YaYa Birdie's Blog

Ryans Law School Graduation

2008-06-20T22:32:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures from Ryans graduation from Washington Lee School of Law.
It was nice that he had all of his family there to support him. The Petersens are a wonderful family and they really are wonderful to support each other.
Here are some pictures of the University. I think it is really beautiful.
And this is the graduation facing the Robert E Lee Chapel. Isn't that a magnificent setting!
I caught this cute shot of Matthew and his cute grandpa. Don't they just look like they adore each other!
So now Ryan is officially a graduated law student and now he is busy studying for the Bar exam so he can begin his life as a lawyer.

Shanda's Junior Prom

2008-06-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

Its been awhile since I have worked on my blog so I will just quickly post a few of the happenings of the last few months. It has been a whirl wind and I have not had five minutes of calm but here is little of what has been happening. Shanda got to go to her Junior prom. Here is a picture of her and her best friend Jenna Phillips just before their dates came to pick them up.
Here is Shanda and her date Seth Ashby. He is the son of Lynns second councilor in the Bishopric. He is an awesome young man. Don't you love the suit! He and 6 of his friends all bought these suits and Seth added acessories to match Shanda. The 7 couples all went to one of the boys houses for dinner and then to another for dessert after the dance. They had a old fancy car of some kind that they all got their pictures taken by. I haven't got the pictures of the group yet.

The next day at church all the laurels wore their dresses. I think it is commendable that they are all so darling and modest.

Baby London arrives!

2008-05-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

London Angelina Lee arrived on April 16. She weighed in at 8.5 lbs. I went down to help the following week and stayed for about 10 days. She is a beautiful little black haired girl and sweet as can be. She is really a good baby. They are a cute little family.

Isn't she adorable!
Lynn joined us there on the weekend and we took Gavin to Sea World.

Gavin got to pet a baby alligator. I was surprised how unafraid he was.

Grandma got in on a little game of T ball with Gavin.

We had a very fun 10 days and Jenni and Dave impress me so much with what a sweet couple and parents they are. They certainly will have their hands full for awhile but we've all been through it. Gavin is such a smart little boy and he has more personality than is good for him. He is a character! I wonder where he gets that!!! He is sooo cute, and London is a sweetheart!

Matthew visits Grandma & Grandpa

2008-05-19T19:40:00.000-07:00

Matthew and Kim came out for a week and let Ryan study for his finals in peace. We spent the week going to the ballet, and looking for houses for them for when they move out here in a month! yea! Here are a few rare of Matthew and grandma. Usually Grandma is the one taking all the pictures you see of Matthew and Grandpa!

And here is my new little blonde granddaughter Mattie!
Kim & I found them a cute house not too far from ours. Its down the hill by the fairgrounds. It is in our Stake but not our building. So it will be fun to have them close but not too close.

The ballet "Giselle"

2008-05-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

The ballet "Giselle"

Its been awhile since I've blogged and so I am trying to get caught up with what I've been up to. If it seems like all I blog about is Shanda it's because for awhile thats all I did is keep up with her and all her activities. I wrote about Jr. Miss but now its time to show pictures of the ballet. Her Studio put on the very famous ballet Giselle. It was fantastic. In the first act she played the roll of the noble woman ,Bathilde, who the prince is engaged to. But the prince is in love with the peasant girl Giselle who Bathilde becomes friends with but the two don't know that they are in love with the same man.... When Giselle finds out that her true love is the prince and that he is engaged to Bathilde, she goes mad and dies of a broken heart.
The rolls of Giselle and the prince are played by Sergiu Brindusa and Beth Moore-Brindusa who are the teachers and owners of the studio. They are amazing. They were both trained at the Kirov school of Ballet and were principle dancers in the Orlando ballet before buying the studio in Pocatello. Sergiu's father Florin Brindusa danced for years and years in the Bolshoi ballet in Russia and since then has trained professional ballerinas all over Russia. He comes spring and fall and helps Sergiu and Beth with our ballets so it is really a wonderful opportunity for our girls to be involved and get such great training.

Bathilde and Giselle become friends.
Bathilde and Giselle share secrets about thier loves ( but they don't know it is the same man!)

Oh! Oh! The Prince shows up and his two women are together. Uncomfortable! He is about to be caught!
Giselle asks why are you with my love, Bathilde answers by showing her ring... Because he is my fiance'!
Act 2 The Wili's ( the ghosts of all maidens who have died of broken hearts) dance at Giselles grave and prepare to welcome her.

Weird story line but absolutely beautiful dancing. It is reffered to as the White ballet because of this act. It's stunningly beautiful.

Here is Shanda as a wili dancing at Giselles grave.
The most beautiful scene of all is when the Prince comes to visit Giselle's grave and her ghost visits him one last time in a beautiful love dance. It is a real treat to see these two dance they are amazing!

Junior Miss

2008-04-14T12:02:00.001-07:00

Here are pictures from the Jr. Miss Luncheon. After the luncheon the girls all had their interviews with the judges which count for 25 % of the points. This is Shanda with her friend Monique Betty who was last years Jr. Miss. She dances with Shanda and she is amazing. She is currently auditioning for Professional ballet schools.
This is Shandas new friend that she made during Jr. Miss. Her name is Anne Midler and she is from Poky High. The next four pictures are just taken at home before the luncheon.

Notice the cute pink heels and jewelry (made by mom !)... don't they just look like Shanda!
This is a picture of four of Shandas best friends since kindergarten. L to R is Jennessa Buttars, Maren Thomas, Shanda and Jenna Phillips. Missing is Katie Castro who was also in the program but she was missing in action when the pictures were taken.
This is during the Poise and Appearance section or now called "Self Expression" because they have added a question that the girls have to answer in front of the audience. This is the award Shanda won and she won a $400. scholarship for it. She also won most photogenic and she gets her Senior pictures done for free by a popular photographer here in town. The Self expression number was to the song "Masquerade" from "Phantom" which explains the masks.

Shanda and her hostess Stephanie Victor who is also her Young Womens leader. Stephanie is leaving for Boston this week to compete in the Boston Marathon! She is awesome!
Shanda hates this photo but I like it! This during her talent number... a pointe solo from Don Quixote. She did really great on her talent!

Physical fitness....
Opening number... A darling dance and singing number to a song from "Hairspray."

Any way thats about it. We were so proud of Shanda. She is quite the little performer! She was absolutly darling. She had the audience vote all around. She had a great time and learned alot. They had some really good workshops for the girls where they taught them about poise, dress, personality and interview skills. They had alot of fun learning all the numbers and they all made new friends. Over all it was a great experience.

2008-03-15T21:48:00.001-07:00

California !!!

I promised I would post pictures of my trip to California to help Jenni and Dave move. I have put my application in for the new nanny if they will let me come and live with them. Here is the front of their beautiful new home. It is on a corner lot with beautiful landscaping complete with a gardener. I didn't get pictures of the inside but it is beautiful! Its all brand new with beautiful natural stone tile floors and dark cabinets and granite. It was the model home so it came complete with stylish curtains in every room and even artwork. It is painted great colors of tans and reds.

This is the picture of the back of the house is taken from the park where Gavin is playing. It is only about a block away. Grandma taught Gavin to lift his feet when he went down the slide so he would go fast. He thought is was the best!! Can you tell!
This is the back yard of their house. Gavin didn't know what a back yard was. All he had in Vegas was a concrete pad and some gravel! No plants, trees or grass. He is one happy boy to have a yard to ride his trike in. And he loves to play on the big boulders. He also loves to pick the flowers so I suspect that there will not be any left by the time I get back there in a month. They also have a beautiful court yard on the side of their house with a beautiful garden a fountain. It is really spectacular!

They live about 1o minutes away from the beach. These are some fun pictures we took while there. Have you ever seen such a happy little boy!

And here is a cute picture of the little family. Jenni is due in 5 more weeks!

Madrigal Dinner

2008-02-19T11:29:00.002-08:00

Well I'm a little late in posting this but at Christmas time I was a very busy mom sewing costumes for Shanda's many activities as well as remodeling the house and getting ready for Christmas. This is the costume I made her for The Madrigal dinner that the Trouveres (Select HS performing Choir)put on each Christmas. So here she is showing off the fun sleeves.

And it has a small train which is really pretty when she walks.

Here is a picture from the Madrigal dinner. Her partner was Cameron Lewis, who is Marilyn Lewis's son. Marilyn is one of my best friends. Any way I haven't done any sewing for a long time except things for the house, so this was kind of fun. I also had to make two new arabian costumes for the Nutcracker but I didn't get pictures of them but I think Shanda did so I'll try and post them later.

Remodel-Day 4 & 5

2008-02-01T14:56:00.001-08:00

Here are a few pictures of day 4 & 5 of the Treasure remodel.You can't see much progress in the remodel because we have been doing little time consuming things like cutting and glueing on the counter tops...
...painting,
...putting up brackets and setting the counter top for the little eating area. Lynn & Logan had quite a bit of electrical to do and I had to finish some sheet rocking before I could paint. We finished every thing that we could because today (Friday, Feb. 1) the guy was supposed to come from Blackfoot to start on their floor. It will take him two days because he has to put down new subfloor, But he called this morning and the roads were closed and so now he can't start until Monday. More on the weather later.
Wayne and Shirley stopped by to put their stamp of approval on the project. It is always a party to have the two sets of Grandparents together. It is so nice that they are such good friends and such a support to each other.

This is how things looked when we finished up yesterday. You can't see alot of change except you can barely see the color change on the walls. It is actually a darker color but doesn't show up much in the photo. It is the same color as I used in my kitchen. Dad was rather concerned when I was Painting that it was too dark but I convinced him to wait until it was done and dry to see if he liked it. It did lighten up enough that the were both very happy with the color.
Mom and Dad have really enjoyed having Logan there helping. I know they really enjoy the company and because of that they make it hard to get much done. I have really encouraged naps as they tire easily and it gives us a chance to get more done. They have really been sweet though and it has been fun being there.

Mom showed her appreciation to Logan by letting him pick out some of her silverware, which she says she has too much of, for his new apartment in Provo that he is moving into next week.

The weather has been really bad here. We have had snow and especially wind. On the way over to Aberdeen Logan and I got into some bad ground blizzards and it kept blowing all day so in the evening we decided to ride home with Lynn in his pickup and leave my van at mom and dads. I was so glad we did because about a mile out of town we got into such a terrible ground blizzard that we could hardly see. It just got worse the farther we went and had we known we would have just turned around and gone back. We couldn't even see the telephone poles alot of the time. It was the absolute worst roads any of us have ever been on. When we got to American Falls the freeway was closed and as we had no where to stay we took a frontage road and headed slowly home. We were able to get on the freeway again at about Rainbow beach. The freeway wasn't nearly as bad as the road from Aberdeen to American Falls had been and we found out that they closed that road right behind us. Thankfully we made it home safe but now I am without a car because the roads were still closed over there this morning.

Remodel- day 3

2008-01-26T18:08:00.000-08:00

Today was day three on the remodel of Mom & Dads Kitchen. Dave Weenig, who is the cabnet installer who installed our cabnets came up from Utah and helped today. Actually he came yesterday and put the vanity in Shandas bathroom and then we paid him to help us in Aberdeen.
Here are the boys at work in the garage. And Yes... Mom and Dad were in the middle of everything! I kept suggesting that they go visit Elaina for the weekend but they wouldn't hear of it. They wanted to help, but you have to remember what a small kitchen it is so there were a few too many bodies!
Mom & Dad are very appreciative and very excited so it really is very fun, even if I am completely exhausted! You can see from the next picture that I am still trying to get off that horrible wallpaper. My hands were cramping up and my shoulders and neck are killing me.
This is the refridgerator wall so far. They will now have cabnets where there weren't any before.
Here is how it looked when we finished today. Not to bad for a days work is it. The spaces are for the dishwasher and the stove. I am so excited! It really is a great improvement. And the doors and drawers all work! Now if I can just convince Mom to eliminate about half of her junk before she tries to fit it all back in the cupboards. She has so many weird, unmatched, unused dishes and trinkets. I'm hoping for a chance when I can secretly make alot of it disappear!

Remodeling Grandma T's kitchen

2008-01-24T19:08:00.001-08:00

So I guess I haven't had enough remodeling for one year so I decided to tear into my mom and Dads kitchen. Actually we saved our old kitchen cabnets for their kitchen since they were lots better than what they had. I wish I had gotten a photo before we tore them out but I forgot. Here is how it looks after tearing out the old cabnets.
I thought the wallpaper was going to come off so easily but it is the worst wallpaper I have ever stripped! I scored it, soaked it and it peels off in tiny little strips! Ugh!!! I still have one wall left to do tomorrow. Shoot me if I ever wallpaper again (yes, I am the one who put this paper up about 10 years ago when I fixed up thier kitchen the last time.) My mom is having a hard time parting with this wall paper, she just kept telling me how much she loves it. But I had to keep reminding her that it won't match now.
Logan and I make a good team. We sheet rocked, Plastered, and put in new subfloor in an area that was rotted out.

This is the wall where there oven was. It was little, and very old. I want put lower cabnets where this counter is but Dad and Mom vetoed it. They like eating there, "they don't want to have to go clear over to the table all the time." It is maybe five steps over to their table and they would have so much more storage! Oh well... funny parents! I am putting upper cabnets there though.

I so wish that I had sent Mom & Dad to visit one of my brothers or sisters for a week. They have about driven us nuts!!! While we are trying to work Dad is dragging out pictures for us to see and things like that. He would come in and say, "Now you kids come here and take a break and have an ice cream bar, I've got some pictures to show you." or telling us stories while we are trying to drill. We didn't want to seem rude so we kept having to stop drilling or what ever so that we could here him. Mom kept trying to sweep up after us right while we were in the middle of things. She wants to help so I let her peel wall paper in one place until I could tell that she was tired, Then I would say, "Mom, why don't you rest for awhile?" and she would answer, "Are you going to?" and unless I would then she didn't want to either! It is rather hard to accomplish much with them there. I think it is really hard to have us destroying their house. They loved what I did to it ten years ago and I don't think they realized how worn out it is. I hope they will love it when we are finished but I think right now they lack the vision!

A wonderful Christmas

2008-01-20T17:38:00.001-08:00

We've been remodeling the house for the past few months. It was mostly all completed just before Christmas. Here is a picture of our beautiful new mantle. I just love a fireplace and mantle, especially at Christmas!!! I wish I had gotten a picture with the fire burning! Isn't it just homey and warm looking!

We were lucky enough to have the whole family home for Christmas. It was really fun to have the little boys here on Christmas morning. When we
got up on Chrismas morning we caught Santa putting gifts under the tree! Matthew and Gavin will be believers for life!

Gaving got to experience snow!!! Pretty fun for a little guy from Las Vegas. He even got to get all new snow clothes. We're hoping that means they will visit us more this winter so they can get their moneys worth out of them!

Of course GrandPa couldn't limit the gift giving to Christmas day... He had to drag out new surprises several times a day during the week! He is a shameless spoiler!
Matthew is obsessed with transformers. Once he saw that Santa had left him a couple of transformers he didn't even care to open more presents.

It is very sad that Shanda (our baby) is now sixteen and a junior in high school. But of course at our house you have to believe in Santa or he doesn't come.... so of course she still believes!

Christmas is always so exciting for Logan (Yes.. that hairy beast is my sweet son!). He really gets into the spirit of Christmas. He decorates his car, his room, his sneakers, he even makes a new themed wreath each Christmas! He Loves It! But after all the excitement even he had all that he could take!

First Post

2008-01-20T16:18:00.000-08:00

OK. I'm going to try this one more time. I love being able to keep up with what my kids and grandkids are doing by reading their blogs every couple of days so I'm going to try to create my own and join in the fun. I'm not very computer savvy so it might be a challenge but maybe it will teach me more about it all.