Salt Lake Comic Con 2015

 Last month I spent a really fun day with Brittany and Matthew. We managed to get ourselves to the Salt Lake Comic Con. It was a whole lot of crazy fun! Here we are waiting to get in, along with hundreds of other people!

 Once we had decided to go Brittany decided to accelerate the production of her Halloween costume. She had decided to be Scarlet Witch from the Marvel comics. I still can't believe we pulled it off. She made the amazing headpiece and I managed to produce a corset, dress and cape. She really was amazing and gorgeous.

Close up of the headress, hair and make-up.

 The organizers of the Salt Lake Comic Con arranged an attempt to break a Guinness World record for the most people ever assembled dressed as characters who originated from a comic book. Brittany got to participate and said it was  a blast. This is her with a bunch of other participants.

 Matt and I wandered around while she was with her friends Emily and Noelle. Matt and Iron Man.

 A very cool car they were painting with the Joker throughout the day.

 They had a green screed that Matt and  I had a good time playing with.

 Brittany and her friend Noelle who borrowed her Winter Solider costume for the day.

 Our favorite panel of the day, Sebastian Stan who plays Bucky in the Captain America films.

And a picture of The Doctor conquering a Dalek I took for Josh. It was an amazing, exhausting day that I'm glad we got to have!

Brittany's Sweet Sixteen

Our oldest child turned sixteen! I can't believe it, she has become an amazing person and it all seems to have happened so quickly! So the was a lot of celebrating to be done!

 On Brittany's actual birthday she and I went to lunch and went shopping at City Creek on Salt Lake.  She discovered she likes lobster bisque at Zupas.

We had the Sorensons up for cake and ice cream on Sunday.

 Brittany had won a ticket to Hale theater so  she and I also went to see The Little Mermaid, it was amazing! Then it was time for the big sweet 16 party.

  We thought about it a lot and decided to do a murder mystery party. We had a great time working on the decorations and they turned out fabulous, if I do say so myself. Brittany made most of them though.

It involved dressing up from one of her favorites periods, the 50's and a roast  beef dinner which she also loves.

 Her friends all dressed up so cute and seemed to have a blast.

 After they were done they broke out the rest of Grandma's dress-ups and kept having fun.  Such great kids! I'm so grateful for Brittany and the amazing person she is.

Brittany's Amazing Trek

Brittany had an amazing week last week.  She participated in our Stake Pioneer Trek. They were able to go to Martin's Cove, such a beautiful, special place.  She absolutely loved her family and the whole experience.  They had a river crossing,  she is in the green dress. Her trek brother took this amazing picture at night too. I am so grateful she had such a great week!

Brittany turns 15!

We had another birthday at our house this week! This time it was Brittany's turn. I can't believe my baby girl is fifteen! We had a great time celebrating her.

 

Sunday Grandma and Grandpa came with the Sorensons for dinner, cake and ice cream and presents.

This is Grandma's cool new birthday gift. Money balloons. Big fun!

 

After she woke up we zipped over to Boondocks to get a little driving practice in. We lucked out and Abby and Libby were spending the night at Grandma's so we got to spend the next day shopping with them.

 

See Brittany in her pretty birthday crown? Kind of an evil smile, it does showcase her new braces though.

 We ended our fun day with gelato. Yum!

 I love that theses girls love each other.

 

Then went home to more presents! It was a fun day, I hope Brittany had as much fun as I did! She is a fantastic kids and I'm so grateful she is ours!

The Dress!

 

A month or so ago Brittany came home and told me that she had some big honors English projects coming up. One of the things she could choose was to make a historically correct dress from Elizabethean times. I was kind of excited, I love that kind of thing.  Then she told me I couldn't sew a stitch, it had to be all done by her.  Yikes!  Of course because it had to be accurate she chose the hardest pattern we could find. Luckily I had a bunch of fabric in my stash that we thought would work nicely. In fact I had enough that I decided to make a whole dress myself in an effort to work out any bugs and make it easier for Brittany.  So I kind of became a sewing coach. Brittany did a great job,  she followed instructions and sewed very carefully.  It turned out beautifully. Part of the assignment was to wear it to school and if you wore it all day you got extra credit. Of course she wanted to do that.

 

 

Her friend Tristan also did this assignment and I begged her to get a friend to take their pictures and she actually did! 
It was a tough project but fun. Brittany did a great job and learned a lot. As tough as it was I would rather do this again any day than make another one of those Rube Goldberg machines!

Department Award for Math

This week we also had the awards night for Legacy Junior High.  Brittany and I  have always gone alone because it is a neat night but kind of long.  She especially wanted to go this year because she had friends performing.  Turns out I should have made the whole family come because she received the department award for math!

 

 Let me mention her that this is an example of nature versus nurture. I hate math and haven't been able to help with her homework in as long, long time.  She obviously got her math talents from her dad who told me on our first date that he thought calculus was fun. I'm still surprised I went out with him a second time, just proves how cute he was. William has helped Brittany a time or two when she has really been stuck but really, that is pretty rare. She has done it all on her own.  With the help of a couple of good teachers.  So I am really proud of her. Especially when cute Mrs.  Willis included among her reasons for giving her the award her willingness to help teach others around her who needed help. 

She also received awards for  4.0 High Honors , citizen ship and the President's award for educational excellence.

Brittany and Mrs. Willis who chose her for the Math department award. 

Teen author boot camp

I haven't blogged in so long! But now William has helped me find an app on my phone so there will be lots more from here on out!

 

I have been meaning to blog  about a very cool thing Brittany did months ago. She has a friend, Emme. They have been friends since they were two. Even though our families have moved apart they have remained friends with a lot of common interests. Months ago Emme  invited Brittany to go with her to the Teen Author Boot Camp held on the Utah Valley University campus. They both enjoy writing a lot and she had gone last year and thought it was really fun. So the two of them spent the day in workshops learning different skills they could use in writing. They had such a great time! I got to spend the day with my sister and Emme's mom Jen. So I had a great time too!
Part of the boot camp is a first chapter contest. 
Each participant submits the first chapter of a potential book. Brittany and Emme had both work hard to write a chapter. Then they emailed them to each other, then edited them for each other. Jen and I went together to pick them up and were wonderfully surprised to see them both caring trophies! Trophies that were made by the same guy who makes the iron man suits, by the way.  Out of all the kids that were there, and they were a lot, Emme had won first place and Brittany had one second! It was an ending we couldn't  have written better!

Girls Camp 2013

 Brittany came home from Girls Camp yesterday. She had such an amazing time! So I thought I would blog some of the pictures I stole from the leaders from facebook before I forget everything she has told me about it, This is the group minus the fourth years and YCL who had already left. Don't they look nice and clean?

 They went right from the church to a spot Brother VanderDoes had picked out to teach them to rappel.  I wasn't too worried about Brittany doing this. Whenever we go to Moab she is always scaling to the tops of things. I was right, she really enjoyed it! She did say taking this first step off into what feels like nothing was scary the first time.

 But once she learned to trust the rope and Brother VanderDoes at the bottom she had a great time. Did it more than once too.

 Once they got to camp, down near Manti, they had tons of fun. Playing in the lake there, apparently Brittany and her friend Emily are trying to balance on a bogie board that is submerged under their feet.

 Silly games.  This one involved putting a shower cap on your head and seeing who could catch the most Cheetos in the shaving cream squirted on the cap.

 Skits. What would Girls Camp be without skits?

And a monster, eight mile hike. That would be Brittany right there in the middle asleep. Or at least looking asleep.

It was a long, difficult hike but it ended here, at the Manti temple. The girls received letters from their moms telling them why their mothers felt it was so important for them to make going to the temple a goal. They also had a speaker meet them there.  That would be the one young man in the picture. He was an impressive young man who had suffered a lot of loss in his young life.

 I am so grateful for these amazing leaders and girls who are such a great example for our Brittany.

Brittany turns fourteen!

So I am struggling to update this poor blog. My first-born child turned 14 almost a month ago. We did our best to celebrate this fantastic kid! First she celebrated with her friends. They went together to see a pioneer movie called Ephrim's Rescue. They loved it but said it was really sad.  I guess I should have thought that one through for a birthday party, but they said it was still fun. Then we went and yogurt because that is another of Brittany's favorite things. On her actual birthday she went and drove the racecars at Boondocks, that is really the only thing she likes there but we did need to get that practice in, next year there will be a learner's permit.

 

We also had a family party. I love this picture with Brittany's cousin Libby photo-bombing it. So funny, and so typical of their relationship. Sort of a milestone this year, Brit didn't chose some kind of theme cake, she chose a yummy German chocolate cake. Guess she really is grown up! She is such a great, responsible, fun, smart, adorable girl and I am so very grateful she is mine!