Family Christmas Activity!

Picture Post Continued!

Here are the videos I wanted to put on the other post.

This is an activity from "Tell me A Tale" during one of my summer Kindermusik camps.

This is an ensemble activity performed by my Young Child 1 class.  

Daenon made the Travis High School JV swim team.  He is in lane 2.  He keeps a busy schedule.  He's up at 5:30 for early morning seminary, then he has school.  After school he has swimming practice then some time for homework.  Some how he still finds time for the computer.  He's usually in bed at 9pm. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the other videos from the Summer Youth Performance to load. :(

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!

I hope that's true.  I haven't had time to blog since June.  These pictures and videos with a few explanations should let you know just what we've been busy doing!  Sorry they are out of order.  I'm running out of time to format everything.

We were able to catch a few of Shalayne's games this fall.  She had several great goals and assists.
She is really enjoying playing for UVU.  

Dover completed his Eagle project and earned his Eagle just before turning 18!.  Yeah Dover!  Picture of Auna playing soccer.  She was at the top of her game before tearing her ACL mid season.  Click HERE for a nice article about Auna.

Dover announcing "How Can I Be" at the Summer Youth Performance.  The production was written and directed by Mindy and titled, "The Expected and the Unexpected, A Musical Review....... of sorts."  It had a lot of traditional musical type numbers and some very funny and unexpected skits. 

Okay, it looks like this post is starting to get too big for the server so I'll put captions on these pictures and then upload more videos in individual posts!

Daenon and I were invited to go with some friends to the opening of the final Harry Potter movie.  He made his wand.  Look at the detail. 

The first of August Kylee and Ryan moved to Texas.  They are staying with us until they finish renovating the home they purchased.  To find out more about Kylee and Ryan go to Kylee's blog by clicking HERE.  This is picture of Kylee with Bella and Andrew.  We watched Greg's children while he and Natalie were able to enjoy a cruise.  We had sooooo much fun with them. 

This is Dover 24 hours after getting his wisdom teeth removed.  Two days later he was wake boarding with the dentist that removed his teeth.  (The dentist happens to be my brother Greg.) 

Dover celebrated his 18th birthday in Utah.  This is  a picture from his party.
Two days later he got his wisdom teeth removed. 

While Greg and his family were here we visited the Houston  Butterfly exhibit.  I highly recommend  it.  I would say it was one of my life favorite activities.  I'm not sure what that says about my life. At the end of the exhibit you can buy bugs to eat.  Greg and his family had a feast!  I wasn't adventurous enough to try the "treats". 

After 3 and half nearly injury free seasons Auna tore her ACL.  I spent a week in Utah literally helping her get back on her feet.  She got so many gifts, phone calls, and texts.  The show of love and support was overwhelming.

Brandon not enjoying his 47th birthday.  When Brandon see's the picture in this post lets hope I live to my next birthday!

Family Picture Preview!

One of the things we did in Utah was take family pictures.  You can see more pictures on our photographer's blog: http://heatherlorraine.blogspot.com/.  We are so grateful for the wonderful pictures Heather takes.  If you're ever in Utah and need pictures call her!  Her photography website is:  http://heatherlorraine.com.

June!

We put over 5500 miles on the car this month.   On June 7th we left for a Janis family reunion, really an extended family trip, to Nauvoo. Brandon, Daenon and myself drove to Nauvoo.  Dover met us there.  He drove from Utah with his cousin Derek.  Nauvoo was a wonderful time of reflection on the sacrifice of the early members of the church and how the Lord works through imperfect people to accomplish great things.  Then Brandon, Dover, Daenon and I traveled to Thermopolis, Wyoming and had our own mini two day vacation.  We did some hiking, soaked in the natural hotpots, and did some river rafting.  Then we drove to Cody to see Grandpa and Grandma Dover on their church history mission.  The rest of the family joined us in Cody and we spent 3 fun days learning about the Old West, the role of the Mormon Pioneers in the settling of the West, our Dover family history, playing games, taking pictures, celebrating father's day and my birthday.  It was special to me to see my Dover Grandparent's grave.  It was extra fun because Greg and Natalie and their family joined us in Cody, we were glad that Brescia was there also.  Next we spent a day in Evanston with Greg's family and having him take care of our teeth.  Then we spent a couple of days in Utah County ending with family pictures on Thursday.  Our cousin Heather is our photographer and you can see she's excellent.  Anyone needing pictures?  I highly recommend her.  On Friday June 24th we started our drive back to Texas.  We spent a night in Arizona with Gerron & Kim and dropped Daenon off at scout camp on the last leg of our drive home.  It was wonderful to get home and see that everything was in order.  The grass was green and not in too much need of a mowing and the garden survived.  Daenon got home from scout camp on Saturday and had a wonderful time.  He did his scuba diving certification while at camp.  The troup had a wonderful missionary experience at camp and Daenon really enjoyed it, but he was glad to be home and to get back to his computer.

Joseph and Emma danced on this wood floor!

Dover and his shadow

Family block at the Buffalo Bill Dam

Enjoying Chia-all the children loved her!

Pioneer game!  It was a hit!  We enjoyed it so much that  we created our own sticks and played the game in Cody.
Kylee and Ryan are taking the game on Trek with them this week.  

Excuse for lack of Posts!

This is the reason for not having time to blog,  my additional church calling, Stake Summer Youth Performance Director.  If want to know what I'm up to visit the SYP website at: http://richmondstakemusical.com.

Life!

I haven’t posted for a while largely due to an ongoing battle with a nasty case of viral bronchitis.  I think I’m almost better.  Working with over 200 children a week exposes me to a lot of illness and unfortunately I seem to catch some it.  We were lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Dover join us for a week.  We took Mom and Dad to San Antonio, Mom joined me for some of my classes and Dad, Brandon and Daenon got some work done in the yard.  Daenon has moved 5 yards of sand from the driveway to the back yard.  It took him 3 weeks but it is now DONE! We’ve planted a 16’ by 4’ garden, 11 black berry bushes, and 8 blue berry bushes.  We’re still learning this gardening in a bag system but we’re optimistic!  I was just called to direct our stake Youth Musical Program.  Three and a half months isn’t a long time to pull it off, especially considering that we’ll be gone most of June.  I’m planning on doing a musical review of sorts.  The “of sorts” comes from some of the fun numbers we’ll be adding like, Grecian Fountains, The King, The Queen, and The Gate, and of course I need a man.  We miss all our family that isn’t here in Texas with us.  

Shalayne with Caleb's family

Caleb asked Shalayne to get a picture of his family and her at the Provo Temple. Caleb is doing really well on his mission.

Things to be THANKFUL for!

Beautiful wild flowers growing in our grass.  

Yummy Sushi Sunday night dinner!

Events

Two Friday's ago I we had our first Sunday School Party!  I've been promising Daenon that we'd hold a Sunday School party once we moved into the house and got out of our boxes.  The kids had a wonderful time.  The biggest hit was the stretch tub.  For those who haven't played in it, it's a big stretching lycra elastic type tube.  Four people stand in the tube stretching it to form a square, then one pair runs at each other trades places, as they hit the tube they launch the other two people,  this cycle continues until the speed is too high and someone falls.  It has to be done carefully.    On Facebook the kids said it was the BOMB!  So I guess that means everyone had a great time!

Sunday School Party!

Dover had a big week in Utah.  He won first place at the state DECA competition and gets to take his project to nationals.  High school soccer has started for him and he's excited to be a BRUIN again.  He's getting his touch back and has a good chance at starting varsity.  He's working hard and having the high school experience he's dreamed of.  We are really grateful to the Olafsson's for letting him live with them, it makes it possible for him to live his dreams.  It touches my heart that they are willing to open their home and hearts to him, giving him something that Brandon and I can't.  We miss him but are grateful that he is happy and doing well.

Progress!

Just a few more pictures of the house.  We are getting organized.  Thanks Melody and Kylee for helping me get my blog looking right again!

Help!

My titles have disappeared.  I went to settings, formatting, show title field and my title field is on.  If anyone has any other ideas as to why my titles have disappeared I'd be most grateful for the help!  The titles flash on and then they disappear. 

Home!

Daenon's room, connects to the hall bathroom

Family Room

Kitchen

Dinning room

Garage

Down stairs half bath

Master bedroom

Master bathroom

Upstairs game room, it will be the Kindermusik room

Office

Extra bedroom

Upstairs bathroom, connects to the hall and Daenon's room

We finally closed and moved into our new home.  It's about 10 years old but is new to us. It has new paint, and carpet.  There is tile all throughout the kitchen, dinning room and family room. There are a few things that need to be fixed and lots that needs to be organized.  We are enjoying have more space!  It looks a lot better than the pictures.  Stuff is still everywhere but it's a lot better than it was on Wednesday.  We really like the house and feel very blessed to have a home again.