end of the season

the 2009-2010 Colorado Children's Chorale season is officially over.

when we started this adventure late last summer we really didn't know what to expect.

bella and her school/chorale friend, we carpooled every week

couldn't have done it without these guys!

we knew it would be a huge time commitment

bells and i outside Boettcher Hall
spring concert

we knew Bella would love every second of it



performing Small Miracles at the Colorado Heights University

and we hoped that she would do well
Brendan and Bells
he really was a proud big brother on this day


in the end, all of these things were realized.
and now, we are ready for the summer break!

budding artist

the high school that our neighborhood is assigned to has an annual

Celebration Of The Arts.

for the celebration they invite students from the elementary schools that feed in to the high school to display art work or perform in a choir. last year brendan was invited to participate in the choir but we had a big snow storm that day and the concert was cancelled ;(

this year bella was invited to display her fish sculpture.

now this isn't just any ol fish sculpture. this is a sculpture that she made with the intention of giving it to her dad for his birthday. so it really meant alot to her that it was picked.

as usual the picture isn't very good because my camera is kinda stinky, but in person it's really impressive. she put a lot of detail into it and it looks really good.
way to go bells!

dad can't wait to put it on the wall of his office!

she's in!

back in june, bella auditioned for the colorado children's chorale. it's been a long month or so of waiting but we finally found out that she got in! she is extremely excited. the chorale is going to be so much fun. it's a HUGE time commitment but the learning and growth opportunities that it is going to provide her is priceless. she already has a love of music and theatre and the chorale will help nurture that love and cultivate her talent.

bella on the day of her audition. she wasn't nervous at all. they wouldn't let me go back into the audition with her so i was going crazy the whole time wondering what was going on. a few musical notes, dance steps and rhythm pattern claps later she came out with a huge grin on her face. the essence of relaxation and pure joy. "it was so much fun mom!" at that moment, i was pretty confident that she was going to get in. we are so excited and proud of her. i can't wait for the first concert!

back to school

it has been blazin hot here all week. the kind of heat that let's you know it's summertime. which makes it even more bizzaro that my girls started school this week!!

there are a lot of things i LOVE about year round school. starting right after the 4th of july however is not one of them.

bella was very excited to start 4th grade and was missing her friends that don't live in the neighborhood. so in all honesty she was ready to get to school. don't you love how ginormous her backpack is??? when stuffed with her school supplies i bet it weighed almost as much as she does.

brooke has been begging to go to kindergarten since the beginning of last school year. so she was more than ready for the school year to start. it's hard to believe that the time has come for her to embark on her academic career. they just grow up way too fast.

milestones and awards

last week was super busy for us and full of exciting things. first, bella was awarded the citizenship award for her class. she was so excited! her teacher nominated her because she is always kind and sweet to others and in general is a friend to everyone. she also displays a positive attitude in the classroom. it was a great way for bella to end her school year. brendan also received the same award a couple of years ago (before bloggland). this recognition means so much to the kids. and as a parent it's nice to get some positive feedback.

next was brooke's preschool graduation! it doesn't seem possible that it's time already to send her off to school. but she's ready. i can't believe how much she has grown and matured over the last year. she is going to love kindergarten.
the only sad part is that all her little friends are either on a different track than she is or they are on the same track but in the afternoon. so she is going to be a lonely little fish in the big K pond. BUT i am confident that she will make new friends and that it will all be ok. and if not, well then it could prove to be a long year. really though i am not worried. she has a lot of charisma that one does.

brooke and ms tara. i know brooke is going to miss seeing you twice a week. thanks for everything!

take your child to work day

in the past, larry's work has not participated in take you child to work day. the main reason for their lack of participation is the number of large power tools located in the shop. in order for kids to be allowed into the building the shop would have to be closed. so this year they made a compromise and closed the shop down for about an hour so that kids over the age of 6 could come in. since larry and brendan do a lot of "manly bonding" he decided to only take bella. she had so much fun and came home looking like this.

they decked them all out in shirts, hats, safety glasses, masks and poly wog frogs. bella of course had to wear all of these to school! DUH!! after a tour of the shop the owner of the company took them all out for breakfast. it was a great morning for the two of them and one that i am sure bella will remember for a long time. i love it when we can make lasting memories like that for the kids. especially for the girls and their dad. i think it's so important.

the big voice

bella loves, loves, loves to sing. so when we found out that they were having a recognition night for achievement days at church and she got to display a talent, the talent choice was a no brainer. i picked out a song for her, because i have to accompany her and that is a scary thing (stay tuned for more info) and we started working. she already knew most of the song so we were making huge progress when she just stopped singing. i looked at her to see what the problem was and there were huge tears in her eyes.

me - what's wrong? your doing great

bella - i don't want to sing this song because i can't use my big voice.

me - your big voice? what are you talking about?

bella - you know - the one like this

HUGE operatic voice starts singing about an octave above the notes we were on

me - wow. that is very nice. BUT - it's not really the best voice for this song. and your regular voice sounds so great on it. can we just do this one?

bella - ok, if that's what you really think.

i am so curious to see what her singing voice is going to be like in a few years.

now as for me accompanying her - this is huge for me. i have never enjoyed playing the piano in front of others. i am quite certain that this fear stems from numerous recital disasters. playing the piano has never come naturally to me. this fact displayed itself every year, in the spring at st. john's church in keokuk, iowa. this is where my piano teacher, mrs. goeke held the annual piano recital. from my perspective, everyone played so effortlessly and perfect. like they were one with the piano. then it would be my turn and i would stumble and have imperfect tempo through the entire piece. my fingers were never light and airy on the keys. instead they were heavy. i didn't float, i pounded on the keys like a little hammer. it was horrible!! one year, i believe it was my sophomore year, i got so confused and turned around that she actually had to place the music in front of me because i could not pull the piece back together. i wanted the floor to open up and swallow me i was so embarrassed. i didn't dare look at anyone as i walked the aisle that seemed to go on forever back to my seat. if i made eye contact the tears that were there, sitting on the edge, would break through adding to my humiliation. determined not to have back to back disasters, the next year on the day of recital i racked my brain to try and come up with an out. i knew that if i just told my parents i didn't want to go they would make me. i was pretty sure that i wouldn't be able to fake a deathly illness convincingly so what other choice did i have?? the only one i could think of was injury. but what kind of injury? a sprained ankle wouldn't do the job. i'd have to actually hurt one of my hands somehow. i was too much of a wuss to slam it in a door. so somehow, i thought that if i could fall on it and sprain it that would hurt less. so i tried to throw myself down the stairs. now you might be thinking, what a ridiculous plan?? what on earth was she thinking?? but i was just so desperate! i cannot begin to convey to you the depths of my desperation at that point. so besides the obvious, there was another major flaw with this plan. it's really hard to purposely fall down stairs. i tried and tried but everytime i would catch myself. so the only injury i sustained was a couple of bruises on my legs. the time at which my dad would get home from school grew closer and closer and finally i realized that i had no out. the show would have to go on. and while it was better than the year before, it still was so imperfect! and that is how i have always viewed my piano playing skills. forced and imperfect in every way. but, i vowed that this year i would dust off the ivories. and if we are going to be our own little version of the von trapp family, someone has to be able to play the accompaniment so i'm getting out of my comfort zone and playing my heart out for my little girl. let's just hope that i don't embarrass myself too much. or get her so confused with my less than marvelous playing that she can't sing the song. i did that at state the one time i took a piano solo to contest. part of the scoring was that you had to accompany someone and i did such a horrid job that i messed them up big time. they were totally embarrassed, not to mention mad at me, and i just wanted to block the entire thing out of my mind. which i have done quite well actually. i don't remember who i played for or what i played. i just remember that it happened and it was a train wreck. so let's just pray that a repeat does not occur.

Bella's Baptism

As your children grow there are certain milestones that they reach which touch your heart and soul more than you thought would be possible. Bella's baptism was one of those things. We were so excited to have family here, Nonie and Papa, Aunt Nancy with the cousins. All of them contributed so much to her special day.

Bella was very calm yet extrememly excited through the whole thing. She was very specific about who she wanted to give talks and prayers. The one thing that I picked rather than her was we had Brendan sing "When I am Baptized" and he did such a good job! I was so proud of him. He was very composed, not the least bit nervous. The only thing that we didn't talk to him about was what to do when he was done. So at the end of the song, I could see the hesitation and the "what do I do now" look in his eyes. His answer to the question was a little bow, not a big one, just a half one. It was very funny and so Brendan like.

The baptism had a very spiritual presence through the whole thing. I was touched at how strong the spirit was. And I was so very proud of Bella for making the decision to be baptized. Yes, her decision - not mine or Larry's. When Brendan was baptized I had a friend of another faith that "grilled" me a little bit on how Brendan felt about having to be baptized. I realized that she honestly felt it was not his decision to make but ours' because it is standard practice in the church for children to be baptized at the age of eight. But this is not a decision that we (parents)make. The children are so excited to be baptized. They are excited to start their journey towards following the savior's plan for their life and striving to return to him one day. It is a sign of our willingness to do what the savior has commanded. One brick in the path that marks our way.
The other thing that struck me as we were getting ready for the baptism is how much it reminded me of another special day that I know will come way to soon. Silly I know but I couldn't help but think as I helped her into her white dress and fixed her hair that before I knew it we would be doing this again. But on a much larger scale. That thought brought such perspective to me in regards to how fast time flies and how we really do need to try and savor each little minute that we have with them while they are young.

The whole weekend was so perfect and we just feel so blessed and loved not only by our family but by our church family as well.

Happy Birthday Bellaruski!!

Bella turned 8 on the 6th of July. It is positively amazing to me that she is already 8! Where oh where does the time go! Bella has always been beautiful. I know that I am biased because she is my daughter, but it's the truth. When she was born, the nurses couldn't stop gushing about how beautiful she was and how perfect her coloring was. That was after she lost her initial purple hue. When they brought her back to me after her bath the nurse confessed that they had been playing with her hair in the nursery. Trying to style it. They were really sweet. Bella was born about two weeks early. With Brendan I had to be induced so when labor started in the middle of the night I was really nervous about what was going on and didn't know what to expect. But out of the kids, Bella's delivery was by far the easiest. I got to the hospital about 6 and she was born at 10:30. Not as fast as some other people I know, but it was fast to me. And my dr was great. We all laughed the whole time. Not kidding! I got the giggles about something and couldn't stop and then the laughs caught on to everyone else. The only complication was my epidural. For some reason the dr couldn't find the right spot and she actually put four holes in my spinal sac. That meant that I had a greater risk for getting a spinal migraine which can be horrible. To try and prevent that from happening they kept my iv in and gave me a lot of caffeine to drink. It worked and I was migraine free. However the increased fluid made me swell really bad. My eyes swelled so badly that I just had little slits for a couple of days.
Bella and I had a birthday party together up at the lake and then this Friday I took her, Brooke and two of her friends to see Kung Fu Panda. Which, if you have not seen it, is a really funny movie. We all really liked it. The girls were hysterical. When I told them that it was getting close to movie time they decided that they had to have some jewels. Because, when you get ready for a girls night out you have to put on your jewelry and makeup. Gee - where could they have gotten that idea from I wonder......
Bella with her cake. I opted not to make one this year so Larry got a black forest one. It was lovely to look at and tasted divine.
We turned our backs for a second and found Lily stealing the rest of the cherries off the cake.
No party is complete at our house without jumping on the tramp.

Look at how much air Brooke got on this jump (she's in orange). I was shocked when I looked at the picture and realized how high up in the air she is!!

Bella is such a special part of our family. I could never list all of her wonderful qualities but here are a few. Bella is:

1. honestly one of the most loving children I have ever met in my life. She is always concerned about others and tries really hard to make sure that everyone is included.
2. very compassionate. I don't like to watch the news with her around because she gets really worked up about the newstories.
3. very thoughtful and quick to give people compliments.
4. honest and genuine.
5. full of energy and fun loving!

Bella always:

1. has a smile on her face.
2. tries really hard to help out. Especially with Lily
3. is singing. She loves to sing and make up her own songs.
   

We love you Bella!