The Open House

I had an Open House today since its Jack and Steph's last Sunday before their move to Seattle and we had Jess and Jason's families in town. It was so much fun! Old friends and family came and brought some great treats! I loved having almost everyone together! We missed the Kendalls! Of course I'll be seeing them Thursday!! We have such great friends and a wonderful family!!
The Dans (from the famous Double Dan Duet) talking to a neighbor.

Stacie and Daniella. Nich, Jack and CJ talk and laugh. These 3 guys swam together from the time they were about 10 years old to 18 years old.

Braden admiring the great treats! Laura out saying hi to her grandkids. Erika and Dex All the Quincy boys. Some of the Quincy girls. 2 Quincys and 2 Learys. These 4 cousins had a great time growing up together. It was really fun to see them all together for the first time in years. Sophie loves the rocking horse I got for Christmas. She has a new name for it every few hours. Dex didn't love the rocking horse. He wouldn't approach it for his grandpa, but eventually his grandma got him to at least pet it.

Cousins playing together

Tessa hugging Sydney. Sophie showing Dex how tame the rocking horse is. Sydney playing with Elliott. For Richard's upcoming birthday and Father's Day the kids and I went in together to get him an ITouch. I wanted him to have it for his drive to Seattle on Thursday and since most of the kids were here we gave it to him early. He's pretty into getting apps on it! Jess showing Sydney and Tessa the picture she took of them. Grandma Jones got this dress at a yard sale. Sophie wanted to wear it all the time! She took her nap in it. She loves dressing up and being a princess, even if its a Mrs. Santa Claus princess. Steph playing with Tessa.

Double Wedding Shower

We hurried back from Wheeler Farm to get ready for a double wedding shower. My niece Allie and her brother Cameron are both getting married this summer, so we had a double shower for them. Here's some of the cutest babies ever gathered for the fun.

Alex, Cameron's fiance with Jessica and Amanda Allie and her fiance's sister and a friend. It was extra fun having the shower while the Nicole, Jessica and their girls were in town!

A Trip to Wheeler Farm

Here I go with the last pictures first again! Oh well, here's Sydney and Elliott and their mom and dad.

Josh trying to keep the sun off of Elliott. Josh, Meg and Elliott.

The black shirts and jeans trio. Jonathan just needs a camera on his shoulder and shades, eh?

Jason and the stair climbers; Sydney, Tessa and Sophie. Sophie and Tessa posing in front of the cows. Cowgirl Sydney. Sharing our goose and duck food. Elliott chillin'.

The dads watching the feeding of the geese. I was a perfect day for the farm! Some clouds, but warm and beautiful! Thanks for getting up early enough to meet there at 9:00 am everyone. It was fun!

Let Me Fly

Last song of the last performance of the year at Libby Gardner Hall.

Jane Lily Kendall

Jenny and James' darling girl was born this morning! Everything went very well and Jen sounded great when I talked to her. I had to steal these pictures from their blog. Jane was 7 pounds and 7 ounces, 19 inches long and has lots of dark hair. Her cheeks look so very kissable that I can hardly wait until next week to get to kiss them!

Congrats to the happy couple! They look great! Not like they were up all night! It couldn't happen to a better pair of parents!

Ten talents

I just want to brag about my youngest son, Jonathan. Last Sunday I gave a FHE lesson on talents. We talked about discovering new talents and sharing old ones. May I just say that Jonathan totally lives that parable of the wise steward. Since that lesson he had to do lots of last minute projects at school; a speech and "creative" presentation in English, a history report, and a math presentation. He had his last choir concert at Bingham on Monday night in which he sang with the acapella choir in one number and accompanied the combined choirs singing the finale (see last week's posts). He participated in the chalk the walk art project on Thursday and came home with big plans to spend the week-end working on his school projects. He'd had 6:30 am practices with his new Madrigal group from Wednesday through Monday.

Friday afternoon the ward music leader called and asked him to play at a funeral on Monday. The family requested "There is a Green Hill Far Away". So we spent a couple of hours Friday looking for a piano solo of that hymn. After checking all the stores we discovered that the only version is in a $35 book at Deseret Book. Unwilling to pay that, for one song, we started calling neighbors and discovered that our wonderful neighbor, Val had that book. So he spent the evening practicing the song, meeting with his group for his English assignment and was up until 1:00 am drawing an amazing picture of Edgar Allen Poe for his English presentation.

Before 5:00 am Saturday, we heard a tapping on his window (interesting, since we'd just been reading and listening to "The Raven") It was the last year Madrigals coming to wake him up for breakfast to begin his Madrigal year. He came home from that, worked on his song for the funeral, and his speech for English. He also managed to mow the 6 inch long back lawn.

Then they asked him to play the opening and closing songs at the funeral, so on Sunday he made it over and practiced the organ. (He went to an organ workshop the stake put on, but had never played it for anything). He's also the ward choir accompanist, but we had no practice that week.

Yesterday he went to school (fasting for a boy having surgery that day) gave his speech in English, checked out and played at the funeral and did an amazing job on both his solo and his organ accompaniment (not an easy opening song; "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"). He made it to school to take a test he'd missed during Chalk the Walk the week before after school and then came home to relax until he headed to school for the Madrigal Review performance. So he's almost done for the year. The last last acapella concert is at the Libby Gardner Hall at 7:00 pm on Thursday. He loves music and is so sweet about playing the piano for so many people and programs. His 10 talents seem to be multiplying quickly!

Bingham Hymn sung by the new and old Madrigals

Bingham's Acapella Choir sings "A Singing Heart"

Jonathan is hard to see. He's on the front row and Mrs. Gates is in hiding him most of the time, but if you look under her arms you'll see him some of the time. Alex Cieslak sings the solo at the end. They have one more performance at Libby Gardner Hall next Thursday.

Jonathan accompanies the combined choirs singing "Until We Meet Again"

Talking and laughing at mom

I love seeing Elliott with her mom. She likes me, but she adores her mom.

Catching up...

Jack came and brought these beautiful flowers the day after Mother's Day. I also got to talk to all of my kids and got some very nice gifts. Jack got to have some one on one time with Elliott. She turned 4 months old! She can now grab her toys and roll over. She had really strong stomach muscles and can do the yoga bow pose better than I can. I left Elliott with Jack babysitting to try to get my van's emission mess figured out. She slept the whole time! Dang it! I put all the pictures in reverse chronological order again! I think I must have a form of electronic dyslexia.
Here's my cute mom doing what she does best: passing around her cookie jar! She has a perpetually full cookie jar and a smile that is not usually scarry like this one. Here's the new graduate, Caitlyn ready to sample the cookies. Grandpa and I playing chicken. Looks like I won! Some Learys were at Grandma's with us. Notice Linda's cute new 'do? Seth took a job in Kamas. They would love for you to buy their house so they can move there! Meg got this shot of me sitting on Jonathan's lap after dinner. There should be pictures inserted here of our trip to St. George to visit Richard's mom. I left the camera and my toothbrush home. I was a little hurried getting out the door after getting to the temple later than planned that morning. Believe me when I say that Richard did a bunch of nice things for his mom while we were there. I had to get this picture of Ellie in this cute outfit she had on last week. She was inbetween smiles.

Here's Jack and Steph. They came for a late birthday dinner for Jack since they'd been in Seattle finding an apartment the week before. Jack's last cake with one box of candles on it! I had to include this picture of the party animal Joni studying for a final at the birthday celebration. I love that she's wearing the Peruvian sweater I bought in Chile on my mission 33 years ago. Josh and Meg eating cake. This is how Elliott parties! This is the video I took of Elliott rolling over. Which was my favorite part of Mother's Day.