August 2018

We are doing great!  We have had the whole family together again and I've loved every minute of it.  We were all together for most of August which was an amazing blessing.  Now that half of the kids are gone it's pretty quiet around here. Highlights from the month:

*Being at the airport to welcome Isaac home! Then driving home and feeling like no time had really even passed.  It was so fun to watch him unzip and unload his suitcases the second he walked in the door.  

*Hearing Isaac report his mission and seeing so many of you!  

*Doing FHE at the rest home in our ward.  The kids played some bluegrass songs together which hasn't happened in two years.  

*Playing games! 

*Going to Newsies at the Hale Center Theater in SLC.  We squished all 9 of  us in the car for the trip and had such a blast watching an amazing production. 

*Visiting the Pendleton Family Cabin that we haven't been to in many years.  It was fun to hear the kids reminiscing about their childhood memories there.  

*Going to the temple (baptistry) for the first time with ALL of our family ... Ellie turned 12 while Isaac was gone. 

*Hearing Scott (and several missionaries from Russia) report their missions.

*Family Pictures!

Auriana got an amazing job!  She is qualified to be an SLT (speech language technician), but after being gone all summer, she wasn't finding any jobs to apply for.  She applied for several 'aid' positions and even accepted one,  but then she got a call from one job that told her that even though she had interviewed as an aid they wanted to change the position to SLT and hire her.  That was  huge blessing.  She starts this week! Taylon started school and also got the job he wanted as an elementary Ed ambassador at BYU.  He also teaches clogging at BYU and has Natalie as a student. :-) They are living just west of the stadium and they are enjoying finally opening and using all of their wedding gifts.  They are performing together at the Harvest Moon Hurrah in Spanish Fork this year, just the two of them for 30 minutes.  Sept 22 at 5:30 - I'm excited for that!  It will be the first performance of "Auri and Tay!"

Isaac started school and found a job in the finance department. He's rooming with Scott!   He seems to be loving college life so far with lots of socializing.  He brought several friends home for dinner today.  He joined a frisbee and a football intramural team. 

Natalie is Isaac's neighbor and they are in the same ward.  She seems to already be the official little sister of all of his roommates.  She plays sports with them, makes them food, and helps them with homework. She likes her own roommates as well :-) She joined a soccer intramural team. 

Enoch almost has his license.  He has finished all the requirements, he's just waiting to turn 16. He's playing soccer and mowing lawns in his free time.  Enoch, Isaac, and Bjorn enjoyed a trip to Flaming Gorge with the teachers quorum.  

Miriam is loving being on the High School soccer team.  She's so busy, but she's still always smiling.  As they blow the end of game whistle, she will usually run and do an areal if they won the game.  I don't know where she gets all her energy.  Miriam and Ellie both started clogging lessons from Taylon as well.  So fun! Ellie started junior high (crazy) and is loving it so much!  Our family is growing up so fast!! 

Love, Becky and Bjorn

June 2018

The past month has been a whirlwind of amazing activities and we've loved every minute of it, but it is also wonderful to slow down now for a minute and enjoy summer vacation.  

Auriana and Taylon have been staying busy working temporary jobs and rehearsing as they prepare to travel the world.  We really enjoyed watching them perform a few times recently with both of the groups they are in.  Auriana and the BYU band performed at the Brigham Young Park in Salk Lake and Taylon's family folk dance group (called American Rythm) performed for a multi-stake youth conference in Price.  Auriana sings and plays in the band and Taylon dances and sings. That was the first time we ever saw them perform with that group and it was very fun and entertaining.  We (as well as the rest of the audience) loved the show, especially Taylon's enthusiasm!  

Auriana's BYU band at Brigham Young Park

Natalie spoke 4 times this month!  She did a wonderful job each time.  Sacrament Meeting, Temple and Priesthood Preview, Seminary Graduation, and High School Graduation. She hopped from thing to thing to thing and I'm just glad she survived.  Every time she walked through the door, it seemed she brought a new certificate, trophy, medal, display case, or plaque with her.  Even a few weeks after school had ended, she went to the office to pickup her transcript and came home with a big plaque that says "Natalie Pendleton -  Nebo school district's student athlete award of excellence."   We just had to laugh. What are we supposed to do with all of this stuff now?  

Natalie took 5th place at state in the 100 meter! 

Seminary Graduation

Spanish Fork High School Graduation

After a few weeks, Enoch was fully recovered from his concussion, and he plowed through hours and hours of missing homework that had stacked up during that time.  Even with that, he finished ninth grade with a 4.0.  I was quite proud and amazed.  He's playing in several basketball tournaments with the high school team this month and having a lot of fun.  He's mowing lawns around the neighborhood and he's been a huge help around the house and yard too.  He's a pro and turning his room into the guest room!  Come and visit and put him to the test! 

Miriam started playing soccer with the high school team this summer and it's been surreal to see her old enough to wear that SFHS jersey that Natalie has been wearing for the past 4 years.  She loves soccer and hopes to play for the high school team in the Fall, but she has decided to give up club soccer to have more time to learn clogging and maybe join Taylon's family folk dance group.  Taylon has inspired all of the girls to want to give that a try.  Natalie is even registered to take a clogging class at BYU with Taylon as the teacher.  

Miriam in Red

Ellie graduated from Elementary school which means our family is done with Canyon Elementary forever.  That's crazy!  She is enjoying a relaxing summer hanging out with friends and she decided to finally read Harry Potter, so she seems to disappear for hours at a time. She LOVED her first year at girls camp with her two sisters and both parents.  :-)

Ellie's 6th grade graduation

Ellie's 1st year at Girls camp!
Natalie's last year at Girls camp! 

May 2018

Dear Family - 

We had a wonderful conversation with Isaac on Thursday night!  I forgot to take a picture of him on screen, but he is doing great and is being transferred to (probably) his final area today.  He got to meet Taylon for the first time and it was just a wonderful hour and a half of fun conversation :-)  Isaac will be arriving at the Salt Lake Airport on Aug. 7 at 6:50pm.  He will report his mission on Aug. 12 at 9am in our ward.  You're all invited!  :-)

Auriana's wedding pictures are posted at  

https://casscrooksterphoto.smugmug.com/Weddings/Auriana--Taylon/

We are still basking in the joy of her wedding and graduation weekend! Auriana and Taylon are home from their week at Lake Tahoe and are just working away as much as they can until they leave for France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, and Mexico on June 25. They will return home on Aug. 6. 

Natalie was awarded female athlete of the year at Spanish Fork High School.
She is also the Salutatorian this year and will be speaking at graduation
on May 23 at 6pm at UVU.
She is also speaking at seminary graduation on May 20 at 5pm.

Awesome rainbow right above the medal stand.
Natalie's relay team took 3rd in Region 

Natalie took 2nd in the 100 meter at Region
She got a PR of 12.57 seconds and is currently ranked in 3rd place in State for 4A
and she is listed 9th on the top 10 ALL TIME RECORD for Spanish Fork High School.

Enoch's Soccer team
Varsity made it to the state playoffs for the first time in forever,
and Enoch even got to play in the game for about 15 minutes until he
sadly took a couple of bad blows to the head (one with the ball and one with an elbow.)
He ended up with a concussion, so he is taking it easy for a while. 

Miriam hurdled her way to 4th place at the District meet.
She placed 7th in the 100m and the long jump as well. 

Ellie (lane 1) stumbled to the finish line after pulling her hamstring. 
She went from a big lead to taking 2nd place in the semi-final because of it. 
She is still hobbling now and the doctor said it would be 6 weeks before she should run again. So many friends flocked to her side and were so sweet to her after her injury,
giving her more attention than if she had won the race. haha

April 2018

Happy 14th Birthday to Miriam!
She was laughing too hard to blow out the candles!
We went to Hang Time to celebrate!

Feb 2018

Feb 11, 2018

Dear Family,

February 10 was definitely a great day in our family. We are thrilled to finally have it be official that Auriana and Taylon are engaged! It was killing me to not be able to tell anyone, seeing as they’ve had their temple date reserved for a few weeks now. Thank you all for your kind words throughout the day after we shared our news. We think the world of Taylon Mann and are so excited to welcome him into our family. I’m thrilled to gain another son! It has been great getting to know him and wonderful to see the happiness in Auriana’s eyes as she has fallen in love and come to know that he is the one for her. What a blessing to know with whom you’ll be spending eternity. Now if we can just get everything planned in two short months! Auriana will graduate on Friday, April 27th and get married on Saturday, April 28th. How’s that for two major life events crammed into one weekend!? Hopefully that makes it easier for family wishing to attend.

And we’re so happy for the news of Teresa’s engagement on the very same day! How cool is that? Can’t wait to meet Brendon and Broc and Adi – and to see that same happiness in Teresa’s eyes as well.

We feel so blessed as a family to have so many good things happening in each of our children’s lives. Natalie is happy to have her application to BYU done and now is just waiting, though she’s certainly not bored as she fills her time with basketball and so many other things. We were proud of her for being the only girl on her team and one of the few athletes from her school to be awarded academic all-state. She has officially entered the “big decisions” phase of life and is looking forward to moving on to college and mission, though all the little decisions that are part of the big decisions are sometimes angst-inducing. We are confident in her ability to make good choices and follow the Spirit in the process.

Isaac has had to deal with some decisions lately as well, as we have had to secure housing for him at BYU (yay, he’s rooming with Scott!) and other things. We hate distracting him from missionary work, but hopefully the distraction is minimal. He is doing really well and is buckling down for his final 6 months. He was very kind and understanding with Auriana’s situation and is ok missing her wedding. I missed my oldest brother’s wedding while I was on a mission, so I told him I understand how he feels. Life goes on. We’re so pleased with the work he is doing in Russia!

Enoch’s basketball team finished the season in second place in District and only had 2 losses the entire season – both to the same team that took first place. He improved a lot as a player over the course of the season and it sure is fun to watch him play. He recently purchased a bass guitar and has been brushing up on his skills with that instrument. He’s also amazing on the piano and can play the guitar. For Christmas Auriana’s gift to him was a recording session in the studio of her band director. So he and his friends have been practicing a bunch of songs to get ready for that professional recording session.

Miriam made a grand discovery this past month. Chords! For the longest time she has lamented that she doesn’t feel like she’s as good at learning songs on the piano as quickly as her siblings. Then she implemented the chord system that she had learned from some DVDs she watched a while back and discovered a whole new world of piano playing. Now we can’t get her off the piano and she totally loves playing. She’s also keeping busy with babysitting, basketball, tennis and soccer. We’re headed down to St. George for a soccer tournament next weekend. Both her team and Enoch’s team will be competing.

Ellie and I have fun singing in the car together, and I think we sound pretty darn good harmonizing to songs from “The Greatest Show.” The other day when I was taking her to school the song wasn’t quite done, so I drove around in circles in the parking lot until it was and then let her get out and go to school. ☺ She has amazing musical talent and I can’t wait to see what else she does with it throughout her life. She continues to enjoy volleyball and dance, and both she and Miriam started back up with an Irish dance class. Becky is definitely happy about that. We may get them both to start taking clogging classes from Taylon, since he teaches that as part of his mother’s touring company. Maybe they’ll get to go on a fun international tour with that group in the future.

Becky and I have enjoyed doing some simple remodels in our home recently. Maybe she’ll include a photo or two of our mudroom and missing walls. It’s always a work in progress. Becky and I are about as pleased and happy as any parents could be. We are so excited for April 28th! We’re also excited for August 7th when Isaac gets home. We love being parents and being involved in our children’s lives. We love serving in the Church and are so grateful for the blessings of the gospel. We are grateful for each other. We are grateful for each one of you and the good lives you are living.

Happy Valentines Day! And have a great month.

Bjorn, Becky, and family

January 2018

January 14, 2018

Dear Family,

We had a wonderful Christmas! So great to have everyone home for the holiday break and to be able to spend time with extended family as well. Thank you all for your well wishes on my birthday. I’m to the point where I think that when people ask me how old I am I’m just going to stick with 45 from now on.

Enoch has been working on a school assignment to write about parents, grandparents and great-grandparents and it has been fun to see him become so interested in the lives of his family and pull us all in as Becky and I share stories and accounts of our own lives from years past. I’m grateful his teacher gave this assignment. There are few things I enjoy more than sitting with my family and talking and laughing and feeling that wonderful spirit of unity and love. Those are times you never want to end.

Auriana is doing well and excited to be on her last semester of school. She will graduate in April and hopefully begin work in one of the local school districts shortly after that. She is dating a great young guy named Taylon Mann and seems very happy. We loved being able to spend time with her while she was home for the holiday break.

It was wonderful to talk to Isaac on Facetime for about an hour and a half late Christmas Eve (Christmas morning for him). We actually talked until after midnight, so we were able to wish each other Merry Christmas when it was Christmas day for both of us. He looks great and sounds great and just seems to be in a really great place right now – in the home stretch of his mission and focused and effective and full of the Spirit.

Natalie is beginning her own home stretch as she too is a semester away from graduation. She is enjoying playing on the high school basketball team, singing in the choirs and getting ready for tour, finishing up applications for college (she already received the Presidential scholarship to USU), and participating on seminary council. Since being awarded the World Languages Sterling Scholar she has increased her interest in the Spanish language and is looking for additional opportunities to learn and use the language by attending the Spanish branch sacrament meeting (with Enoch) each week and trying to line up tutoring sessions with some young children that recently came from Mexico that live in our ward boundaries. Her plan for now is to attend a semester of college (at either BYU or USU) and then go on a mission – where she can hopefully use that Spanish language even more.

Enoch’s basketball team is undefeated and they’re a blast to watch. He’s really enjoying it. Hard to believe another soccer season is right around the corner. Enoch continues to amaze us with his ability to figure out songs by ear on the piano. He also loves the Spanish language, and I sometimes wonder if these are actually my children that are asking to go to a second sacrament on Sunday. He gave a great lesson as we went home teaching today. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have him as my companion.

Miriam is enjoying playing basketball on a city team and a club team, playing tennis, and fitting in soccer when possible. Some days she collapses into bed pretty exhausted. But of course, she’s Miriam, so through it all, she’s happy and laughing.  She and Ellie (and Natalie and Auriana when they’re around) enjoy singing and harmonizing together pretty much all the time (much to Enoch’s dismay). They really do sound great. Every once in a while I wonder what if we had made a YouTube channel of them singing close harmony songs… would we be YouTube millionaires by now? ☺

Ellie – the other singer – has been enjoying tennis as well, but also recently started volleyball, and though she was initially hesitant to go, she comes home and says stuff like, “Can we all go over to the church and play volleyball?” She (under Becky’s guidance) has been repainting her room and having a lot of fun with it all. Miriam and Ellie are like their mother and enjoy having a little variety and changing things up now and then.

Speaking of changing things up – Becky and I (with Enoch’s help) have been working on finishing up our mudroom in the back of the garage. Step by step we’re getting there. We just knocked out the wall between the laundry room and the mudroom yesterday. We have an electrician coming tomorrow morning to take care of the first phase of electrical work that is needed. When you take things slow its better both on your bank account and you body. When we tell Isaac about some of the changes we’ve made he says, “I’m going to come home to a completely different house!” Obviously not true, but it’s fun to make a few changes here and there.

Life continues to move along swiftly. We love seeing our children learn and grow and develop their talents and deepen their testimonies of the gospel. We are excited about the new opportunities for service that the youth now have in the temple. Being able to work in the baptistry on the first day after that change took effect, I saw 4 priest-age young men perform baptisms. The excitement and wonder and humility in their faces, not to mention the powerful Spirit, were more than enough to confirm to me that this is from the Lord and the right decision at the right time. We also look forward to President Nelson’s announcement Tuesday morning. So exciting to see the Lord’s Church continue to move forward under his direction. We know he is preparing his people for great things to come!

We love each of you!

Bjorn, Becky & Family

Dec 2017

We are going to basketball games every day, Enoch got his cast off and is excited to be able to play again!  We are trying to find time to remember to celebrate Christmas and #lighttheworld!   We love you!!

On Temple Square after Natalie's HS choir sang in the Assembly Hall

Ellie's artwork on Miriam's hair during the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional

At the Marriott Center after watching Auriana in Christmas Around the World

Flashback to Christmas in 2008

November 2017: by Becky

This month Natalie has been busy getting a lot of stuff! I guess it's because she had a birthday!   

She received ...

her Patriarchal blessing

her YW Recognition award

Academic all state for soccer

MVP soccer defender for our region (Region 10)

Sterling scholar for world languages

And she made the basketball team. 

Hopefully she can stay humble! 

Enoch fell on is bike and hurt his wrist. Then he tried out for the 9th grade basketball team and made it. Then I took him to the doctor and found out his scaphoid bone is broken and he shouldn’t have been playing on it. Oops!!  He’s really excited to be on the team though... and at least he still gets to wear all the cool gear, even if he doesn't get to play ball until Christmas. Thanks to so many who came and supported Enoch at his Eagle court of honor, it is wonderful to have a supportive family. 

Ellie turned twelve and she was so excited to take her first trip to the temple to do baptisms. She celebrated with two other friends who have the same birthday week and went ice skating with all their friends. She fits right into the Beehive class with Miriam and for her first week in YW we had YW in Excellence. Ellie composed a song for her first project and sang it that night with Miriam. She obliged the primary president and did one last primary program today. It’s crazy to think we’ve graduated from primary. 

Ice Skating Party

YW in Excellence

Miriam has probably felt a bit left out of all the big happenings at our house, but you wouldn’t know it because she continues to be her happy helpful self. Soccer season is over and she is really excited to play basketball this winter. 

We’re grateful to have a missionary and we still look forward to Isaac’s letters like it’s Christmas morning. 

Auriana is staying busy with school, work, and the band! I still can’t believe it’s her senior year.

She has a few performances coming up that we are looking forward to.  Here is a link to a video with her playing and singing with the dancers!  
https://youtu.be/yrUMHHkc2d0

Have a happy Thanksgiving!  We'll be cooking turkey for the first time at our house, so feel free to drop in.  :-)