Releve

No family, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. We're just REALLY REALLY busy!!!!!
This weekend, the girls had their first dance competition for the year.  They both did really well. Shelby started off the weekend by performing her solo. It's amazing to look back on last years solo and see the difference in her! She has improved so much! She didn't score as well as we all thought she would, but she actually watched the video and was pleased with it. This NEVER happens!!!

The next morning, we got up at the crack of dawn to go to Masters Classes with Alex Wong from So You Think You Can Dance. Shelby has taken classes from Twitch, Allison and Ivan from SYTYCD. Alex is one of her favorites! 

After the class, the real craziness began!!! First up was Shelby's Lyrical. Her team got White Diamond for the routine. She is on the right and does a triple in the very beginning. 

Next was Morgan's Lyrical. They got Pink Diamond. She is the one that does the ariel in the beginning.

After a quick change, Morgan did her jazz routine. They got Pink Diamond again. She is front and center. The one shaking her hips WAAAAY better than her Daddy would like HA! 

Shelby's jazz routine got a White Diamond. She's on the right side. 

After another quick change, Shelby did her Modern Routine. It's a very dark dance, but she LOVES it!! They got a Pink Diamond rating. 

Last was Shelby's Hip Hop dance. She's in a yellow shirt with a red tank top under it and comes to the front right in the beginning. They got Pink Diamond

Shelby was miserably sick all day with a migraine.  Morgan was HYPER all day, bouncing around like a little pinball.  Preston was BORED OUT OF HIS MIND!! Chris and I are just glad the week is over! This morning, both girls are well rested and Shelby has already practiced all of her dances. Morgan said she was too sore to practice, but felt like doing flips and cartwheels all over the living room HA!  

All in all, it was a good weekend for On Stage and it's feels good to have the 1st competition out of the way! 

LIVING IN THE MOMENT

Every year, the National PTA sponsors an arts program called Reflections. The categories include: 3D Art, Visual Art, Literature, Photography, Videography and Dance Choreography. Shelby decided to give the Dance Choreography a shot. She won for her school, so she went on to Regions. She won 1st place at Region! She was so surprised and excited! 

California Day 2

On Day 3, we drove to San Diego to visit the USS Midway Museum. It's a retired Aircraft Carrier that they have converted to a museum. It was a blast. Shelby even says that she enjoyed this more than Disneyland. There was another aircraft carrier at Coronado. It's the one that carried SEAL Team 6 to capture Osama Bin Laden. It's also the ship that they threw the bastard off of!
The tour takes about 4 hours to complete, but it's so worth it. Highly recommended!!
After the tour, we went back to the hotel to swim. VERY FUN!!

Christmas Vacation Part 2

We traveled down to Southern California the day after Christmas. It was a LONG drive, but fun at the same time. We stayed in Newport Beach, CA. Our hotel was right across from John Wayne Airport. We had a PERFECT view of the runway, which Preston thought was the coolest thing ever. He stood out on the balcony squealing every time plane landed. After a little swimming in the pool, we crashed. The next day, we made our way to California Adventure/Disneyland. We started out in California Adventure. It was a blast!!!!!! We got to ride all of the rides that wanted. Preston even rode California Screamin'. This was HUGE for him!!! However, it wiped his nerves out!!! The girls had a great time though.
After California Adventure, we park hopped to Disneyland. IT WAS A NIGHTMARE!!!!! We had to wait in line to even get into the park. They shut down the park to everyone later in the day. The upside to waiting in line to get in... Morgan and Shelby got to see Drake Bell from the Disney show " Drake and Josh" They were pretty dang stoked!!! Disneyland was wall to wall people. We only got to ride one ride because of the lines, but it was still fun. The kids were completely wiped out by 8:30, so we went back to the hotel. For the record, I HAVE NEVER, EVER, EVER left Disney before closing time.... EVER!!!!
We will definitely make other trips to Disneyland, but I will never do it at Christmas time. Lesson Learned!!!

Christmas Part 1

This year we decided to do things a little different. Instead of doing a ton of presents, we went on a trip. We had a blast. On Christmas Eve, we opened our family presents. After playing for a bit, the kids crashed in our rooms. The next morning, Santa came. After playing for a while, we got ready for DISNEYLAND!!!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Wrestling A Little Above His Weight Class

Luxe Salon

I'm going to preface this post by saying that my kiddos broke my laptop again so I'm posting from my ipad and it sucks to blog on! I cant figure out how to type between the photos, so I'm just going to have to tell you about them and you can look after you read. If someone could help me out (Charon) that would be fantastic!

I realize that I'm really really late!!!! But oh well Ha! I finally graduated from Evans in September. So glad I did it!!!!!!!!! I started working at Luxe Salon the Tuesday after graduation. I seriously cannot say enough good things about this salon. I met the owner while I was in school when she was nice enough to let me interview her for a project. After doing a lot of research into salons in town, including doing some scouting, I decided this was the place for me! It has been a blast! There are 8 stations, but only 5 are filled. Four of us are full time; the fifth works a couple days a week. We also have a full time nail tech. Everyone has been so nice to help me out if I'm unsure of something. I'm confident on my technique, but I chose a different color line than I used at Evans and thankfully, one of the other stylists uses Joico as well. She has been so kind and willing to help me out or offer a suggestion if she thinks that a color won't work the way that I think it's going to. She doesn't have to do this and in most salons they wouldn't! I'm very appreciative.

There isn't any drama! Everyone acts like adults and treats each other respectfully. Even though its a booth rent salon and we're all trying to make our own living, everyone still works as a team. This is a rare thing in this business, from what I hear.

I can honestly say that my favorite thing about the salon is that there is so much for me to learn there. The overwhelming majority of hairdressers in Cedar went to Evans. Certainly not a bad thing! Except that means that very hairdresser in town learned the exact same techniques. Here, everyone went somewhere else. NONE OF US ARE FROM UTAH! Janelle went to school in So. Cal., Lindsey went to school in Dallas and Pete went to school in Vegas. Jessika and I are the only ones that went to Evans. I know this doesn't seem like a big deal, but when you work in a place (any profession) where everyone learned the exact same thing you did, how do you grow? Where do you get your fresh ideas and little extra tips and tricks? Hair school is about learning the basics. Evans is great for that!!!!!! But I have learned almost as much sitting there watching them work in my down time as I did in a year at school.
Sooooooo...here are pics (they're jumbled up and I can't figure out how to fix them. Also, click on the picture to see the whole thing)
1)my graduating class
2)our retail/ waiting area
3)our shampoo area (love love love the adjustable bowls)
4)our supplies are hidden behind our mirrors. Keeps things nice and tidy.
5)view from the entrance (the cabinets on the back wall are our "lockers". We keep all of our dispense items back there)
6)the reception desk (I'm in love with this mirror)
7) our stations
8) the exterior of the building

So there you have it folks! The cutest salon in town! (Ok so I'm a little biased).