25 October 2015

Sofi turned 18 on Monday!  She's frighteningly busy this year, but since her birthday was on family night, we had plenty of time to celebrate with her.  We're proud of Sofi for working hard and taking on new challenges!

Becky met Sofi, Joey and Ireland for lunch on Sofi's birthday.  The girls only had about 30 minutes break from school, just enough time for a quick picnic.  

Gib made a superhero cape at pack meeting this week.  He was Captain Helpful.

 We had our piano tuned for the first time ever this week.  The piano was so far out of tune the tuner had to tune it twice-- once to get it close and once to fine tune the sound.  He also fixed the broken B flat key that was making Sofi crazy.  It was very interesting to see all the moving parts inside the piano.

 Helen and Gibson dressed up for punk day at their school.  Gib wore an orange faux-hawk.

 Helen made an anxious face while Becky sprayed the ends of her hair orange.

 Here they are ready for school.  We had a busy day Friday-- no time for a shower after school-- so Gib got to wear his crazy hair to his cello lesson, group cello class and the Primary program practice.

 Becky and Brandan dressed as the March Hare and the Mad Hatter for a couples Halloween party.  

On Saturday, Brandan and Becky went mountain biking.  We started our ride by riding up a dirt road to the trailhead.  The road went along this pretty creek.

At the trailhead, we pushed our bikes uphill until we got to the top of the ridge.  From there, we got an a trail that was mostly level or downhill.  Downhill was more fun than uphill.

 We had mini monster pizzas for dinner tonight.  The kids liked making monster faces with the toppings.  

Our ward had the Primary Sacrament Meeting program today.  Helen's part was "For me to come unto Christ means to believe in Him."  Gib recited the 4th article of faith.  We have over 80 kids in our Primary and every child had a speaking part.  With that many kids singing, and with great preparation from our Primary chorister, the songs sounded amazing.

18 October 2015

Back in April, our ward held an auction to raise money for summer youth camps.  Our family donated a few services to the auction, including a custom Halloween costume.  The buyer provided the concept and we donated materials and labor.  There's no use for a Halloween costume in April, so Becky waited until October to fulfill our donation.  The boy who won the auction asked for a Scrooge costume, specifically Scrooge as he was dressed when the Spirits visit him.  Here's a photo of Abe modeling the finished costume.  He's making a sour face to look like Scrooge.

This is a toasty costume.  The nightcap and dressing gown are made of polar fleece.  Here's a photo of the nightshirt by itself.  This was a fun costume to sew.

Helen gave a talk in Primary about inviting others to come unto Christ.  She drew a picture of Ammon teaching King Lamoni to illustrate her talk.

Our friend recently returned from Israel and gave Brandan a candy bar.  Abe wanted to try the candy, but the label was written entirely in Hebrew.  Abe figured out how to translate the label and painstakingly worked word by word to read the ingredient list.  Luckily, it was safe for him to eat.

Our friend, Massoud, cooked dinner for our family and 2 other friends, Chuck and Iona.  Massoud's beloved wife passed away 6 months ago.  We all knew and loved Debbie and Massoud likes spending time with people who sympathize with his loss, even if we don't feel it as deeply as he does.  Massoud immigrated from Iran following the Islamic Revolution of 1979.  He offered to cook us a Persian dinner.  He arrived at 3 pm Sunday afternoon to begin cooking.  Brandan, Iona and Chuck helped chop vegetables while Sofi took notes so we can recreate his recipes.

After smelling tantalizing odors all afternoon, we sat down around 6 pm for a delicious dinner.  We ate celery soup and a Persian rice and potato dish.  Celery soup is a savory mix of vegetables, beef and spices. It's thick like stew.   We all loved the dinner and the company.

11 October 2015

We said goodbye this week to Helen's violin teacher, Kimberly.  Helen was one of Kimberly's first students when she started violin lessons over 5 years ago.  Kimberly is a fantastic musician and patient teacher.  She's moving to New York to advance her musical career.  We're excited for her opportunities, but sad to see her go.

Gibson wanted to earn some money this week so he did extra chores like cleaning out the front closet.  This photo was taken after he pulled everything out.  The closet is nicely organized now.

 Helen and Gibson didn't have school on Friday so we met Brandan at his clinic for a picnic lunch.

Abe's team won a soccer game on Saturday!  Abe played defense.

Here's the team after the game.  Although the team has maintained a good attitude through a string of losses, it's nice to have a win.  They showed plenty of sympathy for the losing team.

 Brandan took Gib to ride bumper boats Saturday afternoon.

The weather was hot and sunny.  It feels more like summertime than October right now. 

Our Primary president worked together with an artist in our ward to create this beautiful collage of all the Primary children in our ward surrounding the Savior.  Helen is on the left of the painting, about 3 heads away from Jesus.  Abe is on the very top to the right.  Gibson is on the same side as Abe, about halfway between Jesus and Abe.

 Brandan and Sofi sang an a cappella duet of the song "I Love the Lord" in Sacrament Meeting today.  Brandan home teaches our ward music director and she asked them to prepare a song.  This song is Brandan's favorite. Here's a video of the BYU Men's Chorus singing it.

4 October 2015

Sofi's school celebrated Homecoming this week with lots of dress up days.  Monday was pajama day. Tuesday was hippy day.  Sofi learned how to play "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Yellow Submarine" on the ukulele to go along with her costume.

 Wednesday was fandom day.  The idea was to support the person, team or fictional character you are a fan of.  Sofi chose the Disney princess fandom as an excuse to wear her Belle costume (from Beauty and the Beast).

 Thursday was Fake an Injury Day.  Who thinks up these things?  Sofi used make up to look like she had been in a fight.  She even created fake bruises on her knuckles and put a rock in her shoe so she would remember to limp all day.

 Sofi took a break from dressing up on Friday so she could attend her first day of school at the community college.  She's excused from high school every Friday because the Physics with Calculus class replaces her math class.  Sofi likes the lab, but the 3 hour lecture is a little long.

 We had Abe's soccer team over to roast hot dogs Friday night after practice.  They haven't won any games, but they like earning parties through their alternative point system.  Gib started a fire for the hot dogs before they got to our house. 

We made a scarecrow for our garden.  Our summer garden is nearly spent.  We've planted kale, brussels sprouts, baby bok choy and garlic for the cooler weather.

Brandan and Abe harvested all the sunflower seeds from our only sunflower.  We planted at least 20 sunflowers, but only one grew.  The seeds are a tasty snack.

We've enjoyed a fantastic conference weekend.  Helen asked if we could set up a tent for conference like some of her friends do.  This backpacking tent fit in the middle of the family room with space for 3 kids to share.  

 Gibson's night vision goggles helped him take notes Sunday morning.

 Sofi worked on a freezer paper T-shirt, an activity that has become a conference tradition for her.  She decorated a black T-shirt with a silver sugar skull.  The photo shows her ironing the freezer paper onto her shirt.

Conference was over far too quickly!  Sofi liked Sister Marriott's talk and her cool accent.  Abe liked Sister Stephens' story about trying to get her granddaughter Chloe to stay in her carseat.  Helen's favorite song was "Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer" because it was so beautiful.  Gibson also liked Sister Marriott's voice.  Becky will remember Elder Klebingat's prayer to "endure to the end and also ENJOY to the end."  Brandan appreciated Elder Bednar's recap of the last words of the departed leaders we have grown to love over their years of service.