St.Valentine's Day.

 The night before Valentine's Day I was working madly on these treats for my Seminary class:

Note to self: Making heart-shaped rice krispie treats is NOT quicker than making cookies.

At least I don't think so. It seemed like it took FOR.EV.ER.

But I pushed through with a little help from my girl Friday, Lex. I had made extra, thinking I could run them to a few friends and neighbors, but I left Seminary that morning in a rush trying to get to the 8am session at the temple, so Bill ended up with the excess, which sat in his car for a week.

The best laid plans...

I was also madly working on my lesson/activity for Seminary -- 

The No Heartbreak Hotel Doctrinal Mastery Review.

It was an exhausting evening.

That morning I had one of our Seminary young women give me this beautiful rose. 

So sweet.

Bill had brought the ladies of the house the bouquets of carnations (in the background), which we have decided are our FAVORITE flowers lately, due to their cuteness, lovely scent, and LONGEVITY.

After Seminary and a temple session, I went to work, then stopped by the store on the way home to grab a couple of treats for my Valentines {Bill, Lex, Mar, Emmett, Tay/Nae, Evie}. It was a bit of a flail this year on my part... I've been struggling getting my junk together lately, due largely, I'm sure, to taking on a part-time job, 4 hours a day Monday through Friday. One of these days it's all going to come together. At least that's what I tell myself.

That evening, since Bill was working in the temple, the girls {minus Mar, who had a Valentines date, lucky girl} and Emmett celebrated together at Chili's. Tay was working late, Jase is in Alabama, so it was just us ladies and the kids. It was a good time being together, even though we were all missing our main squeezes. Evie told me, "I like your outfit." Way to make a Gigi feel good, sweet girl!

I LOVED getting Valentines throughout the day from my favorite little people.

My Valentine had a lovely gift and card for me -- thanks, baby, you're the best!

I love you all.

Senior Year Sadies.

Mar asked Jake to Sadies... three times. 

It was all part of her plan.

This was the third and final time (all in the same day), and since we had the Elders for dinner, she thought it would be fun to involve them. They shared a great spiritual thought tying in the story of Jonah and the whale, and then asked Jake what the "porpoise" of the message could be. 

Hahaha. So clever.

Nice job, Elders!

The theme of the dance was a "Sock Hop" so Mar decided to dress up. Most kids don't theme dress around these parts -- what fun is that?? She got Jake to dress the part, too. (I think she could pretty much get Jake to do anything... including wearing jeans, which he doesn't usually do.)

Lex snapped most of the pics, so I had to include these cute ones, too.

We met the Sadie's group at the MAC park for pictures.

 I was happy to see the boys in the group were down to theme dress.

Everyone in this picture except Jake is in our ward. 

There were several other groups of kids there taking pre-dance pics, and nearly every girl was in black. Mar stood out in her bright blue dress... but I think she liked it.

 One of the parents had the idea to take a "Greasers v. Socs" picture (remember The Outsiders?)

Cute cute.

The rest of the group skipped the dance and went to Boondocks (some of them don't like school dances), but Mar and Jake went to the dance. 

Mar LOVES school dances. 

One more to go.

BYU bound.

Last night as I was finishing up my blog post, somewhere around 12:30am, Mar received an email from BYU.

Rising and shouting with the best, circa 2009

She's in.

Woot! Woot!
I'm extra happy that she will be near my other UT kids...
...in a couple of years.
She's planning to defer enrollment and go on a mission first.

We are secretly wishing/hoping for the Church to announce that girls can go at 18.
(Okay, maybe we're not so secretive about it haha.)

Congratulations, baby! Your hard work has paid off.

All That Jazz.

 I am so behind.

I am gonna try to whip a few posts out in the next couple of days in an effort to catch up.

Let's go back to Mar's All State Jazz / CMEA adventure January 24-26.

It was a fabulous experience for Mar, aaannd a major volunteer + hotel-reserving fail for me.

I'll try to explain while keeping it brief.

I hesitantly volunteered to help decorate the choir room for the girls of Red Hot prior to CMEA. Due to a communication breakdown, I didn't realize 1) that Mar wouldn't even be at school the morning after we decorated to appreciate the efforts her mamita-and-fam put into making it special {for HER}, and 2) that by volunteering to ASSIST, I would be the ONLY parent (of about 8) to bring ANY DECORATIONS OF ANY KIND. I had a poster printed of the choir, I made a double-sided set of lips with each girls name and painstakingly glittered them (with a little help from my girl-Friday Lex), I made 80 fringe tassels to hang on a garland AND double-sided music notes, also glittered, and I ordered and provided a 30ft fire backdrop. I kept sending emails to the group of parents who had also volunteered, and literally did not get any response other than one "I'm not crafty." UUUGGGGHHH. 

Billy-my-hero came after work the night we decorated to help.

Three other parents helped with the actual hanging/decorating, the other 3 or 4 moms spent the whole time assembling gift bags for the girls. Oh, I could rant for hours about the issues I had with this entire process, but I can feel my blood boil just thinking about it all again, so I'm cutting it off RIGHT HERE.

I had also volunteered to drive some of the girls down to Colorado Springs, not realizing when I agreed to this (and to staying overnight in CO Springs that evening), that Mar and her friend Megan would be going a day earlier than the rest of the choir because All State Jazz was held the same weekend at the same location, but it was a day longer, AND that Mar would spend very little time with the girls of Red Hot = we would spend NO time with the choir (unlike the initial email MONTHS ago where the choir teacher said we {the parents} would attend practices and dinner together with the girls Friday evening). 

So Bill and I drove girls, none of which were our own, to the Broadmoor in CO Springs Friday morning. I then dropped Bill off at his office, then twiddled my thumbs until he was done working for the day (okay, I actually went shopping, which I haven't done in ages...). We grabbed an early dinner at a yummy sushi place just down the street from his office, then hit a movie at a DOLBY theater. The theater was amazing, so dinner and the movie were definitely the highlight of the day. (This was the only pic we snapped at the theater... not quality, but it will help me remember.)

Then we went to check in to our hotel.

I had declined the discounted-to-$222 room at the Broadmoor (I'd rather pay that kind of money when I'm there for FUN, not for a school event), and tried to search a respectable lower-priced hotel for our stay. Let's just say my selection was.... terrible haha.

This was the view out of our window:

 Yes, our window overlooked the lobby. Not a single ray of sunshine possible.

And this was on the ceiling above the bed:

 Hmmmmm.  NICE. 

Note to self: never stay at the Academy Hotel again.

The next morning we headed back to the Broadmoor to watch Mar do her jazz thing.

This is a very special exclusive opportunity that only a few choirs get invited to each year (another one of Mar's choirs went last year). No recording or picture taking allowed, for heaven knows why. As you can see, I snapped a few secret pictures... I'm waiting for the FBI to come arrest me any day hahaha.  Once again, the {other} choir teacher booted us out of our prime seats so he and "school administrators" could sit there. 

Mar with Red Hot:

Our timing was off this year, so we missed the group photo ops except for this one.

The professional picture of this shot showed more than one pair of undies, so luckily this super-quick snap Bill got was from a better angle haha.

Mar with the All-State Treble Jazz Choir (can you spot her?)

We were super stoked to discover that Mar had 2 solos. Nice going, jazzy girl! (She had actually texted me the night before telling me she had the solos, but I somehow MISSED it in between our other texts back and forth. Chalking it up to snubbed-volunteer mom brain haha.)

The pricey professional pic:

This was all the All-State Jazz Choirs combined for a special number.

I can't remember what it was, but I DID order (for $80, people) a digital copy of all the performances Mar was in. Still waiting to get that in my email.

 The director working with the treble jazz choir was this cute lady

Janis Seigel from The Manhattan Transfer.

Mar loved her.

So, except for a great dinner and movie, and some awesome jazz performed by my favorite jazz singer, the weekend was a bit of a bust. But I wouldn't have missed being there for anything.

Staying on that jazzy note, the following Friday the All-State Jazz choirs were invited to perform at All-State Choir, so Mar and I headed to downtown Denver so she could perform and I could watch a bonus performance.

Way to be, Mar! XOXO