Getting Back in the Swing.....Maybe

Well, it's January 26th, and I am still working on writing down all my resolutions. Gotta write them down so they will stick!

I am contemplating getting back on my blog. I miss keeping a record of my family's life. Last year, I quit in March when I was in the midst of rehearsing for The Sound of Music and dieting like crazy. Life was just really full.

Now we are down by two with Emily and Caleb at separate college experiences, and with Joshua and Hannah going to the high school the first half of every day, the gap between Katie and Joshua is accentuated. Every morning is mom and the "three little kids." I think that phraseology has caught on with me because it resembles the "three little pigs," but that's where the resemblance ends. They are creative, lively, intelligent children. I don't do enough for them and all their interests, I'm afraid.

This is a picture of our family in late December when Emily and Caleb were home from Christmas break.

Russ's Birthday

Today was Russ's birthday. I made a nice dinner of beef roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, green beans, and asparagus. He said it was delicious!We didn't have 45 candles, so I tried to put the candles I had in the shape of a four and a five.

Emily lit the candles.
I made Russ pose for a picture, and then we sang.
He blew them all out!
I gave him a birthday kiss.
Happy Birthday, Russ!

Caleb's Scholarship and Two College-Bound

This week we found out that Caleb got a four year full tuition scholarship to BYU. I was happy because I want him close by. He was happy because he wanted to go to BYU, not Utah State where he also got a full tuition scholarship. Yesterday we drove to Provo to look for housing (and do a few other things). We picked up my nephew, Jacob, and drove around looking for a place for them to live together. Most of the places were closed because it was Saturday, but we did get to look at one apartment. Caleb stayed with Jacob at his dorm while Hannah, Emily, and I went to a Junior recital of a girl that used to live by us in South Jordan. When we went to get Caleb, he had met another young man who is planning on living with them, and Caleb said a lot of his fears had been put to rest. For instance, he found out how the guys deal with things like toilet paper and dish soap--they take turns buying them! The young man he met reminded him of his Uncle Mike, and he liked him, so that was good.

As his parent, I just have to say that it is a huge blessing to have his tuition paid for four years!

Emily's is also paid for Snow College for the two years she will be there, and I can't help but think that Heavenly Father is watching out for my children and guiding them along. I will miss them so much! It's hard to think of our full house without two of the children, without two drivers, without two people competing for the piano, and without two of my best friends. But I know they are going to do well and that they will bring light into other lives as they go out into the world.

One Nation Under God

Last night the kids sang with the Juab High School Concert Choir at the Utah capitol building in a program called, "One Nation Under God." It was a patriotic program aimed at emphasizing the Christian roots of our country and the religious basis of our Constitution. Here is Hannah on the bus next to her friend, Jessica Harris. Below is Emily next to Audrey Timmerman and Amanda Brooks, who are also from Levan, with Hannah and Jessica in the background.

This is Caleb eating during a break with his friend, Josiah Spencer.
The music for the program was written by Lex de Azevedo and Kaye Starr Heninger, and conducted by them. There were two semi-professional choirs, a small orchestra, George Dyer as one of the soloists, and 400 high school singers. The concert was held in the rotunda of the capitol, and it was a beautiful setting. The only thing we thought was terrible was that the singers had to stand on the risers through the entire concert! They told me that four people fainted and some sat down just in the nick of time. In the picture above (during the rehearsal) my three children are in the group on the right. Caleb is on the upper left hand corner of that right hand group in the picture. Emily and Hannah are there, too, but they are more obscured by the size of the picture, so I won't try to point them out. The kids rode on a bus. Russ and I came to Salt Lake to buy a car, and we brought Katie and Molly with us. The two little girls stayed at grandma's house while Russ and I attended the concert.

Katie's Faith in God

Katie has been working on earning her Faith in God award. She was so excited to turn eight so she could start. Today she decided to read a recent conference talk by our prophet, Thomas S. Monson. The reading was a little hard for her, but she was determined! The talk was entitled, "Be Your Best Self."


Molly and Matthew were there, too, because they took the cushions off the couch and had some blankets to make a nice cozy place to sit.Molly loves piles of blankets!

These guys are the three musketeers, and they're always playing together. Thank goodness for siblings!

Beautiful Winter Morning

I have a friend who took some lovely pictures of the moon in and by a tree at her house....I just loved those pictures and when I saw this outside, I had to go out and look at it and see if I could capture it.

It was such a beautiful morning this morning. Everything was covered with ice crystals, the sun hadn't come over the mountain yet, and with the moon still out, it was a feast for the eyes. It was also very cold!!!
We live under a busy flight path, and there are always comtrails overhead. In the early morning, they look especially neat.
I found this cobweb inside a hole in the fence. It had ice crystals on it just like everything else.

Here's the moon above the horizon beside a crystallized tree in back of the house.

This is the big ham radio antenna on top of our house. I was trying all different shots of the moon, inspired by the photography of my friend, Kim Whiting.
We frequently see a mist or fog in the area behind our house. This is the view from our back porch. I love the shades of lavender and blue.
More comtrails by the moon

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! For New Year's Eve, we ate yummy food and watched Frank Capra movies,
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (with Gary Cooper) and It's a Wonderful Life (Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed). It's a Wonderful Life is our New Year's Eve tradition.

The one thing we didn't do is take pictures of ourselves!

At midnight we took a little break from our movie to do some small fireworks that were given to us by our neighbors. It was a fun night!

Christmas Eve

Okay, I admit I was a little grumpy and tired because I did all the wrapping. Russ was trying out my new camera by taking pictures of me, and I was not amused!




Here's the treat table, complete with carob covered raisins, carob peanut clusters, and dates, along with other stuff. YUM!
Here's the tree. It seems like it shrinks every year!
Smiling because I'm done and now I can go to bed!

Christmas Season Performances

Emily, Caleb, and Hannah had a lot of opportunities to perform in December. There's nothing better than Christmas music!Juab High School Concert Choir performed in a concert on December 14th. They also sang for the Senior Citizens on the 16th.

Caleb, the teacher Mrs. Esplin, Hannah, and Emily
Caleb on the bus on the way to Temple Square for a choir performance December 15th.
Emily, Caleb, and Hannah in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building


The Juab School Orchestra had a concert on December 21st.
(Notice the Santa hat on Caleb's bass)
Mr. Johnson brought out a surprise guest conductor during the concert--his 18-month-old son. He waved the baton while the orchestra played. It was so cute!

More Snow Pictures

Snow goes with children. It's deep outside, and when I saw Molly and Matthew sit down, and halfway disappear, it made me laugh!

Making snow angels