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.