand new one I got for my birthday. She is so beautiful and you can have the yellow blanket that matches her sleeper."

"That's okay. Sleep well. God bless you, little one. Daddy loves you." And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss.

A few nights later when her daddy came in, Jenny was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed Indian-style. As he came close, he noticed her chin was trembling and one silent tear rolled down her cheek.

"What is it, Jenny? What's the matter?"

Jenny didn't say anything but lifted her little hand up to her daddy. And when she opened it, there was her little pearl necklace. With a little quiver,she finally said, "Here, Daddy. It's for you."

With tears gathering in his own eyes, Jenny's kind daddy reached out with one hand to take the dime-store necklace, and with the other hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case with a strand of genuine pearls and gave them to Jenny.

He had them all the time. He was just waiting for her to give up the dime-store stuff so he could give her genuine treasure.

What are you hanging on to?

--- Author Unknown


On the round table, it included a blue snowflake take out box that contained the girls letter to their Dads, which they wrote a couple weeks ago and the girls received a cute pearl necklace and bracelet set. Overall, I think it was a huge success! All our hard work paid off because we had about 15 girls show up and they all appeared HAPPY having a GREAT time that evening!



Here is my "not so little princess" showing off her new pearl necklace and bracelet.

Late Night Scrapping

Over the past several months, I had the worst scrapping withdrawal! Not having a working desktop discouraged me from digitally scrap booking my memories. I hate feeling so behind on my scrapbooks... UGH! So John allowed me to install my Adobe Photoshop on his work laptop, so I could scrap a few pages and get caught up. Here are a few of my favorite layouts I did this past week!

So Blessed, 2001

Credits: Hopscotch Kit by Shabby Princess, template by WM[Squared] Designs @ Scrapmatters, and Segoe Script font.

Dream Princess, 2002

Credits: Ruby's Room mini-kit by Kaye Winiecki @ The Lilypad, template by Urban Mom Scraps @ urbanmomscraps.blogspot.com, and CK Ali's Hand font.

Give Me More Peas, 2003

Credits: Munchkin kit by Jill Billingsley @ Sweet Shoppe Designs, template by Deanna @ http://designbydani.com/girltalk/, and sf Katie Fun font and MTF Cupcake font.

My Year in Status for 2010 on Facebook

Wow, we had an exciting 2010 and did many fun things! I cannot believe how fast one year has gone by! I hope 2011 will be AWESOME!

Gobble ‘Till You Wobble!

November 24-26, 2010

"Real abundance is found when we join hands with those we LOVE." ~ Author Unknown.

"Gratitude is the beginning of wisdom. Stated differently, true wisdom cannot be obtained unless it is built on a foundation of true humility and gratitude." --Gordon B. Hinckley

During month of November, I reflected on the many BLESSINGS I have in my life. I am so grateful for my FAMILY. We truly enjoy spending time together with our many extended family members, friends, etc. In fact, Thanksgiving this year, we were in Northern Utah with the Silva Familiy (my niece Heather a southern Belle from Georgia and nephews James and Justin). Late afternoon Wednesday, we made a stop over to Matt and Chikai's house who invited us over for dinner. Jopes and Elizabeth's family and Justin were there too. Chiaki spoiled us with making homemade mouth watering teriyaki chicken, Asian salad, egg rolls, pot stickers, pumpkin spice cake, and raspberry roll cake. What a way to start our holiday binge! YUM! We played a quick round of Farkle- a fun dice game, which my niece Anna kicked our butts! Then we headed out the door with Justin to James and Heather's house.



Heather and little sister snuggling on the couch!



Big sister is holding James and Heather's dog Roxy! She is such a cute doggie!



"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." ~ Melody Beattie

On Turkey day, we divided up the food assignments, which helped us prepare our Thanksgiving feast smoothly. John and I brought pies, frog eye salad, sweet potato fixings, cranberry sauce, and rolls. Justin made green bean casserole and stuffing. James made the most absolutely delicious, savory, and moist turkey that I have ever tasted! It was probably due the the fact that the men brined the turkey the night before and baked it with bacon strips all over the bird! Heather and James also made the gravy, mashed potatoes, and southern cheesy potatoes. The guys watched a couple football games while the food was cooking.

Look at all that GOODNESS!



For dessert, I would like to thank Mrs. Marie Callender for the hassle free tasty key lime and pumpkin frozen pies! BRAVO! I did however managed to make an easy Jello pudding chocolate cream pie with a crushed Skor topping.



I would like to share the GREAT frog eye salad recipe that I made for my Thanksgiving meal. While living in a foster home many years ago, my foster Mom Pam showed me how to make this amazing salad. It is a Sleaper family tradition, to have frog eye salad as a side dish every Thanksgiving and I try to continue on that tradition in my household.



Credits: Papers and elements are by Kaye Winiecki, pink dragon fly is by Natalie Braxton @ The Lilypad. I used lima bean and Segoe Script for my fonts.

After stuffing our faces with great food, we watched some TV and waited impatiently for midnight black Friday! At 11:45 PM, we headed over to our first stop Walmart! To be honest, I have never experienced shopping in the middle of the night on BLACK FRIDAY! In the past, I didn't think it was worth the hassle and lack of sleep! However, Heather convinced me otherwise that there were some great door-busters that I could not resist such as unbelievable DVD prices $2.00-$13.00 pajamas, $4.00 each, and a massive 30 piece cookware set that included: pots/pans with lids, measuring spoons/cups, scrapper, turner, pizza cutter, two small knives, a cookie sheet, as well as other kitchen gadgets for $24.00, WOW! In fact, my nephew Justin got the following: a five quart crockpot, a mixer, a ninja, a 30 piece kitchen/pot set, 40 piece tupperware, ashop vac vaccum, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Pillsbury dough-boy fleece pants all for $114 bucks! Heather and James got a lot of great things too!

My nephew Justin saved us a spot in line for check out while the rest of us continued to fill the cart! There were literally hundreds of people in the store!



We left Walmart at 12:45 AM. We spent a total of one hour to shop and check out! Look at that heaping cart of amazing door-buster deals!



Next, Heather and I went to Kohls at 3:00 AM and didn't find anything worth the two hour wait to check out. There were some amazing deals but the cons out weighed the pros of buying the stuff. Our last stop was Target at 4:00AM. I was able to cross out many things on my Christmas list and spent under $100.00 total for the night! Woohooo!!! To my surprise, There were many crazies like me who came out dressed in their pajama's and slippers to stand outside the store at freezing cold temperatures, enduring through the crazy maze mob of many eager shoppers in the stores, being cart-less, and patiently waiting for hours at the cashier line! Was it worth the lack of sleep, time, and effort? Hmmmm, well after seeing the guys in their new fuzzy fleece pajamas, it was not only worth it, but priceless!!!

James is wearing Mountain Dew, Justin got Pillsbury Dough-boy on, and John is loving his Hot Tabasco pajama bottoms.



The crazy fools with over-exaggerated "granny pants"! PRICELESS!!! LOL!

A Reel Adventure and Moose Encounter

November 2007

A couple years ago, we went on an amazing hiking/fishing adventure! Our good friend Rick showed us one of his favorite fishing spots. We decided to invite some others to join us such as a couple nieces and nephew (Jessica, Heather, James, and dog Fender).

John with his buddy from work, Rick the fishing expert!




The fishing gang: James, dog Fender, Heather, Jessica, me, and John. Rick was the photographer.



We got up really early Saturday morning and dropped the kids off to the babysitter's house (their Aunt Marilee's house). We drove up to American Fork Canyon near Silver Lake. We didn't fish at Silver Lake, instead we hiked up the canyon to Silver Lake Flats a pond full of fish! The hike up was not an easy one especially for those people who were out of shape, cough cough John and me, lol! It was very steep and full of switch backs!



On our way up to Silver Lake Flats, we saw several moose near the trail. Not far from me, I saw a baby moose who was extremely curious of me, which followed me. To my surprise all sudden the mother and baby started charging in my direction! The other hikers were not far behind me! I started running and yelling, "Watch out! There are moose chasing me!" We had to move quickly off that trial to get away from the moose by climbing straight up the mountain! Imagine us lugging our backpacks, holding our fishing pools, and tackle boxes in our hands while climbing up the steep mountain! Wow, what an adrenalin rush and difficult climb, but at the same time we were so excited to have our very first moose encounter! Yeah, I know we were crazy, but how many people can truly say they have been chased by moose and lived to tell the story!



After hiking for about an hour, we finally made it to the fishing pond. The view up there was absolutely breathtaking. We were surprised to find some snow up there too, while down below there wasn't any snow!



We could literally see hundreds of fish swimming in the pond near the shallow part of the water. In fact, Rick informed us that Silver Lake Flats gets restocked with fish every year. So it was not hard to catch a nice size fish! One by one we all caught our fish! This was an extraordinary fishing trip for my niece Jessica because it was her first time fishing! We were so glad it was such a successful fishing experience that she will never forget!

Sitting on a large rock was my favorite spot to fish!



Here is my first catch of the day a beautiful brook trout!



The colors on the brook trout are so beautiful!



John is giving Jessica a lesson how to tie the hook on, baiting the hook with worms or flies, and casting the pole in the water. John told me he saw a gray-ling fish, but nobody caught one. We all caught brook trout.



Here is Jessica being a great sport enduring through the grossness of fishing!



Here is James with his HUGE fish! It was the largest catch for the day!



Heather was not a huge fan of baiting the fish hook and touching the slimly fish!



Fender was worn out after the hike and climb up the hill. He took a nap while we were fishing. Jessica even fell asleep on a rock while fishing too. We were all exhausted from that hike except for Rick! He was used to backpacking and hiking switch back mountains!



It was quicker to hike down the mountain and we were disappointed that we didn't see any moose on the trails. John and I could hardly move after the next day! In fact, it took a couple days until the awful soreness went away from our legs! A couple weeks later, we invited Jessica over to our place and made some delicious fish fry batter to cook our fish we all caught that day!

My Top Fashion Models

"Fashion fades - style is eternal." ~ Yves Saint Laurent Let's talk glam! I gotta share how posh my girls dress themselves! I am impressed how they pick out their clothes and strut their stuff on their way out the door! Everyday is a fashion show for my girls and the world is their runway. I collected some of my girl's favorite Summer/Fall 2010 Fashion Couture!

"A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous." ---Coco Chanel Spotted wearing at church "hand me downs" and garage sale couture! Big diva was wearing a brown camisole, pink sweater top, a flower print skirt, and brown low high heels. Little diva was wearing a pink shirt, brown skirt with flower stitching, and tippy toed feet missing some flat ballet shoes.



On the way out the door to a friend's house, she was found wearing a white t-shirt and a hot pink camisole, a light pink headband, pink flower hair clip, pink earrings, not seen skinny jeans, and gray converse slip on shoes (non-laced).



After showering, I found her wearing a robe, elephant slippers, and a towel wrapped around her head! "Happiness is the secret to all beauty. There is no beauty that is attractive without happiness." Christian Dior



Spotted near a monster truck wearing a pale pink tutu skirt, white t-shirt, white leggings, and black high top converse shoes. Her hair was done in two braids with black ribbons tied at the ends.



Attended church wearing a white camisole, green dress, white leggings, and a white flower hair clip as her accessory. Her friend Kylie crimped her hair to achieve the wavy look. "The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize." ~ Robert Harling





A totally rad back to school chic look! She is wearing a pink and black backpack, a blue and black ruffled skirt,skinny jeans, white socks, black flats, and matching hair flower clip.



It's all about the layers!!! Found on the way out the door to the bus stop wearing a white camisole, white t-shirt, pink buttoned sweater vest, tight fittin' jeans, black flat shoes, a blue charm bracelet, a black hair barrette, earrings, and blue peace school tot bag.



Hair styled in wavy pig tails which was the "after effects" of having braids the previous day and wearing a casual gray and blue hoodie jacket on a cool fall day.



Denim Doll and All Dolled Up was found at church wearing a white shirt, cream camisole, denim jacket with matching skirt, and a light blue flower hair clip. All Dolled Up is wearing a pink ruffled skirt, white shirt, and a pink bling bling flower hair clip!



A Closer look at All Dolled Up before church. She had a pink heart necklace on and white flat shoes on.



If you can't dress weird, why dress at all? Found during red ribbon week on crazy hair day wearing pipe cleaners in hair!









On her way out to church wearing a gray glitter hair clip, gray shirt, black sweater cardigan, white skirt, fuzzy argyle socks, ankle black boots, a gray and black necklace/earring set, and white purse for her scripture bag!



Went to church wearing a pink hair flower clip, a pink undershirt, blue sweater cardigan, white skirt, stripped multi-colored tights, and brown shoes!



Can you say these girls have glamorous fashion style?!?! "Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play it safers the creatures of the common place the slaves of the ordinary." Cecil Beaton