He's Back!

Last night we headed to Salt Lake International Airport to welcome Elder Andy Andersen home from Germany! A group of us met up at the airport with signs and anxious smiles as we waited for his 10:30pm arrival.

It never gets old watching young elder and sister missionaries return home. We were all crying before we even saw Andy just observing the returning missionaries greeting their families.

We finally spotted him and words can't even describe how awesome it was to see him embrace his family!

Obviously, Dan and I don't have any sons, but we truly love Andy like he is one of our own. It is so great to have him home!

Always the gentleman, Andy pulled out German chocolates for Eva. She talked about those chocolates all the way back to Provo!

Some of us stopped off at Denny's to continue the visiting. We got home around 2:30am and despite the lack of sleep, we loved every minute of it! Thanks Jeanmarie, Jim and family for sharing this with us!

Two More Drivers

Finally, after many weeks of parents procrastinating the inevitable...

we headed to the dreaded DMV and these two walked out with their legal drivers' permits in hand.

While I really dislike the learning part of driving, I am really looking forward to having two more drivers in the house. I am now pretty much guaranteed there will always be a willing driver to run errands on demand.

Congrats you two! And to the rest of you on the road... be warned :)

Family Focus for 2011

A few nights ago, we sat down with the kids and discussed what our family focus should be this year. We have done this the past few years and it has been a positive, fun thing for our family. After much deliberation, we decided to have our family focus be the same as the new mutual theme for 2011.

So here we have it...

The 13th Article of Faith

We believe in being Honest,true,Chaste,

Benevolent, Virtuous, &  in    doing Good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-we believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, & hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, Lovely, or of Good Report  or Praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

It's Beginning to Look (and feel) A LOT Like Christmas...

outside and inside.

We woke up this morning to about a foot of new snow! 

It is beautiful but no fun to drive in it.

Inside, we've had the snowflake motif going on for quite awhile.

(It looks like my windows need a good cleaning!)

 Our "Travel Tree" had a couple of new additions...

 Samoan fale

 I LOVE Christmas ornaments and most of them have special meaning...these are two of my favorites given to me by a dear friend.

 We are going to be busy tomorrow delivering baskets of goodies to the widows in our ward. This has become a family tradition and the girls were a great help in preparing them.

 This year all the Christmas cards we get in the mail found a new place to be displayed...the staircase. 

 Can't forget the Samoan nativity set made out of a coconut.

Another favorite tradition...buying the girls a new ornament every Christmas.

I think when they leave home they'll have a pretty good start to their own ornaments.

One Magical Christmas Performance

I cannot believe we are just weeks away from Christmas!

I am soooo behind right now on just about everything.

Julia shared the Christmas spirit this past week with her Youth Theater's presentation of 

"One Magical Christmas" at the Scera Theater.

She has loved attending class each week with two of her friends and her cousin.

The program was a culmination of weeks of practicing their songs and dances.

I was so glad that we all got to attend on one of the evening's performances!

Carl Bloch...Again

Dan and I took the girls last night for FHE to the MOA to see the Carl Bloch exhibit.

The MOA website describes the Danish artist and the special exhibit as:

Carl Bloch: The Master’s Hand will feature five large altar paintings from churches in Denmark and Sweden. Four of these paintings will be taken out of their altar settings for the first time since they were originally installed in the late 1800s. The other painting, “Christ Healing the Sick at Bethesda,” has become the museum’s signature piece since it was acquired in September 2001. Additional religious paintings and etchings along with genre, history, portrait and landscape paintings from Danish museums also will be included in the exhibition.

I can't adequately describe our experience. To say it was amazing would be an understatement. There is an undeniably strong spirit in this exhibit and Bloch's masterpieces testify of the living reality of Jesus Christ. I especially loved the way Bloch incorporates the use of light into his paintings. My favorite was his painting of the daughter of Jarius. I know that the others had their favorites as well. I am excited that this exhibit will be here until May. I plan on going a few more times and would say it is worth a trip to Utah just to experience it!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful, relaxing and practically perfect Thanksgiving this year.

The so-called blizzard really never materialized where we are, but it was really cold!

We were delighted to have Andersen's from Mapleton with us... minus their missionary who will be home in a matter of days now.

Lauren and Chris (with Alison in the middle) also joined us.

We've loved having Alison with us over the break!

 We did the usual... lots of eating, laughing and talking and a few photos.

Dan didn't disappoint with the turkey and then managed to clean up everything while we chatted away!

We ended the evening with the new Harry Potter movie... and loved it!

Gearing Up...

for a MAJOR snowstorm...they're even calling it a blizzard.

I got all my errands taken care of today...

Got out the emergency flashlights, blankets, and stocked up on everything.

IF we don't lose our power, I will actually enjoy this storm.

There is something about having everyone home, nestled inside together enjoying the warmth of the fireplace, baking, and preparing for Thanksgiving.

Here's to a white Thanksgiving this year!

Orca Report, Part 2

Mrs. Hatch's 5th graders got to share their expansive knowledge, display boards and artwork from their animal reports.

They lined the 5th grade hallway with displays and beautiful artwork.

Students from the lower grades enthusiastically moved from one 5th grader to the next and listened intently. Pretty impressive.

Now onto the explorer report...!

Meet Hank

I really thought by now that Julia would have blogged about her water frog, Hank.

However, I don't think Hank has endeared himself to her and sadly, this frog is lucky if it gets fed once a week. Somehow though, Hank continues to survive.

I had never heard of a water frog before, but when Julia learned at the end of 4th grade that her new 5th grade teacher would be awarding students who had read the most pages or written the most pages over the summer, with one of these, her competitive juices started flowing.

Julia took the writing challenge seriously and dutifully wrote page after page in her journal.

I can't remember her final count, but it was enough to win the frog.

I believe a little guilt has settled in on Julia about her lack of enthusiasm and attention for this creature. She is even contemplating finding it a new home. In the meantime, Hank has been placed in the office because of a buzzing noise he emits erratically. So far he has outlived the 8 different hamsters we went through while living in Atlanta. For whatever reason, we couldn't keep a hamster alive, but we've succeeded unexpectedly at not starving a water frog to death.

May I Recommend...

two amazing, special displays at BYU right now.

 The BEEyond display I ran into unexpectedly while on a field trip with Julia's class last week.

While all the fifth graders were off with their law school mentors, I got the chance to take a closer look at the unbelievable photography of the honey bee that has been transformed further on an electron microscope.

I am confident that no one could deny the existence of a Creator after seeing this display.

I highly recommend taking the time.

The second event, which I haven't attended yet, but plan on doing so with the entire family very soon,

is the Carl Bloch Display at the Museum of Art. It is truly a once in a lifetime experience to be able to see these amazing works of art, focused on Jesus Christ, up close and personal.

Just a few of the many reasons I love living in this college town!

Happy Halloween!

Hope your day was as awesome as ours...

Hilary and Hannah skipped out early and went to a Halloween Party...

Ward Trunk or Treat getting underway... not many pictures from this event because we were hit with a torrential downpour and "Wizard of Oz" winds.