A Room for Braunté

I promised Braunté I'd put some photos of her new room in here. It's her early Christmas present, but she has to wait until December to decorate. We finally had a new window put in and we finished painting on July 24th.

before...

and after...

Ouch

Here are some photos of Odessa over the past couple of months. Don't look if you're really squeamish. She had all 4 pins removed and stitches out on August 3rd and I'm happy to report that her second cast came off on August 17th. She started school a week later. She has been a little self-conscious about her scars, but she's doing better at dealing with it. I'm proud of her.

At 7 weeks in Lava Hot Springs
(made possible by an awesome waterproof cast cover).

Sad, sad day

Odessa was in a serious accident last Saturday. She fell from a friend's zip-line and had an open humerus fracture and several breaks in her wrist as well. She was life-flighted to the hospital and had two surgeries. We're grateful that John was there when it happened, the surgeon at Primary Children's was great, and we have narcotics. She's home now and suffering from nerve damage, pain, night terrors, and nausea. Thanks to all who have called/prayed/visited/brought food. We have had so much support.

Our computer died so call if you need to get a hold of us!

Summer Break

When did summers stop being relaxing? I feel like I've been running straight for 3 weeks. Odessa girl got baptized on June 6th...yay! What a cutie, I am so proud of her.

Then it was straight to Girls camp. It was exhausting, but incredible. I was feeling pretty happy because two different girls at camp asked me if Braunte' was my sister, ha! Then my good friend pointed out that it's probably because I'm so immature.
We got home Friday, John's birthday was Sunday, and we left for Park City Monday. We went ice skating, saw the movie "Up", took a day trip to the Hogle Zoo, watched videos, went swimming a lot, shopped the outlets, hiked up to Timpanogas cave, and went down the expensive new Alpine Coaster.Home again Sunday night (Father's Day), Tolkien's half-birthday was Monday. We celebrate his birthday in the summer-time and I somehow threw together a big rig truck party for him between 3 tumbling classes, 2 Young Women activities, and lots of laundry loads.Phew! I'm tired....thanks mom and dad for helping with the kids and letting me crash on your couch today.

This is Odessa on her birthday right before bed. I guess that having to wait until the next day to celebrate didn't dampen her mood.

Sleeping Beauty

Here are a couple of scenes from the play. You may want to click the pause button on my music playlist before you watch this video.

Bragging Rights

I know it's kind of annoying when people brag about their kids, but I just can't help it. This week has been exciting.

Odessa passed off her back walk-over series and running front limber yesterday....I was surprised to know they had official names. She was happy because she got 2 big bubble gums.

Braunté was one of the sixth grade officers at her school this year and she was trying to decide if she should run for 7th grade class office. I guess each elementary school gets to send one officer and one peer leader to the Jr. High. The kids vote and the student with the most votes is elected the class officer and the student with the second most votes becomes the peer leader. Braunté didn't know if she should run because the officers are expected to attend all the sporting events and have a lot of responsibilities (and a $200 sweater). She really wanted to be a peer leader though, so she decided to go for it. Anyway, she missed being elected class officer by just 2 votes! (I told her we could have bought their votes by passing out treats, haha). She is pretty excited that she gets to be the peer leader. Isn't she lucky she has a mom who writes her speeches and a dad who records her back-up rap music for them?

And then today some people came from PAL camp to audition the sixth graders. I guess this is a special summer camp for "talented children" where 1-2 kids in each of several different categories are selected from each school to attend. They audition kids for the performing arts area and the teachers select the others. Her teacher told me Braunté would be invited and I was kind of hoping she could go under leadership, creative writing, visual arts, or math, but she was chosen in auditions as the girl to attend in performing arts! She was pretty surprised and so was I. I guess she can sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" pretty well :)

p.s. her school play is this Friday night at 6:00, call me for more info. if you want to come.