A Few November Happenings...

It's hard to believe Thanksgiving is around the corner with Christmas close behind.

It seems the days fly by at an ever accelerated pace.

Our Young Women leaders did an amazing job of encouraging participation from all the girls at a recent Young Women in Excellence night.

 Brynn (piano), Brinley & Haley (violin) Ashley (flute) performed an arrangement of "Angels We Have Heard On High".

 Though a few weeks away from entering the program, Anna was invited to come and share a talent at the last minute.  With Festival the next weekend, Anna was prepared and played one of her pieces beautifully.  We have some amazing young women in the ward!  Such a variety of projects/talents were shared by the group.

 In years past, the 4th graders presented the Veterans Day Program.  

This year the 3rd graders had the honors.

 Once again, I found myself getting all emotional as the children sang patriotic songs and shared stories from the lives of veterans they knew.  Hands down - the Veteran's Day programs have ranked most significant of the school programs ever attended.

 It was a bonus to have Aaron in town for this one.

G-ma & G-pa M also came to support Elsie.

We bought this mower used from Bob when we moved here over 8 years ago.  It's done the job (for the most part) but it was time to say good-bye.  Not wanting to store the blower attachment another winter (we put a blade on our 4-wheeler to plow the driveway years ago) and knowing the mower itself wasn't worth much, we sold it as a package deal.  Now we have all winter to save up for a new mower or the kids will be using a walk-behind mower next summer.

 This picture is worth a thousand words but I'll save it for another day since Quinn is scheduled for oral surgery next week. 

 I let him pick the dinner menu to help cheer him up. 

 Tater-tot casserole and he insisted on spelling the word LIKE again...

 Random FHE treat using the left-over cake and candies from Jantzen's "Edible Cell" project.

He has had a lot of projects lately - glad this trimester is almost over.

I recently processed another 80 lbs. of chicken.  This time I used quart jars to save on time.  

It's not a favorite task of mine but somebody's got to do it.  We'll see how long this supply will last.

Erica at table & Tanner

We actually ditched out on our ward primary program this year (easier to do now that I'm a Sunday School teacher) and opted to join extended family for dinner Saturday evening at Matt & Whitney's new place were we sang Happy Birthday to Matt. 

 The kids were all about the popcorn machine and candy jars and theatre room set-up.

Whitney & Erica

Breanna, Garrett, Bonnie

It was great to connect on Saturday evening but our main purpose in making the drive to UT was to show our love and support for Breanna as she had her missionary opportunity to speak in church on Sunday, November 15.

Breanna, Jameson, Tanner

 We enjoyed being included in her weekly emails home and reading of her experiences in the mission field.  It was even better to hear her share a few from the pulpit.  She was a 'dream missionary' in Kansas!

Brinley & Breanna

Lillian & Anna

 While the rest of us were eating and talking, these two were busy practicing aerial cartwheels on Lillian's gymnastics mat downstairs.  They worked up a serious sweat!  No shortage of laughter when  these two silly girls get together.

Jantzen's schedule is jam-packed right now.  One word sums it up.

BASKETBALL.

 He finished this pencil drawing of a rhino back in September and recently brought it home from school so we could see it for the first time.  An artist in the making no doubt!

 Another artist in the making...

 Check out the Thanksgiving gear he's been creating.

As if having basketball practice 3x's a week with 3-6 games a week (tournaments on the weekends) isn't enough, I was shocked to receive an email informing me of a parent/player meeting with Jantzen's new soccer coach for the spring travel team.  In the past we have been able to navigate the two sports with minimal problems.  Check out the spiral bound book of information the coach gave us at the meeting!  As a former collegiate player of an Olympic development team and a resume to go along with it, this new coach loves soccer!  He is already holding non-required practice (which I explained Jantzen would not be able to attend).  I found no comfort in his follow-up email informing me that formal practices won't start until January 5.  Hmmm, we're still doing basketball until March (snow on the ground and all).  We shall see...

 Quinn's first recital.

I played the duet with him for "Mary Had A Little Lamb".

 Banner moment for this little guy.

Following the recital, we attended Brinley's high school orchestra concert.

With Aaron out of town all week and multiple events every night, the past seven days are a blur.

So grateful Jantzen had a ride to the Scout pow-wow happening at the same time...

Elsie with piano teacher, Annie S.

 And because I like to complicate things, we currently have four children taking piano lessons from three different teachers.  Story for another day.  Needless to say, Elsie played in her first piano recital (since Let's Play Music program) on Friday evening prior to me rushing to pick-up Aaron from the airport.  He was super bummed about missing so much but looking at the bright side of it all, he was able to give away a copy of The Book of Mormon and he's done traveling for the year 2015.

 Bright and early on Saturday morning, Anna and Elsie played at the semi-annual piano Festival at the college.  This was Elsie's first time and Jantzen's 12th time.  He played on the alternative evening (after the soccer meeting Wed.) due to the unknown schedule of a potentially conflicting basketball tournament.  Following Festival, Anna played well in her own game and scored several baskets.

I love how Quinn comes up with random costumes.  

He dressed up like an elf all day.

Life is good.