A Murder Is Announced

Jaiden is currently playing the part of Dora Bunner (Bunny) in her school play, A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie in the Little Theater. She did a great job! It has been fun to see both her vocal and acting skills develop through the years! This is a "straight play," (not a musical), and although she prefers musicals, she has learned a lot from being involved with the straight play, both last year and this year. The students all had convincing accents in the show and played their parts well. Most of the cast members were also in The SpongeBob Musical, and so it was fun to see them all portray a completely different part in this show. The set was very well done and the costumes were fitting for the time period. The play itself was not one of my favorites, but it was still fun to watch. With this show almost over Jaiden can move on to The Musical Revue. She is really looking forward to being in that, and I am happily anticipating watching it! 

Josh -- Icebox

Today was Josh's last day of work at Icebox! He put in his two weeks notice at the beginning of the month so that he would finish before soccer season started. He figured he would just be too busy with practices and games to continue. Even though he sometimes complained about his job, when I picked him up he said, "I am actually a little bit sad to be leaving -- I think I will miss this!" The job was okay, but the pay was lousy -- only $8.00 an hour. I am sure he can find a higher paying job elsewhere after he turns 16! 

President's Day Weekend

Shane and Adria came down over President's Day weekend for Adria's soccer tournament. It was fun to have them! Thankfully the weather was lovely! I was especially grateful that it wasn't too cold this weekend because our furnace totally quit on us! We had it checked out on Friday because it had been making a loud awful noise the past few days. They told us that it was really old and torn apart and that we would need a new one -- for $2200.00!! So that was a major bummer, but thankfully we have an emergency fund! It is the original furnace since we purchased the house, so it is 33 years old. It is time for a new one! But with it being a weekend they were not able to come replace in until the next Tuesday -- just in time for the dips in temperature!  

Janika and Brandon also came down for the long weekend and so we enjoyed spending time with them also. Shane and Adria went straight to Adria's soccer game at Sullivan on Friday night. They said that the traffic coming down here was horrible and it took them an extra hour to get here, causing them to be ten minutes late for the game. Janika and Brandon were late also. We put Janika and Brandon up in Jenna's room and Shane in the studio and Adria and Jenna on the floor in the basement.

Saturday Janika and Brandon went out to lunch with some friends. The kids pretty much just hung out that day. That night we all had yummy Hawaiian Haystacks and then Jenna, me, Janika, and Brandon went to cheer Adria on at her soccer game at Little Valley. It was at night and so it was chilly!

Sunday we all went to church (Jaiden had been suffering from a bad cold for over a week and woke up with pink eye, so she stayed home). We had a nice meal of hamburgers and hotdogs and then Jaiden taught the Come Follow Me lesson. Shane and Adria and Jenna and I went on a hike on the temple quarry trail. It was so beautiful out! Unfortunately Jenna fell on the way back, hitting her leg really hard on a rock. She lost Jaiden's sunglasses somewhere on the hike and felt really bad about that. Other than that, it was a really nice hike! 

After we got back the gang played some Jackbox games and watched a family movie called Luca (not our typical Sunday kind of activities, but we let it go since we had company.) 

Monday morning Jaiden and I went to Adria's game. I thought it would be cold, since it was at 8:30 a.m., but it was really pleasant. In fact I had to take off my coat because I started getting too warm! This was her fourth game and the only won that their team won. At least they were able to win one of them! After we got back Shane and Adria packed up and headed home. The rest of us were able to join in on Janelle's P-Day call and Janika and Brandon headed home soon after! I just realized that besides this hiking picture (which Shane took) I didn't even get any! That isn't like me! (But I will add a few more from Jenna's daily selfie shoot, ha ha!) It was fun to spend time with family this weekend! 

Valentine's Day

Rick started a tradition years ago where he would wake up early and fix a big breakfast for the whole family on Valentine's Day and write everyone a personal love note. I have loved this tradition, but this might be the last year that we have it -- which is sad! The kids already have to get up early. Jenna gets up at 6:00 a.m. in order to get ready and catch the bus, and Jaiden gets up early for Madrigals. Me and Josh usually sleep in until 7:30. The girls didn't want to get up even earlier than they already do and said that they can't eat that early in the morning anyway. 

With that in mind we switched the early breakfast to Sunday, the day before Valentine's Day. But we still couldn't get everyone up and to the table. So Rick said he wasn't going to do it next year. Boo Hoo! It is difficult losing long-standing traditions. But I actually don't eat breakfast either, so maybe we could switch it to dinner instead next year -- we will see! Anyway, Jaiden went with the Madrigals on Monday to perform singing valentines for people. I don't think the rest of us did anything. Jared brought some roses to "the favorite women in his life" on Sunday and the other roses were probably to Jaiden from Lane. Happy Valentine's Day!! 

I am constantly finding pictures of Jenna on my phone... the queen of selfies and she doesn't even have a cell phone -- and won't for a good while. Heaven help us! 

Josh - Graphics

 Look at these cool pins that Josh made in his graphics class! 

Jenna Region Reflections Winner!!

Jenna (7th grade) wrote a song for Reflections and won on the school level. Then her song went on to win on the council level, and then the Region level!! (She won in the category of music composition for the 6th to 8th grade division.) She has been teaching herself to play the ukulele and loves to compose songs! It is so fun to hear her play and sing! Here is the song (thank you to my sister, Jen, who added it to YouTube!)

 

https://www.utahpta.org/reflections/gallery/32383

Verse One:

When you fall down, and you feel so small,

you feel like you can’t do anything at all

Just rise up, like the morning sun,

don’t let them think that you are done.

You can show them that you’re the one

to change the world.

 

Chorus:

Be yourself so others can see,

be the leader you know you can be.

And then, finally,

you can change the world with a smile

you can go the extra mile

and then there’s hope again.

 

Verse 2:

When you walk down those empty streets

and you wonder why you’re so lonely,

and when you think you can’t do a thing,

just listen to me…

 

Bridge:

It doesn’t matter, just a simple thing

but the love that you bring

will show the light.

It doesn’t matter, just a few small words

To make you heard,

through the loudest noise.

 

Chorus:

Be yourself so others can see,

be the leader you know you can be.

And then, finally,

you can change the world with a smile

you can go the extra mile

and then there’s hope again,

you’ve changed the world! 

Evan: Seven Months Old!!

Janelle requested that I send her pictures of Evan. She said that they had to unfollow everyone from home from Facebook, so I will post the pictures and an update from Ellen's Facebook and send them to her! (When it is on my blog I can just copy and paste all of the pictures together and so it makes it easy!)

Evan has become quite the binkie baby! He rolled from his back to his belly for the first time this month and tried baby food! He loves his mom and dad and all the attention we give him. He doesn’t like being away from mom and dad. Evan also started sleeping through the night! He goes to bed around six and wakes up around seven! We’re super grateful for that with school having just started back up for our last semester of college!