Senior Picture Sneak Peek!

If you've been looking for the most amazing photographer in the whole world, look no longer.
Here is a sneak peek at Emily's senior pictures taken by our sweet friend Kristin Eldridge. These literally took my breath away and made my eyes well up with tears the second I saw them, so I don't know what's going to happen when I see the rest of them! Please click on each picture to see a bigger version of it on Kristin's twitter sight. You'll be blown away by the colors! And oh yeah, by the way, that's Emily with dark hair. Shocking and striking isn't it!






We spent about 90 minutes with Kristin at Seal Beach Pier on Thursday afternoon (that's when Kristin says the lighting is best) and Kristin took 5 million pictures and I'm supposed to pick ONE to send out with Emily's Graduation Announcements. Ha! These 2 pictures were posted on Twitter, with a link to post them on your website, so here they are.

Please check out Kristin's BLOG..... you'll be amazed! www.kristineldridge.com Thanks Kristin. I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures.... or maybe not.

Cards & Photos to prove what a busy month it's been!

This has been the busiest month ever! My daughter's 18th Birthday.

We had a HUGE party at Monte Verde park with about 75 kids, a DJ and a Taco Man... and celebrated with her best friend HALEIGH, who's 18th birthday was the day after Emily's.
Here's the CARD I made her for her birthday....




Her starring role as "Belle" in Beauty and the Beast at Lakewood High School! The thrill of a lifetime!








Fun events at church.



Mother's Day! Choosing/ deciding on a college for Emily for the fall (Azusa Pacific was the choice) Prom Dress shopping and preparation for summer... whew! Was all that in the past month! Yes!

Here are some cards and photos to prove it!






Mike's Birthday Card (using Taylored Expressions).

Prom Night

My daughter Emily is off to the prom tonight at the Disneyland Hotel with a friend from her Madrigal singing group, Scott. A huge group of her friends met at one of the girls' house to catch the limo/bus thing. Biggest thing I've ever seen! Emily found her dress on clearance at Windsor, and I was very proud of her for being such a good shopper. My mom took it in (because it was way too big) and I added the sequin trim. But by the time you add Limo, dinner, prom tickets, flowers, shoes, nails, hair, spray tan, jewelry, and photo's (and whatever else I'm forgetting), and oh yeah, did I mention HAIR??? it's still a very expensive evening and more than most of us spend on a family vacation or a month's worth of groceries! It's crazy! But they sure looked beautiful and I'm sure they are having a blast.

Happy Birthday Sweet Emily

Yesterday was my daughter Emily's 17th Birthday! For those of you who know Emily, you know what a delight she is. She is beautiful both inside and out, she is helpful, kind, passionate about life, music, theater, dance, math :) Spanish, coffee, Chipotle, Jesus, her friends, her friends, and her friends! I had a blast planning some special surprises for her birthday, and loved making her this card. She LOVES the beach, just learned to surf over spring break, has a teal and beach "theme" in her bedroom, so I loved how all this came together. (Starting with the scrapbook sticker from Tall Mouse.) The base of the card is a full sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 "Lovely Lilac", then layered with Tempting Turquoise, and Whisper White. The blue hawaiin paper is called "Aloha Chic" from Star Fish & Dreams. The Happy Birthday sticker is from "Me & My Big Ideas" and it is layered on top of an oval cut from Yo Yo Yellow, and then layered on Lovely Lilac. This is the first time I've tried putting gems all around an oval scallop like this, but I've seen Taylor and Jami do it all the time, so I had to try it.

Not fun! I tried both self stick jewels and tiny taylor twinkles, but not having really good tweezers made it quite a challenge! Three flowers were stamped with the flower from "Do The Hula" (retired SU!) using Lovely Lilac, Tempting Turquoise, and Cool Caribbean Ink, cut out and mounted with dimentionals, and highlighted with a stardust pen. Some bright turquoise ribbon adds the finishing touch!

Here are a few more birthday pictures... I surprised her at school at lunch time with pizza for her and her friends and some giant balloons. She was pretty surprised at the balloons, and because she got to carry them around with her the rest of the afternoon at school, she said everyone wished her a happy birthday for the rest of the day, even people she didn't know! Bonus happiness!

This picture needs a tiny bit of explanation. No, she doesn't still play with dolls, but next week, she is starring as "Sharpay" in High School Musical at her school, Lakewood High School. (May 1,2,7,9 if you're interested!) So my little neice Grace, who is 4 years old, thought Emily should have a SHARPAY DOLL, complete with a singing microphone. Of course, I agree! That's my mom next to Emily last night at PF Changs, where we had a very yummy dinner before rushing over to Disneyland for a quick visit. It was a full, and very fun day. Happy Birthday Sweet Em! You are an amazing young lady, and I couldn't be more proud to be your mom!

When did these kids become grownups?

Here is the picture I took of Stephen and Emily
right before we left for church last Sunday (Easter/ April 12). What is amazing is that less than a year ago, Emily was about 6 inches taller than Stephen. For those of you who have known Stephen his whole life, or at least most of it, can attest to the fact that he has drastically changed in appearance! Stephen had to leave to go back to Indiana right after church on Sunday, so we didn't have a very traditional day (didn't do a lunch or anything... in fact, Stephen and I ate California Pizza Kitchen at the airport and Emily at Pick Up Stix with her girlfriend Sharday!)

Church was amazing and glorious, our choir and orchestra was phenominal, Brent presented the gospel so powerfully, and it was so great to be in church with my kids and my mom. I hated to see Stephen leave again, but summer will be here before we know it and he'll be back again! :)

Annie Get Your Gun Fun!

Annie Get Your Gun at Biola Youth Theater June 11-21 was a blast. Emily carried such a busy schedule during May and June, we were afraid she wouldn't really be able to enjoy the show, but once that curtain went up, she was the epitome of professionalism and charm. She has such a great smile when she's up on stage. I am always so proud of her. Here are some photo's taken back stage in between scenes and also after the show was over. You can see some tears being shed because of the seniors who graduated out of the BYT program. I spent most of the shows backstage helping with costume changes, but I also got to see both casts perform.

Here are all the dancers (they had 6 or 7 costume changes during the show.... whew! It was crazy back stage! Can you say febreeze!?) along with "Dolly" "Winnie" and "Nellie" some of the main characters.

This is Emily and her good friend Ashley in their ballroom scene gowns. Wow, can my baby girl kick up her heals!
This is Emily with her friend Josh who played "Frank Butler." What a sweetie. He also played Jesus in Godspell. So talented! Since he's one of the Seniors, this was their last show together. Now it's time to shift gears to the fall show, "Thoroughly Modern Millie," which means tap lessons over the summer! Hopefully by then, Emily will have her driver's license so she can driver herself to some of the rehearsals!

Lakewood High School's Grease

I forgot to post some pictures of Emily in GREASE at Lakewood High School a few weeks ago. It was the last weekend of April and the first weekend of May. In between the first 2 shows and the 2nd 2 shows, I flew to Atlanta for the Orange Conference and BACK, so I was able to squeeze it all in and still see her opening night, and closing night. Of course, she was fabulous and had the best time ever. She really made some good friends through the experience too. Emily had the part of MARTY MARASCHINO.... remember her? The one with all the boyfriends in the Marines? Sang "Freddy My Love"...

She is a born NATURAL on stage... so confident, so happy, so talented!
I love this picture of her Grandma Scheevel and her 2 cousins Jessica and Kayla who came to see her show on opening night! Four Blond Beauties! The four of them have a very special bond, and I'm so glad we all live close enough to each other to spend time together.

Now we're in the all the final rehearsals, set up, costume fittings, load in, etc. for "Annie Get Your Gun" at Biola Youth Theater, which opens June 11 and runs through June 21. She's pretty tired already!

A Star is Born

Here are a few pictures of Godspell at Biola Youth Theater... the Central Park Cast... January 2008!

Notice the girl's hair in the lower right corner.... The cast is made up of "skaters," "punkers," "emo's" "preppies" etc.... as if Jesus were to come back today in 2008... who would his disciples be... who would He seek out... .who would decide to follow Him?

Here is Emily "bringing her gift to the alter" and Jesus telling her to leave her gift (a shoe) at the altar and go make peace with her "brother!"

And here she is "in jail" after her "brother" turned her in!

And of course, the highlight of the show, Emily singing "Oh, Bless the Lord My Soul." What a blessing it has been to watch her blossom and grow during this experience. She is so at home on the stage, I am in awe. She has made wonderful lasting godly friendships, she has learned to listen to instructors trying to help her grow in her art, and she has had the privilege of seeing God honor the desires of her heart as she has allowed Christ to work in and through her. Tonight is the last show, and we have about 25 people coming to see her from our family and church. I'm sure there will be some tears shed as the show closes and all these kids go their separate ways.

And The Curtain Goes Up

Well, after 15 weeks of rehearsals, 8 all day Saturday marathons of painting props, sewing costumes, running lines, practicing dance steps, almost ruining her voice, many voice lessons, tons of fun meeting new friends, staying up late driving home (50 miles per rehearsal... up and back, up and back), the killer week is here. Last night, Emily was at Biola til 11:00; tonight was a stay at home, do homework and eat one last home cooked meal together, and then tomorrow night, we have dress rehearsal, and the show opens on Thursday. I say "we" because I'm doing makeup tomorrow night, and then learning how to "ush" (that's what ushers do, right?) while she's rehearsing. Oh yeah, and we had to run out this afternoon after work and buy a few more things for her costume! It's been a challenging road for her, but she is looking forward to the show opening. I am amazed at her dedication, her ability to develop her talent and skills in the area of singing and dancing (I thought you either "had it" or you didn't... but she has worked very hard at becomming great!), and all during this time, she has maintained almost perfect grades at school, sung in 2 other singing groups, been involved in lots of church things, etc.
Break a Leg, Em! (Why in the world do we say that????) I can't wait to post some photo's, but that will be a while, because we're not allowed to take pictures during the shows, we'll have to wait until the professional photographer gives us the pictures he takes. Every cast member has to take a big BOX to keep all their stuff in during the shows... make up, hair stuff, costume changes, snacks, water, etc. It's called their SHOW BOX. Emily had one a long time ago, but since this is her first show back in California, she needed a new box. Most of the kids write the names of the shows they've been in somewhere on the box, and it becomes sort of a souvenier. I wanted to make Em some kind of special name plate to put on the top of her box, so this is what developed. It's my first time to make a "name plate" using my new alphabet, Letterpress. She really liked it, even though I could tell she still wants to add to it some of her own personality.

It uses Saffron, Vintage Violet, and Celery Paper, and Making Memories "Cheeky/ Abby Words" scrapbook paper as the base, and then adds a bunch of vellum sentiments, brads, swirl clips, etc. The whole thing is about 12 x 9, and is slipped inside a 12 x 12 scrapbook album page protector, then trimmed to size, to tape on the top of the rubbermaid box so it doesn't get wet or ruined. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, even though I was trying to keep it as flat as possible, so I wasn't able to add any RIBBON.... Please keep Emily in your prayers the next few days if you remember, as well as the rest of the cast.... this is an amazing and powerful musical, and I'm sure Satan would desire to attack these precious teenagers, discourage them, cause illness to them, etc. to prevent the GOSPELL from being heard by hundreds these next 2 weeks. Thank you so much.

Christmas by Candlelight

My daughter's madrigal group from Lakewood High School was privileged to sing this evening at Disneyland's Candlelight Procession and Ceremony. It was amazing. I have seen this show one other time about 7 years ago, but back then it was done "back" in the pavillion near "It's a Small World." Now it's done on the steps of the train station and everyone STANDS on main street to watch. There were 700 singers from various church and school choirs, all wearing robes carrying candles, singing the beautiful hymns we all know and love about our wonderful Savior's birth. Jane Seymour was the narrator, and read the Luke 2 Christmas passage so elloquently, surrounded by the singers, bell ringers, full orchestra and even 7 buglers, standing all the way on TOP of the train station. That was my favorite part! This was Emily's first chance to sing the Hallelujah Chorus, something I think EVERYONE should learn to do in their lifetime. She had a great time, but boy is she exhausted. It was fun to see her sing and such a wonderful magical place, along with my sister, my mom, my mom's friend, my son, and my nephew. We even had a few wonderful friends stop by to watch her sing too. What a great way to start off the month of December! I hope I can keep this Christmas message in my heart and mind throughout the coming month as life becomes a little frazzled in the days and weeks ahead.

Godspell at Biola

My daughter and I spent the day today working hard on her upcoming production of Godspell at Biola Youth Theater. If you aren't familiar with Biola, it a Christian University in Southern California (where I graduated from) that was origianally called "Bible Institute of Los Angeles" (thus the acronym BIOLA) and was started in 1907. (Wow!) About 15 years ago, they began a program to teach theater and music to home school kids, which eventually turned into "Biola Youth Theater." It is an AMAZING program that allows kids to participate in community theater in a safe, well supervised, moral environment, and teaches them Christian principles while they learn to sing, dance, and act! This is my daughter's third production, and she was fortunate this time to earn a LEAD in Godspell, as Joanna... Joanna is the disciple that sings "Oh Bless the Lord My Soul." I am amazed at her dancing and singing abilities..... and so thrilled that she is meeting wonderful friends in the process. Of course, I secretly hope she'll want to attend Biola in a few years when she gets ready to choose a college, but she's determined to move farther away... like New York! Let's hope and pray she realizes that musical theater majors don't make any money, and that she'll also choose to pursue her passion and gift for MATH so she can EAT while she performs on Broadway! If you want to see Godspell on stage at Biola, I would strongly recommend it! The shows are Jan. 10 - 12, and also Jan. 17-19 and you can get tickets by calling (562) 906-4574, or www.youth.biola.edu/byt

My dauther the Nerd!

I couldn't resist showing you this picture of my dauther Emily on Halloween! She and her best friend Melina, decided to dress up like Nerds, (which was great, cuz it was only a $5.00 costume!) She even won the contest at church at the Youth Group Costume Party! Emily is the one on the right.