Christmas Newsletter 2018

Merry Christmas!

We have had another great year full of creating lasting
memories - usually without the documentation! With
the kids getting older and involved in more activities
we were not able to take many trips this year, but we
were able to fly to Minnesota and visit Wisconsin and
North Dakota.

Ben stays busy with work in the City as the
Assistant Leisure Services Director. He is also teaching
a class at the university this year. Ben decided he wants to
do the St. George Ironman this next year and has been
busy training. He has also kept busy with serving in the
Bishopric in our ward and that has been a blessing to our
family.

Jill has been busy homeschooling the kids and
chauffeuring the kids to all their activities. She also
volunteers for many of their activities, including
helping with costumes and backstage at the dance
studio and the kids’ musical theater group. Jill is
still serving in the ward Young Women’s and having
a great time with the girls.

Jenna has been busy with her passion - dance. She is at
the studio five days a week taking classes and being a
Teacher’s Assistant for some younger classes. She
recently started her own dance studio in our home and
is teaching five sweet girls. According to Jenna, the best
to happen this year was to get her pointe shoes and go
en pointe in ballet. She also works hard in her
schoolwork and is a great help to her younger siblings
with their work. After a really great SAT score as a 7th
grader, she had decided to skip a grade and is doing great
in 9th grade. She was the Indian Chief and assistant
choreographer in Peter Pan this summer. She loves going
to Young Womens’ activities, girls camp, and seminary.

Westley loves sports and anything that can be remotely
competitive. Much of his free time is spent practicing
sports, playing with friends, and coding. He played
soccer, football, volleyball, basketball, and participated
in track, cross country, and ninja warrior training this
year. He ran his first half marathon and also
participated in a couple of Ninja Warrior competitions.
Westley has also began to really enjoy playing the piano
and is even taking lessons from someone besides his
mom. He has a passion for coding. After becoming
proficient in Scratch, he has been learning Python and
Javascript programming languages. He enjoys his
computer programming club and wants to work for
Nintendo someday, after being a pro football player,
an Olympic marathoner, and a concert pianist, of course.

Charlotte enjoys art, musical theater, dancing, sports,
swimming, reading, and sleeping. She was in a couple
of plays this year, including the part of Tinker Bell in
Peter Pan. She relished the role and it was perfect for
her. She also participates in several dance classes and
a choir. She just loves to perform. She also enjoys
sports including volleyball, swimming, and soccer. She
has also taken a few art and baking classes and is always
drawing. Her favorite thing to draw is ponies.

Homeschool Choir

Jenna and Charlotte participated in a homeschool choir this fall. They learned some traditional English wassailing songs. Their costumes were poor, English children from Charles Dickens' time. They had a few performances including one at a Christmas Dickens' festival.

Volleyball

Westley and Charlotte both played volleyball this year. It is one of Charlotte's favorite sports to play. I think she likes it best because she gets personal space. She doesn't like people close to her. Ben and I helped coach their teams.

Frog Dissection

We did our first dissection! We dissected a frog, and the kids were not too sure they liked it. I was nervous about it too, but found it quite interesting. Good thing we have Ben in our family and he has experience with dissections.

Halloween '18

I did not do a good job of getting a picture of the kids this year, but my friends did get a picture of our Trick or Treating group that has two of my kids in it. Charlotte was a Halloween spider or something like that and Westley was Mario again.

Hurt Again!

Poor kid! Westley can't seem to catch a break during football season. Last year he hurt his eye and had to miss some games, and this year he fell and hurt his arm. Luckily it was not broken, just very badly bruised. But the poor kids had to miss a week of football, and honestly he probably should have missed two weeks. It is just too hard to keep that kid at bay.

Mom and Westley Date

Ben won some tickets to The Prince of Egypt, so Westley and I were able to go together. We had a fun time, even though it was quite cold. The sets and effects were amazing. 

Charlotte and the Arts

Charlotte loves the arts: drawing, painting, theater, dance, singing, etc. She also has started to enjoy baking. The other day she did something to combine two of her loves: baking and art! (She also added in a third love: zebras.) She made this cake and used fondant to decorate it. It was her first time using fondant.

She really is loving drawing lately. Paper is going quickly at our house. Here is a recent picture she drew that is one of my favorites.

1st Place Overall!

Westley recently won 1st place overall in a 5K race. We figure he won over $150 in gift cards in just September. Pretty cool for an 11 year old.

My Little Napper

It is totally normal for a 9 year old to nap, right? Charlotte has just always needed naps when other kids have not. I think she is getting close to outgrowing them soon though.

Peter Pan

The girls were in Peter Pan Jr this summer. They really had a great time in this play. Jenna was a pirate and the Indian Chief. Charlotte was Tinker Bell. It was the perfect part for her. Tinker Bell is a little sweet, a little sassy, and cute all at the same time. She really relished the roll and did a great job. I was quite nervous for her, because she has never had such a large role, but she stepped up to the plate and performed wonderfully.

Races including the Summer Games

 The boys have participated in a few races lately. Ben decided to do an half ironman next year and has begun to train.

 First, they both participated in a triathlon (swim, bike, run).
Ben did really well, especially considering he just started training recently. He was 6th overall and won an award in his age division.

Westley did really well too, even though he went off course a few times! He won first place in the kids race by just over 1 second! He won a bike helmet, which is perfect because he really needed a new one.













The boys also raced in the Utah Summer games 5K and 10K (3.1 and 6.2 miles). Westley won a gold and a silver medal. He was first in his age division in the 10K and 2nd in the 5K.


Ben won third place in his age division in both races.

Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota

We recently took a trip to North Dakota to visit family and see our oldest niece graduate high school. We decided it would be a good experience for the kids to fly and then we could visit two states we had not visited before.

In Wisconsin we visited a State Park with a beautiful waterfall. It was nice to go on a hike after being in the airplane for so long.

While in North Dakota we visited a section of Highway called the Enchanted Highway. Every few miles or so there was a giant metal sculpture. One man has made this sculptures as a way to keep people visiting through the small towns. Below are a few of the sculptures.

While we were at Ben's sister's house we had a little adventure. Westley went running one evening with Ben and when he got back he complained about his knee. I looked down and his knee was twice the size as the other one! By the next afternoon the swelling had not gone down (most of his leg was swollen as red by this point) so we got to visit the ER! The doctor said it was cellulitis, gave him an antibiotic shot, and a prescription. It worked and he was soon feeling better.

Before we flew home we were able to visit the Mall of America. It is the biggest mall in the United States and it was huge! I can understand why there would be such a big mall in Minnesota, I am guessing it is not pleasant to go outside during the winter. The kids were quite fascinated and we had a great time mini golfing, checking out the huge stores, and seeing the indoor amusement park.

Dance Evolution

The girls' dance performance this year was Dance Evolution. They both did a great job. Jenna has improved a ton this year. She was even in some advanced classes. She really loves dance and wants own her a dance studio one day.

 Jenna is on the far left

First Mud Run

 When Westley learned that there was a mud run, of course he wanted to try it. It was a perfect combo of two of his favorite sports: running and ninja. And, of course, it is always fun to play in mud. He had a great time!

Soccer Champions!

Both Westley's team and Charlotte's team were champions in their city league this year. Westley's team really learned how to work well together as a team. Sadly, we did not get any pictures of his soccer season. Charlotte's team also did well and Charlotte even played offense a couple of times.

Easter '18

Another Easter has come and gone. I am having trouble believing my kids are getting so old that we might not be doing this much longer.

Bananagrams

Westley decided to try to use every letter in the Bananagrams game to make a giant crossword. He wanted a picture to remember.

Arts Festival Dance Performance

The girls' studio performed some of the pieces they are working on at the Arts Festival. They did and great job and I am excited to see their final performance in a couple of months!

Learning Pickleball

The kids and I have recently taken up pickleball as part of our homeschool PE. The kids are having a great time and I like that I don't have to run around that much.

First Half Marathon

Westley ran his first Half Marathon (13.1 miles) recently. He has been bugging us for years (since he was 8) to do a Marathon, but we just are not comfortable with it yet. However, when some kids from is cross country wanted to train for a half marathon during the winter we decided to let him join. It was his first time running that much in one day so we told him to take it easy. It was a hilly trail run and he did a great job. Afterwards he said his legs were a little tired, but he wanted to play in his soccer game that afternoon, even though we decided it was best just to watch and support instead.

Giant Unicorn

Charlotte stopped sucking her thumb and earned a giant unicorn stuffed animal. This kid is obsessed with stuffed animals, so the promise of a giant one was just the motivation she needed.

Musical Review

Our children's musical theater group recently performed a musical review and the the girls both had solos as Fiona in I Know It's Today from Shrek the Musical. They both were great and the whole show was fun and entertaining.