Cleats

Courtney needs new soccer cleats and she had Christmas money so she decided to spend it on getting new cleats.  She found some she really liked on the Nike website (because you can't wear cleats from any other place but Nike!) and she bought them.  Afterward, she got an email saying that Nike was canceling her order and she would get a full refund.  Okay....so she found another cleat that she liked and ordered it.  Courtney's shoe size is very popular for cleats so it's hard to find a pair that is in her size, is "cool enough", and is in stock.  Once she finds a pair, she has to jump on it and order them.

This time, Nike didn't cancel her order and she got them.  She tried them on, actually took them to practice, but they hurt her feet.  So they are going back to the store.  She will have to search again for another pair that will work for her.

The new cleats that Nike is making have extra arch support.  That would be great if you had an arch, but Courtney doesn't so it just hurts her feet to use shoes with arch support.  But they looked cool!

Junior Prom

Courtney had a fun time at Junior Prom.  The day-date consisted of going to Zion for a hike and then eating lunch that the boys had brought.  She had friends in her group so it was fun for her to go hiking and to lunch.  They did the Emerald Pools hike.

After lunch, they came back and got ready for the rest of their date.  Courtney was picked up, put on her corsage, gave Kayden his boutonniere, and then they were off. 

  

They went to have pictures taken near the Tonquint Cemetery (it isn't as weird as it sounds because there is a nature garden behind the cemetery so it has a lot of nice places for pictures).  Most of the couples were doing cutesy pictures and Courtney and Kayden did this...

  

I love it!  That's what happens when you have grown up together and aren't the cutesy type of people.  But the pictures turned out great.

The colors blue and pink were very popular this year.  It makes it easy to spot Courtney in her rust-colored dress.  They had dinner and then went to the dance.  It was held at an old barn place in Washington City.  The place was smaller than it probably should have been and the kids like to mosh so, rumor is, the SCHS kids broke the floor.  They probably won't be invited back there again.

After the dance, they went to a house for dessert and to play games.  Then they were all home by midnight.  Courtney had fun and I'm glad she was able to go to her junior prom.

Modifications

Courtney's prom dress needed a few modifications.  It was too long and it was a bit too big in the middle.  I thought they would be simple fixes, and they weren't too bad, but the lace made it tricky.  I had to find a natural point where I could bring up the lace on the hem.  There was a pattern to the lace so I didn't want to make a seam where it wouldn't be natural to the pattern.  I had to figure out where it would look the best and then hand sew the hem so it would look okay.  I then had to take up the lining fabric so the lace could hang over the top but not too much.  It took a long time to figure out and get it to look okay.  I had to unpick it once but then I was able to get it to look nice.

I also was able to make a couple of tucks in the back of the dress to bring in the waist a little so it would fit more snugly.  That wasn't a hard part and it ended up looking like it was meant to have tucks in the back.

I also hemmed Hayley's dress for her too.  She came over, tried it on, I pinned it where I thought it should be, and then I spent a day hand sewing her hem also because she had really delicate fabric too.  

It's times like this when I'm grateful my mom taught us to sew.  I have tried to teach Courtney but she just isn't interested at all.  Someday she may regret that!

The process and all the pins:

The finished product:

We found it!

Courtney had ordered a second prom dress online from a boutique in Highland.  When we got the dress, it wasn't at all what we were expecting.  It didn't look good, was a size too small (although we ordered a size up), and it needed to be returned.  The church where they were holding Merna's funeral was only 2 miles from the boutique so we ran there before the funeral to return the dress and see if we could find something else.  

We only had 20 minutes to find something and...COURTNEY FOUND SOMETHING!  I was so excited and may have cried in happiness.  It needs to be hemmed, which I can do, but it is beautiful and I'm excited she found it.  The best part was that it was only $50!  Score!

I took a close-up picture to send to her date's mom because they were ordering the corsage.

If we hadn't found the dress at the first shop, I had a list of others we were going to try out.  

Aunt Merna

My Aunt Merna passed away and we had her funeral in American Fork/Highland. She was a neat woman who was always really fun and kind.  I have some great memories of staying at her house during the summer or when their family would come to Huntington to visit.  I was sad to see my cousins so sad but we know the Plan of Salvation and we will get to see her again someday.

These are the remaining siblings with Merna's casket.  

Kelly, Kathy, Ronnie & Nevin

Package from Ethan

Ethan was being transferred and wanted to send things home that he didn't need.  I put some extra money in his account so he would have the money to send a box home.  It ended up being over 20 pounds and I am amazed it made it home to us.  The box was ready to fall apart when it was delivered to us.  It was crazy that the post office in Loveland, CO, didn't tape it better for the poor kid.  But it made it to us!

I got a laugh out of how he addressed the box.  Thank heavens for the mailing label the post office prints because otherwise, I don't know if it would have made it to us.

Can you see how he addressed it with a pen on top of the box?  Crazy kid.

Of course, Courtney and I opened the box and went through everything.  We had a great laugh when we found his jeans in the box.  The tags weren't on the jeans but they were obviously not worn.  Haha!

Well, we have them for when he gets home, just in case he needs them. haha!

Cold Courtney

Courtney has been working on her science project for a couple of months.  That doesn't mean she has been working on it the whole time.  That means that a couple of months ago she did half of her experiment and then this month she did the other half of her experiment.  Unfortunately, the morning she decided to do it was FREEZING!  Her friend and she both were doing their projects at the Desert Hills football field.  Luckily, her friend took pictures of her freezing so we could enjoy it.

The best laugh!

Courtney has a great laugh when she really gets going.  I was fortunate enough to really get her going the other day and took a picture of her.  You can tell when she is really amused!

I am 99% sure that she was laughing at me and that's why she was laughing so hard! ;) 

Prom dress

St George doesn't have very many places to find prom dresses.  Courtney ordered one online but didn't like it when it came. (I thought it was beautiful but she felt like she was wearing a "bathrobe.") We went all over trying to find out.  She found one she liked but it was a size too small.  She had me take a picture so we could have a reference of something she would like.  But we are still on the hunt.

Seatbelt

When Courtney leaves the house one thing I always say is "Make sure to wear a seatbelt."  She was with her two friends one Friday night, just driving around and she sent me this picture.

She sent it to confirm that she is, indeed, wearing a seatbelt and she always wears a seatbelt. Good girl!

Basement drywall

 If you want to see what our basement looks like with drywall, here are a couple of videos:

We also had to get a dumpster for the drywall guys.  They had a ton of stuff to throw away so it was full when they finished.  I was gone when the company finally came to get it so Courtney videoed it for me.

My birthday

I got the best delivery on my birthday...flowers from Bryan.  They came by FedEx, which was unique, but they were beautiful.  

 Bryan made me breakfast and dinner.  Courtney made my birthday cake.  My parents took us out for dinner for my birthday (a few days after because our nights are crazy with soccer and Bryan's work) and I got lots of calls and texts.  It was a good day.

Painting the basement

We are at a point where it's time to paint the basement.  Courtney and I went and bought primer to begin the process...but it was a pain!! We were able to get the shower room, toilet room, and bathroom primed but it took all day long.  We decided that, for the sake of time and making sure it looked professional, we are going to hire it out.  We are good at painting accent walls but painting a whole basement was going to be a pain!

Junior Prom

Courtney was asked to the SCHS Junior Prom. The boy who asked her is in our ward. He was the one she asked to Sadies but he wasn't able to go.

Can you tell she loves having her picture taken with the poster before she picks it up?  She wasn't happy with me. ;)

A couple of days later she answered.

Courtney's ski trip

For Courtney's 16th birthday trip (yes, it's a few months late) she wanted to go on a ski trip.  She and Bryan decided to go to Park City for their trip.  We looked at the calendar and figured out that most schools would be back in session the first week of January.  Courtney didn't have school those days (except SCHS and she just had 2 classes) so we thought that would be the best time because the crowds would be smaller.

Bryan got them lift passes for Park City and they left for their trip on Wednesday.  The VRBO was unique (it didn't look as nice as it had online) but they were comfy and warm.

They spent 2 days skiing to their heart's content.  Courtney wore Bryan out but they had a great time.  Courtney is getting to be a really good skier. 

Courtney was sad that her white tennis shoes are now dirty, but that's ok.

Our ski bunny

Bryan has videos of her skiing that I need to get from him.  She is fun to watch ski and I'm glad they had such a great time.

Temple trip

I have a calling to be a young women specialist over temple trips.  That means that a friend and I are in charge of getting appointments and organizing temple trips for the youth in our ward.  We took the youth to the Las Vegas Temple in December and had a great experience.  For January, we were able to get an appointment at the Cedar City Temple.

It is really hard to get appointments unless you are quick.  The appointments are snatched up really quickly and so you have to work 3 months in advance.  On January 1st at midnight, the appointments were opened for March and a rush of leaders/parents try to get appointments for their youth.  The appointments usually are gone in 5 minutes, so it's crazy!

The appointment is for 16 youth to attend so we have been focusing on the youth who haven't been to the temple before (and their siblings).  We had a good group who were excited to go.  We met at the Stake Center, gave out family names from people in our ward, gave some guidelines, prayed, and took off for the temple.

We got there, took pictures outside, then went in and did baptisms/confirmations.  We had a good experience.  When we were finished, an older gentleman came up to the youth and thanked them for taking time out of their schedules to serve in the temple.  He was very emotional and I think it touched the youth.

We then had cookies and chocolate milk before driving back home.  It was a good trip.

We didn't plan this picture very well.  Some of us were on our tiptoes and ended up being floating heads. ;) 

 

Talking with Ethan

 Some Tuesday mornings are happier than other Tuesday mornings...at least for Courtney.  This particular morning she wasn't happy to get up early to talk to her favorite brother.  Ethan tried to tease her and get her in a better mood, which worked eventually, but she didn't start off that way.

Cute Courtney!!

Videos

Courtney is pretty amazing at putting videos together.  She did a year in review for herself and then a video of her and Ethan (grab the tissues).  Here they are: