Aubrey at LDS Prom

While I was in Utah for Brandon and Angela's graduation, Aubrey attended her first formal dance, LDS Prom, with a boy from her seminary class.  Dan obliged me by taking pictures of the couple before they left our home.  Funny story . . . the guy doesn't drive yet, so his mom chauffeured them and another couple. She took pictures throughout the night, including pictures from the car while her son was walking Aubrey to the door at the end of the night!  She also sent Aubrey pictures she took of her son in his tux after they got home from the dance. It was a little funny, but both the son and mom were very nice. They had put together gift bags for all of the people in the group, and Aubrey's date brought her flowers as well as a wrist corsage.

Aubrey got ready for the dance with a group of young women in the ward. 

Pictures at our house

Trying to figure out the boutonnière. Eventually Dan had to help! 

Pictures after dinner (at Panera)

 A selfie with her good friend Seth

The gift bag

 And the official dance picture:

Aubrey's 16th birthday Girl's Trip to Portland

The end of March I took these two beautiful girls to stay overnight at a lovely boutique hotel in Portland to celebrate Aubrey's 16th birthday! The historic hotel is decorated with pictures and mementos from Hollywood's classic movies. It was a perfect place to take these two vintage-loving girls!

 The hotel had put a birthday card for Aubrey in the room

 And gave us bottles of sparkling water and beauty face masks.

 We dolled ourselves up for a night on the town

 And walked a mile to 23rd Avenue to window shop and get some treats. We got gourmet pizza for dinner, a few cupcakes to share, Salt n Straw ice cream, and Bluestar donuts. Because why not, we were in celebration mode!  Then we walked back to the hotel. 

 We took some pictures of the interior of the hotel.  Below right, the still functioning mail chute which carries notes from upper floors to the lobby.

Re-creating some of the pictures of classic moments from films.

Then we did our face masks and the girls practiced their relaxed falling onto the bed. True bliss! We watched "You've Got Mail" before falling asleep in the comfy beds.

 In the morning we walked over to a cute bakery we had seen the night before. We enjoyed a variety of pastries for breakfast. Then we checked out and drove to the Saturday Market along the waterfront.

It was a gorgeous spring day! We loved looking at the booths and buying some lunch and homemade caramels. Then we took a few pictures before heading back home to reality.

Joseph is a Boy Scout!

On February 18th Joseph crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. He worked hard to finish his Arrow of Light and Webelos badge.  He received his cool Arrow of Light (made by Cubmaster Dave Vial) and crossed the bridge to Scouts with the help of older friends at the Blue and Gold Banquet.

I was able to spotlight Joseph for a minute before he received the award. This is what I said:
"Joseph has been a delight all of his life. He is the youngest, adored little brother in our family. He has always been vey special friends with his older brother, who was 13 when he was born.  

Joseph keeps us laughing and has such a fun personality. He las lots of smiles and energy and is good natured. 

Joseph is creative and loves to build Legos. He is a great story writer and artist and plays the piano and cello. He loves sports, video games, playing outside, and amusement parks. He especially likes playing with friends! He is very excited about middle school. He doesn't like homework or haircuts. 

Joseph likes Scouting. He is a hard worker, likes to achieve goals, has a kind heart and sensitivity to the Spirit. 
We love him!" 

 Joseph pinned the "mother pin" on me without impaling me.  Success!  And then he crossed the bridge and took the oath.

Joseph has attended two Scout campouts with his Dad so far. The second time was part of the 11-year-old Scout camp. I was technically in charge of this multi-stake camp, although I have an amazing couple in charge who pulled it off beautifully. Here are a few pictures from the week long day camp. The boys camped overnight Friday with their dads in attendance.  

Here are a few other pictures of Joseph's Scout adventures, 

So far so good for our Scout!

Back to School

School started a week earlier than normal this year, the week before Labor Day. I was glad that we weren't quite as late as usual, because that means that we get out one week earlier in the summer!

This year Joseph is a big 6th grader at the Middle School. He is excited to have 8 different classes AND his own iPad issued by the school. The kids do most of their homework assignments and can play educational games on the device. My little boy has grown so big, and he is such a great kid!

 Aubrey began her junior year! She was not happy about the large amount of summer homework she had to complete over the summer, but looked forward to getting back into a routine and beginning a new play.

 Our favorite Molasses Crinkles for an after school treat. I was at soccer with Joseph when Aubrey got home, so I don't have a picture of her eating her cookies.

And, finally, I love this project Joseph did during the first few days of school. It's an "All about Me brochure" by Joseph Porter. This is his rough draft.
Text: "Hi, my name is Joseph and I am 11 years old. I am friendly, funny, hard working. I was born in Utah.

I think my favorite hobby is reading. My favorite books are Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, Wonder, and Hatchet. The first chapter book series was The Magic Treehouse.

My favorite book is Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.  It's about a boy named Harry Potter who's the chosen one. I chose this book because it has fantasy adventure and awesome characters.

In the future, after high school I want to go to BYU Provo with my friend Alex for college. I also want to be an engineer.

And another fun project from the beginning of school:

Angels

(I found this in my drafts. I'm not sure why I didn't hit "publish" a few months ago, but the sentiments are still immensely valid.) 

Recently I was studying in the Book of Mormon about the people of Limhi and the people of Alma. Their respective righteousness and and attitudes toward adversity are often compared, but I noticed that they both eventually did the exact same thing.  "And it came to pass that so great were their afflictions that they began to cry mightily to God."  (Mosiah 23:10)  "And they did humble themselves even in the depths of humility; and they did cry mightily to God, yea, even all the day long did they cry until their God that he would deliver them out of their afflictions." (Mosiah 21:14) This pattern is repeated throughout scripture as people were humbled to the DEPTHS of humility and cried for relief.

Here's the thing. I totally get this. I relate to what it feels like to be in the depths of humility. 

I have descended to some dark and difficult places as I struggle to help loved ones through challenges.  I have watched loved ones in my home and out of my home deal with things that are so big that I don't know how I can possibly help them.  I have found myself crying "mightily" until God throughout the day and acknowledging to Him that some things are a lot bigger than my mortal ability to carry them. 

As part of God's answer to my prayers, I have felt the presence of angels. At times I have sensed the concern and presence of those beyond the veil who have a personal interest in my well-being and the well-being of my family.  I think that some of my angels are my grandmas who have passed on, and who are rooting for all of us and supporting us when we are weak.  I found myself thinking about a talk a few years ago by Elder Holland.

 "In the course of life all of us spend time in “dark and dreary” places, wildernesses, circumstances of sorrow or fear or discouragement. But I testify that angels are still sent to help us, even as they were sent to help Adam and Eve, to help the prophets, and indeed to help the Savior of the world Himself." 

For me, one of the hardest challenges so far has been watching my children deal with hard stuff. I need to remember Elder Holland's words and that there is power in the covenants I have made with God:

"I ask everyone within the sound of my voice to take heart, be filled with faith, and remember the Lord has said He “would fight our battles, our children’s battles, and the battles of our children’s children.” And what do we do to merit such a defense? We are to “search diligently, pray always, and be believing. Then all things shall work together for our good, if we walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith we have covenanted.”

In addition to heavenly help, I have been lifted by some people in my life who are intuitive, kind, and placed in my life by a loving Heavenly Father. 

"I have spoken here of heavenly help, of angels dispatched to bless us in time of need. But when we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with—here, now, every day.  Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind."

Finally, a few scriptures and words of a hymn which have resonated with me lately. 

 “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, … my Spirit shall be in your heart, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” D&C 84:88

For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Revelations 7:17

Where, when my aching grows,

Where, when I languish,

Where, in my need to know, where can I run?

Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?

Who, who can understand?

He, only One.

September Thoughts

A whirlwind descended on our house about last April and just barely moved on. It's been really hectic. Keeping up a family blog has been the least of my concerns, and my concerns have been many!

In addition, I recently discovered that there are not great options for downloading the blogs to a site where I can edit and then publish blog books. To be honest, that is my primary reason for keeping up a blog. It has been a valuable history for our family, with the added perk of keeping family members who live away from us apprised of our doings. I have been in mourning about the fact that Blurb has stopped talking to Blogger, which makes blog books super difficult. At first I thought I would just forget the blog altogether, and that's still possible. But I am going to TRY something. I will publish a blog post and immediately copy and paste the pictures to a page on a book making site. I will keep adding to the saved book until I have enough to print. That should theoretically help with the blog book dilemma going forward, but does nothing for the 6 YEARS I hadn't yet downloaded and printed. Yikes. I'll have to deal with that another day.

School started a week ago, and so far all is well. I'm holding my breath just a bit. It's a big year. Joseph started middle school and so far really likes it. The highlight of this week was when he got his personal iPad, issued by the school. Most of his assignments will be on the iPad. Aubrey has had this school-issued technology for the last few years. Aubrey started the all-important junior year of high school and has some really tough classes. In addition, she is going to be in a play through Metro this fall. Bailey is back at school at BYU and, from all reports, having a great time. Brandon and Angela have moved to CA, where they are working and checking out microbiology graduate school options.

I have been in my church calling for a year now (and the topic of my church calling really deserves an entire post one of these days).  I finally feel like I know what I am doing and things have settled down after a busy summer of camps and activities we were in charge of. I am enjoying the quiet during the school day to get things under control in the house and work on projects. I have such a long list of projects which I never get to, but I'm slow and steady making my way through them. 

Over the last year I've done a much better job of keeping up a few journals, including a personal journal and my favorite scripture thought journal. So, if my descendants want more info about what is swirling around in my head, they will have to scrounge for the details in the books. 

All is well in Vancouver. That's a good feeling.  It's a beautiful time of year and the weather is perfect. September always feels like a hopeful month of beginnings and fresh starts, even more so than January. Here's to fresh starts.