Our sweet Mary is now 10! She was excited to be the first sibling to have a birthday cake made by Spring. I think Spring showcased Mary's personality perfectly with this cake...bright, happy, beautiful, cheerful! All things Mary. We celebrated her birthday one day early since her birthday fell on General Conference. Grandma and Grandpa Powell went in on a gift for her with us and she received horse riding and grooming lessons! Her eyes about bugged out when she opened her gift.
Mary loves all things horses and all things with animals. Her dream is to live on a farm with lots of horses, cats, and all other animals. She has a tender spot in her heart for animals. Mary loves math and figuring out complicated problems. She loves to ride her bike with friends and play with stuffed animals. Mary enjoys coloring and listening to music. Mary is happy when she is serving other people. I'm grateful for the kind and loving person she is in our family.
January means Solo and Ensemble for the High Schools in the area. Thomas participated in numerous events. He performed:
*Violin Solo
*Cello/Violin Duet with MacLane Stebbins
*Snare Solo
*Timpani Solo
*4 Mallet Marimba Solo
*Sophomore Percussion Ensemble
He achieved Superior ratings on all pieces, with the exception of the violin solo, of which he received a rating of Excellent. He was so pleased with the results, especially considering he did not receive the music for the violin solo or duet until 2 days before adjudication.
We are not allowed to video tape or record any of the performances, however, we were able to record him practicing during his lunch break for this piece.
December is synonymous with concerts in our household! Although it makes for some crazy and hectic afternoons and evenings as we juggle getting homework finished, mouths fed, baths, scriptures, and heading out to concerts; it is one of my favorite times. I love sitting back and watching our children perform with these amazing musical groups. Their hard work, the hard work of all the students, and the efforts of the directors all culminate into evenings of musical enjoyment. I know I say this so often, but I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity we have to live in Stow, Ohio. The music department is top notch. Our kids have made some of their very best friends in these groups and they have some wonderful mentors as directors.
Mary performed in her choir's Christmas musical. Even though we were seated high in the auditorium you could see her smiling face beaming throughout the entire performance.
Sam performed in his first ever band concert this month! He has come so far with the saxophone, as has the entire 5th grade band in just under 3 months. There are close to 200 5th graders in the band this year! Surprisingly, Sam said he was a little nervous before the concert but once it got going he said it was no big deal!
Spring performed in both the orchestra and band concerts as an 8th grader. She is 1st chair in both groups, playing cello and trumpet.
Thomas performed in the band and orchestra concert as a Sophomore. He also participated in the Choir concert as the accompanist. He also sings in the Men's Choir and Concert Choir on acapella pieces. He was also part of a small percussion ensemble that performed for the 5th/6th grade band during their concert. Thomas and his good friend, Thomas also arranged a series of Marimba pieces to perform for some elderly people at the apartment complex of one of the women Thomas home teaches.
Thomas also had the opportunity to participate in the OBTC (Ohio Band Teachers Conference) at the University of Akron. He had to audition for this opportunity and was chosen. He spent 2 days working with guest directors and then performed a concert with some of the best high school musicians in the area.
Little Miss Sara is now 4! And she will tell you all about it too! This girl loves to talk and she does a lot of it too! She is really into the scripture stories right now and will tell you all about Nephi, Sariah, Laman & Lemuel, and Enos. Those are her favorite right now. Sara loves to play with Paw Patrols, color pictures, build with Legos, smother mother Rebekah, help me in the kitchen, watch cartoons, read books, and talk! She is a happy girl with a smile that will light up a room. She loves to give people hugs and tell them how much she loves them-even people she hardly knows. She runs to her primary teachers to tell them hi and give them hugs. Unfortunately, she is beginning to get to be quite sassy as well and she will try to pout to get out of doing something. She is stubborn, but so am I! ;) Thankfully, her sweet side is more prevalent than her sassy side and we are hoping that will continue!
She was so excited to have her birthday dinner. She is quite the picky eater and often goes without dinner because she refuses to try what we are having. At first she requested boxed macaroni and cheese for dinner. Then she changed her mind to "bread, just plain bread." That's all she wanted. With a lot of persuasion we convinced her to choose something else so she chose noodles and white sauce. She was most excited for the dessert she chose...pink & purple mini cupcakes.
She loved her paw patrol set that Grandma & Grandpa Powell and us gave to her. She exclaimed, "It's what I've always wanted!"
I love watching Sam play football. It's one of my highlights of the year. I think I was just as disappointed as he was this year when the season ended. I really looked forward to Saturday mornings to watch him play. He is in his glory. I also love how excited he gets for his team and teammates. He is the encourager, the leader, the motivator for his team whether he is in the game or on the sidelines. I love his competitive nature and pure love of sports. It is, by far, his favorite thing to do and he can often be found throwing, kicking, diving, catching a football. His most common request is, "Will you play catch with me?"
He played running back and he was on special teams this year. He has improved so much through the years. He may be little but he is fast! He worked really hard this year on making cuts up the field and really trying to follow the blockers, even if they didn't do a great job at blocking. Football is so good for him. His schoolwork improves when he is in football season and the discipline and focus he has at practices and games transfers over to home and school.
He had a great season and he loves that Joel is one of the coaches. This year their team had lots of dads volunteer to help so Joel was able to focus on the defense. This allowed him to watch Sam from the sidelines while he was on the field. Sam had countless touchdowns throughout the season. He scored at least once in each game. Many of his touchdown runs were well over 50 yards, with his longest this season being a 95 yard run. I can't wait for next season.
Sam has been so ready to turn 11 so he could become a Boy Scout. He loves the scouting program and has long awaited the time when he could start going on campouts, learning more knots, and doing all the fun things he has seen Joel and Thomas do in scouting for years. He was beyond excited to get a new scout uniform and gear for his birthday. Sam decided on having Texas Sheet Cake for his birthday treat. He is such an easy kid to please and he is happy all the time.
Some of the amazing things about Sam as an 11 year old include:
*He loves sports and is in his element if he is playing a sport of any kind.
*He loves the scouting program and learning new skills. He also loves when those around him are involved and learning new things as well. He makes all learning fun and silly.
*He is a hard worker-even when thins are really hard. He works so hard at school.
*His teachers call him the "Human Calculator" due to his talent with numbers and math.
*He gives great hugs. He is not ashamed of giving me hugs and will come up and give me hugs for no apparent reason. I don't think he understands how much this means to me or how much it melts my heart.
*He has a very tender side to him that not many people get to see because he is often silly, goofy, and pulling pranks. I am one of the fortunate ones to be blessed by his loving and tender side.
*He LOVES peanut butter. I think he consumes more peanut butter on his own than the rest of the family does combined!
*He plays the Saxophone and is making really great progress with it.
Gideon is now 6 years old! He was so excited for this birthday and loved being able to choose his dinner and dessert. For his dessert he wanted a rescue bot cake. He saw pictures of these amazing cakes made by amazing moms with more creative ability in their pinky fingernail than I have in my entire body. I was really concerned of how I was going to pull this off because he had 100% confidence that I was going to be able to make the cake of his dreams. I was talking to my mom and she suggested I get some rescue bots and put them on his cake. I thought that was genius but I was still really worried that Gideon would be disappointed. I decided to surprise him so if he wasn't happy with the results hopefully we could gloss over it and quickly open presents.
When it came time for him to have his cake his expression and his shouts of, "JOSH!!! Look how AWESOME my cake is!" put my concerns at bay. I'm so grateful he was happy with it. He thought it was so cool that he got new rescue bots on his cake. Spring, jokingly, told me she was going to ask for a Piano Guys cake for her birthday! Her wit is getting really good! :)
For dinner he chose to have hot dogs. No surprise there as that is one of his favorite foods right now. For his dinner with mom and dad he chose Wendy's because he wanted to get a frosty! Such simple pleasures. I love the moments Joel and I have when we take out just the birthday child to dinner or lunch of their choice. There is a bond that is strengthened when we can focus for a while on just the one. I'm so incredibly grateful for these choice spirits that our Father in Heaven has entrusted to us.
Some highlights of Gideon as a 6 year old include:
*He LOVES rescue bots. He and Josh will play for hours and hours together creating cities.
*He loves math and has been blessed with a very mathematical mind.
*He is so silly. He is in the stage of making up jokes. His jokes aren't always funny but his laugh and giggle will get you every time!
*He does not like kisses, or at least he says he doesn't. But he smiles and giggles as he wipes them off. I keep giving him kisses anyway!
*He does love hugs. He has to give all his siblings and me a hug before he leaves for the bus in the morning. In fact, he will not go out to get on the bus until he has hugged everyone. Luckily his bus driver is very patient.
*He can be found outside all the time. Jumping on the trampoline, riding his bike, playing gaga ball, or just running around like a crazy kid are his favorite pastimes.
*He is sensitive. He often feels like his is ignored or people don't understand him because of his articulation issues. I have to be really aware of that. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to deal with this so he can make his wishes known before the frustration sets in.
*His smile and giggle brighten my day. I look forward to him running in from the bus each day at lunchtime and spending time with him. He melts my heart in a way only he can.
The High School Marching Band performed at the Buckeye Invitational at Ohio State University in Columbus. We decided to take the family down for the show and stopped at the Columbus Temple on the way down. We had a wonderful day walking around the temple grounds and then watching Stow knock it out of the park with their performance. Thomas loved marching and performing in an arena of that size. Makes me wonder if he will have that opportunity when he is in college. His dream is to be in the BYU Marching Band! Such a fun day.
"You have nothing in this world more precious than your children. When you grow old, when your hair turns white and your body grows weary, when you are prone to sit in a rocker and meditate on the things of your life, nothing will be so important as the question of how your children have turned out. It will not be the money you have made. It will not be the cars you have owned. It will not be the large house in which you live. The searing question that will cross your mind again and again will be, How well have my children done?"
~President Gordon B. Hinckley
Eternal Sweethearts
"Having [children] together-building a family together-seemed a natural progression to the union we began on our wedding day. [These little people are] , among many other things, a representation of our love and commitment to one another." -Trish Perry
