Candlelight - The Maccabeats - Hanukkah

Holiday Homework

I've been working as a Music Educator at a Montessori school in Houston called Smaller Scholars.  Each Fall semester they put on a big winter show.  I wrote the show this year and put in a lot of fun broadway numbers and other fun numbers.  The show was called Holiday Homework, it was a hit with the children and their parents.  Numbers I wove into the show included:  Hard Knock Life, Seize the Day, Book Report, Surf'n Santa and several fun children's choral numbers. I felt a great sense of accomplishment and relief when the show was over.  Brandon and the the boys were really impressed they had no idea how big of a project I'd undertaken.

Sorrow

After sharing the exciting news with us the she was pregnant, at Kylee's doctors appointment today she learned the baby she was carrying had died.  She and Ryan sent the family this sweet email:

Hello Family!

Well, I guess we jumped the gun a little bit sharing our exciting news at Thanksgiving. Our routine doctors appointment today did not give us information about the healthy baby we were hoping for, no heart beat.

We are feeling optimistic and blessed to have a little trial to learn from together and some empathy to gain.

Sorry to spread the burden... We are really doing great and we just didn't want to create any awkward situations by not letting you know.

Thanks for all your wonderful examples and love!

Kylee & Ryan  

How our hearts hurt but how grateful we are for the gifts of the spirit and the love of family at moments like these.  

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a great weekend, celebrated by family get togethers in both Utah and Texas.  The girls were in Utah and the rest of us in Texas.  The Janis women in Utah created a spontaneous arrangement of For the Beauty of the Earth. Wish I could have been there to watch the process. I'm grateful that I could see the performance online.  Brandon and I both spoke in church on Sunday and I directed the choir for the first time.  I felt Heavenly Father's pleasure as we performed.  I will learn from being choir director and may even find it to be a well disguised blessing.

Thanksgiving Music Making in Utah

The Last Few Weeks

We haven't been up to too much lately.  Last Friday we installed Damon and Tiffany's garden.  We'll be sharing it with them until we have one of our own.  This Saturday Tiffany and I got it planted.  Last Saturday Brandon and I went up to Dallas to watch Sarah and Laura in Annie Jr.  It was fun to see them living their dreams,  pictured with them is Esther.  This weekend Brandon and Daenon went on a scout camp out.  Like father like son, you can see them rolling their eyes at me for making them get their pictures taken.  I've been very busy with work.  Working a solid part time job has definitely changed the tempo of my life.  At least I like the work. Daenon has been a big help and now takes care of most of the cooking and kitchen clean up.  His mission companions will be lucky! Daenon was a boom box for Halloween.  He even made it so he could really play music.  He enjoyed our ward Halloween party.  He loves our ward.  Sundays are his favorite day of the week and this from the three-year-old who called church the "dumb, stinky, ugly place".   BYU won the Mountain West Conference soccer championships.  The tournament was in San Diego. Auna played well.  They beat New Mexico in the final.  New Mexico was their only conference loss so it was vindi cating.  The NCAA tournament begins on Thursday.  The link to the BYU women's soccer page is:  http://www.byucougars.com/soccer_w/ .  Ron is giving a presentation at a medical conference in Denver and will be gone until Tuesday evening, it's possible that BYU will leave for the NCAA tournament on Tuesday, that means Auna and Ron will end up spending a week and a half apart.  Poor newly weds! Ron was able to fly down and surprise Auna by watching BYU's Thursday game.

Remember the Alamo!

To escape the two bedroom apartment blues, on Friday, we took a mini-trip to visit the Alamo in San Antonio. We started our trip with an IMAX film about the battle at the Alamo called the Price of Freedom, and then we visited the actual Alamo. I could have spent a lot longer reading and looking at the old artifacts. After visiting the Alamo we went to the River Walk. What a discovery! The River Walk is built one story below the main street level and reminds me of the river lined streets of Europe. The walk is lined with lush landscapes, waterfalls, and quiet pools, the follow the San Antonio River as it winds through the city. Quaint shops and restaurants line the river walkway. Thanks to Dover’s 50% employee discount at Landry’s we were able to enjoy a great dinner at Salt Grass Steak House on their outdoor patio overlooking the River Walk. I can’t imagine a more perfect experience. We enjoyed feeding bread crumbs to some beautiful birds while we waited for our main course. It was an absolutely beautiful and peaceful setting. While eating we talked about what the price of freedom is. I think the general consensus was that the price is self control. After eating we made a fast trip to the Tower Over the Americas. It’s a tower 750 feet high. The wind at the top is intense as you can see from the pictures! We were able to get a quick view of San Antonio from the sky and enjoy a 4-D theater ride called Skies over Texas. The high light of the show was being spit on and poked by a bull; the snake wasn’t too bad either. Then we rushed home to get Dover back to work by 5:30. We highly recommend a trip to San Antonio.