Sariah at Seven Months

Here are some pictures of Sariah at 7 months old.  You can see her sleeping, posing during sleep, helping with homework, loving on us, loving her toys, making new friends, running the trail with her backpack, and stretching out in some interesting yoga pose.  One day while she was sleeping, I snapped a photo of her stretched out by the sofa--she is nearly as long as the sofa!  We love watching her grow.  The last photo is one we shot at the park where she was chilling under a tree looking regal. She's such a pretty girl.

Party Planning

My most recent assignment as a personal assistant was to help organize a birthday party for my boss' mom.  It was really enjoyable to work on this project which involved organizing the vendors for flowers, cupcakes and catering.  My friend, Shea, ordered and arranged the beautiful lilacs, and another friend, Dina, did the cupcakes.  I was able to use my skills for the card collection area and the candy table arrangements.  The party was a huge success, and I can't wait to help with the next one.

Day of Community Service

Today was the LDS Church's "Day of Community Service," formerly known as, "Mormon Helping Hands."  On this day, around the world, LDS church members join with other churches in their communities to offer services to various establishments in need.  There are projects for homeless shelters, senior centers, parks, the city and many more opportunities for services set up by each individual stakes for their respective cities.  Our stake covers Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley. Our family was asked to serve at Heritage Park in  Fountain Valley behind the police station and adjacent to the Fountain Valley Library.  This park is a historic area that houses office buildings and artifacts from the late 1800's to early 1900's.  Heather, Jenna and Kelly were involved in painting one of the outbuildings, and I was able to go into the real estate office to dust and sweep.  I geeked out being in this building and getting to see the antique furniture and office machines.  I even found a Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog from 1908!  The girls came to find me after a while, and I showed them all of the fun things in the office including where one may purchase a telephone or buggy and horses.  Sears had everything back in the day!  This was an especially fun service project because of the history here.  Can't wait to see what we will get to participate in next year!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Grandpa Ron turns 76 this week!  While he was here to celebrate Easter, we had birthday dinner at Souplantation.  Where else can you get an endless supply of dessert?  I get my dessert-loving genes from my dad.  Happy birthday Grandpa!

Easter

 This is our first Easter Sunday where our Daddy has been in a bishopric.  That means he has early morning meetings, and we don't get to see him until we get to church and then not again until a bit after church as he stays to attend to his responsibilities.  We made the best of it and after opening Easter baskets and attending Sacrament meeting with Grandpa, we snapped a few family shots of us in our Easter best.  When we were all together, we had our egg hunt.  This used to be conducted in our dresses with our cute smiley faces, but now it appears to be whatever is comfy and best teenager poses.  I love it all.  We had a lovely day and took time to reflect on the Savior's Atonement.  It is amazing to watch our girls progress spiritually in their understanding as we progress in ours.  Happy Easter!

Easter Eggs

Not sure we'll ever get tired of dyeing eggs for Easter.  The girls do get tired of all of my photography, and they are much more apt to duck out if the hair and make up are not right (Jenna), but I was able to capture a few photos to mark the occasion.  Grandpa was here and watching the shenanigans with his sense of humor.  I love that Kelly gets involved and makes an egg or two.  My favorite this year was an egg Jenna did that will be telling in the future.  Hashtags are all the rage right now in social media, and her "hashtag egg" was very apropos for the times.

Mt. Wilson Hike

Heather and Kelly took Sariah and hiked the 19-mile trail to Mt. Wilson today.  That is some feat!  Heather did well, and Sariah was a trooper!  Sariah maintained her exuberant energy until they got back to the car where she promptly fell asleep.  I am continually amazed by my husband and my children.  This was a mighty goal, and both Kelly and Heather were excited to accomplish it.  If I only had half of their energy!

WonderCon!

Heather and I met the Mosher family in Anaheim today for WonderCon, a smaller version of ComicCon.  This convention is centered more around comic books and related material than the big, blockbuster movies that have come to be a major part of ComicCon in San Diego.  Heather mostly wanted to walk around and shop for comic books, which we did.  We also met an author who wrote a great dragon-themed poetry book, sat in on a panel for Teen Titans, and visited amazing art exhibits including robot builders who created their own R2-D2!  We had a lot of fun roaming around and may even do it next year.

Total Lunar Eclipse

One day I will learn more about my camera so that I may be prepared to shoot photographs of spectacular events such as this evening's total lunar eclipse.  It was beautiful to watch, and the image reminded me of an orange plastic ball like the ones they sell in Target at the beginnig of summer.

The total lunar eclipse, as explain on timeanddate.com, happens when the earth moves between the sun and the moon.  They give a great explanation:

"The Moon does not have any light of its own, but its surface reflects the Sun's rays. During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth moves between the Sun and the Moon. Because of this, no direct sunlight gets through to the Moon and its entire visible surface is enveloped in the darkest, central part of the Earth's shadow - the umbra.The Moon is still visible in the night sky during totality. Although the Earth blocks all direct sunlight from the Moon's surface, some rays find their way onto the Moon via the Earth's atmosphere. Parts of the sunlight's spectrum are blocked or filtered out during this process, red being the remaining frequency under normal circumstances. This accounts for the usual appearance of a totally eclipsed Moon as a copper-red orb. However, depending on the amount of dust and clouds in the Earth's atmosphere, the color can change to yellow, orange, or brown."

The Renaissance Faire

The Renaissance Faire!  We loved this experience!  After attending the faire last year, Heather wanted to come back, and she wanted to come back in costume.  Thanks to some thrifty shopping, we were able to put together her Steampunk outfit.  Yes, it's the Renaissance Faire, but Steampunk is a huge theme.  My favorite was pulling together all the bits and pieces of costume we'd collected over the year to make a fun costume.

We invited Grace and Sheryl, our awesome, Renaissance-loving dear friends, to go with us.  There were beautiful costumes, a joust, great food, and the occasional passer-by who would ask Heather about her Drabbit (see picture of Heather talking to a pirate looking chap).  Heather brought her Drabbit (half dragon, half rabbit), Clover, whom she purchased at last year's faire, and this event is definitely one arena where creatures of all shapes and sizes are welcome.  I could expound on that statement as it pertains to the people who attend (there are some things, ahem, bosoms, that a girl of 14 should not have to see), but I was talking about the Drabbit, so I'll move on.   Clover's head moves up and down, and right to left, so she looks pretty realistic and attracts a lot of attention.

Heather and I had so much fun on our adventure, and we loved spending the day with our friends!