In the Heights…

Koko participated in her first HIllcrest stage production…and it was awesome!! Great music, amazing talent, and a cool story. If you’ve never seen a Hillcrest musical, you’re missing out, I’m telling you!! She was in the ensemble, she did most of her acting/dancing/singing in the aisles so we tried to sit by where she performed. I’m so proud of this cute girl! 

Parenting win:

I came downstairs to Emma’s Christmas Wish List and was quite impressed with what I found!

Way to go kiddo, I love you!

Good friends rock!

We love Kyler…he’s moving soon and we’re sad. He’s been a great friend to Colin, he’s a great kid!

His little sister, Ellie is Annie’s buddy…cutie!

Colin and Annie are buddies, especially when we went to see his 5th grade play. 

Jared’s been around since Kindergarten and these boys are more like brothers!

And of course, the best friends of all….brothers and sisters!!

Talent and preparedness.

Our neighbors had us over for dinner and Beau’s favorite part was holding their birds, he’s so proud of himself!

Our Halloween candy lasts longer when it’s vacuum-sealed…

Koko dropped her Kindle and broke the screen. I ordered a new screen online for $13 and totally fixed it myself. It would have been even more awesome if the touch screen still worked after I replaced the screen…

Koko’s in the Hillcrest musical “In the Heights”, a latin-inspired hip-hop musical…

Beau is a budding artist: “I like my dad, he is a big helper, I love mom, I love dad!)

“I want to be a scientist to make stuff”…I like my dad, happy thanksgiving to you dad.

I decided to cook all the pumpkins we bought this year. It was a good idea at the time, but after the 8th batch of pumpkin muffins, I put the rest in the freezer.

Being this talented and prepared is tough work!

Personal Progress: Mission Accomplished!

This beautiful, intelligent, righteous, pure daughter of God earned her Young Women’s medallion today!!

She worked so hard to accomplish all of her goals and she did it!!  This is the coolest piece of jewelry she owns now, and she totally deserves it. We’re so proud of her and want to recognize her BIG DAY, November 9, 2014!

Added bonus: we had a fireside tonight with Larry Gelwix (the movie “Forever Strong” is based on his experiences). It was a lovely evening to a lovely day!

End of Season Banquet

Well, the season is over. The boys played well and ended 6-3. This was a huge team, a lot of heart, and a smokin’ hot head coach!

Joe’s sponsor (thanks David!!) provided the food for our closing banquet, which was a very nice thing for the team. We set up, brought the food in, arranged the trophies, the sweatshirts and shorts, and hung our banner. It was such a fun banquet!

I made a video of the season for the boys to watch…it was fun to watch them watching the video. They had such a fun year! Joe served on the Board as well as Head coach this year, so he may take next year off (especially considering some changes at work), it was hard to say goodbye. Jared is moving, we will miss his family terribly, change is hard.

Jessica made candy leis for all the boys (no small task!) and coaches. She is so great!

The boys came up one at a time to get their trophies and awards and Joe talked about each one of them, it was very, very cool and personal.

He awarded MVP trophies to our MVP players, they were so excited!

Look at this group! Huskies on 3…1,2,3 HUSKIES!!

All In, even after the party’s over…

Joe, Joe, Joe.

Let me say a little something about Joe. First of all, he will hate this post because he is very modest and does NOT like to toot his own horn. But I can toot away, so here’s a glimpse…

He constantly goes about doing good, very quietly, very secretly. He does things that need to be done and is constantly serving both of our families (you have a few hours? I’ll give you details of what he does.) He serves the community, he serves the church and members, he serves at work. He visits family, he helps fix things around the house, he moves stuff, he pays for stuff, he constantly amazes me with his generosity. And the best part? He doesn’t tell anyone about it because that’s not why he does any of it.

But while he’s serving away, he’s building and nurturing relationships (that’s his personal reward) and has developed close bonds with members of both sides of the family, and lots of people in the community. He is a good example to me.

He coaches, he works with the youth at church, and he takes time to do fun things (like taking the boys out for a burger after they helped with a clothing drive, he’s so cool!). The kids look up to him, his team adores him, and he even got a sponsor that bought each kid on his team a sweatshirt and shorts that say “ALL IN”, their team motto.

I really, really love this man!!

  

The world would surely be a better, kinder, more loving place if more people were like Joe. And that’s the truth.

Fall colors! Winter snow!

I love Utah,  I love this time of year where everything is pretty and brisk and changing. Our view of the mountains is breathtaking as it changes each season…see?!