Catching up with Bailey

Bailey has had a busy couple of months!  Here is a pictorial rundown of some of the highlights.  (However, I will have to do separate posts for her senior trip, birthday, and graduation activities.  Bailey's life has been busy lately!)

A few of Bailey's talents were also evident in pictures from her last few months of school.

Bailey is incredibly concerned about others and aware of their needs.  She started a club at her school to create a bridge of understanding between the special needs kids and the rest of Skyview High School. She hosted activities in the the Life Skills classroom every Friday at lunchtime, and she made some wonderful friends.

When I was organizing pictures the other day which had been uploaded from Bailey's ipod, I found a copy of this note sent to Bailey by a girl at school who she had never even met. 

Bailey has been a beloved babysitter since she was 12 years old. There are quite a few kids who are mourning her departure to the world of college.

Bailey and I did a lot of shopping for college stuff during the last few months. She is hyper-organized and likes to be super prepared, just like me.  So she had a 3 page long typed College Packing List we used as we shopped and packed.  We spend a lot of time in Target

but also found time to chill in Home Goods

and we ate some delicious meals to keep up our strength while we hunted.

Like this pizza place in Oregon, which is perfect for both of us, because it has inspirational quotes all over the walls!

Bailey likes to say she isn't artistic, but she is wrong. She designed her own graduation announcement and beautifully hand lettered the addresses.

Bailey left us each an amazingly heartfelt and loving note when she left to college. I will treasure mine forever.

Other events in Bailey's world . . .
She was asked to Prom in a very cute way (using Taylor Swift lyrics).

Prom was on May 9th at the World Trade Center in Portland.  Before the dance they ate Mongolian Food.  Bailey's date was a really nice guy named Skyler. She wanted some pictures with Dan and me before she left. 

And here is Bailey and Skyler.

Bailey is still a big reader. This is the pile of books I picked up for her at the library to take on her senior trip. Needless to say, we couldn't fit all of them in our suitcases!

A four year Seminary graduate!  I couldn't help but take this picture on the last day of early morning seminary. Bailey finished her term as seminary president. It was a great experience for her to learn to work with different personalities on the seminary council. She also learned to be much more comfortable with public speaking.

On Bailey's 2nd to last Mutual activity, the younger Laurels hosted a Senior Honors Night in which they honored each of the graduating girls. They had prepared a wonderful slide show and had a "diploma" and nice things to say about each young woman.  It was lovely!

The last year or so of high school, Bailey really enjoyed exercise. She set goals for herself to exercise every day, and liked going on long walks. On this day Dan and I walked the Salmon Creek Trail with her while Joseph was at Cub Scouts and Aubrey was at theater.

It was too complicated to figure out how to have both Dan and I go on a senior trip with Bailey, so I celebrated with her on a Disney Cruise and Dan and Bailey (at her request) went on a rigorous hike at the end of May. They hiked the Multnomah/Wahkeenah Loop in the Gorge. They said they "rocked" it!  Afterward, they ate themselves silly at a seafood restaurant.

This was Bailey's LAST Mutual activity, in which a group of kids did service throughout the ward. Bailey was always supportive and enthusiastic about Mutual.

What will I do without Bailey's almost-daily crazy selfies?

And finally, a few favorite pictures of Bailey, taken by her friend Nina one day in May,

Catching up with Joseph

Joseph continues to be a bundle of energy who brings laughter and fun to our home. This year he also developed some new talents.

He started taking cello through his elementary school last fall and really developed a beautiful tone. By the spring of this year he was also able to play many songs by ear on the cello, including my favorite hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."

This year I ran a reading group in his 4th grade classroom. After months of weekly meetings in which we did an in depth study of the book Bud, Not Buddy, the kids decided that they wanted to celebrate with a party which would honor the book.  They decided to have an impromptu "band/orchestra."  Everyone brought some sort of instrument and we spent an hour in the music room composing a piece and then performing it.  And then I fed them lots of sugar before they headed off to lunch!

In the last few months Joseph has developed a true love for creative writing. He has outlined multiple series of books and has written many chapters of each series before moving on to another great idea.  At school he formed a "club" in which the apparent purpose was to read his stories and give him ideas for more stories.  One Sunday he decided that I really could use some author lessons, so he set up a curriculum on the computer, gave me my own writing notebook, and started our instruction.  

While our author lessons haven't happened for awhile, he does have me edit and give suggestions on all of his stories.  He is a great writer. He has interesting ideas and does a fantastic job writing descriptively.  He promised that someday when he is a famous writer he will acknowledge me in his dedication page!

Joseph is also a very good artist, and over the last few months created cool Pokemon character drawings.  At least I think that's Pokemon. What do I know?






















In March we closed the book on our pinewood derby car making. Can you hear a big sigh of relief coming from our home?  Joseph wasn't happy with the performance of his third and final pinewood derby car, but I thought that a little disappointment now and then is a good and healthy thing.

This year Joseph really caught the reading bug, and he has inhaled book series like Percy Jackson, The Candy Shop Wars, and the Rogue Knight.  He gets lots of great story-writing ideas from the books.  At the end of school he and the other 4th graders were recognized for all the reading they did for the Reading Olympics throughout the year.  

I love the look on the faces of some the kids in the pictures below.  I can't wait to watch these kids as they grow up over the next few years. I can already see a glimpse of who they are becoming.  

This year the 4th graders did an intensive study of the Oregon pioneers, which culminated in a party in which the kids square danced in pioneer clothing.  The night before the party Joseph tried on some possible pioneer outfits and settled on the no hat/suspenders and neckerchief look.  

My friend Kathy sent me this picture, which requires some explanation.  Joseph was spending the night at their house while we were out of town.  Joseph is in the middle, flanked by his two best buddies, Chase and Alex Kartchner. This is the position they all took when it was time for family prayer in the morning.  Apparently Kathy took a picture during the prayer!  

 One day Joseph wasn't feeling great so he stayed home from school. When I came down from the shower this is what I saw.  A "sick nest", complete with 12 or so stuffed animal friends, a good book, and a TV remote to keep him company.  Now I ask you, who WOULDN'T want to hang out all day in a sick nest?? 

 Joseph is a riot to take clothes shopping.  He likes to find "cool" looking outfits and then he models them in front of the mirror to make sure he likes the effect.  He was especially taken with this shirt/jacket combo at Old Navy.

 I love these pictures of Joseph, taken when he was running through the sprinklers on an unusually warm May day.  I love my boy's ebullience and zest for life.

 And, finally, here are first day and last day of school pictures.  Notice the bleary eyed look on the last day of school. We had Yancey cousins staying with us that week and I don't think Joseph got a lot of sleep!

Catching up with Aubrey

One of my favorite things about parenting is watching my kids develop their own talents and interests.  Each of our kids has had a clear vision of what they enjoy and talents they want to develop from the time they were small.  Each of them is incredibly unique. None are carbon copies of Dan or me (if that were true, then all the science experiments I exposed my kids to at early ages would have created a wanna-be doctor like me.  Nope).

I find it so interesting to watch the process of the kids finding interests that "speak" to them. When they find their niche, they never have to be reminded and encouraged to pursue that interest. They seem to find a sense of purpose and "flow" that is impossible to fake and force.

I started thinking about this topic the other day when I started organizing pictures into a logical order to post on the blog in order to catch up the last few months.  I separated the pictures by child and noticed how each child's interests and goals were evident in the pictures just from the last few months.

The first catch-up blogpost will be focused on Aubrey.

The first two weekends of March Aubrey performed as a vivacious, beautiful and pink-haired Mersister in a community production of The Little Mermaid.

At the end of each performance the Mersisters would greet their adoring young fans and sign autographs.  So cute!  By the way, by the second week of shows Aubrey's wig was changed out for the long-haired one below. Much better than the pink fluff she had to wear the first week.

Hey, look . . . in Aubrey's bio in the program I even got recognized and thanked for driving Aubrey to oodles of theater and voice lessons over the years!

 And a close-up look at her theater makeup on the way to a performance.

On May 30th Aubrey performed in a recital for her private vocal lessons.  She sang a jaw-dropping rendition of a ballad from the musical Ghost.  

 She and her best friend Emma were the emcees for the entire event, and they were HILARIOUS.  They even pulled off with great finesse a comic musical theater number to start the show.

This sweet girl of ours works hard to overcome challenges which would be daunting to anyone.

This day we were celebrating her completing her first bloodtest.  She said "it wasn't that bad."


And, I love this about Aubrey. She seeks out opportunities to strengthen her spirit. I was lucky to spend a few hours with her in the temple while the youth in our ward performed baptisms for the dead.

And one more picture, just because.  We had a few crazy rainstorms the end of May.  When it's raining hard I try to pick up Aubrey from the bus stop, which is a block away.  One day the storm came on so suddenly and so strong that by the time I processed that it was time for the bus dropoff, Aubrey and our two neighbors were almost home. They were absolutely sopping wet.  It looked like they had taken a shower in their clothes.  Aubrey didn't want to ruin her shoes so she waded home through the flooded street in her tights.  When she got home she was HYSTERICALLY laughing.

And that's a glimpse into Aubrey's life through the end of school. Next up, Joseph.