Personalities------

To show to difference in personalities of our various children I offer up an example from our ride in the car yesterday;

Those of you with preschoolers or kindergarteners are probably familiar with the little poem entitled, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see?" Then it goes on forever through all the colorful animals and what they see.

So- In the car yesterday Anna starts singing this song and she is going back and forth with Hayden taking turns doing the different animals when she starts singing "Stinky Fish Stinky Fish what do you see? I see a Stinky Mommy Looking at Me!"


To that Hayden responses, "Beautiful Earth Beautiful Earth what do you see? I see beautiful mountains looking at me!"

Hence: one who appreciates trying to make people laugh (or mad) and one who appreciate the world around him. I was laughing at the difference in my kids. I am learning how to parents such different personalities. I kind of have Hayden figured out up to this point (it's because he is so much like me) but Anna is a complete mystery to me. It's because she is just like Tracy and I have not figured him out yet after 10 years of marriage

Anna Elizabeth Barlow

If I could post one picture that summed up my daughter the best it would be this one:

With a knife in her hand and all. She is crazy, fun, smart, a real fire-cracker and a great performer. She loves her friends and loves school. She loves to sing and dance and with the lungs that child has I am hoping she will develope a great voice because she sure loves to sing. She turned six on Tuesday and we had two fun family parties. We are having a party with her friends next Satuday and will post pictures then. We sure love her and she brings a spark that we would so miss without her.

Let Preface this with I DON"T BAKE

So......today is Anna's 6th Birthday (photos and festivities to follow) and she wanted a Belle Cake. We are doing a Belle party with her friends next week and my Belle from Beauty and Beast is coming......I digress.......so I have this big problem with cakes. They NEVER turn out and I mean never. I do cookies and that is about it. (Great cook, horrible baker) So, Since you can't buy these cakes I knew I was going to have to make it and I read many a website on suggestions and how to do this. I felt prepared...................as long as I could get the dumb cake out of the pan. It is not the preparation that is the problem,.......it is getting the cake out. ( I know you all have suggestions on how to do this.........I know I have tried them all.......cakes just hate me). So I tried and of course the cake came out in 3 pieces so I used my mother manipulation power (which I hate to use) and convinced Anna that cupcakes (which are only slighty better then cakes) are the way to go. She agreed. I sent her on her merry way to school and I started feeling sad. She wanted that Belle cake and this is probably the last year she will even like princesses. She is getting so mature you know. So, I made A TON of frosting and went to work. It is not the world's best Princess Cake but my daughter has a princess Cake:

Yes, there are a few holes without frosting because I was trying to make ruffles and yes, there is a tiny bit of frosting in her lucious locks, and yes, I did BREAK the legs off the Barbie to get it to fit (yes, I know I have to buy her a new one to replace) HOWEVER, she has a Barbie Cake and I am just praying that her 6 year old brain is happy with it. (I sent a picture to Tracy and he called me back giggling, how rude). Happy Birthday Sweetie!!

p.s. for the party next week I am buying a cake from Bowman's. So There!!!!

We finished with Savior of the World tonight and it was miraculous. So many amazing little moments and some incredible one too. I wish I could tell them but most are too personal and sacred to share on a public blog but this work is a gift and it is strongest in the sharing of it. I came home to an email from a dear friend of mine who sent me this email and it was the perfect ending to a perfect experience.

"I came to Savior of the World tonight more because I felt like my heart needed a boost. And I pretty much bawled the whole time. Please tell your cast thank you from an audience member who sincerely needed and is grateful for the wonderful spirit they brought to the performance. It was beautiful."

Here are some of my favorite moments:

Savior of the World

Our Stake Production of Savior of the World that I have been working on since June opens this weekend. It has been such an interesting process all along the way. It started out really rough. The folks that showed up on a whole were not what you would call "seasoned performers" by any stretch of the imagation. We have a stake full of singers and performers and very few of those showed up. However, let me say that never in my life have a seen people put more heart and love into a project then this group of people have put into this show. We have had to really work at this show. Work on learning how to read music and how to create a believeable character on stage (we are still working on this with some) along the way remembering what this show really is about; a testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ. This is what I learned that this show was about for this group. It was about learning to trust each other. Trust that we all would be there to support each other when things came tumbling down and trusting in the Lord to even make it all possible. We have hit wall afterwall in this show and we have pulled together as a group and made it all happen. From only having enough men to have 4 apostles in the beginning to having ALL of our costumes given away to another Stake and lot's of other weirdness-- we have made it through it all and we have created together our simple yet powerful testimony. I have learned so much about myself and about my Savior through working on this project and will always be grateful for the opportunity I was given to do it.

Rehearsals Pix: