MERRY CHRISMAS!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!
This is our Christmas card for this year. We took the picture at my mom and dad's house and borrowed my dad's Harley. We got the shirts for everyone on our anniversary trip when we drove through Sturgis, South Dakota right at the beginning of the annual bike rally.

The bottom of the card says, (in case you can't see it):

Cruisin' by to wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Hope you all have the best Christmas ever!

Jordan "Beet Classic" Drill Team Competition

On December 19th, the MMHS Elleves Drill Team competed at the Jordan "Beet Classic" Drill Team Competition held at Jordan High School. It was a big competition and there were several very good drill teams there that we were competing against. We were well prepared, but being a new team, you never know what to expect. My girls are trained well, technically, because all of them have taken dance at good dance studios--so they know how to dance! Which makes my job easier--but a different challenge than what I was used to before.

Well, when they announced the results, we were very happy! We took 1st in Dance, 1st in Hip Hop, 4th in Military, and 5th in Kick! We placed in every category that we competed in! There were 6 schools in the hip hop category and 10 schools in the other categories.

Here we are in a circle chanting our team motto. It is from a Black Eyed Peas song about being One Team! One of the girls taught it to the rest of the team. It was fun to chant it all together!

New Year, New Team, Same Dream! Here we are with all of our trophies! Also, one of my girls, Alexus Poulsen, won 4th place in the drill down! She won a medal that she is wearing in the picture.
Our next competition will be on January 9th. It will be a big competition as well. Some teams that we have not competed against will be there--so it will be another challenge for us.

I'm so proud of the team and how hard they have been working. It had been a stressful week and I had been stressed out to the max! My number one goal with this new team was to not "look" like a new team. I think we have been able to make that goal and it has been so unbelievably fun!

Drill Team Happenings

This post is what has been happening with my drill team, the Elleves at Maple Mountain High School.

Football season ended near the end of October. We performed our military routine for the last home football game. We borrowed military costumes from Lone Peak High School's drill team. Ours were not finished, and I didn't want to wear new costumes outside on the field anyway. So, I contacted Lone Peak's coach because their school colors are the same as Maple Mountain's. She said that she had some old military costumes that we could borrow. She uses them for football performances as well, so she didn't care that we would be wearing them outside.

Here is a picture of the team in the military costumes:

Maple Mountain played Spanish Fork that night, so we had a "Friendship Tea" with the Spanish Fork Drill Team. Seven girls on my team had been on the Spanish Fork Drill Team last year. We had a good time. Here is a picture of the two teams together:
We finished up working concessions at the BYU football games. Yay! I am always so glad to be finished with them! It is a great fundraiser--but a big time commitment. We always have fun while working though. Here are a few pictures from one of the games:

The drill team sponsored the first ever "Sadie Hawkins" dance at MMHS on Friday, November 13th. The theme was just "The Original Sadie Hawkins". A lot of the students did not know the history of Sadie Hawkins or why we have it. So, we decided to use that as our theme.

We also put on an assembly for the school. We asked all of the performing groups at our school to participate. The dance company, cheerleaders, jazz band, chamber singers, MMHS Dance Crew, and the Malelleves all performed. The Elleves also performed, of course, and we also showed a few video clips of the skits that we did to tell the story of Sadie Hawkins.

It was hard for me, or I think it was just because I had never been in charge of an assembly before. The day of the assembly was very stressful. Minutes before the assembly was to start, the dvd player in the auditorium would not play our dvd of the skits! Great, now what do we do? Well, they hooked up a laptop and played the dvd from that and it worked. All of this happened as students were coming into the auditorium for the assembly.

The assembly ended up being a great success and all of the performing groups did an excellent job. The drill team ended the assembly with an awesome performance of their military routine. It rocked! They hit everything right on!

After school we decorated for the dance. Here are some pictures from decorating:

Just before Thanksgiving Break, we performed at the Boys Basketball "Maroon/Gold Game". Performing at basketball games is fun and it helps us get ready for our competition season. We performed our kick routine, "Be Our Guest".

It is a great routine which uses the "Be Our Guest" music from "Beauty and the Beast." For our costumes, we wanted to look like French maids. So, when I met with my costumer, we looked at several fabric samples and decided to go with gold, but a more yellow gold, and black. Once the costumes were all made and the team was trying them on, I thought, they kinda look like bees. It was not my intention at all! But, we thought the costumes were so cute, we kept them as is, and so, no, we are not bees!

Here is the team in the kick costumes:

We had a busy week this past week, November 30 - December 5th. We had a girls basketball game to perform at on Monday. A boys and girls basketball game to perform at on Tuesday. I had parent teacher conferences on Wednesday night. Thursday, we performed at a boys basketball game. We performed our dance routine. This year's dance routine is entitled, "You'll Find a Way". The music and the choreography are very different. Not your typical "drill team" routine. My team is very technically talented, so we decided to "push the envelope" and try something different. For our costumes, I wanted something "different", but showy. Our dance also has a "Bollywood" feel to it. So, I researched bollywood costumes on the internet and the officers and I came up with an idea. We have had to change it a bit here and there and it has been a bit stressful. The original fabric we wanted became unavailable, but we found another one. They look good, despite all the stress they have caused me. But, hopefully they will help our team "stand out" against all of the other drill teams.

Here is the team doing our "circle talk/prayer" before the performance:

The Elleves--in their dance costume:

To finish off our busy week, we left after school on Friday, December 4th to stay over night in Salt Lake City. We were competing in our first drill team competition the next day at Davis High School.

We stayed at the Hilton City Center in downtown Salt Lake City. We checked into our rooms and then walked to the Olive Garden restaurant which is right on the corner. We had a great time at dinner. My team are such fun girls! They are also very kind and considerate. My table of girls were in a different location, just around the corner from the rest of the team. Well, while we were eating, the manager of the restaurant came over to me and said, are you the leader of these girls? I said yes, thinking, oh no, what have they done wrong. And then the manager continued to tell me that my team was a great bunch of girls. They were very kind and considerate and understanding. I guess their server had not brought them their salad and bread sticks before their main dishes. So, when they brought their main dishes, the girls were very understanding and didn't cause any trouble. So, they got free dessert! Way to go Elleves!

After dinner, we walked over to Temple Square and looked at the Christmas lights. It was fun and we had a great time together as a team.

Here is the team at Temple Square:

The Salt Lake Temple--not the best picture in the world:

Team picture, in front of the giant Christmas tree in the lobby of the Hilton:

We got up bright, well dark, and early the next morning and left the hotel at 5:30 a. m. We needed to check in at the competition at 6 a.m.

Our first competition as a team went very well! It was so much fun to be the "new team". Everyone was asking, "Where is Maple Mountain"? And no one expected a "new" team to look as good as we did!

After they performed their military routine and I was walking in front of the crowd, I heard people commenting, "Wow, that was good--where are they from?" I guess no one expects a new school to have as many girls on the team as we do and to be as good as we are.

Well, we ended up getting 3rd place in our hip hop routine. Which we had to compete against the 5A schools. There were 10 teams total in the hip hop category. The 1st and 2nd place teams were both 5A. Then, we got 3rd place in kick, 4th place in military, and 4th place in dance. We were so excited. Bountiful, the 4A state champs from last year were there and they are going to be tough to beat--they look amazing again this year. Their kick routine is on toe shoes!

Here is the team with our trophies:

Another picture, with me and my assistant, Marci in the picture:

I am so lucky to have such a talented bunch of girls to work with! It is so exciting! I can't wait to see what happens at the next competition.

Long Time, No Post

Well, the month of November has come and went! And I only made one post the whole month! I seriously do not know where the time went. Here are a few of the events that were going on with my family during the month of November:

We had a visit from Kaycee, Jason, and baby Emmalee. They were up visiting family in Salt Lake and stopped by on their way back to Cedar City. The picture of me holding Emmalee looks a little weird. I think whoever took the picture moved as they took it! Anyway, it sure is fun to hold Emmalee. She is so cute!

She liked seeing what what going on.
Scott is very proud of his first grand daughter!

Baby Emmalee

Scott, Emmalee, and Hollie.

The next big event in November was Thanksgiving. We went to Levan and spent the day at my mom and dad's house. Most of my mom's family were there. It was a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures of family. Here is Scott holding Emmalee:

Baby Emmalee

My brother Charlie holding his son, Max:

My sister Paula and my sister-in-law, Eliana enjoying the yummy appetizers!

My brother-in-law Jason, carving the turkey:

Jason, my mom, and my aunt Lisa:

My dad and my sister Amy:

Granny J:

Aunt Lisa holding her grand baby Macey:

Baby Emmalee, in the same outfit as Macey:

Scott and I gave Emmalee the outfit--gotta have festive baby clothes!

Thanksgiving was great--good food and good times with family. The next day, "Black Friday", Scott and I got up early to go check out some of the sales. We were able to get a few gifts for Christmas at some great prices. We then met up with Scott's sisters Debbie and Tammy for some breakfast at I-Hop in American Fork. It was fun to get together. We did the same thing last year.

Then, that Sunday, November 29th, we went up to Taylorsville to my nephew Jackson's Eagle Court of Honor. He was receiving his Eagle Scout. My sister Amy had put together an awesome candy and treat buffet. It was all done in patriotic colors and so cute! I didn't take a picture of it. But I did take a few pictures of the event. Here they are:

This is Jackson, after joining the "Eagle Nest":

Jackson and his leaders:

Jackson and his Grandma & Grandpa Roper and Grandma & Grandpa Mangelson:

Jackson and Granny J:

Parties Galore in October

I don't think a week went by in October that I wasn't at some sort of party! What a fun month! From family birthday parties to Halloween parties. Here are some pictures from all of the events:

First, my nephew, Jackson Roper, turned 16 on October 4. Here is the cool invitation that my sister made for his party:

Jackson blowing out his candles:
The cake:

It was a fun party. Good food and good times hanging out with the family. Jason made dutch oven chicken and potatoes. It was yummy!

The next party was a surprise party for my brother in law, Casey Nielson. He turned 40 on October 2. Paula arranged for a fun party at one of her friend's house in Alpine. Here is the invite:

The cute candy buffet and cake table. My sister Amy put the candy buffet together. It was all black, white, and red candy. The cake was made by a lady in Alpine that makes cakes for all of Paula's kids parties. It was yummy too. We had food from Costa Vida--which was also yummy!

Casey, as he came in the door, he thought they were going over to their friends house for a get-together. There we all were yelling, "surprise!"

Casey, getting ready blow out all those candles!

Here he goes--

Opening up some gifts--

It was a fun surprise party. Paula did a great job. She had some questionnaires that we filled out about Casey to see how much we knew about him. She had pictures of him from throughout his life blown up and hung them throughout the room. It was a good time!

We also went to another surprise 40th birthday party for Kim Riehle, Scott's friend Matt's wife. It was a fun party too. I didn't take the camera, so I didn't get any pictures. It was set up like a funeral and we were mourning the passing of her youth. It was a good time as well.

The next party event was our annual girls only dinner to celebrate Emilee and Paula's birthdays which are in October. Here I am with Jake:

Emilee and Paula, the birthday girls. We were at Magleby's in Provo. The food was delicious as always! It is always a fun time to get together and eat and talk!

Here we all are--our server took a picture for us:

On Sunday, October 25th, we went down to Scott's dad's house in Salem to have birthday cake. It was his birthday on Monday, October 26th, so they invited us down for cake. It was good to visit with them for a bit. They were watching "The Blob" on TV. It was funny how "silly" it was and back when it came out, it was "scary"!

Next event, the drill team Halloween Party! We went to Pirate Island in Orem. It was pretty cool inside. They have decorated it very well. Kinda reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland. Here I am with my assistant coach, Marci Hite:

I went as a biker this year. Marci was a witch. Scott and I bought the Sturgis shirts when we were on our anniversary trip this past summer. We drove through Sturgis on opening day of the annual bike rally. What a site that was--so we decided to get shirts. I decided that would be our Halloween costumes as well. I actually have been a biker chick before, but wore a different shirt.

It was karaoke night at Pirate Island, and the team had a blast getting up and singing on the stage. Dancing Queen was a big hit as well as the one they are singing in this picture, Miley Cirus's song "Party in the USA".

There were a lot of good costumes. We had the teletubby-Poe, Nacho Libre, 80s, Michael Jackson, an Indian, beauty queens, a cave woman, and a pirate--just to name a few. We had a great time. Here we all are--not the best picture, but oh well!

Then, on Halloween, Scott and I went to our ward's Trunk or Treat and chili cook off party. Here we are--

Full view--gotta love the tats!

I don't know, would you trust getting candy from this guy?

Trick or Treat!

We had a good time at the party. It is fun to see all the cute costumes!