Post trip catch up

 

Our last two weeks have been full swing.  We're getting caught up on school work from being gone so long, adjusting to a new choir director for my calling as choir pianist, welcoming a new Great-niece (congrats Aubrey!), celebrated Evelyn at her orchestra concert, celebrated Sam at his Jazz concert, enjoyed watching Seth try out jiu jitsu for the first time, hosted cousins for a magic tournament, celebrated Jack's birthday at Bricks n minifigs, took Ada for a campus tour to USU (it was fun and a nice campus), had dinner and made apple turkeys with Sharon and her kids, watched Sam in a flute trio in church, got good grade donuts with Seth, Seth earned the 1st place class spot in the spelling bee (he'll move on to the school wide one next) did the Priesthood preview with Seth, and went to a Happy Fitts concert with Ada and babysat for Emma a couple of times while she was packing to move (I'll miss their happy faces).

Evelyn's in the back... I was able to grab a couple shots of her peeking around from the back.  

Seth loves doing this.  It is a lot more like wrestling and less like karate, but he likes that.

Nellie invited us over to divvy up Avatar cards.

Magic game players

Birthday goers

We've been making apple turkeys since I can remember.  My grandma used to do this with us every Thanksgiving and now that our kids are all teenagers, they aren't really super excited about it... but we did it with the littles and it was fun.

Ada's thinking of 4-5 different colleges.  Wherever she ends up, she's going to be great!

Sam sure loves the Jazz band.  Our choir has started to sing more jazz type music and three of the boys are members of the jazz band.  They love geeking out over the timing and energy of the music.

Seth brings in our cats from their enclosure every morning.  It's cute.

Making faces while playing.

Peter made a robot and wanted me to take a picture.

Jer's cat nap.  I think they missed us while we were gone.

Nya, Anna and Sam.  They played beautifully.

Sweet Potato Kit kats.... yum

Evelyn is working on learning web-development.  She's doing a fine job and I think she'd like something like this as a job.

Ada made chocolate dipped "turkeys" out of strawberries and pretzels for her club social.

Vinn is so tolerant of Seth... 

Jer and I almost forgot about Seth's Priesthood preview.  Thank goodness I had a notification go off on my phone.  We made it, they explained what next year will look like for him and I'm so excited for all 4 of my kids to be able to share in being in the youth together for a few months.

a tiny apple pie Jer made for Anita Taylor

Ada and I at Happy Fits. It was so fun.  I did okay, but man were my legs tired after.  It was especially fun to watch Ada singing along with her favorite songs.  I loved especially that the main guy has a cello.

Evelyn's band buddies.... She says that she loves orchestra but all her friends are in band.

sledding

He finally did it! Seth has been wanting to go sledding all winter.  Too bad that the times that it's snowed has been while he's in school, asleep or it never stuck on the ground.  We were at Grandma and Grandpa Robertson's house for Josie's baby blessing when it started snowing.  Seth was "sledding" on his feet down the hill and Grandpa noticed and got him some sleds.  He took Peter and Rosie out with him and they had a fun time.  After they were done the snow melted and was gone.  I'm so glad he got to do it! 

I got to hold Josie after all the craziness calmed a bit.  As soon as I picked her up, Seth asked if he could hold her.  So he did and she was happy with that arrangement.

 

Sam's concert

Mom, Janelle and I were swimming at the rec center and there were 13 emergency vehicles around. The last one left was this one by the time we were done swimming. They were doing some cool training stuff.

Reasons Seth likes daycare.  He's not alone after school when all the teenagers are busy.

My watercolor teacher is bedridden right now, so our sub had us paint fall leaves. I tore mine by pulling off the tape too fast.

Sam's band is trying to raise funds for their tour in the spring.  They are going to SUU for a master class at the university and then over to LA to record their own version of a movie theme at the disney studios.  They had a fundraiser concert.  I was the only one that could go.  Jeremy, Evelyn, Jim, Aubrey and Corbin, Jonathan and Millie had tickets to the symphony in SLC.  Ada was getting ready for her club fundraiser and Seth just didn't want to be there.  I got there early to bring both the high schoolers some dinner, then I filled out their Harry Potter trivia questions and put my stuff down front and center to get a good view of Sam.  I saw my friend, Kierstan, off to the side and went to chat until the lights went out.  She motioned to my stuff and asked if that was my family and I said, "No, I'm by myself tonight." Then I made my way in the dark to my seat.  To my delight and surprise, I sat down and looked to my side to see my wonderful Great Aunt and Great Uncle sitting there.  Uncle Doug (Duck) and Aunt Linda were there to support Oscar, their grandson (Jared's son) that is in the same Jazz Band with Sam.  We had no idea and connected the two second cousins.  I loved seeing them. (I usually run into them about once a year.) They made the effort to get to know Sam a little bit after Jared and Oscar left.  It was very sweet.

They played movie themes.  My favorite was, My Neighbor Totoro.  They also played Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Avengers, The Incredibles... all well done.

Linda, Oscar, Jared and me.

The hair school donated all their tips from the free haircuts at the school to the hurricane relief fund.

Pictures from the Kindness week. Evelyn really loved weaving the mats. 

 

Easter Egg Hunt

 

This year, I had Rosie and Peter overnight and it just so happened that it was also our neighborhood easter egg hunt. They had a blast and my kids loved being their helpers. Ada and Sam were at the Stake Trek breakfast.  They told me that it was fun and they met their trek families.