Christmas Piano Recital 12.17.10

Snow and My Little Witch 10-26-10

Another Halloween party for my party girl and another October snowstorm.

The Little Witch 10.22.10

My darling witch.  

Sophie's Party 10-1-10

Sophie's birthday party was quite the event.

She invited street friends, school friends, and old neighborhood friends.  We had pizza for dinner, played Minute to Win It games, played night games, and made s'mores in the fire pit.

She was happy.

I was exhausted.  (Shhh.  Don't tell her.)  (Well, I guess she knows, since I told her the next day how totally exhausted I was.  And maybe I told her the day after that, too.)

I'm so glad she has such nice, fun, sweet friends, and I'm glad that I was able to make up her disappointing tenth birthday (a week before our move...let's just say the promised party never materialized.)

Lacrosse 9.25.10

He's really doing it!  I went to his first scrimmage in South Utah County.  The other parents warned me that my first lacrosse match might make me cringe.  And it did.  But by the end, I was thinking hitting people with big metal sticks sounded like a lot of fun.

And even if I was a little worried (which I am.  A LITTLE worried) about injury, I can't describe to you how happy my boy is.  He loves this sport.  He loves his coach.  He loves his teammates.  And that's good enough for me.  Talk to me again after he gets a broken wrist.  Maybe I'll change my mind then.  But for now, I'm really happy he's found something to be passionate about.

And Sophie got to go to her first college football game with our neighbors.  Josh was jealous.

Sophie. Eleven. 9.17.10

Sophia.

She's 11.

I love this girl.  She's a remarkable girl, turning into a remarkable teenager, just a couple of years too early.

Her birthday was a little complicated, as she had to share it with her cousin Arianne's wedding, but we did let her choose her own breakfast (Toaster Strudel, if you can believe it) and took her to dinner after the reception (Five Guys again.)

What do I love about Sophia?

1.  I can no longer call her Sophia.  She really dislikes her name.  She tolerates Sophie, but really hates Sophia.  I hope that this changes over time, because I really thought how nice it would be for her to have a long name and a nickname.  I always wished I had been Caroline or something and that Kerri could have been just a nickname.  Sigh.  Just goes to show, sometimes mothers just don't get things right, no matter how hard they try.

2.  How sweet she is with Ben.  She calls him "Hon" and carts him around on her hip and plays with him and lets him have her old stuffed animals.

3.  Her sense of style.  The girl is just cool.

4.  Her tender heart.

5.  Her responsibility.  She's turning into quite a good babysitter, and is starting to have moms in the ward call her.  She especially loves babysitting for her Activity Day leader.

6.  Her individuality.  She knows what she wants and what she does NOT want.  She hates to wear her hair down (which makes this picture all the more special) and will NOT wear something that isn't just right.

7.  Her strong will.  Today was our ward Primary Program (the children present the main meeting of our church congregation once a year.)  I wrote a trio for the kids to play.  She asked me to carry her glasses because she had too many things to carry.  When it was time for them to perform, I set up the music stand, and then, since she was holding her bow and violin, I put her glasses on her face for her.  She looked disgusted at me and said "NO!" and shook them off.  No way was she wearing those glasses.  Never mind that she had ASKED ME TO TAKE THEM UP THERE FOR HER.  It was hysterical (I had almost as many comments about the glasses incident as I did about the kids' performance) and just so Sophie.

8.  Her intelligence.

9.  Her sense of right and wrong.  She won't listen to songs if she hears a bad word.  Today we were studying the scriptures.  It was her turn and she read up to a certain point and said, "I don't want to read that word."  It was "hell."  I said, "Sweetie, if it's in the scriptures, you can read it."  But she wouldn't.  David read it for her instead.  He's good at that word.  (Just kidding.)  (Maybe.)

I could tell Sophie stories all day.  She has made our lives so full and rich and fun.

Happy birthday, my darling.  I only wish I could make the years go by much much MUCH more slowly.

Family Party and Celebrating Sophie 9.16.10

My sister, Bri, and her cute family came up so her husband Mike could run Top of Utah again.  (Was I sad I wasn't running it, too?  Actually, no.  I wasn't sad at all...  My decision to wait for Ogden in May was a very good one.)  We were lucky enough to have them stay here, so we threw a party.

Of course, we need no excuse to throw a party, but we had a great one:  Sophie's birthday was the next day.

Pizza (thanks to Bri and Mike) and brownies and ice cream and a bunch of happy people = successful party.

And look at my darling almost-11-year-old.  She's not REALLY that old, is she?

Sophie's Book Three Recital 9.1.10

Sophie's teacher, Kathy, decided it would be fun for her three students in Book Three to do their recital together.  It was a great summer goal for all of them.  We had the recital at our home, and I was really proud of them.  It's been fun watching each of them grow up and move from little violins to bigger and bigger ones.

Also, it was piano group at Kathryn's.  We had lots of talking time and then we mostly worked on duets. We also listened to Cody who is getting ready for a recital with her husband on Temple Square, and Jill, who was preparing a recital with her daughter.  So much fun.

Their First Trio 7.16.10

My friend Kathryn has a wonderful piano studio. Each summer she does a music camp for her students, and this year she decided to do a collaborative piano camp and she happened to link up with our violin teacher, Kathy. Each of Kathy's students were matched to one of Kathryn's students. They rehearsed together twice, then played a recital on Friday evening. Kathryn also asked if Josh and Sophie would like to do a piano trio with one of her students. My answer? Of course YES.

I've been trying to write a trio for Kate and these two, but haven't pulled myself together to do it yet, so this was a great starting point. They struggled through their first rehearsal at home (rehearsing can be tricky for any musicians. There is a lot of pent-up emotion that gets spewed out when someone tells you you're counting wrong) but by their first rehearsal with the pianist, they were ready.

I've been trying to figure out how to post a video of their performance, but I haven't managed it yet. So I'm going to just say how wonderful it is to watch the two of them play together, and it's especially wonderful to see Ben start to walk THROUGH the performance and Kate try to stop him while the videocamera shakes because I'm trying to motion Kate to take Ben OUT of the house before he ruins the whole concert.

Violin Recital 5.26.10

Someone stop her from growing up anymore, because I can't take it.

Insta-Recital 5.21.10

Bridget's spring recital is always lovely and I look forward to hearing her talented and well-prepared students..

Kate's been learning Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Allegro since Federation and was finally ready to perform. It was a big jump ahead in her performance level, so she had to work extra hard. Sophie is back with Bridget (hooray!) and has been working on a concerto for a while. It didn't seem quite ready for the spring recital, so we didn't plan for her to play.

We had lessons from 4:30-5:30 on Friday. The recital was at 6:30, so I brought Kate's performance clothes along for the ride.

At Sophie's lesson, she played her concerto beautifully. SO beautifully that Bridget decided she should play in the recital that night. The main problem? She was in jeans and a t-shirt.

So we left Bridget's at 5:35 and ran off to find performance clothes.

Second store = Success.

6:27. Made it to the recital hall. Pulled the tags off of Sophie's new clothes. Ran into the hall.

Sophie was relaxed and confident like I've never seen her pre-performance. Kate was excited.

They both played beautifully. I was so thrilled. Kate really worked on her piece and nailed even the chords that were tripping her up earlier in the day. Sophie hasn't always felt like she wanted to play piano (but has never decided to quit when given the option) but after this performance, she felt totally inspired to continue.

It was a lovely night.

Mother's Day 5.9.10

I think it's sad that I have no picture of myself with my offspring from the day meant to celebrate this very bond. But oh well. That's the way it goes around here. But look at this cute Sophie. She's way way way too old and I'm freaking out.


Instead of a picture, though, I did get a delicious breakfast made by said offspring: muffins, a banana smoothie, and fruit. Also, I got to sleep in, which is all I actually wanted. (Oh, also for David to put the kids to bed.) Ben ate the tops off of four muffins and stacked them like Legos.


After church, we trekked up to Heber and celebrated with David's mom. Another amazing meal. She's a remarkable cook. She's let us know lately, though, that at her funeral, we're not allowed to talk about her cooking. Or her hat-making. She's already assigned gospel topics to each of her children. They are to give a 2 minute talk on the gospel subject and not mention her much at all.

We told her that if she's dead, there's nothing she can do if they don't stick to their gospel topic and instead talk about how wonderful she is.

She said if they're naughty enough to do that, she'll haunt us.

I love David's mom.

I also love my mom, and my grandmas, and I missed my mom bunches.

Thursday around the GreenHouse 5.6.10

Girls playing school. Love it.


Boys going running. Love it times four.

Josh has decided he doesn't have enough endurance on the soccer field, and his morning runs are getting more regular. He decided to start running with David a couple of evenings a week. So fun. I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful habit.

Shameless Bragging 3.24.10

Our new elementary school has a program called AR (Accelerated Reading). Kids read books outside of school, then take computer tests (to prove they've read the book, I presume) and earn points based on their answers. The books are worth different numbers of points, based on length and difficulty.

Last parent teacher conference, Sophie's teacher encouraged her to set a goal that would push her slightly, so Sophie decided to try to earn 45 points in the third term. This was the highest goal set in the class, apparently.

She told us today that she earned 172.5 points. Her teacher told her it was the most points she's ever had a student earn in one term. While she read many other books, her big achievement was going through the entire Harry Potter series for the first time. That's some serious time spent reading.

She also read all of the Percy Jackson series (minus the last book, which we don't own) but the computer doesn't have those tests, so her 172.5 points don't even include these books. This picture is of Sophie writing the book report on the first Percy Jackson book that will give her the AR points for books without tests. Josh was helping her remember the names of the main characters, and arguing over correction pronunciation. Sophie: "Hades". Josh: "It's Hay-DEEZ, Sophie. Not Hayds." Sophie: "Whatever." Such love.

Books. I love books. I love that my kids love books.

Still More Federation 3.20.10

Josh and Sophie had ANOTHER chance to enjoy all the fun that Federation has to offer, but on the string side this time.

Josh's new favorite composer is Bartok, which I think is very cool. He and Nicole play Bartok duets most lessons, and he chose one with some cool double stops for his choice piece. He played so musically. I've loved watching him come into his musical self this year.

Sophie played well. This year has been a big one for her, too. Her practicing has become much more focused and she's learning faster.

I'm so proud of both of them.

Talent Show 3.19.10

I am dying here. I will not name names but someone pushed the wrong button on the camera and there is no video of the cheer. Honestly, this is tragic. You all would have loved to see Skateboarding, I know, but it is lost to the ages now.

Sigh. It's very sad.

The talent show was a smorgasbord of fourth grade talent: a magician, a chicken imitation, a joke, an artist, seven or eight pianists, four violinists, two sets of breakdancing boys, a bunch of dancing girls, and a couple of singers.

It was an hour and 20 minutes of fun. And David had the day off so he got to see it, too. He was very excited. Ben pushed a chair around. He was very excited.

Skateboarding??? 3.9.10

Sophie and her friends are trying out for the fourth grade talent show. They decided to do a cheer (?) and made up their own (very) original cheer along with some awesome stunts:

5. 6. 7. 8.
You might be good at football,
You might be good at cheer,
But when it comes to skateboarding,
You might as well step back.
Go on.
Step back.

As far as I know, none of them have ever stepped on a skateboard.

I love fourth graders.

Sophie thought she'd cover all the bases and tryout with a violin piece as well.

Recital 2.26.10

Daily, there is the battle to fit in the practicing.

Weekly, there is the 25 minute trip to lessons.

Monthly, there is the payment for piano lessons.

And every so often there is the pay off. The recital. Oh, blessed night when the stars align and the preparation comes together for a good performance...

And even when the stars don't align, and the performance is not perfect, recitals are still pretty special.

This one was even more special because it was Sophie's first recital with Bridget as her teacher. Sophie and Josh took lessons from Bridget this summer, but once school started and the move was imminent, I decided to continue teaching them myself.

This was not a good idea.

Then I was kicked out of the SL chapter of Federation because I had the audacity to move to another county. How dare I? Bridget was kind enough to take on Josh and Sophie as temporary students in the month of February so they could enter with her studio. Bless you, Bridget.

I hate to admit it, but it REALLY was a bad idea to teach my own kids piano. It baffles me that I can say "Watch that phrasing." "Practice that in sections, slow to fast with metronome." "That's a quarter, not an eighth." and they don't believe a word of it. But if Bridget says the same things (and she does), suddenly they listen.

Sigh.

The recital was fun. The shakes after the recital were yummy (or so I'm told). And I'm so so proud of my sweet girls (and so so grateful for Bridget's wonderful teaching.)

Picture of the Day 2.22.10

Wow. This is so not a good picture.

Sophie had her storytelling festival. She memorized Split Pea Soup (a George and Martha story) and I was excited to see her perform. The festival was scheduled to begin at 1:00. Thanks to procrastination (me) and dawdling (Ben), we arrived at the school library at 1:04. Her teacher was leaving the library and said, "Oh. You missed it." (She's not a warm and fuzzy teacher.) I said, "Oh! I thought it started at 1:00!" She said, "Yes. It's now 1:05."

Okay, then...

Luckily, the librarian saw my distress and had Sophie perform again. The picture is of Sophie and her buddies Haylie, Kenzie, and Angela right after the performance.

Picture of the Day 2.17.10

I took Sophie and her friend Kenzie to the grocery store after school to pick up some milk. We go through a ridiculous amount of milk in our house (about a gallon a day), and I think Josh drinks most of it. Oh well, he could have worse vices.