Brooke (Orchestra Spring Tour 2013)

Brooke had fun on her first ever Orchestra Spring Tour, the first of many to come for this talented violinist. (Among all the pictures you'll see, Brooke is the only freshman. She's one of four freshman in her Sinfonia orchestra.)

What was fun for me (since I didn't get to go this year) is seeing her in her element with all of her friends. A girl in our ward once said to me (at one of Brooke's track meets) that everyone likes Brooke.

So this is Brooke's day to be "blogged." Enjoy!

This is one of Brooke's new best friends, her name is Brooklyn Law and affectionately known to me as Brookie Lou Lou.

The girls in their concert gear.

Windy day in CA! Brooklyn and Tenery's niece, Lindsay Mask.

Brooke and new friend Kylie Brady.

More cute girls!

And some cute boys!

Brooklyn and Charlee Merrill.

The gang.

Not sure who this cute boy is but Brooke found someone taller than her!

Bailey Christensen.

She had a great time!

I Love to See the Temple

We are excited about the temple being built only five miles from our house! We see the Gilbert Arizona Temple on our way to soccer each week and it has been so fun to see the progress being made on it.

This picture was taken when our Stake Presidency asked each family in the stake to take a picture before groundbreaking and then evaluate where we were when the temple is finally dedicated (thanks Kym for the picture!).

Here is our family at the temple groundbreaking:

During Ward Conferences, each of the youth and primary were asked to take a rock and write how they were going to build themselves as the temple was built. My good friend Becky Mousser was blessed to be able to see these rocks placed in the foundation of the temple right where the baptismal font will be placed. Our children will be a part of the Gilbert Temple forever! Just a neat blessing to be able to do that.

Andie's rock.

Brooke's rock.

Haley's rock. (Rylee was at BYU, sorry Ry!)

Here they are placed in the foundation of the temple. So, so neat!

Here we are watching Moroni being placed atop the temple:

These pictures were taken as part of a Young Women/Activity day activity:

Where Brooke and Andie are standing now is where our family stood to take pictures up above. Lots of progress!

We love to see the temple! And we love to see it being built!

You can also find a picture of our amazing primary with our hard hats on in the April 2013 issue of The Friend (page 6). We have been focusing on building ourselves as we watch the building of the temple.

We are so lucky!

Rylee

Yesterday we drove to Andie's soccer game with some friends. On the way, my friend was asking me how Rylee and Haley were doing at BYU. I told her about Haley and her experiences there (see former post, this is not about Haley : ) ).

I told her how Rylee plays the violin, the piano, the organ and can sing her little heart out. I told her how Rylee could listen to or pick up a piece of music and play it instantly.

I told her her how we were driving up to Utah in the next week and a half to attend Rylee's last BYU choir concert, something that makes not only Rylee sad but me as well. And how the day after that, we were attending the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference to hear Rylee sing there. Wow! What an honor!

Rylee has been attending BYU for four years and I am so proud of her and all of her accomplishments. She remains busy with school, work, choir (as well serving as section leader) and serving in her Relief Society Presidency.

I am grateful that she is taking good care of her little (age-wise mind you) sister and that they enjoy doing things together like attending devotionals and going to dinner.

I am grateful for how much Rylee loves the scriptures. I'm amazed when I try to teach something from the scriptures how she is so wise and knowledgeable about them herself.

I am grateful for the happy voice I hear on the other end of the line almost every day she walks home from school.

I never have to worry that Rylee, when she is trying to solve a problem or figure out what her next step is in life, prays and receives answers to her prayers.

I love her smile and her wit and her writing! I love this picture of her (Andie doesn't look thrilled) but this is how I picture Rylee whenever I think of her.

But see the entry for March 21st (below) for one of my most favorite pictures of her, I love her excitement!
She's just real cute!!

Love Notes

After several hours and days of weeding, it's finally done...until next week of course when more will pop up in their place. And even though the date of this post is today, Sunday, this all took place yesterday of course!

Steve was busy emptying our swimming pool and getting it summer ready.

That didn't stop Andie, however, from taking  a quick swim (still a bit too cold!) I had to send this picture to Kym because she had just sent me a picture of Colorado with the caption, "Let it snow!" I couldn't resist.

Yesterday after a rough game of soccer for Andie (she was knocked down several times) we returned home to eat our "buy one get one free" from Chipotle for all soccer players who wore their jerseys into the restaurant. Andie looked a little worse for the wear but gathered the strength to get her free meal!

When I finally made it upstairs for the night (weeding takes a lot out of you!) I saw these love notes on all of our beds (except for Rylee and Haley's which will need to be mailed):

Each of our girls, over the years, have left notes like this for Steve and me and each other. I am grateful for girls who are considerate and who really do love each other and their parents.

Tomorrow's post: Rylee!

Haley

So Haley is giving me grief on FB about not loving her enough (Rylee is too but she'll have to wait, heck she's waited four years, a couple of days shouldn't hurt).

So Haley is excelling, thriving, living the good life and all in all enjoying BYU to its fullest. She's also learning how to use her feminine wiles to flirt with boys...

Tomorrow night, as a matter of fact, at the invitation of a cute soccer boy, she and her friends are attending the opening game for BYU Men's Soccer team. (Did the cute boy ever drop off the extra ticket?)

Haley has had an amazing experience thus far her freshman year attending BYU. And most notably this has been in the form of a great roommate, Lexie.

Haley has been blessed to have an amazing freshman experience in part due to this cute girl who I will get to meet in a few weeks when we head up to Utah to watch Rylee's last Women's Chorus concert AND sing in General Conference. These pictures, by the way, are of Lexie opening her mission call to which she invited Haley.

I am grateful for good friends for all of my children from pre-school (Julie Bloomfield) to elementary school (Taylor Keck), to junior high (All girls from 1st Grade) and high school (Tenery Martineau-Campbell) and beyond!

I am thankful for Haley and her ability to make friends quickly and easily. I am SO proud of the young woman she is becoming and so impressed with her first semester at BYU and how hard she is working!

So Haley rest assured, I love you as much (or almost as much) as I love Brooke! Love you!

Our Little Plot of Land

First of all, I was going through pictures and found this:

How can a teeny bopper 15-year-old be taller than her mother?As Andie would say, "Uh huh, that's right girlfriend." Wow, she's tall!

Okay, on to my little plot of land here upon this earth. For the past week or so I have been setting a timer for one hour a day to rid our lovely yard of weeds.

Growing up this was just part of our summer routine when spending the summer with our dad in Arizona. Frequently in the morning we would hear, "Girls get up, put your suits on and go out and weed." Sigh. Didn't love it so much then.

But now that it's my own yard, well that's another story. Steve will arm the girls with a bottle of Round Up and let 'em at the weeds, spraying to their heart's content. But having spent my years pulling the darn things out of the ground and hearing, with satisfaction, roots being yanked from their moorings (you know the sound I'm talking about) I feel that Round Up just doesn't cut it. Who wants dead carcass weed guts lying all around?

It look and feels so much better to have my yard go from this:

To this:

And this:

And this:

 And this:

(I've just been real busy.)

And this is where I'll be sitting for an hour to relax from the hour I spent weeding:

Now last Saturday Brooke and Andie did help for an hour before Andie's big soccer game where she played like a pro!

I should have her weed more often before games!

I am so thankful for my little plot of land on this earth. It's a place of many happy memories for our family. And I must say, it's nice sitting here typing on my computer and looking out my office window and seeing...no weeds!

Family History

I am sitting here doing bills (not fun) getting ready to drop my taxes off to our accountant (really not fun) and listening to a Roots Tech Family History conference online as it streams live from Utah.

And so, I begin...again...to attempt to keep track of the "everyday events,"mostly because I love my family and want to share with them what I remember (which seems to be diminishing daily).

We watched the end of Jeopardy! which got Andie totally hooked. Her dad is thrilled! After which we saw a PBS special about a very smart computer trained to play on Jeopardy! Andie was hooked again. Now we have to set the time to watch Jeopardy each night, that is of course, after watching I Love Lucy reruns! At this point Andie pointed out that she wanted to learn as much as she can. I had to remind my I-don't-love-school 11-year-old that that's why she goes to school. She knew the minute she opened her mouth to say that about learning what my response would be. Smart girl!

Brooke is off to California for her very first ever Orchestra Spring Tour. It's two days of performing and clinics followed by the ever so exciting day at Disneyland. I remember going with Rylee her senior year on her Spring Tour. I look forward to attending with Brooke while she's in high school. Did I mention I'm glad to be back in the whole orchestra/choir thing again? Yeah!!

Haley calls each day (as did Rylee) as she walks home from school. This is a nice time for us to chat about how well she is doing at BYU and how much she loves it. She's doing very well in school and loving the social life!

I am grateful for each of my girls, they are the jewels in my crown. Sounds corny but that's how I feel about each one of them. I'm so grateful to be their mom.

Today after my institute class one of Brooke's Young Women leaders pulled me aside and told me of an experience she had with Brooke just a few weeks ago. Several girls were asked to read or tell a story about the Atonement in their Sunday lesson. She said Brooke got up to read her part and couldn't get through it, that she was very emotional and had to stop several times. She said she felt the spirit so strongly and she could tell Brooke had an understanding of the Atonement. It is stories like these that make me grateful to not only be a mom but a mom to four amazing people.

This picture just makes me smile each and every time it pops up on my computer. I love it. I love them. Aren't they cute?!?!!!