Perfect Mother's Day

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ME! I had such a wonderful day :) Mother's Day is turning into one of my favorite holidays of the year. John always spoils me and this year was no exception. Let me start at the beginning. I ended up going to bed early last night, so when I woke up rather early and couldn't go back to sleep, I decided to have a little bit of quiet time to myself (VERY RARE). So I went downstairs and logged onto the computer, then spent a couple hours going through my pictures and working on my very neglected blog. It was heavenly! Keeping my blog current and updated is something I really miss, now that I'm working full time and have no extra time. It's so important to me to record all the important (and mundane) happenings of our everyday lives. It's also quite therapeautic and relaxing, so it's a 'win/win' situation ... until I get really behind and I start stressing about getting things posted - then it becomes a nagging chore, eating at me until I finish a post! And now I'm off track ... back to Mother's Day ;)

Once John and the girls woke up, I went upstairs and we all snuggled in my bed. I was given 3 of the most beautiful cards (note to self - scan those cards and post them here!), all hand-made with Dot-Art. John was so proud of Reagan, as he informed me that she made the card for me days ago, but kept it a secret. I broke down laughing hysterically when I broke the news to him that she'd already tried to give it to me twice! The first time, we were downstairs and she told me how she'd made me a Mother's Day card and it was hiding upstairs in Papa's closet - she begged me to take her upstairs that day so she could give it to me. The next time, we were upstairs in my bedroom, laying on my bed and she wanted to get down so she could find my card and give it to me. It was precious and I hope I never forget her sweetness and genuinely good-natured heart. She always amazes me.

After we laughed about Reagan's inability to keep a secret, John took out a beautifully wrapped box from the closet. I had NO idea what it could be, as I wasn't expecting anything. When I unwrapped the gift, I discovered he had purchased my dream Point-and-Shoot Camera!!!!!

I literally started crying. I was ecstatic! I couldn't believe he had figured out exactly what I was dying to have and he got it for me. Reagan was immediately concerned by my tears, so I tried to explain they were tears of joy. She was very confused! Turns out that he involved my friends, Autumn and Nicole, asking them thru email to find out which one I was leaning toward. Autumn had recently sent me an email, asking me about cameras, so I typed out this LONG email about all the cameras I'd been eyeing. Of course, Nicole and I had many discussions about cameras, but it didn't occur to me she was doing detective work, since she's trying to figure out which one to purchase for herself. I felt like such an idiot for not realizing they were being detectives :)


We spent the afternoon/evening at Maribel's house with John's family. It was a nice, relaxing day since we were able to spend time outside enjoying the beautiful weather. I placed the battery of my new camera in the charger as soon as I opened it, then grabbed it on my way out the door to Maribel's. I turned it on for the first time when we got there, and the above picture is the first picture I snapped! Not the best picture, but I figured the first picture taken on my new camera was blog-worthy, right? I know, I'm such a dork.

Avery was dying to have a bite of John's hot dog (her first taste of a hot dog on a bun, with ketchup and mustard) - she loved it!

Leftover ketchup on her lip

Jose and Lauren

Pepin and Nayda

I love this picture of Gabby - isn't she beautiful? She'd been up late the night before, then up early playing a soccer game, so she was beat ... but she was still a great sport, playing so well with the kids. Joaquin, Reagan and Avery all adore Gabby!

Not the best picture of Reagan, but a blog-worthy picture for this reason: Reagan is a bit picky when it comes to eating. She has always liked hot dogs, but she's always refused the bun. Today, she told me she wanted to try eating the hot dog on the bun! What a great Mother's Day gift: HOPE that she'll start trying new things and broadening her selection of foods!

Nayda gave Avery this dress for Easter, so I thought it would be a nice Mother's Day gift to Nayda to dress Avery in it.

Nayda and Joaquin ~ he went nuts over the watermelon!

I posted 2 similar pictures because the first one is such a cute picture of Reagan smiling and the second one shows what I was making: Rolo cookies! I used my sister Camille's recipe for these homemade cookes that have peanut butter in them. You have to mold the dough around a rolo, then when you bake them, the caramel melts and it's delicious. They turned out good, but they were very rich (difficult to eat more than one or two)

Maribel hasn't given Joaquin peanut butter yet, since he had an allergic reaction to a cashew once. So instead of giving him a cookie, she gave him a rolo. The caramel stuck to the roof of his mouth and freaked him out a little bit - we were all cracking up, watching him try to get it 'unstuck'!

Could this picture be any cuter???????????? I don't think so! I couldn't be happier with it :) I was also impressed by the fact I had zoomed in on her and it came out so great ... my old Point-and-Shoot camera was horrible when I used the zoom feature. It always came out dark and grainy.

Joaquin and Gabby - so precious

It was a great mother's day. The only bad part was that John, Marcelo and I did not have our mothers around to hug. Thankfully, I was able to speak to my mother and wish her a good day. I was grateful to have her in my life, yet sad to be so far away from her. It was a difficult day for John and Marcelo, since it was their first Mother's Day without their mom. My heart was breaking for them both.

Sara's Musical Revue!

Tonight was one of the BEST nights! I took Reagan into Manhattan to watch my cousin Sara perform in a Broadway Revue. It was such a great night, just my daughter and me, watching my only family member in this area. Sara was amazing, as was the entire cast. It took place in the Mormon wardhouse that is in the building connected to the Manhattan Temple (65th Street and Broadway, right across the street from Lincoln Center). I'd always wanted to see what a chapel looked like that was located in the middle of the city, and I must admit, it looked exactly the same as every other Mormon church! It was so weird to see a chapel and a gym in a business looking building in the middle of Manhattan ... I felt like I was in Sandy, UT!

The cast was made up of some of the most talented performers, 16 men and women from surrounding wards, all of whom had or attempted to have careers in Theater in NYC.

As you can see by the above program, they sang songs from 3 different song-writers/composers.

Reagan was SO excited to go and asked if she could wear a dress (not that this request is any different from any other day, since she's dress-obsessed!). I decided to wear a skirt too just for fun. Reagan also insisted on bringing her pink purse, which NEVER left her arm the entire evening.

We got there early and saved front row seats. Reagan was SUCH a good girl! She sat still and watched the entire show, clapping excitedly after each performance!

Fiddler on the Roof's "Tradition"

Fiddler on the Roof's "Matchmaker"

"Will He Like Me" from She Loves Me

Rebecca Holt-Gilmore singing "What More Do I Need" from Saturday Night

Kevin Goertzen and Ryan Wood singing "Agony" from Into the Woods

Libby Marshall singing "The Wizard and I" from Wicked ~ she was amazing!

Matthew Herrick and Libby Marshall singing "As Long As You're Mine" from Wicked

My cousin Sara and Vanessa Goertzen singing "For Good" from Wicked ~ this was an unbelievable performance of one of my favorite songs!

I downloaded this song ("For Good") onto my iPhone and played it for Reagan several times before the show, so she knew a lot of the words by the time she watched Sara perform. It was so cute to see her singing the song softly from her seat :)

The entire cast at the end of the show, singing "In The Beginning" from Children of Eden

The final bow was right in front of us ...

Reagan got SO excited when everyone started clapping and standing up, that she literally jumped up out of her seat and ran over to Sara! I couldn't believe she did that and I was a little bit torn between my emotions - part of me was upset that she ran away from me like that without even asking if she could get out of her seat - the other part of me thought it was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen!

As soon as the show was over, she asked if she could get up on the stage ... she ran around the stage, totally in heaven!

Steve and Sara (too bad I didn't get a picture with Sara's eyes open!)

It's pretty obvious how excited Reagan was to see Sara! Look at that smile!

We had a lovely time and I was overjoyed that I had the opportunity to expose Reagan to some Broadway Theater in this way ... it was the perfect venue to ease a 3 year old into the Arts. I only played songs from Wicked before the show, mostly because they were my favorites. I was part of the ensemble for Fiddler on the Roof during my sophomore year of high school at Hillcrest (I was a member of the Dance Company, so they literally forced us to be a part of the musical numbers for the school musical). I got so tired of those songs, so I didn't think to play these for Reagan beforehand. But it turns out she loved them! On our drive home from the city, she asked, "Can I hear the ... house on the roof songs?" It was amazing that she'd picked up even part of the title of the musical, but she knew exactly what she wanted to hear. So I found some video clips on YouTube on my iPhone and let her watch them on the way home. She loved "Tradition" and "Matchmaker."



Speaking of my sophomore year of high school, I ran into a girl who I danced with on Hillcrest's Dance Company! As I watched the show, I couldn't help but notice that the girl who was turning the music for the pianist looked very familiar. I thought her name was Marin Leggat, so at the end of the show I stopped her to ask ... sure enough, it was her! She was a senior when I was a sophomore and if I remember correctly, she was also a Student Body Officer. We were on the Dance Company together, but most people stuck with their friends from their own grade, since the company was made up of Seniors, Juniors and Sophomores. She said she remembered me, but her picture of me in her head was someone with really curly hair ... I told her I had the permed-do back then, so she was probably thinking of the right person. She told me she was living in Manhattan because she moved there to pursue a career in choreography. After talking to her, I asked Sara if she knew her ... she had only met her briefly at one of the rehearsals, but Sara told me Marin was the one responsible for organizing the entire Arts Festival that took place that weekend for the church. She'd put on a dance performance the night before. I'm posting this because it's SUCH a small world that I would run into someone I went to high school with in Manhattan, 17 years later!



Speaking of the curly hair, just one more story and then I'll end this post! A couple weeks ago, I decided to style my hair curly one day for work. When I say curly, what I really mean is wavy. After I wash my hair, I put some mousse in it, do a lot of scrunching, then dry it upside down with a diffuser. It goes wavy and looks like an 80's do, but sometimes a girl needs a change! So, I walked in from work that day and Reagan was in awe! Her eyes got big and she said, "Mama, you have curly hair! It looks just like Sara's!" It cracked me up that she immediately made the connection to Sara. Who notices stuff like that? Only my little Reagan :) Since then, we've have MANY conversations about Sara, especially when Reagan gets out of the bathtub and has curly wet hair. She loves to run around the upstairs saying she's Sara, not Reagan!