Photo of the Week!

I've been tending a baby and poor Berry thought he would cleanup after her and got himself stuck!

Photo of the week!

Ellie and I had fun on the 1st grade field trip to the pumpkin patch.

September 2012: by Bjorn

It’s hard to believe we have a 16-year-old daughter! But as I look at the way she lives her life and conducts herself with her friends and how responsible she is with schoolwork, her job, developing her talents, and everything, I’m so grateful to have this beautiful, mature young woman as my daughter. She truly brings me joy – as do all my children. And she’s a safe, responsible driver as well. I was honored to take her out on her first date on her 16th birthday. We had a lot of fun. I love Auriana’s sense of humor and just hanging out with her and talking and laughing. She has even ventured into the realm of voice impersonations and some witty one-liners. Listen closely and you may catch some of them. Oh, and you’ll have to ask her about the book she is writing.

There comes a time in a father’s life when he finally has to admit that his son is taller than he is. I guess I’m finally to that point and man enough to admit it in writing to the whole family. ☺ And while with one breath its tough to admit, in the next breath I’m proud of a son that has exceeded me in height and will continue to exceed me in so many ways because of his many abilities and talents. Isaac is just finishing up football. He had a fantastic touchdown reception in an overtime game against their rival, Springville, but it was called back because a teammate lined up wrong. He handled it pretty well and only gave the offending player a little bit of a hard time. It has been fun to see him improve in the game and earn the respect of coaches and players. Now on to basketball!

Natalie got invited to be on an accelerated basketball team, so she is going straight from accelerated soccer to basketball and trying to decide if its still possible to fit Irish dance in there somewhere. Her body has taken a bit of a beating this soccer season so we’re actually glad to transition to something hopefully a little less taxing on her bruised tailbone and aching feet. Natalie recently transitioned to a full-size fiddle (she’s using the same one both Jenny and Brenda used to play). Auriana is also working at the fiddle a bit more and so they have had fun playing duets together. This is tricky with only one full-size fiddle in the house, but they do play a fun song together with two bows and one fiddle. In just 5 days Natalie will officially be a teenager. It’s hard to believe we have three teenagers.

Enoch just finished up his soccer season and had a blast. It was fun to see how much he improved over the course of the season. He loved his birthday and was ecstatic to receive a Ninjago Sonic Raider to add to his Lego collection. I’m amazed at how quickly he can assemble those things. I look forward to seeing how his mind transitions that skill into a career as an adult. After parent teacher conference recently we learned that on the school testing that each student does Enoch only missed one question out of the entire series of tests in all subjects. We knew he was smart, but not THAT smart! Enoch and I had a fun time on Thursday building a gate to go on the west side of our house. He stuck with it through every step of the project from taking down the section of fence (under Becky’s guidance the day before) to helping measure, cut, assemble (he loves using the power drill), and hang the gate. He also helped me shop for hardware, dig the hole for the new fence post, and mix and pour the concrete. Now that the concrete is set we just need to put on the latch and rebuild the remaining section of fence. I guess its just like Legos, only life-size, and so he’s a natural at it. ☺

Miriam had a fun soccer season as well. Although she enjoyed having her dad as the coach, I think some of her teammates wished otherwise because the only two games they won the whole season were the two games I missed. No, I’m not developing a complex… Really, I’m all right. I’ve only cried into my pillow at night twice. ☺ She played great and has definitely come a long way from the oblivious cart-wheeling gymnastics girl in kindergarten to the speedy goal-scoring player she is now. Miriam is loving 3rd grade and of course her teacher loves her and is amazed at how smart and capable she is. Miriam and Ellie took time off of Irish dance to play soccer and so now they’re excited to be back into dance.

Ellie played soccer for the first time this year and had a blast. She takes after the rest of us and loves the sport and is a natural. She put on a great program at school and even memorized the Preamble of the Constitution. Pretty impressive! She loves first grade and can’t wait to turn 7 in November. She’ll be the last in our every-two-weeks birthday period. September 15 through November 5 is an exciting time in our family, and Becky and I are always grateful when we make it through the 4-birthday time frame with happy children and a dollar or two left in our pocket. ☺

We had a fun time hosting the Piano Guys at the Harvest Moon Hurrah this year. It was the biggest crowd we’ve ever had and probably the most people that have ever been in that park for any event in the history of the city. The kids enjoyed getting hoodies signed and meeting Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson after the performance. After such a huge response I’m not sure how I’m going to top that next year.

Work has picked up a bit, for which we’re grateful. With all the kids in school all day now, Becky is trying to figure out what to do with her time. She has had a couple of meetings with people in the Church media & family history departments and is looking into possibilities there. She has also been doing some math tutoring and tending and as always, keeps our family running smoothly and on schedule and happy.

We thoroughly enjoyed watching conference last weekend and are excited and inspired by the news about the missionary age being reduced. When it was announced I could feel the collective “spiritual” gasp from members all over the world as a prophet of God presented the word of the Lord as received through direct revelation. What a neat experience and what an amazing time this is for the Church. A member of our quorum who works at the MTC as a teacher said that leaders there anticipate that the number of missionaries will increase from 58,000 currently to 100,000 in the next year and then likely level off to about 80,000 after that and steadily grow from there. Exciting times! So thrilling and humbling to be a part of this great work, and to be in it with all of you!

Photo of the week!

As a 4th grader,

Enoch took 3rd place in the 1 mile fun run at school. The 1st & 2nd place runners were both 6th graders. He's been quite sore ever since because he pushed himself so hard.