February 2015

We are staying healthy with a nice workout regiment.

The kids being buddies with Jonathan, Halle, and Maylynn.

We had a fun big Saturday where Sarah did the Music Marathon fundraiser all day in Mesa and Rachel got to dance in the Laveen Parade with Dancin' Spirit.

Rachel is the oldest, but loves learning with Hannah Myer, she is awesome! 

Adam got an impromptu job in the parade. 

I did too. They needed help leading the girls, so I put on Sarah's shirt that she couldn't use and helped the kids know when to dance. Hannah's Mom caught this picture of me, I'm the one on the left. It was funny that tons of members from our stake saw me and afterwards people kept asking me if I'd finally opened a studio, but I referred them to Hannah's class and her studio more than doubled and is thriving.

Adam made us lunch, what a sweetheart. 

Sarah and I laugh at the pictures of people holding their instruments lovingly. 

Silly Rachel photo-bombed. 

I made Valentine's for all my Sunbeams.

I love them so much! 

We played for Brother and Sister Williams, and he played for us. We love them too! 

I finally painted the bottom section of the bannister! It is so beautiful and clean! 

We watched Liz and Rachel Cornia so their parents could have a Valentine's Date.

We love these cuties. 

Then Grandma and Grandpa Cole came to town! Grandma wanted to see what Sarah's youth symphony was like and hear them play. Here is Sarah sitting as first chair of the second violins. She was glad the eye appointment on chair test day had not affected her playing.

Grandma loved every note. 

She got to hear the saga about G.B. He is the blonde boy pictured here and his Dad is the one sitting on the ground in back. We named him G.B. because he has a big G.B. sticker on his violin case. Meg got the courage to ask him about it and it is from his Great Britain trip where he played Humoresque in the King's Cross Station. They got to be friends but every time they'd meet, he'd forget who she was again and start all over. Very strange. His Dad always popped up at creepy times, so we joked that he was a spy. Just silliness, but here is the infamous G.B. His real name is Jacob McCormick. Sarah's friend Anna Barlow is in love with his name, because she is a foodie and it is a brand of spice.

At home Grandpa played sink or swim with Adam and Rachel after getting a happy meal at McDonald's.

We did our Valentine's Ice Cream Tradition Together

And made our cards for each other. 

So sweet! 

Grandma and Grandpa helped Sarah with family history. 

Adam so diligently writing to his missionary cousins. 

Mom and Dad doing a puzzle while listening to Sarah's violin lesson from Mike Abegg.

Dad took me to Costco! 

Grandma gets to see Rachel's birthday present from October. 

I was sick, so Dad shuttled me up to get my glasses downtown. 

Dinner and a movie. 

All cozy. 

Adam loved getting his own music cd from primary. He is wearing one of the headbands I made with the Sunbeams. One of the sunbeams put glue on the paper and stuck it right to his head! When his Mom saw him wearing the headband she said, "that's a little redundant, his ears a plenty big already." Sweet Samuel.

Adam really gets dancing to his special cd.

The kids enjoying a little desert rain,

and finding a hawk moth.

Sarah ready for her first concert being in Division 2.

That night during the concert's intermission there was announcement that they had a limited number Joshua Bell concert tickets for the next evening that had not been sold and would give them to anyone who would buy something from the youth symphony souvenir table. I bought Sarah the t-shirt she is wearing here for $5 and got 3 free tickets! I was so excited to show her after the concert. 

We did ballet and school as usual, but that night 

Dad, Mom, and Sarah went to the concert!

He was amazing, jumping all over the stage in his enthusiasm, and his pianist was kicking his legs under the piano. It was awesome! 

Hanging out at the fountain at Estrella Mtn College while Sarah takes her proctored exam. 

Sarah played a solo piece in the Spring recital at the Mesa Arts Center accompanied by Stacey Leybas. It was beautiful, she played so well and with such confidence. We were grateful to the support of her teacher Mike Abegg (left) who attended with his sweet wife Linda, and to the Leybas family (right) who came to support their Mom and were so still and quiet in their chairs. Darci has started violin lessons with Sarah this month and they are going so well.