DYW

Warning. This is really long and lots of pictures, sorry.

The big night finally arrived and after months and months of 6 A.M. practices, voice lessons, shopping, DYW was here. I am not sure who was more nervous Autumn, her dad, or I. The days leading up to were crazy with practices. The parents were allowed to go to one practice only and that was on Tuesday. From then on we were not allowed anywhere near practice for anything at all. We also had strict instructions not to go back stage or in the dressing rooms. Parents, especially moms can’t behave so they are banned. I agree, even the day of rehearsal we were allowed to go to some parents were complaining that some of the girls knew they wouldn’t win so they were not putting any effort into it. Really? I am sure that is why the girls were at practice each morning at 6 A.M. and then rehearsal until 10 P.M. Ugh.

Anyways Autumn went to school for half a day and then had to be at her interview by 2:20 so she came home at lunch. I was busy ironing her clothes and she ate, went over her biography and a few other things and I took her to interview.

Ready to go to interview. This is where the judges meet the girls and grill ask them questions for 10 minutes in a private interview. Autumn felt like she did really well.

Then she came home showered and I went to get her stage mom, Mikey, in Shelly, then her and Mikey went to a lady in our Ward, Sister Hart, and got Autumn’s hair done while I finally was able to pick up my Expedition.

Sister Hart was in YW with me before I was released and is now Autumn's Laural Advisor. She is also expecting her first baby in July. Super great lady. She is a professioanl hair dresser but is not working right now.

I really love Autumn's eyes in this picture

Came home fed the girls really quick made sure we had everything, took them over to the school, came home changed clothes picked up family and headed back. Show was at 6:30 and I still had tickets to hand out to some family. We finally got situated and it began. (Sorry I was so disorganized and crazy Zoey Michelle.)

Autumn was in Group 1 and after their opening number where the girls wore a dress of their choice and did a cute dance Autumn's group was first for talent. She was number 4 and really it was a perfect number, not the first but not too far either. There were 14 girls, 13 who were competing for scholarship money. The 14th was Salome from Germany; she wasn’t eligible for money but was in it for fun. Autumn came out to sing and I think did an amazing job.

The girls had 90 seconds for their talents and she sang “Not for the Life of Me” from Thoroughly Modern Millie. A lady in our ward let her borrow the dress and hat (it was her moms) and my neighbor let us borrow the suitcase. She has been in singing lessons for the past two months and it helped so much. Not to mention her singing instructor was a former contestant and also on the committee so knew how to help Autumn. I really think Autumn was one of the better singers.

One other girl Bailey sang a French Lullaby and sounded good. The others were okay (sorry not trying to be rude). It is funny because right after talent I completely calmed down. Rich on the other hand was still a wreck. Autumn said she really wasn’t that nervous on stage. She was a little before the lights came up but once her music started she felt great.

Then fitness came. Wow all the girls worked so hard. I think Autumn lost about five pounds over two months and also really toned her body up. She said the instructor was killer. Each group did about a 10 minute routine.

Self expression was next; they performed a routine and then had to answer a question. The question was “What would your happily ever ever after be?” The theme was a Princess/Cinderella theme. I thought most of the answers were great. Autumn’s good friend Meg got up there and totally choked, she couldn’t remember what she was going to say. I felt so bad for her, she almost started to cry. Heck I almost started to cry, her mom is my visiting teacher and I love them both so much.

Autumn was stunning and confident on stage. She really glowed and I think was amazing. Her dress was beautiful and she wore silver high heels that were about 4" she walked well in them.

Then the judges went out and they had intermission where the Distinguished Dudes performed, the former DYW performed as well as the Forget Me Nots. It was pretty fun. Then the Little Miss girls came out with the DYW. These are girls from K-5th grade that attended a day camp with the DYW one Saturday. Hope was there and was so funny. They had to come out on stage say their name and age and then got a little necklace. What cuties.

After intermission it was time. The girls did a final walk and then went backstage and they had the Dad’s all come up and give the girls a corsage. It was a complete shock to the girls, they had no idea the dads were coming onstage and most of them began to cry as their dads gave them the flower and a hug.

The Distinguished Dudes also came out and gave each girl 6 roses. This is Autumn's Dude Colby Pearson. He won Distinguised Dudes and $100.00

I am not sure how much scholarship money was available but I think close to $10,000.00 7 of the 13 girls ended up with money and the finalist Heidi Dreher was awarded 1400.00 plus she won a few other small amounts. It is kind of bad because out of all the girls no one wanted Heidi to win. She was the only girl who ever tried to cause drama and she is pretty snotty. Maybe winning will help her not be so self centered. Bailey Dann took second place and Alice Cannon took first. I love both of these girls. Alice is our Stake Presidents daughter and so genuinely nice. Bailey comes to a lot of the YW church activities and has a super super strong testimony but is not allowed to be baptized. Her grandparents will not allow it and she lives with them. I think one day she will though. On a funny note with Bailey at practice Tuesday she gets up to say her name and totally forgets everything. She stood there said my name is ummm, umm, my name is, umm Amen and walked off stage cracking up.

Bailey, Heidi, Alice

Autumn after the program with her flowers. Rich and I also gave her a dozen roses and my parents gave her flowers.

The whole experience was wonderful for Autumn. It really pushed her out of her comfort zone and it is amazing my shy little girl who would hardly ever talk to anyone was able to do this. I am so proud of her. Even though she did not place or win anything I could not be more proud. She had a lot of people come up to her at school and say how surprised they were she did not receive any money. It is all great though. I am so glad this and the play is over, we will not know what to do with extra time.

Rich and I gave Hope a bouquet of flowers for going on stage and my parents gave her a rose. She was pretty excited.

This is Mikey, Autumn's stage mom. She is so cute and I love her. I wish Autumn and her went to the same school. She was a wonderful stage mom, kept Autumn calm, was always there helping her get dresses and do her hair. We were lucky she was able to help us out. I can never thank her enough.

Autumns Dude Colby, also sent her flowers at school the day of DYW. Both of us were shocked. It was very nice of him to do so, especailly because he gave her roses that night as well. The card wished her luck and she said it really helped calm her nerves down. He is really popular and all of the girls could not believe he sent her flowers. They are just friends and not that great of friends. All of the guys were freaking out and calling him an over-achiever. It was funny.