New 2008 Family pics

Here's our new family pictures!

Now it's time for an update....

Wow, I have not even thought about blogging for a while! Time to catch up. It's been a busy month so far, but fun. Here is Richard raking our leaves. We don't have any trees in our yard so they've blown over from somewhere. Isn't it a great pile? (I'm being sarcastic.) The kids still had fun!

We celebrated Ethan's 8th birthday with taking him and his friends to Jump On It (the day after his birthday) which they loved. And we had cake and ice cream at the house afterwards.

I held a Christmas recital on the 5th for my piano students which turned out really nice. But boy, it's been a while since I've actually played a solo in front of anyone. Slightly nerve racking! I think the actual recital hall was a bit intimidating for my students but definitely good experience, right? Ethan even played a few songs. I was so proud of him!

Ethan was baptized on the 6th, (after his birthday party with his friends). It's so strange to think Richard and I are old enough to have an 8 year old now! But, it was so special to see him baptized. He was excited and maybe a bit nervous.

Ethan sure has had a big and busy month! In fact, the birthday, recital and baptism all happened in about a 24 hour period. It's starting to calm down a bit. At least for this week anyway. Now all the practicing and performing I've been doing with piano is done, I can actually focus on my house, kids and shopping! I helped out with a ward Christmas musical fireside on Sunday night and it was the first time I actually started to feel the Christmas spirit. Today, it hit me a bit more with the snow and the fact that I could go shopping. The kids and I decorated a gingerbread house tonight and listened to Christmas music. I do love this time of year!

Piano madness!

December is always a crazy month for me at the piano. Most of the time, I love it. For the last few years in my previous ward, I played for the choir for the Christmas musical fireside. For those of you who know the former choir director for that ward, knows how she loves challenging pieces. I always had my work cut out for me!

So after moving to a new ward, I didn't think I would do anything for anyone. There are a lot of piano players in my ward and not many people really know me. Which is fine.

A friend of mine wanted to get a group going to sing Christmas songs at enrichment nights or ward christmas parties. That sounded fun! So I said I'd play piano for them. We've got 8 women who are singing. Well, I got about 7 songs for that one to work on. Then, she wanted to have a ward Christmas musical fireside. I said I'd play. So I got 7 more to work on. Okay! I had to pass on a few to someone else, cause it was a lot to try and do. Now I have 4 for that night. So we're up to 11 songs that I'm working on.

Then my same friend asked me to play for her in relief society next sunday. I said yes (I don't think I can say no!) Plus I love the song that she's singing which is 'O Holy Night'. Then yesterday the young women asked me to play for them for a song they're singing next sunday also in relief society. Yep! Doing that one.

I have a recital that I'm holding for my piano students this Friday night and guess who's planning on playing a solo? Yep. I'm honestly thinking about backing out of that one. But, some of my students haven't really heard me play a whole lot. We'll see how much time I get to work on my song with ALL the others I'm playing. Come to think of it, I'd probably better get going and go practice! I start to get all worked up if I haven't played anything for a few hours. I was at the piano yesterday for 4 1/2 hours! Part at home and the other part at the church practicing with the groups and choir.

So that's 14 songs! I'm crazy! I do enjoy it though. I'm glad I can help out and especially play some really beautiful songs that are about the Savior. But, I am looking forward to the 15th when it will all be done! (Unless I say yes to someone else between now and then!)

I'm a dedicated fan!

I absolutely love the group Coldplay! They're a bit like U2 with a piano. So for our 9th anniversary that we celebrated this past week, Richard took me to their concert in Salt Lake on Saturday night. I was so excited! We bought their new cd 2 weeks ago so we could get to know the new songs and sing along. It was such a great concert! We had a really good time.

It was supposed to start at 7:30. But since the BYU/Utah game was still going and many of those fans were coming to the concert, they had other performers on stage until 9:00! Then they had to set up the stage for Coldplay, which meant they didn't come on stage until about 9:30. But by then, it was packed and wow was it worth the wait! They were amazing! Everyone was on their feet dancing and singing. I could have gone all night listening to them.

Then Richard insisted on getting something for the boys and for me. So we stood in line afterwards and got the boys a key ring. I know, probably cheesy, but it was one the cheaper things (you know how concert items are double the price than what their worth, right?) And he got me a cute t-shirt. We had to do it! We probably could have gotten online and got them cheaper, but then it's not authentic from the concert, know what I mean?

I love my hubby!

Gulp...I'm not playing piano?

I have always had a calling in some musical spot in the church. For as long as I can remember. Choir pianist quite a bit, RS pianist, primary chorister, choir director (better at playing piano, let me tell you!), primary pianist substitute, playing on my mission at almost every zone conference, playing piano when I was in YW's, etc. I am the most comfortable with playing piano for a calling or being involved in some musical capacity. We all have our areas of comfort when it comes to serving in the church, right?

So when we moved into our current ward last June, I told my bishop/brother (yes, you read that right, he is my bishop. Kinda weird, but fun!) that I would love any calling that involves music, cause that's what I'm comfortable with. So naturally I think I'll get it. Right? Riiiight......

The first counselor comes over to our house to talk to us about callings. I'm thinking for sure it's playing the piano in something. Nope. Mia Maid advisor. Okay. Not what I expected but I am open to new experiences, but honestly I didn't want primary or YW's. I hesitantly said yes and questioned the Lord, "why me?" "Are you sure?"

It was really tough for me in the beginning. Coming to a brand new area and ward and not knowing the YW at all was a real challenge. It would have been easier had I been in the ward a while and knew them at least a little bit. I was so nervous and had no idea how to relate to them. I had a hard time wanting to go to church and activities for a while cause I just felt out of place! And I felt I wouldn't really get to know anyone else in the ward if I'm always in YW's.

Now we've been to girls camp and quite a few weekly activites, and sat through a lot of lessons, and it's getting so much better now! So for my #15 thing I'm grateful for this month is the young women in my ward. They are amazing girls that face lots of challenges. They are fun, funny, smart and spiritual. I have been learning so much about myself and my abilities as well. I think the Lord was just saying, "it's time to try something else now." I'm grateful for that because he knows what I need to learn. I sure hope I can be as good for these girls as they are for me!

A Thankful Month

When things get tough and frustrating, it's always good to remind yourself of what you have, right? It's called 30 days of Thankful. My friend Holly is doing this on her blog and I decided to give it a go as well.

As I've been sitting here thinking about what I am thankful for, I actually got a warm feeling in my heart. I am certainly so blessed! At first I thought it would take me a while to think up some things to get to the 11th day to be caught up, but it certainly wasn't hard at all!

I have the list on my sidebar if you want to follow up. I'll try to do some short posts as well.

Halloween

Here's some belated Halloween pics of the kids. We had such a fun day! Surprisingly the kids haven't been asking for much candy so it's going to last a long time. They've had maybe one piece a day. I keep it hidden away at the top of one of our cabinets called the "shameful shelf", or sometimes called the "shameless shelf". Depends on the day. Since they don't see it, they don't think of it as much which is so nice! Sara was a cute little witch, Preston was Superman, and Ethan was a vampire, all bought on Ebay for cheapo!

Ward Volleyball Gets Serious

For the first time in quite a few years, I got to play volleyball! I absolutely love volleyball! I was never on a team in school, but I took volleyball in college twice cause I had such a ball! (pardon the pun!)

So our stake started ward volleyball competitions in September and of course, I signed up! It was pretty funny when we first started out. It was just a desperate attempt to get the ball back over the net. We had so many good laughs. Then we decided to get more serious and have designated setters and actually have a method to controlling the ball when it was on our side.

We actually were tied for 1st place about 2 weeks ago. Then we lost our game last week which bumped us down to tied for 2nd. Then last night we played and won. Then we found out right after that if we played another ward (same night) and won, we'd play another ward for the spot in regionals!

We came last night expecting to just have fun and play one game. We didn't think we had a chance for regionals. We ended up playing 3 games! We won our first two which sent us to play another ward for the chance to go to regionals. (Sniff, sniff) We lost (to the singles ward. Grrr.) So sad! We were so excited and nervous and super close to winning. They were a good team. (I'm trying to be nice.hehe)

So now we're looking at basketball in a couple of months. Hmm...that will be interesting. I'm not a huge fan of a close contact sport like that, but I just might try it out. We'll see.

7 Unusual Things...

My friend Ivy once again has tagged me! This one I've had to think about for a day or so.

1. I hate the feel of fleece, foam, velvet etc! Anything really soft. Gives me chills just thinking about it.

2. Along with #1, I can't wear slippers without socks on.

3. I eat Nutella straight from the jar. Why put it on stuff?

4. I love Little House on the Prairie!

5. I can stay in the bath for hours! Especially if I have a good book.

6. I can tell you what most herbs are for. (I didn't say all)

7. I don't like fruit flavored ice cream. Not even chunks of fruit in it.

I tag: Tristi, JoEllen, Allie, Rachael, Amy, Emily and Holly. Have fun!

4th Picture Tag

My friend, Ivy, tagged me with this one. This is a fun tag. You are suppose to go to your photo folder, pick the 4th folder and the 4th photo and post it.

So here it is:

This is my cute, adorable, sweet nephew Zachary. He was born March 10th. He is really the most calm, quiet and easy going little boy!

I tag Cathi, Beckie, Jane, and Lisa!