AUGUST, 2009: by Becky

School, Soccer, Football, Music Lessons, Homework, Practicing, Finding socks, Tying Cleats, Not cleaning the house, and Not having dinner together. There! That sums up what we’ve been doing in the Pendleton household lately. I could end there, but I guess I’ll fill in some of the details… It’s actually not that bad! I feel blessed to have found good activities for each of our kids, things that they enjoy and that don’t take too much effort. All of their lessons are at home or across the street. Soccer is right here in Spanish Fork, so we all still have time to play, read, and enjoy being together.

School started early this year – Aug. 17, and since we had a Pendleton reunion planned for Aug. 17-19 the kids missed the first few days of school. We had a great time at the reunion at the Heber Valley YW Camp, spending time with family. It’s a fun and beautiful place with plenty of everything.

Ellie started preschool three mornings a week. She loves it. She also started music class and dance class and loves both of them. She feels like a big kid now! I love it because all three classes are no more than two blocks away and they give her a chance to get to know and spend time with some other kids, now that her best friend Miriam is in school. She and I have had some fun one on one time riding bikes when the others are gone. Thanks, Steve and Barbie, for the tandem bike – we use it all the time.

Miriam loves kindergarten. She is in music class also and the same dance class as Ellie. She also gets to play soccer this year for the first time. She’s been looking forward to it for a really long time. She loves being on a team, but I don’t think she’s really that into the game. She is usually following everyone around the field or doing cartwheels on the field. She’s been riding her bike to school with the big kids, then I ride over and pick her up at 11:00. I love any excuse to get on my bike. We both ride together to pick up Ellie on preschool days at 11:30.

Enoch is always either playing the piano or playing with his friends. Those are his favorite things to do. He works so hard to finish his jobs so that he can play. We decided to find him a real piano teacher, because he seems to really love the piano, so he’ll have his first lesson this week from a young man in a neighboring ward. His teacher plays the piano and organ and is willing to come to our house for the lessons. I think it will work out great. Isaac is starting to teach Enoch the guitar, and he really seems to enjoy that too.

Natalie is happy that it’s soccer season – probably her favorite time of year. Bjorn is her coach and he makes it a lot of fun for everyone. Her team went to a BYU women’s soccer game this week and had a blast. She’s also been enjoying school, Irish dancing, and music lessons. She and Auriana seem to enjoy every spare minute together doing fun things. Her 4th grade teacher is famous for assigning projects. Her 1st project was to make a map of Utah out of something. She decided to make a pillow, like Auriana did at that age. Every night this week, she would get into bed and spend some time stitching mountains, lakes, and deserts onto the pillow. It turned out very cute.

Isaac jammed (maybe broke) his finger the night before his 1st football game. A week later it’s still swollen and sore. He hasn’t been able to really enjoy football, play the guitar, or play the piano, so he has spent a lot of time reading lately, which doesn’t make him a bit sad. He was so excited to play tackle football this year, but he hasn’t loved it like he thought he would – flag football was so much more fun to him. His school class was asked to help with the new kindergarten classes the first week of school. He quickly volunteered to help in Miriam’s class and they both enjoyed being together for a few minutes every morning that first week. Miriam was sad when Isaac wasn’t in her class anymore. Isaac is her “best buddy”!

Auriana is doing great in Junior High. She’s the first one up at our house every day! She takes care of everything that she needs by herself and then helps me with the little girls. She often tends and cleans and is so good at it. During soccer season, rather than bring her homework and come to the game, she usually stays home with whoever isn’t playing soccer that night and takes care of things at home. It’s wonderful. She loves being part of the JH show choir – I think it’s her favorite class, but she has a lot of really nice teachers this year, which makes school much more bearable for her.

Bjorn has been playing soccer this year as well - it’s a good thing that soccer only lasts one month. It’s fun, but it’s the only really crazy part of our schedule. We sacrifice our dinner hour for a few weeks, because the games are always between 5 and 7 pm on weekdays, but we’ve enjoyed a few sideline picnics together. I try to enjoy it, realizing it’s only a month. Sunday mornings are so nice. I especially appreciate them during the school year. While I write this letter, the kids are playing quietly and peacefully. No one has to rush off or get things done. The tabernacle Choir is playing in the background. We don’t have church until 2:30pm. A day of rest is good.

I am a hired math aide at Auriana’s school this year. I drive her to school every morning and stay for 1st period and help in Algebra 1. It’s not her class, she’s in Geometry this year, but I’ve really enjoyed it so far.

JULY 2009: by Bjorn

What a summer it has been! Even though its just past the first week of August, with school starting on the 17th we feel like our summer is pretty much over. We are looking forward to a fun Pendleton family reunion next week, but that will be the last piece of summer for us.

We sure enjoyed being “Hotel Pendleton” for many of you in your comings and goings. We always enjoy having each of you in our home. The cousin time is extra special and the late night talks are so enjoyable and uplifting. I think the highlight for this round of visits would have to be having Teresa in our home before she went to the MTC. There is always a special spirit that accompanies a set apart missionary and we felt privileged to partake of that while she was here and also to see her eagerness to serve.

Isaac has had a pretty full summer. I enjoyed going on an overnight scout camp with him at the beginning of the month. He just finished up his swimming and lifesaving merit badges at the community pool. He will be playing tackle football for the first time this year and so he was attending a football camp during the same week he was doing the swimming merit badge so with swimming in the morning and football in the afternoon he was pretty exhausted all week long. He handled it well though and we are proud of him for his tenacity and commitment. He also attended his first meeting with the troop he will be attending the National Scout Jamboree with. It will be in Washington D.C. next July-August. They will do that for a week and then do a national history tour in D.C., Pennsylvania, and New York, then do a Church history tour of Palmyra and Kirtland. I get to join him for the touring part so we’re both looking forward to next summer. The last thing to mention about Isaac is that he just got a new full-size bike that he’s very excited about. He has been working to earn half the amount and finally hit that point on Friday. He was anxious to ride it as soon as we got home and after a little coaxing of his tired old dad, the entire family went on a bike ride and had a fun time.

Auriana recently finished her “retreat” for Show Choir – a week-long event where they went to the school from 8am to 3pm each day and learned the choreography to several numbers that they would be performing throughout the year. They did a little show on Saturday and we were so impressed with how quickly and well she learned the dancing parts. It’s going to be a fun and challenging year for her. We can’t believe she is in 8th grade! Auriana went to her fist girl’s camp at the beginning of July – a river rafting and camping trip in Moab. I got to attend that too and had a blast hanging out with Auriana and seeing her interact with the other young women in the ward. Rafting the Colorado river was a lot of fun. There were sections of rapids – not too crazy – and sections of calm where we could enjoy the scenery or get out and float with our life jackets, or have water fights with other boats. Auriana even got in the water and floated down some mild rapids. The camping was fun too, though we could have done without the fly-infested outhouses, and it would have been nice to have running water, but with a few trips into Moab to replenish water supplies all went well. I had to leave a day early to go to Isaac’s camp with him, so Auriana was on her own for the last night. You’ll have to ask her about it some time. ☺

Natalie is a kayaking and rafting expert now. She got to go kayaking with her Activity Days group – Becky joined her – and we bought a rubber raft for the family and have spent quite a bit of time up at the reservoir here in Spanish Fork floating on the raft and having a blast. Just Natalie and I went out on the raft one time and she rowed most of the way across the reservoir and back. She just sits up on the back part of the raft and is good at switching the oar back and forth to keep the boat going in the direction she wants. Under the direction of Becky and her Activity Days leader, Natalie has become quite a good cook too. We enjoy sampling all the yummy baked treats she brings home with her each week. She also helped Konnie bake some yummy rolls for one of our big meals. Soccer is starting up again in a few weeks and Natalie is very excited. I’m excited too because I get to be her coach. Natalie just finished reading Harry Potter 4. It has been a Harry Potter summer for us. Auriana finished the books early in the summer and of course Isaac has already read them each at least twice, so now we’re getting into the movies (not the younger 3). Hopefully their imaginations survive some of the more intense scenes in the movies. I think if we could pick four things that have dominated the summer’s day to day activities it would be 1- family visits, 2- the trampolines on both sides of the fence with our neighbors, 3- rafting at the reservoir, and 4- Harry Potter.

Enoch and Miriam are both looking forward to soccer as well. Miriam has her first “practice” tomorrow and came into my room this morning with all of her soccer stuff on and a ball in her hands so excited to tell me that she has soccer tomorrow. She ran out to the backyard to practice kicking the ball. I can’t believe she will be in kindergarten this year. She’s very ready. It’s been fun to see her conquer her fear of swimming recently. She’s now brave enough to go out into the middle of the pool (with arm wings on) and is fine sticking her head under water. We were wondering when she’d overcome the anxiety, and are relieved to see the progress. Miriam amazes us with her artistic abilities. She can spend hours coloring in coloring books, and the way she colors them looks like a third or fourth grader or better.

Enoch is experiencing a musical “explosion” in piano and guitar. I think his brain is finally to the point where it can process things better, and now it seems like he can’t walk past the piano without playing something – usually chopsticks, Axel F, or the Harry Potter theme. He is also working at the guitar again. We got him a guitar last year, but he was still a bit too small to get his hands to work correctly. Now with the physical and mental growth of the past year he is picking (no pun intended) up on things quite well. He already knows the main melody line to “Old Joe Clark.” Its always fun to see your children have those “it just clicks” experiences throughout their lives in everything from music to sports to social, mental, and spiritual aspects.

Ellie continues to be more and more independent. We were on a hike up Payson canyon on Friday and I thought I would end up carrying her some of the way, but she surprised me by wanting to cross some of the logs going over the river by herself. They were flattened and pretty wide, but even so I was glad to see the independence. Ellie will be attending pre-school this year. We worked out a trade with a lady that I do some website and print design work for. It is at the same time Becky will be teaching math at Auriana’s school, so it worked out just right for everyone’s schedule.

Becky and I enjoyed an early anniversary celebration at the beginning of this month. We wanted to go to the Bountiful temple for a session since that’s where we were married, but it was closed for cleaning and so we went to the Salt Lake temple instead. Afterward, we watched the Joseph Smith movie since we hadn’t seen it for a while. Then we went up to the top of Big Cottonwood canyon – up above Alta – and hiked to Cecret Lake – the same hike we took on our honeymoon. The wildflowers were out in abundance and it was an enjoyable time. We stayed at a bed and breakfast and then made it back down in time for Auriana’s Show Choir performance the next morning. Becky is excited to be a teaching assistant for the math department at ALA. She will teach first period each day – Algebra 1. One of the best purchases I’ve made was a camera for Becky’s birthday. It is small enough that she can take it with her anywhere and so now we are documenting our lives with video and still photos much better than before. I can’t wait until she starts putting them all on DVDs!

As for me, I’m hoping I can play soccer (Spanish Fork community soccer league) with Matthew Young and Andrew and not make a total fool of myself or get injured too badly. ☺ I’m in the middle of planning another Harvest Moon Hurrah for September 19th. Peter Breinholt is the headline act this year. As always, you’re all invited. Work is going well. We feel very blessed. We sure enjoyed our relaxing time up in Rexburg with Mom and Dad. Thanks for spoiling us. Yesterday Becky and I were able to go to the Jordan River temple as my brother’s wife, Ana, received her endowments. It was so special to be there with my parents and most of my siblings and their spouses. David and Ana will be sealed this Saturday in the Salt Lake Temple. We are hoping all the siblings and spouses can be there for that!

JUNE 2009, by the kids

For two weeks in June the kids have the opportunity to be part of the Youth Arts Festival here in Spanish Fork, or as Enoch calls it, the “UTES ARTS VESTIBULE”!  There are a lot of different classes for ages 3-15, so the kids and I went down to the high school every morning with our picnic lunch and stayed until 2:00.  It was great fun.  Here is a report from each of them…

MIRIAM

I liked doing dance class and I liked doing arts and crafts and now I’m not scared of doing show choir.  And I liked the swimming pool at the high school.  I liked going to Grandma’s and doing fireworks.  And I liked getting glow sticks really much.  I liked the sparklers.

ELLIE

At the “Utes Arts-t best-a-bull” I got to play with play dough!     And, I got to play with, um, sneeze! Sneeze!  Sneeze! Did you get the “achoo” part?  And I um went to um um um um um um,  Mom, just do two of the ums!   I did dancing and I got to play with Miss Melanie’s puppets.  I got to make a sun. And I got to make a shirt with sparkles on it. 

NATALIE  

My favorite class was arts and crafts because we tie-dyed shirts and made magnets.  I also took show choir, hip hop, and swimming lessons

ISAAC 

I took a break-dancing class and it was really fun and I’ll probably take it again next year.  I took a lego art class and I built a giant guitar out of legos.  I took a bluegrass class, like every year, and I’ll probably take it again.  And then, I took diving class, and I accidentally did an aerial off the board.  I got to the state track meet!

AURIANA  

I took song writing taught by Cherie Call, and I wrote a song about a book called Goose Girl.   In the showcase she sang it and I played along with her on my Mandolin and it sounded really good.  I also took bluegrass and it was really fun to perform the songs that we learned.   In arts and crafts I made magnets out of clay that looked like dice.

ENOCH

He refuses to dictate, but he also enjoyed lego art, he built a hover craft and many other things.  He took a music class and swimming lessons.

MAY 2009, by Becky

May went by so quickly! Our month was filled with end of school activities, programs, and fieldtrips, soccer, track, music, t-ball, and best of all, FAMILY. Being together or being with any of you is always the highlight! It’s been fun to see Karen, Rachel, and Andrew more often this year – we’re looking forward to the wedding and a chance to see all of you. We hope Rachel is recuperating well! We got to see Teresa and accompany her as she shopped for missionary clothes. She will be such a good (and well dressed) missionary. We also got to see Stuart, Heather, and Emmaline in May – it was a pleasure. We’re so grateful for any chance we have to associate with all of you, and we’re especially grateful that our kids have such great cousins.

We had fun playing and going to the BYU Creamery with Jenny and Chad this week. We also enjoyed seeing Brenda, Alan, Konnie, and kids this weekend. We met them at the Church Museum on Friday (since it was too rainy for the zoo) to experience the children’s exhibit. The kids could’ve stayed there all day, they didn’t want to leave - we had to encourage them away with ANOTHER trip to get ice cream. Isaac ate so much ice cream this week, he said he never wanted to eat ice cream again!

Saturday we met up with them again. They joined us in Heber for a track meet where we had fun watching Natalie and Isaac both run fast! They both placed first in the 100m, Isaac’s 4x100 relay team got 1st and Natalie got 1st in the standing long jump. After the track meet, the three older kids and Bjorn were scheduled to play their instruments at the Utah Outdoor Adventure Expo at the Utah State Fairpark. They did a really great job, and we were glad their Grandma and Grandpa Pendleton were there to listen, since there weren’t a lot of other people there. But, it was a great chance for the kids to experience playing with a sound system, since they’ll have a few other opportunities to perform this summer.

We spent the rest of the day at the Expo and had a great time! The kids were able to try out some kayaks, some 4 wheelers, mountain bikes, and scooters that sway back and forth. They also had a giant slide that the kids went down over and over. Miriam was so tired from walking around the fair, that she said she couldn’t take another step, but when we got to the slide, she ran up the stairs 4-5 times to go down. We also watched a dog jumping contest, where the dogs jumped into a pool of water. The dogs could jump twice as far as the people we watched in the track meet that morning.

Ellie didn’t want to go down the slide, or ride in the kayak or the 4-wheeler, but she almost mastered the little scooter that they had at the Expo, and she did a great job of climbing every fence she could find, in her flip flops, even though I told her a thousand times not to climb the fences. The other day Ellie looked outside and said, “Daddy’s washing the grass!”. She continues to make us all smile everyday! We all ran a mile in the school fun run a few weeks ago, even Ellie! We feel like we don’t have a baby anymore!

Miriam learned how to ride her bike this month, for one day. She hasn’t been willing to try again since, but she did great that day! She got her first loose tooth and is eagerly awaiting the day it’s loose enough to come out. It was great fun to watch her come down the big slide at the expo, with squeals of delight. The second she came down, she’d jump up and yell “Again!”

Enoch also learned how to ride his bike! He hasn’t ever in his life had a desire to ride a bike, even with training wheels. Since he’s 6 years old and should be able to ride a bike, I bribed him with candy! I told him if he’d just get on the bike and try to ride it, I would give him the candy. He hesitantly got on and started pedaling, and after maybe 5 seconds, I let go and he took off! He hasn’t wanted to get off since. He’s also having a lot of fun in T-ball this year!

Natalie qualified to run in the district track meet next week in the 50 meter race. She seems to really be enjoying track and, as I mentioned, took first place in her meet yesterday in the 100m, and the standing long jump. She has said she would choose track over Irish Dance if she had to choose! I love to watch her dance AND run – I don’t know which I would choose!

Isaac also qualified to run in the district meet with his 4X100 relay team. He has made some friends in track and really enjoys being a part of it. He’s done really well in the long jumps, relays, and 100m this year. Isaac learned how to do a back flip a few days ago! So far this summer, if he’s awake and not reading, he seems to be on the trampoline. Our neighbors also have a trampoline and both tramps are scooted to the fence, so the kids jump from tramp to tramp over the fence.

Auriana finished 7th grade strong! She joined the National Junior Honor’s Society and received the “Director’s Award” in orchestra for being the student who is always doing what she’s supposed to be doing. She also made the symphonic orchestra for next year, so she’ll be doing that along with show choir. With one field trip to a swimming pool and another to Boondocks, she really enjoyed the last few weeks of school.

Bjorn gets to be the fill-in choir director for the next few months! He is also doing a great job leading the Pendleton Family Band. It was so much fun watching their performance on stage. The lady in charge was so impressed and said it brought tears to her eyes to see a family playing wholesome music together. Even though the kids dreaded it, they seemed to really enjoy it and were glad they did it! Next week they’ll be performing on the steps of the Springville Art Museum, and in July they will perform at Colonial Days, which is part of the Provo Freedom Festival.

Temple Square

APRIL: by Bjorn

April has been a very busy month for us. With soccer games for Enoch every Tuesday and Thursday, and games for Isaac and Natalie every Wednesday and Friday, we have really been on the go. I am Isaac’s coach and the assistant coach for Enoch’s team. Quite the whirlwind! At Isaac’s Friday game the other team forfeited but we ended up playing anyway just for fun. The other team had a couple players claiming they were on the team but were clearly too old to be 5th or 6th graders and so Isaac’s team was down by 2 or 3 goals at half time. During the second half I couldn’t resist any longer and I ran out on the field and joined my players. Screams of excitement ensued and the boys had a blast being a little bit crazy and enjoyed not having to play exactly by the rules. Isaac said he would remember that game for the rest of his life and I realized how out of shape I really am. I agreed to play in an adult city soccer league with Enoch’s coach and some other guys. We’ll play on a shortened field with only 6 guys per team playing at a time. It should be a blast, but I’m trying to whip my body into shape in order to avoid making a total fool of myself.

Auriana gave her first talk in sacrament meeting last Sunday and did a fantastic job. She spoke on having the courage to be virtuous – using excerpts from Elaine S. Dalton’s October 2008 General Conference address. Auriana also made her parents proud when she decided she wanted to try out for Show Choir at school. She and I went over to a friend’s house in the ward and got some help putting together an audition number. She practiced and practiced and when audition day came she did a great job. Thirty-seven girls tried out and only 20 made it. We were excited to learn that Auriana is one of them. Yes, this is the same shy Auriana that you all know and love – just coming out of here shell a little more each day. Honestly, she is growing into an amazing young woman – talented, mature, confident, considerate, spiritual, quick-witted, and really fun to be around. Of course she’ll always be daddy’s girl. Aren’t I lucky that I have four of them!

Miriam performed in her Let’s Play Music recital and was so cute playing the xylophone and singing her Do Re Mi song and many others. She has really learned a lot about music in that class. She had a fun birthday earlier in the month. Towards the end of the day she started acting a bit nervous and strange and at one point broke into tears. We asked her why she was crying and she said that she didn’t want to go to bed but wanted to stay up and play with her toys since this was her last day before going to kindergarten. We realized that we had been telling her all along that when she was five she would get to go to kindergarten – we just failed to explain that it wouldn’t happen until September. We all laughed when we realized the misunderstanding.

Natalie is excited to be participating in the Hershey Track Meet this Tuesday. She’s doing several events included the 4x100 relay. She’s the fasted girl in her grade. She even beat the fastest boy once and said he instantly started blaming it on some people that distracted him or something. Boys! She’s joining Isaac on the city Youth Track Club that starts tomorrow. Natalie is once again the speedster of her soccer team – she says soccer is her favorite. She’s also really enjoying her Irish Dance class. It’s tough having a child that is good at everything she tries. It’s also tough keeping the activities to a manageable level. We love to encourage them to develop their talents, but we also want to make sure there is still time to relax and have some down time – for them and us. Harry Potter is monopolizing much of her and Auriana’s (and Isaac’s for the eleventy-billionth time) time. Natalie is on book 3 and Auriana is just starting book 7.

Ellie also gave her first talk last Sunday. She talked about reverence and did a fantastic job. It seemed she knew exactly what she wanted to talk about and when I went off on a line that we hadn’t rehearsed at home she just stood there and refused to say what I was whispering in her ear. Once I dropped that and got back to what she knew she wanted to say, she then dove right back in and finished off strong. It’s hard to believe our youngest is old enough to be giving talks.

Enoch’s black eye is finally mostly faded. Isaac figured someone had to keep up the tough guy look so he got a black eye playing kick ball this past week. With my venture into soccer again, maybe I’ll be the next tough guy. ☺ Enoch starts tee ball practices this week. Maybe this year there will be a little more focus on the game and a little less daydreaming in the outfield… maybe. Enoch’s sense of humor has really blossomed lately. His mind is so quick, he often has all the kids and even his mom and dad laughing out loud at the dinner table. I think it all started when he began reading Calvin and Hobbes. It’s not uncommon to see a combination of “Calvin” faces working their way across his expressive face. And watching Jerry Lewis only adds to the silliness. It’s actually really fun to see them all joking and laughing together and building off each other’s humor.

Isaac is pretty good at commanding the floor too. Once he hooks an audience he doesn’t let up. Isaac also starts Track Club tomorrow. He enjoyed it so much last year that he’s been looking forward to it for a long time. He even bought some nice running shoes with his own money. He’s usually done just the short distances, but this year he’s going to try the 400. He’s really been enjoying 11-year-old scouts. I get to go on a campout with him in July. We also have the fathers and sons campout on May 15-16.

I guess that’s about it as far as the kids go. Becky is going through a workout schedule with a friend of hers and getting in some good running. She went with Enoch on a field trip to the zoo. She continues to be a great help to all of the kids’ teachers. I’m glad she stays so involved in their education. I appreciate the fact that she puts forth the effort to plan many of our dates when I’m so busy I can’t even think ahead more than a day or two. I have been putting in several late nights over the past couple of weeks and she has been so supportive and done so much on her own with putting the kids to bed and taking care of running everything else. I’m sure I don’t tell her nearly often enough how grateful I am for all she does for me and our family.

Happy Mother’s Day to each of you mothers and future mothers out there. I hope you know how much we love and respect and honor you!

March: by the KIDS

AURIANA
I had a choir performance called the BLAST. We did the show four nights in a row and it was really fun. Isaac finally persuaded me to read Harry Potter. I started it a week ago and I’m almost done with the third book.

ISAAC
Enoch had a game day and I helped out and even though Enoch lost at all the games, he had a great time. I went to my friend Cody’s house and played until 8:00. For my birthday I got this really cool iron wood carving from Mexico and it’s really cool. And, my mom gave me a real arrow, and something to put all of my scout achievements in. Someone pushed me down in the hall at school and I got a really big carpet burn on my forehead.

NATALIE
I had two dance recitals for Irish dancing. I took third place in the school spelling bee and got a trophy. I’m excited that soccer is starting. My favorite thing to do is jump on the tramp. Right now I’m reading Junie B Jones.

ENOCH
I started soccer and I had a game night with my friends. We played Spoons and Sorry Sliders. We ate gummy worms and pizza. I turned six and a half.

MIRIAM
I like to play with Natalie’s Minnie Mouse. I like ice cream. My favorite story is three bears, because they shiver and get scared. Tomorrow is my birthday. I’m going to play games!

ELLIE
I play with googles (Natalie’s little pink ball with eyes). I play with toys. I do my greens (chores). I go to the bathroom a lot by myself. I play with my friends. I hit my head right here. I hope that I will have a birthday again and I hope that Santa will bring me presents and blankies. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

February: By BECKY

Auriana and I spent time together this month doing Algebra. I love math and she is very smart, so I look forward to times when she asks me for help. I’ve also enjoyed listening to her practice and progress on the violin and the mandolin. She has recently become much more self-motivated and self reliant in all that she does. She’s often wondering what she’s going to read next. It seems she finishes a book almost every day!

Isaac and I spent time together this month going to and from basketball games. He’s really fun to watch, especially when he’s grinning after he does something good. I enjoyed spending time in Isaac’s class twice this month, once during the Valentine party where I helped the kids make roses out of fruit roll ups, and another day while they were writing very entertaining leprechaun stories. Isaac still spends most of his time reading or playing outside with friends, but he has been very diligent this month at getting his chores and practicing done well, as that helps him earn his final activity pin for Webelos. He’s worked hard to earn all of them before his birthday in March. It will be strange not to have him in Cub Scouts since I’ll still be involved with it as the assistant cub master.

Natalie and I spent time together this month going to and from Irish Dance class. Class is in Provo on Friday afternoons and I usually leave the rest of the kids home with Auriana and have some quiet-Natalie-time in the car. While she dances, I watch or grocery shop nearby. Irish Dance is a very happy dance – I love to watch. Natalie’s sad that basketball is almost over, but not sad to give up Saturday 8am games. I was able to spend some time in her class working on reading comprehension – not hers, she’s an amazing reader! She was chosen to participate in the 3rd grade spelling bee this coming week, so we’ve had some fun times together practicing for that.

Enoch and I spent time together this month reading the Book of Mormon stories book. He loves it and never wants me to stop reading. He’s progressing well in reading himself and is becoming a very responsible boy. Yesterday, I announced that it was time to get ready for a baptism that we were attending and in about 5 minutes flat he was Sunday dressed and putting his shoes on. I didn’t even have to ask him twice. This morning as I type and the others sleep, he is setting the table and getting breakfast out. I didn’t even ask him to. I spent time in his class this month on the 100th day of school. My assignment was to do 100 exercises with the kids. After 4 groups, I had a pretty good workout for the day.

Miriam and I spent time together this month in music class. Her class is great, because the Mom’s attend with the kids every other week. It’s so much fun to sing and clap together, and we don’t get a lot of alone time together otherwise. It was my turn to teach her preschool class recently as well. We had fun making a book about ourselves and our families, etc. Remember the book, “Is this you?” We learned all about the letter “Y”!

Ellie and I spent time together this month doing all the things that I do. She’s still my buddy most of the time. She sits on my lap when I’m on the computer, she helps me fold clothes and do the dishes, she loves to wipe things off! I’m her sunbeam teacher, so every other week we spend time together in primary. There’s only one boy in the class and he rarely comes, so I usually teach four very sweet and reverent little girls.

Bjorn and I spent time together this month having several quiet lunches together and also a nice trip to the temple. I usually feed the three youngest kids lunch at 11:30 before Enoch goes to school, so after he’s gone and the girls are busy, Bjorn and I eat lunch alone. Bjorn organized a ward temple night this last week and there were about 70 members of our ward in attendance. Merrill Bateman talked to us for a few minutes before the session. It was neat to be in a session with all familiar faces. Together, we also attended the final showcase for the Adult Art Education workshops that Bjorn has been heading up over the last 6 weeks.

January: BY BJORN

After Miriam’s entry last month I don’t know that I can ever write something quite as cute or memorable or hilarious. I still laugh out loud every time I read that.

We had a very nice trip to Rexburg over the long holiday weekend in January. The kids never want to leave, and I think if it could work out logistically with going to school and everything, that Auriana would love to live at Grandma and Grandpa’s. Maybe she’ll get her wish when she goes to college. Thank you to everyone who was willing to go along with my craving for Florence’s chocolates. My taste buds loved it, but not my ever-increasing spare tire. ☺

Isaac just finished his Science Fair project and did a great job. He decided to do it on how fast different fibers burn and so we had fun gathering different types of cloth and paper and burning them in the garage – timing each one. With Becky’s help he put together a great display and impressed his teacher and the judges.

Isaac and Natalie are both playing basketball right now and having a great time. Natalie is a great player and scores several baskets each game. Because he’s grown so much lately, Isaac is one of the two tallest guys on his team and is making the adjustment to being a “big man” and playing under the basket and having to set screens and play a little differently than he’s used to. He had at least 3 blocked shots and forced several other turnovers, along with a couple of great fade-away shots and tons of rebounds in his game yesterday. I’m glad he puts up with his dad’s constant “advice.”

Natalie just started an Irish Dancing class in Provo and absolutely loves it. She’s really catching on quickly and its fun to see her prance around the floor in the Riverdance style. She baked some Snickerdoodles the other day and they came out perfectly. She’s taking after her cookie-baking dad.

Auriana cooked me some amazingly delicious lasagna the other day as her “gift of love” from Christmas. She is becoming quite the good cook. I have also recently enjoyed the fun email correspondences we have with each other. Her fun personality really comes out in what she writes.

The other day Enoch, Miriam, and Ellie pushed the slide up against the opened ping pong table and decided it was fun to run up the slide and across the table. Things were going great until they all got on the table at once and it suddenly folded in half and they got their legs stuck. I wasn’t home, but Becky reported that as soon as she freed them and was hoping that they had learned their lesson, that Ellie ran right up the slide and onto the table again. Have any of you heard Bill Cosby talk about his children having brain damage? Case in point. ☺ Yesterday I went down and saw Ellie standing on the top part of the slide debating whether to jump the 4 feet down to the ground. She’s our little fearless bundle of energy. Yesterday she did this little dance in the living room that had us all laughing as she put so much emotion and shoulder and head movements into her routine. Its amazing how young they pick up on those things, but she’s particularly good at hamming it up.

I think out of all our children, that Enoch is enjoying the extra space in our new Suburban the most. We haven’t heard much growling from the back seat at all lately. ☺ It’s hard to believe we’re now cruising around in a “Mormon-mobile” but the extra space is definitely nice. When I was packing for our trip to Rexburg I got everything in the back and it wasn’t even up to the top of the headrests, so I yelled out to Becky, “it’s not full, bring more stuff!” But everything was in, so I actually got to see out the back window for once.

Becky is enjoying her somewhat reduced responsibilities as a Sunbeam teacher now that she has a teaching partner and only has to teach every other week. She’s making the adjustment well to having to sit still during Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society, though I’m sure she still gets the urge to have a quick treat or turn around and kneel on the floor and color a picture every once in a while. ☺ She also enjoys helping out in the kids’ school classes on a regular basis as well as serving as the Treasurer of the parent board at Auriana’s school.

I’m in the middle of organizing and running the Cultural Arts Education for Adults workshop with the Arts Council. It’s a 6-week workshop with a bunch of visual, performing, and literary arts classes for adults. We’ve had a great response this time around with enrollment jumping from 85 up to about 120. I really enjoy going around to the different classes and seeing people learning a skill or further developing their talents. We hold a showcase at the end where they all display or perform what they have learned or created. Since I have recently learned to play a simple bass guitar accompaniment with the Pendleton family band (Auriana, Isaac, Natalie, and I actually have a blast playing together), I decided to join in with the Folk/Bluegrass class and will be able to perform a number or two with that group at the end of February. I have enjoyed being president of the Arts Council and was voted in for another 3-year term – basically because no one else is willing to do the job. ☺ Work is a bit slower lately. It’s always a bit slower in January, but if it doesn’t pick up soon I may be coming to some of you for a loan. ☺

I can’t wait until the 2nd annual Pendleton brothers’ snowmobile trip to the cabin on the weekend of the 20th. We did some things this past summer to winterize the cabin so it should be a much easier and warmer experience. And now that I know where to stop and unload the machines, I should be free of scary jackknife experiences and skidding down the hill out of control. ☺

Photo of the week!

JANUARY 2009

Becky-
It has been a wonderful Christmas! I was sad to see the vacation end today as everyone went back to school. My favorite part of the Holiday was spending peaceful time together as a family. Everyone got along and helped out around here remarkably well. I’m grateful for the “special”-ness that affects everyone this time of year. It was especially fun to have Emmaline here (and her parents of course) for our Nativity pageant. We also really enjoyed a few days in Las Vegas, where Jenny and Chad spoiled us with love and food and lots of fun.

Elena-
I loveded Santa to give me my presents. I remember when he came and bringed my nightgown and my coloring book. Then he bringed me my aquadoodle. Emmaline was baby Jesus and Stuart and Heather were here. Brenda came. I played with Miriam and Kay Kay and Miriam was a baby in the game. My mom got me milk and graham crackers.

Miriam-
I got a nightgown and a pixo and I got some books to read myself and learn how to read. And, I got two candy canes. One was striped white and red and one was striped green and red. The pixo – you can squirt out dots and they’re called pixos. Even you can make something and put papers under it to make what you want, like a bear, and a flowerpot, and a shelf. You can make the shelf like feet and you can use the flowerpot as a tummy and a nose for the bear. Even if you want you can use the flowers like eyes for the bear. Even you can make something else like an umbrella, dinosaur, boat, and bird. If you want to do another bear, you can make another bear. If you want to use the one, well, on the other side of the bear one, you can do that, but if you don’t want to make anything on the pixo, you don’t have to. If you want to do all of the ones you can, because it’s mine and if you’re my friend you can do them. Even, I got some coloring books and I’ve been coloring in them and I got lots of presents from Santa – even the pixo. And, I got the nightgown from somebody named Becky and I love Becky.

Enoch-
I got my zero gravity micro. I liked that we went to Grandma’s house on Christmas Eve and decorated my Dad like a Christmas tree. We went sledding on a huge hill.

Isaac-
I got the whole Harry Potter series.

Natalie-
I got an ATM machine. My favorite part of Christmas was getting and giving presents. I liked it when we went sledding with our cousins and Grandma Pendleton. We went down the hill on an air mattress and I got snow in my face.

Auriana-
We had a really fun Christmas, we woke up at about 6:15 and got done opening our presents at about 10:00. In my stocking I got some cute notebookes and a folder that all matched, some hairclips, fingernail clippers (since I am always looking for some), and some chocolate. From my mom, I got some new school clothes, from my dad I got a series of books that I really like, from Miriam I got a fuzzy warm bathrobe that goes to my ankles, and from Santa I got a new green camera. My dad got the complete Calvin and Hobbes set, so I spent all day curled up on the couch reading those. It was the best Christmas ever!!!!

Bjorn-
For Christmas I got the exteme satisfaction of seeing my children truly happy in both the giving and the getting. My heart swelled when I saw the looks of excitement and joy in each of their faces. I loved being able to just relax the whole day and be with my family playing games, eating delicious food, being lazy, and basking in the Spirit of the day. There were many other fun and wonderful things that ocurred throughout the season, but the deep contentment that I felt on Christmas day stands out above them all. I am a truly blessed man to have such a wonderful wife and such wonderful children, and to have a Savior whose birth and life we can celebrate and emulate.