A few more prom pictures and a video

LDS Prom 2009

Yay!!!! Jessica is here, and this picture was a beautiful representation of how we all felt after the prom. But, I am getting ahead of myself. Sit down, because we had 4 going to prom this year. There are plenty of pictures to follow.

The first set are of Marissa's dress. Unfortunately, there are no real before pictures of it as it wasn't modest to begin with, and it was all white. In order to make it look less like a wedding dress and more like a MODEST prom dress, we added the hot pink sleeves, the little pink beads on the bodice and the pink jewels around the skirt. The gathers were a great way to take a lot of length off the dress without having to worry about making a pretty hem.

Marissa is actually sewn into this dress. Nichole sewed the pink top on after the dress went on. Marissa was able to pull it over her head, but only with help!

Nichole's dress was a very pretty satiny black dress. She loved it for several reasons. First, her plan was to wear Converse tennis shoes this year. The dress is dressy enough for prom, but not too dressy for Converse. But then, what is? Also, the dress is all black, so she can change the look by simply changing the ribbon and jacket. Since it was strapless, she needed to make the shrug for modesty. She did most of the work herself. I only helped with the sleeves--and she would have done those herself if there had been more time.

Notice the sparklies in the jacket. The pictures really don't do justice to how pretty it all was.

Rachelle's dress reminded me of a pretty bubble. It was all pink and full of irridescent sequins. One friend said it reminded her of Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Too true. Her dress was originally strapless on top with a weird strappy tie up in the back. We sewed on some straps and covered that up with this pretty little bolero jacket with a tuxedo type back. Rachelle and I worked on the bolero together. It was a little more difficult since the top layer was a sheer chiffon type fabric, and the seams showed on the lining the first time we put it together. Happily, Rachelle was able to work out all the challenges. She hand sewed a row of irridescent sequins around the front of the bolero, and the effect was just plain pretty. I LOVE this first picture. Truly, Rachelle is so much fun.

After pictures, I was off with Rachelle to pick up her date. Braedon Wilcock is the nicest boy you will ever meet, but also one of the most quiet boys I have ever met. Needless to say, they didn't talk much, but I think they both had a very nice time.

I don't have any pictures of Marissa and her date yet. Her date showed up after I left, so Jessica got those pictures. I will put them on the blog as soon as I get copies of them.

Tim and Nichole looked very nice together. Unfortunately, Tim had been working non-stop throughout the previous week and was going on about 4 hours sleep in about 2 days time. He was definitely running low on energy, but they did ok.

It was all about the shoes that night! They matched down to their toes!

This cat just came out of nowhere. It showed up several times during picture taking.

This group had dinner at Hokanson's house again this year. It was almost as fun as last year. We really missed Lisa, though. There is that cat again!

Left to right: Michelle Evans, Shelby Park, Braedon Wilcock, Rachelle Hunt, Danielle Hokanson's friend (who helped serve dinner), Brad Dial (his date got grounded the night before so he went solo), Danielle Hokanson (who helped serve dinner both this year and last year), Nichole, Tim, Kaylinn Hokanson, and Sam Hendrickson.

I love the shocked look on many of those faces after Michelle threw the cat out of the way. Don't worry, no animals were harmed in the taking of these photos.

Dinner was AWSOME!!!!

One of the first things you noticed at the Prom was this amazing cutout of Edward Cullen. I got my picture taken with him before one of my Seminary students (Melanie) won the drawing. Then I got to serve as his body guard!

My own Edward.

We were all a little tired after the prom, but we needed to sit together and unwind. That is where that picture of Jessica came from.

The prom has successfully ended, and we have good memories of it. Before I publish this post, I need to leave a fun video of sisters being sisters.

Good times, good friends, GREAT family

This past weekend, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints held its 179th General Conference. Our family has made a tradition of viewing the General Conference at our Stake Center each April and October. Two hour sessions are held Saturday morning and afternoon and on Sunday morning and afternoon. There is also a two hour General Priesthood session on Saturday night. One might think that so much church would be boring--especially for teenagers. But we have found the opposite to be true. We genuinely love listening to our Church leaders speak. Their talks are always full of wisdom and the Spirit of the Lord. We receive much useful counsel, and quite often the Spirit will whisper something very personal to each of us. It is wonderful to have a modern day Prophet and Apostles who receive modern day revelation for Christ's Church!

As part of our tradition, we always take the kids out to eat between sessions on Saturday (Rob and Tim go out for ice cream after the priesthood session). On Sunday, we generally finagle some sort of picnic lunch. Most often, we eat that lunch inside the van or some other vehicle as it is usually raining here. Not so this time!!! We had an incredibly beautiful, sunshiny day.

Rachelle and one of our full time missionaries, Sister Cordero.

Rachelle, soaking us some sun.

Since I rarely get pictures of Rob, he decided to jump into as many as he could. . .

Rob, Tim, and our other full time missonary, Sister Kelly. Sadly, our favorite Canadian is leaving us. She was transferred to Hermiston, Oregon.

Maybe just a little posing is going on here. I don't think either one of them were actually asleep!

Tim is such a mischievous young man, but a very good one nonetheless. He had just worked the early shift Saturday, grave shift Saturday night, and was at conference only a couple hours after getting home. . . on just a few hours sleep. Oh, to be that young again.

Before leaving for conference on Saturday, the girls spotted this Bald Eagle sitting in a tree at the corner of our culdesac. He sat there for at least 30 minutes and left as we were leaving. I felt this was a terriffic blessing. I love birds--especially predatory birds. He was so beautiful!

In prepartation for prom, Nichole is doing some maintainence on our hair. Marissa got a very nice perm, and Rachelle decided to go back to one color hair. Rob and I were on a date, and missed all the fun!

Before

During

What is in that stuff???

Friday was a very big day for Rachelle. She finally got her contacts! Because of a very large astygmatism (probably butchered the spelling of that), she had to get the special torec (torric?, again a butchered spelling) lenses. It took quite awhile to learn how to put them in, but she is getting the hang of it. She loves having only two eyes.

Before contacts

After contacts, like 30 minutes later!

So there is an update on our family! There are more fun times to come, as Jessica will be home for 10 days on Friday, the LDS Prom is on Saturday, and who knows what wonderful things are on their way!

Just a bunch of random pictures before the whimsy of a silly mom.

Great Grandma cooking up a storm. Yummmy!

Great Grandma Hawkins is a fabulous cook and is always ready to feed a hungry army. She never seems to sit still. Once, when we stayed the night, she got up at 5:30 am to start breakfast for us. Although she was born on April 1, Grandma Hawkins is no fool. She is the kindest and wisest person I know!

Great Grandma's kitty, Scruppy.

Beautiful Nichole

This picture was taken a couple of years ago. It is one of my favorites!

Another one of my favorite Nichole pictures.

BFF (Best FOREVER Family)

Happy days at Great-Grandma's house!

Those beautiful eyes of Rachelle. . .

Rachelle is so excited!!!! On Friday, she gets fitted for contacts. I don't know if the world is ready for these beautiful brown eyes. Or should I say, I don't know if Rob and I are ready for the world to get a peek at these beautiful brown eyes. Now, just where did we put that bat?

What is Rachelle hiding?

Errrrggghhh!

Rob said that Rachelle always seems to get one of her silly pictures on the internet. It isn't because we are trying to embarass her (much), just that she is so much fun and we have to share that with everyone!

The great hold your arm up in the air contest!
Dad knows how to get the arms down!

Yeah, the girls occasionally start a contest to see who can hold thier arm up in the air the longest. I think this contest was dreamed up after Tim read about some guy in the Guiness Book of World Records who held his arm up in the air like this for years. I just thought the guy was a bit off his rocker. The girls apparently thought it sounded like fun. . .