Karalenn Smart (Hippen) Update of Magic

I wanted to send our new family picture with an update for you. I've been pretty busy, sorry it's taken a bit to get this to you.

Currently we are living in Los Angeles, CA and have been living here for the last 3+ years. We wont be here for long though. Two weeks ago, just before we were about to make our decision to move to London or another part of California, a company in Salt Lake City, Utah (Avalanche- owned by Disney) contacted Seth about working for them animating for Disney video games. They called three separate times sweetening the deal until finally we couldn't refuse. So now we find ourselves moving from LA to Utah and Seth switching from feature animation to video game animation (at least for a few years, until that job offer from Pixar comes). :) We will be moving end of May beginning of June-ish to start Seth's job, find a home to buy, and settle in the mountains again. We're going to miss going to the beach all the time and Disneyland so often with our annual passes. We're so excited though to move by much of our family or within driving distance and buy a home though (a near impossibility for us here in LA).

As far as what has happened since high school, after graduation I went to Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho and earned my Associates in Elementary Education. I also met my husband Seth there and we had great fun and dated for a year and a half and got engaged and married in the LDS Mount Timpanogos Temple a few months later. We moved to Provo, Utah and continued our schooling and working. We had our first little girl (Makenzie) in 2000 and I continued with school for a while more. In the middle of our BYU experience we lived in Glendale, California for a summer because Seth had an internship doing character layout for the TV show, The Simpsons. That was a blast and very hard at the same time with a new baby (Makenzie was just a few weeks old when we moved out there for the summer).

In 2002 we moved to West Jordan, Utah where Seth animated on children's educational software and I was a stay-at-home mom and took correspondence classes. We had our second daughter (Kendyl) in 2003 and a few months later at the beginning of 2004 we moved to Los Angeles, California so Seth could animate for Sony Imageworks on the movie The Polar Express and since has animated on Monster House, Surf's Up (coming out this summer), and Beowulf (released next year).

Our oldest is now 6- almost 7 and in the first grade and our youngest (now 3) is in a preschool that I teach a few times a month. I've been teaching art at my oldest daughter's school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Although I've been teaching art to youngsters for a couple of years, I haven't painted or sketched for myself for a few years for some reason until the last few months. I've really been enjoying gaining that back again. I've also begun dancing again, which I haven't done in years, but grew up doing and am having a great time with that as well. It's fun to take dance classes a few times a week. I guess I do a lot of sewing too. I like to make insane costumes for the heck of it. (I know, weird)

The hobby that I spend most of my time with is my guitar and singing. I volunteer teaching music and play my guitar on Mondays for a few of the classes at Makenzie's school. (My favorite thing is to hear a bunch of kindergartners and first graders singing/shouting silly songs that I've made up or They Might Be Giants, Björk, and Beatles songs. We had a big performance tonight at the school for a couple hundred parents. It rocked! I was proud of my stinkers. I need to bring in the camcorder and record them singing Monday mornings to post to my blog. It's the cutest thing. I really am not that good at performing compared to a lot of music people I know out here, and haven't ever had lessons, but I have so much fun doing it (for kids at least).

Something pretty cool that has been happening is that I've recorded some of my songs in my friend's studio recently. That's been a kick and it's going to sound really great when all the stuff is added to it over the next few weeks (drums, harmonies, that kind of stuff) by her sound/editing guy (I'm not sure what his official title is). My husband has written some amazing songs and lyrics and will be recording them in her studio too before we move. We love jamming together. I'm not going to release it or anything like how my friend makes her living. I'm just excited to have a CD to send to all my nieces and nephews at Christmas this year.

So that's my life in a nutshell from the last 10 years and what is most current. Crazy and fun where life takes you eh? See you at the reunion now that we know we wont be in London. :)