Dicken's Festival

Singing at the Dicken's Festival!

 We ran into former caroler Emme (Forbes) Condie and had her come up and sing with us!

Caroler Family Show!

We scheduled the family show tonight at the community room in the St. George Library. The Carolers did a great job!! Unfortunately Kaden broke his leg over the weekend and showed up tonight with a big boot and crutches! Yikes! Looks like it will be that way for the whole season, darn it! We had a nice turn-out from family and friends. I was really sick yesterday and today and so I am glad that I was able to make it through the show. It caught up with me the next morning though! After the show Rick passed out gifts to all of the carolers (Hands in Harmony Caroler sweatshirts) and also mugs for "Caroler Cocoa!" I video-taped the entire performance and so I need to figure out how to share it with the parents.

After the family show they performed at Green Gate Village and then went and sang to Dara Atlee at her rehab center.

Janelle: Learning Permit

Janelle finally got her learner permit today after taking the test three times and studying really hard! We are glad she finally did it!  She first took the test twice on Wednesday and then again on Friday. Janika took her driving after she passed her test!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Grandma and Grandpa Westra came to spend Thanksgiving with us! We had a wonderful meal and enjoyed being with family! It was so nice having Janika with us this year! I had forgotten how helpful she is when it comes to preparing big meals! She and Jaiden and Janelle made the yams, the vegies, the rolls, the pretzel jello, the four step pudding, and even made gluten free stuffing! The only thing I needed to make was the turkey and gravy!

We finally tried out the turkey roaster that Jensens had given us years ago and the turkey turned out great -- nice and moist! Rick didn't even have to carve it because it was falling off the bones! Jared peeled and cut all of the potatoes and the girls mashed them. We also had several pies. Everything was delicious!

Unfortunately my mom wasn't feeling well on this trip and was required to take it easy. I had reserved tickets for Brigham's Playhouse for tonight for the whole family (except Jared and Josh who didn't want to go). Grandma just wasn't feeling up to it and so Jaiden invited Emily instead. We went to see "Plaid Tidings," which was a fun and entertaining show! The four men who played the characters all had exceptional voices and loads of energy. The show doesn't have much of a story line and so I missed that, but all in all, it made for a fun evening!

Caroler Critique

Tonight was our final Carol Critique! My mom, dad, and Janika arrived this afternoon and so they were able to watch it along with my Uncle Merrill and Aunt Lorrie, my cousin Nikki and Caroline and Mitch's girlfriend, Lexie. Below is a picture of Janelle in "The Christmas Fairy," and the girls singing to my Uncle Merrill in "Santa Baby!"

Rick's 50th Birthday!!!

This is such an important birthday and yet it pretty much got passed over with everything we had going on today! I am so grateful for my awesome husband though! Happy Birthday, Rick!!

Warrior Idol

Jaiden and Janelle were both contestant's in their school's "Warrior Idol" today!! They both did awesome! We are so proud of them!

Geckathon -- Josh

Josh was really excited about participating in the Geckathon (his school triathlon) this year! They swim 300 meters, bike 4 miles, and run 2 miles. It was a busy morning! I got Jenna off to choir and pinned up sections of Janelle's hair and applied make-up on both girls for Warrior Idol and then dropped the girls off at the library so that they could walk to school. I had Jared drop Josh off to Sand Hollow so that he would be there on time for the Geckathon. Jared decided to skip his morning class in order to watch him compete. We watched him swim, and he did well! I think swim team last summer really helped!

Then we drove to a couple of stops along the road to watch him bike and then watched him run. They do two big laps around the school. We saw him running and thought it was his first lap and waited and waited for him to come around again. Turns out it was his second lap and he had already finished!! I felt bad that we didn't see him finish! Oh well. He got a good time and even beat Jared's time by about three minutes! His time was 46.32. Way to go Josh!!

Evening of Excellence

I have loved serving in Young Women! I really enjoyed my primary calling, working with the primary children and my awesome presidency, but there was also a lot of administrative stuff to the calling which took a lot of time and wasn't always that enjoyable. YW is also a busy calling, but it is just SO fun! I love being with my girls and their friends. I already know most of the girls quite well since many of them have spent lots of time at our house through the years. We have had some great Young Women's activities and I have really enjoyed going to them! We had a board meeting with all of the YW leaders and one of the items on the agenda was the Evening of Excellence. I had been a bit nervous for this event because in past years they went all out with fancy decorations and treats and so forth and that is so out of my comfort zone! 

One of our presidency members mentioned that years ago instead of having the Evening of Excellence on a Wednesday night, they did a special YW program during Sacrament meeting. She said it was really neat and that way all of the YW would be able to participate (several have conflicts on Wednesday nights) and all of the congregation would be able to watch, instead of just the girls' parents. I really LOVED this idea!  It was also WAY more in my comfort zone!  The rest of the presidency liked the idea too and so we got permission from the Bishop and Stake YW Leaders to do a special sacrament meeting program. My girls teased me saying that since the new YW president and I just came from primary (and had just barely finished the primary program) we missed having a sacrament meeting program and were just dying to do another one, ha ha! So NOT true! The advantages of doing a sacrament meeting program is that it puts the focus back on the girls. It also completely eliminates extravagant decorations, invitations, food -- the whole bit! We are actually saving a lot of money by doing it this way! 

It still took quite a bit of time -- writing the script, making copies, practicing the songs, and so forth. The Miamaids and Laurels were all assigned to give shorts parts or talks and the Young Women prepared four songs. One of the songs, "Ask in Faith," is one they already know from girls' camp last summer (and it is beautiful) and then we had them learn "I Walk By Faith." That is an old song -- I learned it when I was in Young Women! But it is also beautiful and talks about the Young Women's values. The Beehives sang "Learn of Me," (another older song) and the Miamaids sang "If I Listen With My Heart." Both songs included various solos and duets from the girls. We have a lot of great singers in the group and so they sounded awesome! We practiced two weeks during young women's and had separate class practices for their songs. Our final practice was still pretty rough and we wished that we had another week or two to practice. We kept it really simple. It was WAY easier than a primary program, that's for sure! We were nervous because we had never made it all the way through the program and so we had no idea how long it would be. Would it go way over time or would we end really early? 

As it turns out we ended about ten minutes early. But I would rather end a little early then go over. The girls did a great job on their talks and songs and overall we felt like the program went well. The congregation seemed to really enjoy the program also and we received loads of compliments on the program and on the girls' beautiful voices!   

Elf the Musical Jr.

One of my very favorite parts about being a mom is watching my children perform! I am so proud of Josh for participating in his intermediate school play, Elf the Musical Jr!  He was a little on the fence about auditioning, but when I saw him sing, "Just Can't Wait to be King," at his school talent show last spring I knew he just had to do it! Well he did, and landed one of the lead roles -- that of Michael! It was a perfect part for him!

The show was double cast and so when the B cast performed he played the part of an elf in Santa's workshop. He (and the rest of the crew) did such a great job! I loved every minute of it! I am so glad that Mrs. Andrus goes to all of this work to put on such wonderful productions that involve so many kids. It really gives them a chance to learn and grow and shine!

We are grateful that Grandma Jensen was able to come down from Ogden and stay a couple of days and watch Josh's show! We are also grateful that Voy and Donna were able to come with her! It was a busy but fun weekend! Below are a couple of video clips from Josh's two main duets:
I'll Believe in You
There is a Santa Clause

Jared Sadies

Sadies...