Marian's Birthday

July 3, 2015

Every year, Lynn and Marian would celebrate Marian's birthday by having a bar-b-q in the canyon. So I suggested we should still do that this year to remember her.  We had breakfast and it was a wonderful time with family! Sue and Travis and their family came, as well as Dirk and Suzette (Lynn's oldest son) and their family.

Most of our time was spent following Jody while she played in the water. 
It was a beautiful day!

Lance found a little snake. 
Jody and the rest of the kids loved looking at it and touching it.

We miss you Marian!!

Summerfest at BYU

June 14-20, 2015

I had a really amazing opportunity this year to be on the Summerfest faculty at BYU.  Summerfest is a week-long music camp for all instruments and voice.  The kids have private lessons, master classes, orchestra, choir, ensemble, and more.  It's an amazing opportunity to work on a lot of music and work with other teachers and directors. It's also a way to ultimately decide if a music major at BYU is a good fit for the student.  It's like EFY for music.  It's pretty amazing, and is a lot of practicing and work.  I was the "harp faculty" for it and I had five young harpists to work with.  It was such a great experience!

We had to fit all five harps in the studio (which is tight with just two). 
 I had to sit on the desk during this hour so that everyone could see me.

They did the greatest job! I'm so proud of them!

Meanwhile, Marilyn Hulme babysat Joanne the whole week, I was able to come back for a three hour break each day, but Marilyn and Abbie and Amy were complete lifesavers! And Joanne had a grand time swimming every day and playing with Jay Z!

New Haircut

June 6, 2015

My hair has been too long for too long.  Especially since Joanne likes to pull hair these days. It. Needs. To. Go. So Kelly was wonderful and came with me to watch Jody while it was being cut. Then we went to Thanksgiving Point and had a grand old time!

Before (it looks awful, but I never actually wore it like this.) 
It was always in a braid, ponytail or beautifully curled.

After. SO. MUCH. BETTER! (Thank you, Eliza!)

We sure love Auntie Kelly!

On a horse ride!

We are having another GIRL!!!

May 27, 2015

We could not be more thrilled to be having another GIRL!!  Joanne will be a big sister! 

She's adorable already! 

Cast Off

May 5, 2015

Joanne finally got her cast off. Having the cast was not a terrible experience at all! They gave her a waterproof cast so she could even go swimming with it! She never complained about it at all. It was almost nice to have because you could hear her little "peg leg" and know where she was all the time. But her constant running commentary of life also does that - so that's still there.

The miracle of the day was that Jayce Porter (Sarah's husband) - who is literally one of Jody's favorite people, happened to be working with our doctor that day, and was able to take off her cast.  That really made her feel a lot less nervous about getting it sawed off.  Thank you Heavenly Father.  Such a  tender mercy!

Such a big girl!

Our Garden!

April 2015

One perk of our new house is the garden plot. It's a good thing Joanne loves helping Daddy work in the yard!  And it's a good thing that Daddy loves having her help!

Daisy, Jody and Daddy working in the garden.

Daisy puts up with a LOT! 

And that cast is so sweet that I'll almost be sad to see it go!

Payson Temple Open House

April 29, 2015

We are so lucky to have the Payson Temple 10 minutes away from our house! We can literally see it from our house!
                                         

The beautiful celestial room!

The baptistry

Joanne and I went to the open house three times. On the second time visiting she remembered the oxen so well (as cows) that she ran through the line of people ahead of us yelling "cows!" and "moo!" as loud as she could.  It was hard to get mad at that. Too funny and cute! But of course we tried to quiet her down. 

Waiting in line is hard!

Joanne loved the flowers

Payson temple with Grandma

She just wanted to play in the fountain - not take a picture!

She makes that cast look GOOD!

Wilson Hulme's Homecoming

April 26, 2015

Wilson Hulme returned home from his mission to Mexico, Mexico City South last week. His homecoming talk was on Sunday.  It's always so exciting to have family come home from their missions and it's a good excuse for the family to get together.

Matthias, Rebecca and Cora were in town for a wedding, so they were able to come too! It was such fun to see them!
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Back-lit, but it's all we have! Matthias and me with our girls.

Cora and Joanne. Jody is 2 1/2 months older.  They are adorable together!

I can't wait for them to know each other better!

Suzuki Training

April 24 - May 2, 2015

BYU got a grant this year for all of the harp faculty and students to be able to do the Suzuki Book 1 training with Mary Kay Waddington - the person who started Harp Suzuki. It was an incredible opportunity to learn how to become a better teacher and to learn the Suzuki method.  

For nine days we all met at Nicole Brady's house to learn from Mary Kay.  We had to learn and memorize the Suzuki Harp Book 1.  It was a bit daunting for me since I am not really in a practicing stage right now. Actually, to even be in the class I had to memorize and send in a video of me playing Hindemith Sonata No. 1.  I think we probably did 20 takes of the video before I had one that was good enough.  

During the class at Nicole's we would pass off the pieces in Book 1 and learn how to specifically teach each piece.  Mary Kay critiqued all of us as we played - from the best of us to the worst.  It was enlightening! 

Mom came and took care of Joanne during this time - which was wonderful!! I drove to Nicole's with Anamae Anderson every day and we had a great time! I loved spending time with her!

Seven harps were stuck in the room for us to play on. 

A tight squeeze!

The whole group (minus Janet!) in front of Lyon and Healy from left to right: Nicole Brady, Misha Farnsworth, Cami Anderson, Laura Bennion, Jane Clark, Bianca Collings, Katie Graham, Lindsey Wheeler, Eliza Holland, Anamae Anderson, Me, Mary Kay Waddington, Lethicia Caravello, Hannah Cope

Samuel Graduates!!!!

April 15, 2015

We are all so proud of Samuel!! He graduated from LDS Business College this week! 

That day was a little crazy.  Joanne was pretty sick so it was hard to find a babysitter for her!  She took a nap at her Grandma Shelley's, but Shelley had obligations that night so we had to move her. Chantelle Daines was so thoughtful to take her while we had dinner at PF Chang's. THANK YOU Chantelle! That saved our lives! It was a busy day but so worth it!

The graduation was in the Tabernacle and was beautiful! Elder Neil L. Andersen spoke and it was a wonderful talk.  Grandma and Grandpa, David, Mom, Papa, and I were there.

Way to go, Samuel!!!!

At dinner. 

Left to right: Van Norman (Samuels mentor and tutor. He is full service missionary who helps at the LDS Business college and tutors students.  He's a Godsend!), Papa, Samuel, Mom, David, Me

Family Pictures

Conference Time - April 4, 2015

We are so lucky to have such a talented sister as Kelly.  She is a terrific photographer.  So we took advantage of her and she was willing to take our family pictures!  She got such beautiful shots! Thank you, Kelly!! 

This dress is fun because I wore it when I was a little girl! I love it!

  

Broken Leg

April 2, 2015

I have been working at BYU as part of the harp faculty, teaching 160 R harp lessons since last September, and it's the best job ever! I really love teaching and it's so fun to be back at BYU ! I only work about 6 hours a week, but that means I have to get a babysitter for Joanne while I am working. Luckily my dear friend Brittany said she would babysit for me this semester.

Well, poor Brittany was helping Jody out of her car, and little Jody stepped the wrong way and broke her leg.  When I went to pick her up she was really sad.  She just slept a lot and wouldn't put weight on her leg. But I couldn't figure how she would have broken it. So we waited a day to see what a night's sleep would do.  Since it didn't help at all we took her to the doctors, and sure enough, she had broken her leg.  Once it was in a brace she was all happy again.  But until then it was miserable!

This bath picture is before we found out her leg was broken, but it was a place she wasn't as sad.

This was after we finally got the brace on her leg.  
She never falls asleep in the car, but she was so exhausted from such a miserable day, that she did. 

Once the brace was on, life was good again!

Easter egg hunt with the brace! 
She still walked pretty well. 

And now she has a cast!

Our New House!!

February 14, 2015

We have really loved living in Spanish Fork, but our house was a little far from Lance's work, so we wanted to move closer to Mona.  We were able to find our dream neighborhood, and our dream house in that neighborhood! So we decided to jump in and move!

On Valentines Day, we finally were able to move into our new house in Santaquin!! It is so exciting to be in such a new and beautiful house!! We got the greatest deal on this house!  It was bank owned - so they were pricing it to sell fast -  but the inside had been completely redone. So we got basically a brand new house for so little. We are thrilled with it!

Jody and Daisy love our new house!