February 2010

February sure went by fast! The January snows all melted and we are finally starting to have some warmer days mixed in with the colder ones – hooray for the coming of Spring! :)

We started the month with a trip to the Olympic Oval in Salt Lake that was built for the 2002 Winter Olympics to go ice skating. It was fun skating around the outside rink while watching hockey games and figure skaters practice on the inside rinks. Seth wasn’t a huge fan of ice skating, but had fun anyway. Megan, Devin and Autumn all loved it!

Seth continued to play basketball and keep us all updated on the BYU basketball team as well. He and Bryce went to a BYU game together and had a great time cheering on the Cougars. Seth loves all things BYU, especially BYU sports. He also earned his Bear award in Cub Scouts, and performed in the 4th grade music concert, where he volunteered for 3 speaking parts. He was so funny because he was so excited for the concert and then wouldn’t look at me or smile at all the entire time. After it was over he said he had so much fun, but you wouldn’t have known it by looking at him for sure! :)

Devin joined the Jr. High track team and is enjoying practices after school. He has decided that he is definitely more of a distance runner than a sprinter and plans on running the 400, 800 and mile races when track meets start this Spring. He also went on a scout “campout” to the YM President’s cabin. They had a great time snowshoeing in to the cabin and roughing it overnight!

Autumn has been busy getting ready for her Spring Dance competitions – she has her first one in a couple of weeks. She loves dancing and rarely complains about having to go to practices, even when they call extra Saturday practices. She and Seth have also been taking swimming lessons together and their swim teacher always comments on how competitive Autumn is because she always has to beat the other class members to the wall, even when they aren’t supposed to be racing. She does like to come in first!

We hit a major parenting milestone this month when Bryce and I went to Salt Lake overnight and left Megan in charge overnight for the first time. She did an amazing job with the kids and had the house sparkling clean by the time we got home. It was a happy moment as a parent!! Megan has also been busy with drivers ed. She passed her road test yesterday, so now she just needs to pass the class, finish her hours of driving, and turn 16 and she can get her license.

I had an overnight Laurel retreat at Sundance and had Megan come along since she will be a Laurel soon. We had a great time despite the snow and ice all over the roads leading up to the cabin that led to some pretty hairy experiences getting there – let’s just say I don’t want to relive that drive ever again. :)

Hope you all had a great February, too!

January 2010

January was cold, snowy and dreary around here. I’m sure we did a bunch of stuff, but nothing worth taking pictures of, I guess, since I don’t have any. Let’s just say that we are glad it’s February since that is one month closer to spring. :)

We had New Beginnings for young women’s and it’s always nice to get that done. We challenged the young women in our ward to choose one thing that will be really difficult for them and resolve to get it done this year (going along with the mutual theme of “Be strong and of a good courage”) and after the program, Megan informed me that she has decided to earn the new Young Women’s medallion (they made a few changes to the personal progress program and have changed the look of the medallion). I have to say I admire her determination to keep setting and accomplishing positive goals – she amazes me sometimes.

Megan started Driver’s Ed and will spend 2 hours each day next week on the driving range. She is getting more comfortable behind the wheel all the time. I still think it’s weird to get in a car with your child behind the wheel, but maybe that is just me.

Devin continues working on Merit badges. Right now he is working on his Family Life merit badge, which is great for me since he had to do a service project benefitting his family. He spent several hours one Saturday taking down all the stuff on top of the kitchen cabinets and cleaning it all – the kitchen looks all sparkly again. Thanks Devin! He and his scout troop went to the Klondike Derby and out of around 40 troops, his troop came in first in the competition, which was pretty exciting for them. He has also decided to run track and will start practices this week.

Seth has been playing basketball and is loving it. He has finally developed the confidence to shoot the ball during the games instead of just passing it and has discovered that he is a really good shot. We love going to cheer him on at games. He is really enjoying his Storytelling Troupe and has been working hard to get ready for the school-wide festival which is at the end of February. He has also convinced Autumn to compete, so they are both working on memorizing and getting comfortable telling their stories.

Autumn is also staying busy with dance – she has 3 competitions this spring (one in St. George – can’t wait to go somewhere warm!) and is working hard towards those.

All of the kids earned straight A’s for their first semester – they are all working so hard in school. I’m excited that we are halfway to summer – yay!

December 2009

December was filled with fun activities and went by in a blur!  This time I did manage to take some pictures, so here’s a little of what happened at our house:

Autumn performed in her Christmas dance recital – it’s amazing how much she has learned this year – I guess going to practice 4 hours a week really does make a difference!

Autumn also performed in the First grade play - “The Gingerbread Caper”.  It was a fun play that we have now watched each of our four children perform in (first grade tradition at our school), plus Grandma and Grandpa Ririe flew in the day before the play, so they got to see it, too – what a treat for us!

Seth had his first Storytelling concert and did a good job telling the story of “Demeter and Persephone”.  He learned a lot and wants to choose a more funny story for his concert in the spring.  I was impressed just with the fact that he got the names of all the people in his story right – it was quite a feat!!

Megan had her Christmas choir concert and the choirs sounded amazing – especially “Joy to the World” in surround sound with the most amazing teenage girls accompanying on the piano – it was incredible!

We made gingerbread houses – thanks again grandma!!

We had 2 nativity plays – one with my family at our Christmas breakfast the week before Christmas and one on Christmas Eve where Grandma Ririe did a pretty convincing angel.  :)

We went to Temple Square to see the lights in the middle of a gorgeous snow storm, ate dinner at the Lion House Pantry, and took the kids to see “Savior of the World”, which was beautiful – great way to celebrate Christmas.

We had a wonderful Christmas – playing together as a family and having a great day together and enjoying the special treat of having Grandma and Grandpa here to enjoy it with us.  Thanks to Seth’s special request, Santa brought us all BYU pajamas this year – it appears that even the man in red really prefers BLUE!!

New Year’s Eve was lots of fun – fondue, Lego rock band, games and nearly 100 balloons filled with glitter to celebrate the New Year – it took Megan, Devin and I two hours to blow them all up, 15 seconds to pop them all, and we are still finding glitter all over 2 days later – our house sparkles!  Very fun, though – Happy New Year!!

November 2009

November at our house must not have been very exciting - I didn't take a single picture. Here's what happened around here:

Lots of BYU football. BYU managed to win all of their games this month, but the only one we really cared about was the Utah game - Go Cougars!! We are looking forward to the Las Vegas bowl later this month.

Seth started an after school storytelling class where he goes once a week and learns more about writing and telling stories. It is a good outlet for his imagination and has inspired him to start writing stories on the computer - we're pretty sure he will be publishing a novel soon. :)

Devin started the Speech and Drama portion of his foreign language rotation (7th graders take a quarter each of spanish, german, and french and then a quarter of speech and drama). So far he is only doing the speech part, but really enjoys it. He has given 4 speeches so far and has done a great job writing and delivering his speeches.

We had a great Thanksgiving with my sisters who live around here and their families coming over for a yummy feast and fun games - it was a wonderful day. Bryce lived through another Turkey Bowl and had extra fun this year taking Devin along for the first time.

Autumn and Seth both did a great job in the primary program - hard to believe we are halfway out of primary - how time flies!

Other than that, it was pretty much the same old stuff. We are now looking forward to Christmas and all the fun it brings. We'll tell you all about it next month.

October 2009

October went by in a blur! We enjoyed watching the mountains turn their gorgeous fall colors and the cooler temperatures (although we could have done without the snowstorm we had last week - way too early!!) and watching BYU football (most of the time at least - Bryce and I sat through three freezing quarters of the TCU blowout before heading home rather depressed). Here are some other things we did:

Seth enjoyed his month of playing flag football, scoring several touchdowns, getting lots of "tackles" and even catching an interception in his final (and VERY cold) game. He has decided that flag football is "his sport", though he's also sure he doesn't want to move on to tackle yet because he thinks the boys in his class who show off their football bruises are just plain crazy!

Autumn celebrated her 7th birthday with a bunch of her friends at a place called Kangaroo Zoo where they ran around, jumped in bouncy houses and slid down inflatable slides - they were exhausted! It's hard to believe she is already 7 and only has one more year before she gets baptized.

Megan had two very exciting events - she finally got her braces off and was awarded her Young Womanhood Recognition Award, and we are all so happy for her and pleased for the goals she is still setting to become an even better person. She is a hard worker and a determined person and we love her very much!

Devin went to the scout pow-wow and has been busy earning merit badges for scouts. He and Megan have been volunteering for the past few months at place nearby called Courage Reins, which is a facility that does theraputic horseback riding for physically and mentally handicapped kids. Right now, Megan and Devin are working hard cleaning out stalls, moving hay, feeding the horses, and bringing horses into the stalls. It is hard work, but they both love it and try to go at least once a week. Megan is looking forward to being able to lead walk and side walk during the lessons and they will both be able to groom and tack the horses soon, too.

We had our fall break in the middle of October and decided to do some fun things around here. We went hiking to a place called Donut Falls, and even though it was freezing, we had a great time in the fall mountains! We also went on a picnic, to the aquarium (yes, we do have one here in Utah!), and took the kids to Lagoon on a gorgeous fall Saturday. The kids had a great time on all the wild roller coasters and Bryce and I endured it because we love them so!

The kids all finished the first term of school with straight A's - they have all been working very hard in school!

Halloween turned all of our kids into little ghoolies - Megan as a hippie chick, Devin as a ninja, Seth dressed as an old man, and Autumn as a little black kitty. We celebrated Halloween by trick or treating in some pretty mild weather, and Megan had a party here with all of her friends. We love having the basement finished so that the kids love to hang out here with their friends - it's the best!

September 2009

Well, we have finally settled in to school and are enjoying fall in Utah. In September, the kids kept busy mostly with school, homework, piano lessons, guitar lessons, karate, and dance - same old stuff - but we did do a few new things:

On Labor Day, we took a long and steep hike up Alpine Canyon to this waterfall - we're still not quite sure where we ended up and were only able to get to the waterfall after Bryce led us trecking through some pretty rough (and even steeper) terrain - we never did find the actual trail, if there is one. The kids all had a fun time playing in the waterfall and on the very slippery rocks before we trecked our way back home - it was quite the adventure!

My dad came out from Seattle for a few days to watch the kids while Bryce and I took a trip to San Francisco, which was very fun! We did a lot of sightseeing, walking, trolley riding, eating, running, biking, eating delicious food, and even took in "Wicked" again, which was great as always. Bryce had to work 2 of the days, but I had fun sightseeing on my own, so it was a great little trip. Of course we forgot to take the camera, so you'll just have to trust us! Thanks, Dad, for taking such great care of the kids!!

On the 19th of September, Bryce and I ran the Top of Utah Marathon in Logan and have decided we never have to do that again. It was pretty grueling, but we stayed together the entire run and crossed the finish line together with Megan, who had traveled up with us, cheering wildly from the sidelines. We both have new respect for the distance 26.2 miles- and are happy to have crossed that one off of our life lists and to be done with training!!

Devin did another scout campout and another 15+ mile hike up the mountains around here. He came home exhausted and will be glad when the scouts have finished their hiking merit badge so they can go camping without so much work involved!

The entire family walked in the Juvenille Diabetes Research Foundation's Walk for a Cure 5K, including the dog. We had a great time and the kids all loved all the donated free food they got to eat and the games they got to play after we finished the walk. It was a really fun thing to do together - I think we'll do it again next year!

Seth started flag football and is loving it again this year. He is fast on his feet and loves to catch and run the ball and is learning to endure defense - not his favorite. He had his first game on September 30 and it was actually snowing at the start (it was 90 degrees the day before). We are looking forward to lots of games in October, hopefully with warmer weather!!

See you all next month!

August Report

Here's what we did in August:

Devin, Seth and Autumn finished up the summer swim team season. They all did great and improved quite a lot, and we had fun cheering them on at the meets.

Megan went to EFY with her cousin at BYU and had a great time again this year. She is already saving to go to EFY in Nauvoo next summer.

Devin hiked to the top of Mt. Timpanogos with his scout troup and Bryce went along because he has always wanted to do that. They were both pretty exhausted when they got home, but enjoyed an awesome view from the summit!

Autumn started back to dance, and has decided to join her school's company team which means she has 4 hours of practice a week (which she loves, except for her one hour technique class which she thinks is too boring), plus she gets to do extra performances and spring competitions. She loves to dance and is having lots of fun so far - hopefully her enthusiasm will last.

All of the kids started back to school. Megan loves High school and despite all the extra homework, is really enjoying all her honors classes. She is even really enjoying early morning seminary, but has started going to bed earlier to compensate for the getting up early part.

Devin is enjoying Jr. High so far. He likes having lots of different teachers and the added freedoms you get in Jr. High and is making new friends all the time, so that is good, too, since all of his good friends around here are a year behind him in school.

Seth loves his fourth grade teacher, but still wishes we were back in summer. He says the only parts of school that are any fun are recess, PE, and coming home. He is a good student, though, so it can't be all bad.

Autumn has settled into being gone all day in 1st grade, though she still wants to only have to do half day because school is "so boring". She loves the social aspect of it at least.

That's it for August!! Blog you later!