slept, played, baked & enjoyed

Happy Thanksgiving! If your day was as wonderful as mine, which I hope it was, then it must have gone something like this:

Slept in late w/ husband

Played w/ children outside in the crisp, autumn air

Baked hot buns in a retro apron while listening to Christmas music

Enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with family

...and now for a movie with Aaron, can't decide between Scrooged, Elf, and Christmas Vacation...

interesting

In my Dance Composition class at BYU, we learned that it is interesting to have the dancer not face the audience at all times. That probably seems elementary, but it was profound to me at the time. These shots were a fun surprise for me. I hadn't really planned on having Myka not face the camera, I just was following her as she walked to the corner store for some penny candy. (Pretty cool, if I don't say so myself!)

sage & plum

My autumntime beauties! Thanks to Auntie Meikel and The General Store @ Sundance for the darling hoodie sweaters. Fall is my favorite time of year. (Time to go make hot chocolate and cozy up with Aaron in front of our fireplace...!)

#115: peacoats

#115 Peacoats

I am sure I am behind the times in figuring out this guy's webpage. But it makes me laugh and laugh and then I laugh some more...

Thank you for the suggestion Meikel and Luke.
(go here-http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/)

talent show

Myka, Haily, and a darling set of friends danced as fairies in the annual ward talent show. Here is Myka and her girlfriend, Riley, having an intense artistic discussion about their upcoming performance.






My girlfriend Sara has four cute sons who all play the piano or sing, along with being soccer allstars. This is Payson belting out his part from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.



This is Aldus, Sara's oldest boy.



This is Townsend, my girlfriend Bronwyn's oldest son.



And here is Marley, Bronwyn's first child. Marley and Townsend are Aislyn's brother and sister. Aislyn is our dear, little friend who Myka and Haily love to have over to play.



Here is Bronwyn's youngest, Ephraim, who did smile for me, but I didn't click fast enough!



Haily did a solo in our fairy dance. She totally soaked up the spotlight and danced so lovely.



It was a fun evening at our chapel. The dinner was great and there were tons of people. (I even did a dance! I tried a lyrical piece set to Soul Meets Body by Death Cab- it turned out all right...)

hoola hoops

I took these in 2007 before I had a blog. Myka was three and a half and Haily Jane had just turned two. I can't remember much about what was happening that day, but I do know that they played with those hoola hoops for, like, two hours straight.

myka says

Myka has a great grasp on the English language. She is in the top reading group at school and she uses words that surprise me, like:

'responsible'
'timid'
'correct'
'understand'

She is only five though, and so here are some funny ways she says things:

family 'hove' evening
'busghetti'
'fangs' (she means 'bangs')

haily says

It's funny to document the incorrect pronuciations of words that my kids say.

Haily says:

'brice' for 'rice'
'humeean' for 'human'
'butato' instead of 'tomato'

my best childhood friend

This beautiful woman is my best childhood friend, Maria. We met in the fifth grade and were attached at the hip all the way until our senior year of high school. We played on the same soccer teams, we were always in choir class together and whenever I was not at my own house, I could easily be found at the Mendoza household.

After highschool it was hard to stay connected. There was a falling out and we went separate ways. So, for the past 11 years we did not talk or write or anything. Whenver I thought of her, I would wonder how she is doing and what was going on in her life.

Last Christmas I was in town visitng my parents and had this crazy feeling that I should drop a note by her house, and before I could pause to stop myself, I was at her front door with my heart in my throat. I left a small note and walked away feeling so bizarre, but good.

After New Years when I was back home, I was blogging one night and the phone rang. Aaron answered and asked who was calling. He looked over at me with big eyes and mouthed the word "MARIA".

She had called my parent's house and then called me! It felt so good to hear her voice. And we were able to talk as much as we could about the years we had missed in each other's lives. We figured that we could try a bit of a friendship through email. I am very glad to say that it is going well.

Maria is a successful and loving mother of this darling little girl in the photo. And she recently graduated with a degree in education. I am so happy for her and the person she is. It feels really good to be able to know how she's doing and to keep in touch online. As we have said to each other, although our lives are worlds apart now, we will always remember each other as that special, best childhood friend. And I love that she is that person for me.

ms. laura's creative movement class

Yes, I am heavily biased towards creative dance for children. I grew up taking creative dance. Some people are not sure what creative movement is. It is a dance class designed soley for children to come about movement in the ways they naturally move. For example, when children play outside they run, hop, skip, jump, tumble and on and on. In creative movement, the teacher uses 'play' as a means to elicit development of the children's movement, coordination skills and creativity. It gives children the opportunity to be fully invested in their movement experience because it is what their body and mind are naturally interested in doing.

Anyone who is near a facility that offers creative dance for children should sprint, not run, to sign their kids up! I owe much of my success as a dancer and creative artist to my childrens dance teachers! If you are in Tacoma, Ms. Laura at the YMCA and Grant Elementary is a top of the line teacher. And for my girlfriends in Utah...you live in the absolute best state for children's creative dance! BYU has the best children's dance program you can find, hands down. It is ideal for children of all ages, girls and boys.

So, anyway, I'll step off the soap box. Here are Myka and Haily on Monday at their favorite dance class, doing their favorite thing in dance class, dancing with the scarves!

advanced jazz

Kristie taught an advanced jazz class for staff only this weekend at the Y. She is incredible. I really was needing to observe her class and so I sat through it at took notes and pictures. It was a great session and I got to watch some very lovely jazz dancing!

mom missed halloween!

I had to teach dance classes on Halloween night! It was so hard to not be with my little beauties! Aaron and his friend from work, Chris, took 'Meg the Kitty Kat', Snow White and Tinker Bell trick or treating along the posh homes on the north end. They had a blast and we are so glad to have made a new friend in Bella, or TinkerBella, I should way.



Chris and Myka.



Our spooky walkway on Halloween night.