Singing at the Tabernacle

Andy has an annual meeting called "Evening with a General Authority".

It is broadcast from the Salt Lake Tabernacle and one of the 12 apostles addresses 

Seminary and Institute employees and spouses from around the world.

This year our area was invited to be the choir for the meeting.

We gathered several times in the weeks beforehand and learned our songs.  We had a wonderful director...it was amazing what he was able to get out of us mostly inexperienced singers :)

Here are some of us altos in between our final practice and the performance.

A couple of guys found life size cutouts of a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir  downstairs.  Andy decided he needed a picture with one and was disappointed that the pattern of the cardboard showed up on her face...

Elder Ballard was the speaker and aside from the hot lights focused on the choir seats, it was a very pleasant evening.

We had such a good time performing and spending time with good friends.

Fun Park and Father/Daughter

It seemed like the kids had several days off of school in February between holidays and teacher prep days etc...

Anyway, my parents offered to take Ben on one of those days for a few hours so we could go do something fun with the other kids without having to worry about him.

The kids chose The Fun Park...something I don't think we've ever done as a family.

The highlight was laser tag.  It was my first experience with it and I thought it was a blast.  Everyone got a kick out of me screaming when they would come around the corner and surprise me :)

We spent a good amount of time playing all the other games as well...

(I think if Andy thought about the pictures I take ending up on my blog he wouldn't make such silly faces when I point the camera his direction :)

   

We love our little Ben but he does make it hard for the whole family to participate in many activities.

Sometimes we worry that the other kids don't get the attention they need and deserve.

So although this little excursion might not seem worth blogging about, it was kind of a big deal to us.

Thanks Mom and Dad :) 

Plus, anytime Ben gets to spend time with "Bapa" and "O" it's very exciting to him so we never feel very bad about leaving him behind.

That month I helped plan and pull off a Daddy/Daughter activity for the older Primary girls.

We did a Valentine themed Minute to Win It.

 

For treats we had a hot chocolate bar and homemade cinnamon rolls.

Classic Oreo on the forehead game...

We were thrilled with the great turnout we had...only missing a couple of girls

School Doings

Here's a few things that have been happening in the schools...

Blurry pictures of Matt at reading counts assemblies

Abby too...

Matt and I had our annual western night.

He's a grand, little cowboy and square dance partner!

Abby had a presentation for her SEM group.

She chose the Great Depression as her topic.

Well done Abs!

Matt is in the Spanish immersion program at school.  His teacher had the kids do a readers theater type thing for the parents.

It's neat to hear what they are learning since he doesn't demonstrate it a whole lot at home.

Josh had an orchestra concert...

and we know that means fun faces :)

This isn't school related, but Josh also participated in something called ASTA.

I really don't know what it stands for but he played a piece for some judges at the university and was critiqued.  I had the pleasure of accompanying him and was so pleased with how well he did. 

Update on Ben

It's been quite a while since I blogged.

So now I'm in catch up mode and I apologize for the barrage of posts headed your way.

I thought I would start with an update on Ben.

In mid January we decided to come off of the medical marijuana.  We had been on it for almost a year and not really seen any benefit.  After the first week off, seizures increased and we began to question our decision.  We contemplated putting him back on the oil because things were definitely worse.  However, after two weeks things went back to normal.  As a matter of fact, last month, he went for three weeks, not seizure free, but cluster free.  We haven't seen that in I don't know how long.

(Lately Ben has taken to piling books, one at a time on top of whomever he wants to read to him).

Seizures haven't been our top concern lately though.

I can't remember if I've mentioned it in any of my past posts or not but Ben has become extremely aggressive.  He hits, head butts, kicks etc.  The weird thing is, quite often, there seems to be no reason for it.  It got so bad last fall that we started going to a psychologist.  He had us try a bunch of different strategies but nothing seemed to help.  The psychologist finally told us there was nothing more he could do.  We have been hoping that it might just be a phase and that things would take care of themselves eventually.  No such luck so far.

It breaks my heart to see other kids afraid of him, his own siblings running and hiding in their bedrooms because he's hurting them.
It has really affected the mood in our home.

He does still has his sweet moments though...

The other morning he climbed up next to Abby on the piano bench while she was practicing.

Then he found Andy doing sit ups and became his buddy.

He's doing fine with school, loves to play on the iPad and watch Super Why, Elmo, Mater and Mickey Mouse.  He eats anything we put in front of him which is a blessed result of the keto diet.

He loves to play outside and in water.  

He enjoys tickling people and is a great, little snuggler (when he's not hitting :)

That's our Ben...and we love him to pieces