Happy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

(Elle didn't really use that much butter--she just wanted it to look "picture perfect"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

We had Korean food with some friends to celebrate Chris and another friend's birthday

 BEST short ribs I've ever had in my life!

HAPPY CRAZY HAIR DAY!

She actually took out all the flowers before going to school because she thought she'd lose them.

She kept the 7 pony tails in though!

Artsy Fartsy

Look who updated his blog!


http://charveyart.blogspot.com/

Orthodontics Again?!

Yep, once again, Elle has entered the fun stage of orthodontia.  We love our original orthodontist in CA, but 6 month appointments with him are kind of expensive.  So, we found one here.--who we didn't like at all.  Many reasons, really.  The clincher, though, was his insistence on putting  This contraption in Elle's mouth to move her jaw because of her supposedly "huge overbite."    Her CA orthodontist thought the guy here must be crazy.  He opened up his big book of orthodontist, found one in our area that graduated from a top notch school and said we  should see what he had to say.

Coincidentally, this new orthodontist is the same guy my friend's son uses.  She gave him good reviews so we made an appointment for a consultation.


Also coincidentally, he did his undergraduate at BYU.
And another coincident, I saw him at Stake conference last week.
Perhaps not a coincident after all.
(PS my friend isn't LDS)


 During the consultation, he kept saying all the same things our CA had said.   It was refreshing to know he was on the same page.  We set up an appointment to get Elle on her way.


Elle still has strange things in her mouth, but the plan is to move her teeth, not her jaw like that creepy thing the other guy suggested.  It's rubber bands and a removable retainer.  She'll go right into braces once her teeth are aligned (in about 2 months)

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

What a good sport!

Sunday dresses and hair and shoes

 Elle got a new Sunday dress and some new Sunday shoes!  She requested that I curl her hair up too.

I think she looks particularly cute today :)

Here's last week's dress and hair.  

I used my wavy curling iron, but it made her hair look more crimped and poofy than wavy.

Oh well.  Live and learn.

She's quite fond of doing the whole "model pose" lately.

When we went to DSW to find shoes, we came upon these lovely babies:

 

If they were cheaper we might have gotten them just for fun. 

And here's Chris trying to play my violin.

 I've taken it up again recently.  My friend convinced me to play with her in the community "fiddle group."  We're the only ones under 50 :) 

Chris says if he had ever learnt, he would be a true proficient. ;)

(He says that about the piano too.  He plans to take lessons when we're done paying for Elle's)

Be of Good Cheer

Yesterday in Fast and Testimony meeting my friend talked about how she was feeling that it was unfair that all these crazy laws are being passed and bad is being called good and good is being called bad.  Then she said she remembered Alma and his people in Mosiah 24:8-15 where Amulon says he will kill everyone caught praying, but that didn't stop them from praying in their hearts.
She said it is the same for us. We can still worship God, and we can still respect the flag and acknowledge Christmas no matter what the world says is right.  I was really grateful for her insight.  Thought I'd share.

And because  I can't have a post without pictures, here's a cute picture of Elle with her hair all curled yesterday.


And since it's a new year, I'm taking pictures again of all 141 Primary kids. (not including the nursery kids)
Here are a few choice shots of the new Sunbeams:

Not too photogenic their first day.  Maybe next week will be better :)

Christmas break

(Yes, I said Christmas break. I am so not PC.  HA!)

Elle started vacationing even before school was officially over by making a snowman the morning of the last day.  

Because it snowed like, an inch, they had the kids start school two hours late.

(standard procedure around here)

What did Elle want to do on her first day off?

First, breakfast together at Panera.

 Then straight to Payless to try on funny shoes!

Elle said she's someone right out of Bazaar Magazine.

As you'll notice, she has an impassioned look on her face and her lips are slightly parted just like a real model.

(The shoes actually match her outfit!)

Then she tried on some clothes at Ross

Guess she should have taken it off the hanger first. 

Then, she spent the afternoon playing her cello.  She amazingly had a Christmas piano book in front of her and read the treble clef notes, but played them as bass clef on her cello! 

Mind blowing to me!

(click to view--I think)

: http://youtu.be/WjxEa7fzLQw

And playing Christmas songs:

(I have no idea why there's a weird icon below the link)

 http://youtu.be/I-6VthvdqPM

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Sunday Dress and Hair

Happy December!

Elle decided to start the month out right by wearing her Christmas dress

She requested that I give her a bun!

Since her hair is so short, I had to do the best I could.