School Things

Abby has always been our little artist!

She has really enjoyed taking an art class in middle school this year.

Here are a couple of her things on display...

Josh had an exciting orchestra concert recently.

Lots of visual effects and fun songs.

It's hard to see here but for Uptown Funk they turned all the lights off and we enjoyed the movement of their many glow sticks attached to their bows, instruments and bodies :)

This is also hard to see but they did a medley of Star Wars songs and they had 4 or 5 costumed people walk down the aisle and stand in front as they played...

They ended with a 12 minute medley of Harry Potter music and had clips from all the movies playing on the screen behind them...

Afterward, kids were getting their pictures with the Star Wars characters.

I asked Josh if he wanted to but he decided he would be too embarrassed so we went out to the car.  As he was putting his cello in he changed his mind so we rushed in and he got up the courage to go ask for a picture.  I was so proud of him...in a funny way, more proud of that action of courage than  of his playing in the concert.

Every year the 5th graders do a wax museum.

Matt chose to do Davy Crockett...

He did an awesome job of memorizing his speech in English and Spanish!

Ben's class came in to see the museum and Matt was quick to go over and give him a hug.  I love that these two are in the same school again and get to see each other during their day.

That same day was Dr Seuss's Birthday and Ben's class celebrated big time.

All the teachers dressed up and they encouraged the kids to dress up as well.  I thought his cute "Go Go" shirt that they gave him for Christmas was perfect for a "costume" :)

His teacher sent me this fun picture!

She also recently did an Olympics day with the kids. 

She's such a darling teacher and always good to send pictures home :)

Valentine's Day 2018

I love the colors in this gorgeous bouquet Andy brought home for me!

I found these adorable, mini mason jars at the craft store and new they would come in handy for something!  They made the perfect little Valentines for Ben's bus drivers...

"Hugs and Kisses for my Busing Misses"

I know, cheesy :)

Matt has become a huge fan of pandas recently so we came up with this for his Valentine box for school...

Our porch light is on the fritz so these aren't great pictures but the Young Women came and heart attacked our door.  Bless their cute little hearts!  It was fun to hear them giggling and chattering as they did it :)

Beginning of the Year Odds and Ends

Ben has found something new to line up...

He's done this a few times now.  It's so precious to watch him haul out the heavier ones with such determination on his face but we were afraid he'd drop them on his toes so we have since locked the room where we store them.

My Grandma "O" had an old, green chalkboard in her kitchen for as long as I can remember.

It must have been at least 2 years ago that Matt was visiting and drew a picture (of himself?).

Grandma didn't erase it and when we were over at her home a few Sunday evenings ago to sift through some of her things it was fun for Matt to see it still there.

It took us a while but we were finally able to get our canvases from Hawaii hung in our room :)

Here is another mini barn quilt I painted for my dear friend's birthday...

Just a couple of weeks into the new year I was out and about on a Saturday morning during some freezing rain.  I slipped and sprained my wrist pretty badly.  We even went and got it x-rayed just to be sure it wasn't broken but it all looked fine.

I'm finally starting to feel like it's completely healed.

It sure put a damper on my workouts for a while though :)

Shortly after Andy was called as the bishop for our ward a sweet friend dropped this gift off on my doorstep.

I have the most thoughtful friends and neighbors!!!

And lastly, I have to share my obsession with The Pioneer Woman collection at Walmart.

Ever since my sister in law gave us her favorite bath salts in a darling pioneer woman jar for our Christmas Favorite Things, I have been on the prowl.  The jars were sold out online and in most stores I checked but I eventually found some along with a whole lot of other cute things!

We had already been collecting her big cereal type bowls all last year since those were part of this same sister in law's favorite things in 2016...they just make me so happy every time I use them!