Another effort!

Since Rex Woods lives here in Utah now and all the demo work done on our house and yard was done by a Rex, we have to be a little more specific when we're telling stories about "Rex."  I delineate them thus: "Rex, My Brother," "Rex, My Uncle," and "Rex the Excavator."  So, I begin this post with some wisdom from Rex, My Brother, who reminded me recently that you can miss one day of something, just don't miss two.  Or you can miss two days of something, just don't miss three.  I haven't blogged the last couple weeks, but that's ok, because I'm going to just not miss another week.

We made it through COPA Concert Week!  There were definitely some fiddly days and a lot of fast food, like on Monday when I worked during school hours, Rafe had a piano lesson straight after school, Merrick had a trombone lesson in Provo at 5, we had just enough time to squeeze in a quick dinner at In-N-Out...

...before Vivien had to be at the Covey for her call time at 6:15, then Merrick and I hung out at Rex's apartment for a bit until Drew and the rest of the kids met us at the Covey for Vivi's show.  Whew!

The show was awesome.  Each of the companies did a medley of songs from a modern Broadway musical, so it felt like going to ten Broadway shows at once, and every single kid had at least one solo in each of the medleys.  Here's a snippet of Vivien's performance.  She was bummed her voice cracked, but I think it was more obvious to her than it was to the audience.  So fun to see her having a blast and enjoying a spotlight!

Annie's tech rehearsal and two concerts were all on Thursday.  We made a day of it with the Alworths.  

Their dance concert was Peter Pan themed.  Jade's class did a rainbow dance so she wore a colorful sparkly dress, but Annie and Rose's class were the lost boys, so their costumes were ripped, stained play clothes.  Annie felt right at home in it because that's about what she normally wears to dance class anyway.  

Here is a study in family skin tone differences.

Grandma Paula and Papa Mark helped us out getting someone in the audience at every performance.  It's always nicer to perform when you know there's a friendly face somewhere out there for you!

Here is a video of Annie's dance.

Someone else in the family made it past a big milestone in January...Haley finished her 3rd pregnancy!  Is that a weird way to say she had a baby?  It sure is!  

But look at all the hairs on his beautiful head.

There's some fun cowlicks in there.

He's a sweet little baby.  

I drove up to meet him when they got home from the hospital.  Mel and Kate tagged along.  Colette didn't come (she'd already met him), but she did catch us all together!

I came up a different day to visit and got to hang out with Theo when Everett went to school and Haley and Lawrence took a nap.

He wanted me to read him a lot of books, but it was afternoon, and nothing makes you sleepier than reading aloud children's books in the afternoon.  He seemed sleepy too, so I had him climb up in his bunk bed, I climbed up after him and blocked the exit, then I promptly fell asleep.  I woke up an hour later when my alarm to get back to my chauffeur job went off, and I was met with this little angel face.  I love you, Fio.

While I'm on Sheffields, Everett had a birthday.  He was very excited in his playful, Everett way.

Haley made an awesome Very Hungry Caterpillar cake, which not only looked amazing, but tasted amazing too!  It was eaten in its entirety.

Sheffields also joined us for Chinese New Year, in which Drew made (from scratch!) many culinary delights, supplemented by dishes from one of the Woks.  I can't remember which one, partially because Haley sent Jacob to the wrong one initially, so it's all confused in my mind still.  

"She happens to be a mother of three!"

Let's talk about trombones for a minute.  Merrick started trombone lessons at the beginning of the school year last year.  When I got Mom's piano tuned a year ago, the guy that showed up to tune it looked very familiar indeed.  We finally connected that we had been in BYU Philharmonic at the same time and reminisced over shared music for awhile.  I told him I kind of wished that one of my kids would play a brass instrument, because there are so many fun music things to be a part of when you are a brass player.  A few weeks later he messaged me saying he'd been wanting to experiment with starting a young child from a musical family on trombone, as kids usually don't start until they're in middle school, and would I be interested in having Merrick start lessons?  We hoped it would be helpful for Merrick to have something special that only he does, and help him learn that, in fact, he caaaaaaaaaan, so we went for it!  

I am amazed at what he can do.  I had no idea how much lip control was required to make these instruments work, and he just picks it up intuitively.  

Which is not to say it's all easy for him.  He is putting in lots of hard work and persevering through frustration.  

We have been working especially on rhythm and trying to help his posture.  Sometimes we put the piano bench in front of him so he has to float his slide over it.  The tendency is to fall over. 

Which was better than when the tendency was to only be able to play while laying down.  

Poor Merrick.  His legs have been more unreliable than any of my other children.  It's a wonder he's able to get anything done!

Joe Alessi came to BYU and gave a concert, so we took Merrick to see it, for inspiration.  He was maybe a little young to appreciate it, but hopefully he'll at least remember that he went.  

And how fun is it to live so close to BYU, where amazing things come right to our doorstep on the regular?  Here's one from last October when we took Annie to see Itzhak Perlman.

We had a fun quasi reunion with Forbes cousins in February.  I think it was Daniel that had tickets to a Jazz game, so he and Marcus and Drew and Mark were going to go, then everyone decided to come, and Jessie and Seth happened to be in town as well for things with the new house they bought in Highland.  I got to be on airport duty for the Washington crowd, which I do actually like.  I think the airport is fun--all the people coming and going, goodbyes and hellos.  Should helloes have an e?  Like potatoes?  Who knows.  Anyway, I got to pick up all these fun boys from the airport and unleash them on JCWs.  

We met them at the park one day.  It had been lovely and sunny all day, and we finally got everything together to go, and arrived at the park at the same time as a snow storm.  We were not entirely dressed appropriately for winter play.  

This is the new park next to Mountain Ridge Junior High.  I was cracking up that they have these telescopes in the play towers.  You can spy into the windows of all the houses lining the south side of the park.  

After the park in the snow we needed to warm up.  

It's hard to get a good picture of 7 children at once.  So here are two medium pictures that will hopefully yield a net sum of good.

It was Baby Luke's birthday while everyone was here, so Aunt Jessie threw a party for him.  She is a sweet momma...

...and was very thoughtful of her party participants whilst planning activities.  

Also while Forbeses were here we visited Clint's reptile room.  

You've got to be careful here...

...because you just never know where those snakes are going to pop up.

There were some who tolerated the snakes...

...and some who exhilarated...

...and some who loved.  

Vivien kind of went into a trance with this boa. He was a lazier snake than others.  

The yellow one wanted to explore...

...no matter where he was...

...or who was holding him.

Meanwhile Rafe was getting into a standoff with the giant skink.

I just love this place!  It is so relaxing in an unexpected way.

What other fun things?  Paula, Jessie, Melanie, Camille, and I went to be The Ladies Who Brunch at Hash Kitchen one morning, which was as delicious as it was unique.

Also the children who are adults went and did an escape room together one night.  It was a really good one!  I want to take my kids back to do it now that I know where all the answers are.

Here's a little shot from dinner at Meme's.  Jet always has some YouTube gems to show the kids.

And here's Paula with her beautiful new harp!  She started taking lessons when she retired (and after she recovered from her knee injury).  She was showing me all the incredibly picky things she has to be able to do physically before her teacher will let her play more interesting things.  

I've got a bunch of goofy Rafe pictures to tuck in here.  

He makes the silliest faces!

And plays the silliest games.  

Oh I remember why I took this video.  I was trying to get a snippet of when they chase each other and the chased will scream SANCTUARY!  Like this:

Here is Rafe in his bedroom.  He likes to stay up reading ebooks on the ancient iPad, and then he likes to sleep in.

He enjoyed his basketball season and is definitely starting to understand where to be.  He was very brave with his dribbling as well.  I always admire this, because when I play basketball I want to get rid of the ball as fast as possible instead of trying to take it anywhere myself.

I only have one random picture of Vivien from February.  She asked me to drop her off a little ways before the bus stop one morning...so she could share her umbrella with her friend who was walking.  Awwww!

Here's two quick cuties of Annie.  She spends most of sacrament meeting draped across my leg.

And she loves our neighbor's new cat, Scout.  We all love Scout.  He is a curious and playful creature who tolerates a great deal of holding by small children.  Gem of a cat.

I never would have imagined I would have so many cats in my yard all the time.  

Oh goody!  Only three more pictures.  I've been going to physical therapy for my ankle to see if I can get it feeling better faster.  This electric therapy makes me laugh, because it makes my toes do crazy things when their muscles are activated by sources that are not my own brain.  It's similar to how I feel about testing reflexes.  So many giggles that day in nursing school.

I visited R&M Woods' workshop to return some handles we weren't going to use.  Look at all the beautiful things being built!  It was fun to see where our cabinets came from.

It's starting to get warmer so we are trying to figure out what to do with our yard.  Cue many hours spent taking pictures, standing and looking at things, sketching out ideas, and changing my mind countless times.  I confess I am pretty burnt out on making decisions.  Stupid fire!