A thriller of a night!!

For the fourth year in a row, we went to Tuachan in St. George to see Odysey's Dance Performance of Thriller. We love it so much. This is how we looked loaded up in the Suburban ready to go. Me, Tiffany and Talon in the middle.

Tanner, Cynjyn and Rebecca in the back.

Hansen, Taz and Garry in front. Grandma and Grandpa were supposed to come up for it, but due to health problems, they were unable to make it, so Taz and Cynjyn each invited a friend.

We ate at Chuck-a-Rama. The kids overloaded on Slurpee drinks!

We enjoyed ourselves and were stuffed.

We arrived at Tuachan about 45 min. before the show started, so we were just wasting some time.

Here are the kids in front of the stage. We were on row 4.

The zombies were out in full force and they preyed upon the kids. They were loving it. It was cold though, 34 degrees!!

Cynj and Rebecca played patty cake with a zombie.

Cynjyn practically did a backbend to avoid this one!

We all had blankets and were snuggled in for the show.

Afterward we got the kids pictures with the cast. Here's Matt again from SYTYCD.

Right above Taz is Natalie from the same show. If you're a true fan, you'll recognize her. Matt was obsessed that Taz was Edward and he yelled down the line at Natalie to make sure she knew he was coming and to get a good look at him. She LOVED it!!

One of our fav. dances is the Bride and Frankenstein, so it was fun to get pix with them.

"Jason" commented that he was getting his pix taken with a virtual "smorgasboard"! Such a fun night.

Halloween Happenings

We have FHE on Sunday, so this week was devoted to pumpkin carving. I know they won't last until Halloween, but the weather has cooled down considerably in the past couple of days, so maybe they will. Either way, we had fun and we are enjoying them while they last.

Hope it was worth the wait

One of Garry's summer projects was to paint Taz and Cynjyn's room. They had 4 walls, two bright pink and two bright green. They were ready for a makeover. They wanted to do an Asian theme, so they wanted red and gold. Garry painted their room red and then when we got back in August, we were ready to decorate. We finally finished last night. Last month, we got a new dresser for them on Craig's List. It had this mirror attached to it that I really liked. The mirror has 4 little shelves on the sides. Cynjyn put two of her fairies that she has been getting from Grandma for Christmas on the top two shelves. She's hoping to add to them as she gets more fairies. Her tea pot collection fits right by the mirror and they are pretty protected from getting broken.

Garry found a website that converted their names in chinese. This is Taz, it says: Kong Tai Zhi, it means: Great, exaulted, superior; purpose, will determination. We took a canvas and spray painted it gold, then I blew up the writings and transfered them on with a pencil and Garry went over it with a sponge brush and black paint.

This is Cynjyn. It says Gan Shuai Yu. It means: graceful; Jade, precious stone, gem. We took the white shelves that they had and spray painted them gold and the brackets that hold them. We all love the look.

I found some gold window shams that I found before we got the dresser, now the dresser covers them, but they still add to the look. They each have their own side of the dresser and share the top middle drawer which holds dance and sports wear.

By the closet, we put a scroll that they got from Uncle Brian, two pictures we made, the three fans; the middle one being from their great grandma, and a set of mini chinese lanterns that Tiffany and Talon bought them. Right now they don't have closet doors, but Garry has found them in the garage and we will eventually put them back on.

I took a corkboard and covered it with some asian material and put some gold ribbon around to frame it. This is hanging on their door.

Here's a close up of the scroll. Brian got it when he was in Japan.

One morning, we made Taz dress up as a Ninja and Cynjyn as a Geisha. We took their pictures and chose our favorite poses. We doctored them a little in Photoshop and then printed them out, took a canvas and spray painted it gold and then Hodge Podged the pictures on. We all thought they turned out so cool looking and when you first look at them, you don't notice they are Taz and Cynjyn.

These are the fans.

Here are the mini lighted lanterns. They look cool in the dark and give a little illumination to the room along with the lava lamp on the dresser, it really sets a mood.

Now, our next goal is to make new quilts for the beds. We think it's time to get rid of Spiderman and Disney princesses and we are on the hunt for some cool Asian material. But in the meantime, here is a big shot of the final look. Just a side note, Garry covered Cynjyn's little lamp by her bed with the same material as the corkboard. Everyone is very pleased with the new look. Taz and Cynjyn feel so much more "mature" now too.

Things we've been doing lately

This week: I chaparoned Cynjyn's class field trip to a farm show (Kind of like a county fair, only a lot less fun) Here she is with her best school friend, Kayla before we left!

Me and her on the bus ride to.

The horse

The shepherds tent with the group I was in charge of.

The donkeys

Our favorite: The Piggies!!

This week: Cynjyn and Rebecca swam for two hours!! No, we didn't heat the pool, yes it was about 63 degrees (the water that is, not the temp outside), yes, the jacuzzi was 99 for them to warm up in!

This week: Garry got lasik on Friday and avoided a campout at the indoor climbing center that Taz and Tanner went to. He had to wear these dark glasses for 24 hours and couldn't watch TV, read or be on a computer. He just layed around and took it easy!!

He has to wear these at night for a month and when he's showering. He got the surgery at 1:00 Friday afternoon and at his post op check up Saturday morning at 9:30, the doc. said he was healing like a 20 year old!! He's loving it!

Catch up

In mid September, we had a primary activity where we encouraged the children to bring a bag of coins to donate to Pennies by the Inch. We had 65 kids come and they ALL brought a bag. Well, that meant that I had to count and roll up all those coins and turn them into the bank and get a check to send to the program. We had two big jars filled because we had a jar left over from last year that I never got around to counting. So I started counting and rolling. It is a long tedious process and I was only about 1/3 of the way done. So, we sit down to watch General Conference Sunday morning and Garry pulls out the jars and starts sorting. Pretty soon, Taz and Cynjyn are helping. Before you know it, the first session is over and Taz and Cynjyn are shocked that it went so fast!!

They take a break and start again second session.

This is what they ended up with!

Combined with the ones I had already done, it came to $300.58.

Now, I've got to find a strong young son to lift them and carry them to the bank for me! Thanks Garry, Taz and Cynjyn for all your help!