December 2013:By Bjorn

Thank you to all of you that came to Ellie’s baptism, and to those who were here in spirit. We were pleasantly surprised to see Teresa there and were grateful for her efforts to wake up early that morning and drive down from Rexburg. It was a wonderful day, a wonderful spirit, and even wonderful weather. Hard to believe we were outside without coats and then two days later it snowed a foot! It’s amazing for Becky and I to realize that all our children have reached the age of accountability and received the ordinances of baptism and confirmation. We were grateful to have so many in the circle for her confirmation and so many wonderful examples she can look up to now and throughout her life.

It’s crazy to realize how quickly Christmas is coming and how quickly it will pass. We’re looking forward to all of us going to the Eclipse concert on Thursday night. Another highlight of our holiday season will be going to see Savior of the World on Christmas Eve. We’ve been thinking of ways to make the holiday more about giving and hope to implement some of the ideas we came up with yesterday.

Auriana is doing quite a few performances in various places with her high school choir group, including Temple Square. She’s looking forward to the Preference dance coming up. Yesterday the three older kids got out their instruments and worked through some Christmas songs and had a fun time putting their own twist on a couple of them. As a parent it’s quite rewarding to see them go through that process as musicians, but also to go through that process as friends and to see the collaboration and cooperation and how much more smoothly that goes now that they’re a bit older and more mature. Auriana has applied to BYU Provo, BYU Idaho, and USU and so we’re just waiting for those responses to see where the next phase of life will take her. She’s very happy to be done with the application process.

Isaac and Natalie are both involved with basketball. Isaac made the sophomore team and has 6:00 am practices most mornings. Natalie is on an accelerated team and is enjoying that along with occasional soccer practices and an upcoming BYU soccer camp to keep her skills up during the offseason. I get to be Enoch’s basketball coach this season and we start practices Tuesday. We’ll fit in a few practices before the Christmas break and then start games the first week of January. Enoch is also doing indoor soccer practices once a week to keep his skills up. I can’t decide if I’m jealous or grateful that they didn’t have accelerated sports when I was a kid. J

Miriam and Ellie are enjoying each other, friends, and seem to be going to some sort of party every weekend. Both they and Enoch are taking piano lessons from a neighbor girl across the street and seem to be enjoying and excelling at it.

Becky and I are keeping ourselves busy with carpooling, tending Poppy and Jimmy Finn (Becky), work, and preparing for Christmas. We enjoy family time and look forward to time with extended family over the holidays. We are grateful for a Savior whose birth we can celebrate and whose life we try to emulate. He lives!

Merry Christmas!

Bjorn, Becky and Family

Photo of the Week!

Ellie's Baptism Day!

Photo of the Week!

Isaac Eagle Scout - Nov. 21, 2013

News of the week!

Isaac made the sophomore basketball team!

Photo of the week!

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Happy Halloween

Tony Stark

An Artist

A Cowgirl

Photo of the week!

"Let's go play a game together!"

Photo of the week!

Happy 14th Birthday Natalie!

Photo of the Week!

Enoch

October 2013: by Becky

The highlight of September was Brenda’s wedding.  What a perfect day!  I still can’t believe the weather cooperated, but it did, and everything turned out so nice.  I enjoyed watching Brenda enjoy the day! 

Other highlights of September were experienced at the millions of sporting events we attended!  Miriam and Ellie have both decided that soccer is their favorite activity.  I am sad if we don’t continue with Irish dance, but we’ll see…they just love soccer!  Enoch’s team has done great in their first year at the state level.  They are so much fun to watch!!  He still plays wing, which is A LOT of running back and forth.  So, after all that conditioning, when the entire school ran the mile last week, he came in first of the 4^th – 6^th graders.  Ellie surprised us too, by coming in 3^rd of the 1^st – 3^rd graders.  Miriam did really well too!  She was running with the 4^th-6^th graders and could see the winners as they crossed the finish line, which means she wasn’t far behind them! Maybe they will be cross-country runners when they get older!

Enoch had his 11^th birthday and graduated from Cub Scouts.  He earned his Arrow of Light and got his “All 20” certificate.  We had a surprise party with his soccer team, which was cold but fun!

Natalie chose to skip her soccer game on conference Saturday morning.   I thought it would be a hard choice, but she didn’t seem to think it was hard at all.  Her team suffered without her though, she is a very good defender and very fun to watch.  We were so glad that Jenny and Chad and family were able to go watch her play in Logan, since Bjorn and I both stayed home to attend Auriana’s choir concert.  Auriana sang beautifully and we enjoyed being there! 

Auriana also had her birthday and I enjoyed a mother/daughter shopping trip with her.  She always dresses so cute and impresses me with her ability to look for and find good prices.  She went to Homecoming the day before her birthday; her date, and the 10 other couples they went with, sang to her in the restaurant.

Isaac had his worst game and his best two football games last weekend.  We went to Heber to watch him play in the JV game where he came just short of scoring twice and lost 7-6.  We left him there to play in the Sophomore game while we went to the choir choncert.  He scored two touchdowns in that game!!  The next day in the varsity game, he was in for only about six plays, but he got the longest run of the game and an interception.  It was so exciting to watch!

 Conference weekend always goes by so fast!  We enjoyed watching the sessions on Saturday in Brenda’s clubhouse on the big screen.  Enoch had a game in Lehi between sessions, so that worked out better for us.  It was fun to have Rachel join us for conference and the game and a picnic…it was beautiful weather that day!  We spent Sunday at home and were glad that Teresa and Rachel could join us!  Brenda came over after and cooked a yummy meal for all of us. 

For FHE on the next day we had fun trying to use our notes to pick a title for each conference talk.  That part of our FHE was actually done while driving to help Matt gather his turkeys.  Enoch helped Matt and his brother catch the 47 turkeys while the rest of us watched and counted in amazement as they all fit into the back of a covered truck.

We are looking forward to Ellie’s baptism on Nov. 30 at 11:00 am.  We would love to have all of you come!  I realize it is Thanksgiving weekend and lots of things are going on, so come if it works out.  We will enjoy you “in spirit” if you don’t come.

Photo of the week!

Isaac

Photo of the week!

Happy 11th Birthday Enoch

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Enoch climbing at the school carnival

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Peach Raspberry freezer jam

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Miriam and the Green Man Group

Happy Birthday Auriana!

Photo of the week!

Photo of the Week!

Enoch earning his Arrow of Light

September, 2013: by Becky & Ellie

We are excited for Brenda and are so looking forward to the family gathering this coming weekend to celebrate and share her special day with her.   We are back into school and the crazy schedule that comes with it.  The kids will each tell what’s going on for them.

Ellie:

“Two days ago on Friday, I had a spelling test and I got 100% and I was very happy about that.  I love my new teacher, she’s nice, her name is Mrs. Holt.  My favorite subject is P.E., because we get to play Star Wars and it’s where there’s a Jedi and there’s balls and if somebody on the other team hits you with a ball, then you have to sit down and the Jedi has to come and tap you with a sword (noodle). “  Ellie has been playing soccer and does a great job getting really into the game.  She seems to really love it!

Nevermind, that didn’t work out!  Sunday got away and now that a new week has started, I guess  I won’t add anything to the kids’ long to do lists.  Brenda came over yesterday and we talked wedding details for a while, then we went to Bountiful for a Pendleton family gathering. 

Miriam is enjoying 4^th grade and is super efficient and getting up early and practicing the piano.  In fact, I use her practicing as my alarm clock.  She’s enjoying soccer and seems to never get tired on or off the field.

Enoch’s 5^th grade teacher is shorter than him, but very big in personality.  He’s having fun in class and we get to hear “what Mrs. Patrick says,” almost every day.  He’s enjoying soccer too, except when he had to travel to Heber for a game, through the winding Provo Canyon.  We had to stop twice, but he played great anyway. He’s getting his Arrow of Light this week!

Natalie is loving 8^th grade and soccer too.  She’s going to be displaying the family letters at YW in Excellence next week, so thanks for contributing and helping her with her project.

Isaac is so busy with football and drivers ed!  He leaves at 5:45 am and gets home at 6:30 pm, just in time to go mow and lawn or two, or go watch film with the football team.  It’s crazy!  He’s playing JV on Thursdays and a little bit of Varsity on Fridays and he’s hopefully not getting hurt.  He keeps reminding me that there are more concussions in soccer than football.

Auriana is working hard in school and at work!  She’s loving being in the choir and is currently trying to decide on one of the 10 dresses that her friends brought over for her to borrow and wear to the Homecoming dance this Saturday.

We are excited for the upcoming wedding!  Bjorn is getting ready for the Harvest Moon Hurrah on the 21^st and working hard to try to get in a full days work and still make it to everyone’s soccer & football games.  

Photo of the Week!

After the rainstorm!

Photo of the Week!

For his before the football game snack:
A bowl of matey-less Marshmallow Mateys.
He said he'd always wanted to do that!

Photo of the Week!

Photo by Auriana

Photo of the Week!

Photo of the week!

August 2013:by Becky

We have spent the summer trying to keep up with the kids, but we have tried to have some time to relax and enjoy our time too.   All summer long, Isaac and Auriana have had to be out the door before 7am and I have been very impressed at how well they have done that on their own.   Auriana works everyday cleaning the elementary school, and Isaac goes to football or basketball or both and then comes home and almost immediately goes out to mow several lawns in the neighborhood.   We don’t see either one of them much until noon. 

We have followed Enoch and Natalie around to several soccer tournaments and have enjoyed turning those into family time.  We spent a weekend in Park City and stayed at Bjorn’s family’s cabin for a night.  It was fun to build forts together, play some games, and enjoy the quiet of the mountains.  Natalie has had a badly bruised knee for the past few weeks, but has been a trooper and has played anyway.  She plays last defender and it was so exciting to watch her dribble all the way down the field and score.  She has done it before, but not when I was watching. 

Most of the free time in our house is spent reading.  I think we have made more trips to the library this summer than the grocery store.   We are trying to enjoy the slower, longer days before school starts in 11 days.  School, soccer games, and football games all start at the same time and will hit us pretty hard.  I figured we could have as many as 10 games per week to try to attend, which makes it pretty hard to have dinner together.  I told Bjorn I wanted to have a big breakfast every morning and spend more time together then, so that we could have cold cereal or something easy for dinners when it’s hard to get together as a family.  At least Monday nights are usually very unscheduled around this area.

Bjorn and I will celebrate 18 years of marriage on August 16. It’s hard to believe Auriana will turn 17 in just over a month. She is excited for her senior year of high school and for her choir retreat this week. She’s also excited to have Isaac in the same school as her. It’s nice that they can drive to school together now. Isaac has been invited to play on the varsity football team, which is cool for a sophomore, but he says he would rather have one more year of being able to be in the stands with his friends while watching the games on Friday nights.  So we are all quite content if he plays on the sophomore and JV teams only.  (Actually I’m content if he doesn’t play at all.)  We’ll see how things turn out. 

We had a wonderful visit last week from Adam and Rachel. They joined us for our family home evening where each person asked Rachel one question about her mission. The experiences and feelings she shared were wonderful. She has such a wonderful spirit about her, and the storytelling ability and sense of humor have only improved over the last 18 months. Later that evening Bjorn told me that FHE was definitely in the Top 10 of family home evenings we’ve ever had. We’re excited to once again have her close by. We love having Teresa visit our home often, and now feel doubly blessed to have another amazing returned missionary cousin interacting with our children and bringing their wonderful spirit into our home.

Photos of the week!

Photo of the week!

Ellie & Bjorn

Photo of the week!

Auriana & Natalie

June 2013

This is a letter we received from Isaac, while he was gone to the boys ranch in Victor, ID for two weeks. 

Dear Family,

I am having an absolute blast here!  Everybody is super cool and I’m friends with everyone!  That’s so cool that Matt and Brenda are engaged, they’ve been dating for like twenty years and then they pick right now, when I’m gone, so I don’t get any glow sticks!   And to answer Dad’s question, yes, I’m surviving, and they know I’m allergic to peanuts so I don’t really have to worry. 

It’s super fun here!  Something I’ve really gotten into here is blacksmithing. I made something for all the kids in the family!   I made Enoch something out of wood, but I made all of the girl’s cool pendants out of metal. 

Ok, so funny thing, there is six groups right?  And I know five people who came here, and there’s three cabins, right?  And so two groups share a cabin.  I didn’t get Jacob or Daniel (cousins) in my group or in my cabin!  All three of us are in different cabins.  What are the chances!?  Luckly Brandon (2^nd cousin) is in my cabin so that’s cool, but I guess I don’t really mind, because this way I get to meet new people and stuff.  All the people in my group are way cool!  Brandon is in my activity group and when we went kayaking we went around flipping over everybody else!  No one could catch us because we were so fast. 

And yeah, we have to do chores and stuff, but I don’t really care because it’s mostly way fun.  Even when we move pipe we race so it takes the grumpiness out of it.  We have a ton of free time, so me and my friends do some really fun stuff.  We set traps for rabbits and skunks (good thing we didn’t catch a skunk), but we didn’t catch a rabbit either, we caught this kid named Glen instead.  It was pretty funny! 

We’re leaving on the backpacking trip tomorrow, and table rock isn’t one of the options, because it’s too easy.  We do three-day backpacking trips. I’m doing the hike called Green Lakes, it’s not the hardest, but it’s one of the funnest ones.   Remember how I read the book “Holes” right before I came here?  Well that’s the book that Dick (Bjorn’s uncle who owns the ranch) is reading aloud to us this year.  Weird coincidence, huh?  And it’s so funny that I’m going on the hike called “Green Lakes.” 

We’ve done some pretty cool stuff this year!  Like the counselors build a little waterwheel on the little stream in front of the main house, then someone had the idea to build a clock that ran off the power of the water wheel.  And believe it or not, it actually worked!  We’re building an ampitheater, it’s pretty cool!

I’ve only had bad allergies one time and that was because I was army crawling through waist high grass when we were playing capture the flag, but it only lasted till I went to bed and I was fine the next day.   We went to a bike track in Victor yesterday with six other people and it was super fun, the best part was going to the Emporium for shakes.  I’ll tell you all the other stuff when I get back. 

Love,  Isaac