Thanksgiving, birthdays, nutcracker............

I'm a blog slacker, I've been busy, but not busy doing much to blog about. The girls have been busy getting ready for Nutcracker. The dates of the performances are November 30 and December 1. Ari is only in the November 30 show, so try to come that day to see her. Ari is so excited and was dancing around last week saying she needed to practice for her cracker dance.
Desi's Birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year and it's also the first year that we are having Thanksgiving with just the 5 of us. I'm looking forward to a nice easy going Thanksgiving.
Desi had her birthday party on Saturday, she invited 16 girls and 10 were able to come. We played games, freeze dancing and it's was lots of giggling girls. Daddy wanted to surprise Desi by painting her room. We moved her into Devin's room in the summer, but we wanted to wait to make sure it was a permanent move before painting. So Thursday after she left for school we cleared out her room and painted before she got home from school. She did pick out the colors, we talked about doing it some day and she wanted pink and lime green. It's a very girly room and it's pretty bright.

AF Band

The high school marching band from American Fork High School where I graduated was involved in an accident last night.
This band is a icon in Utah and a HUGE part of the community in American Fork. It is one of, if not the largest band in the state and they have been invited over the years to play in the Rose Bowl Parade and the Thanksgiving Day parade televised from NYC. I remember when I was young we used to go to the edge of town to watch the band buses come in with a police escort after winning competition over competition.
They are the pride of American Fork!
They were traveling home from Pocatello Idaho where they had just won 1st place in that competition. There were four buses. The driver from the second bus passed out due to a medical issue. This extraordinary teacher, immediately jumped up to grab the wheel and try to control the bus, but was thrown from the window just as the bus rolled, and lost her life. Heather was a American Fork band member as well, and graduated in 1994.
We have a family friend Rachel that is a member of the band and were happy to hear that she is OK physically, but pretty shaken up. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the family involved.