Photo of the week!

We took Enoch to the temple at 6:00 am before school
to do baptisms for the dead for the first time.
He was eager to get there.  It was neat experience!

November 2014 - By Isaac

This last month has been moderately eventful for the Pendleton family, like any other month I suppose. Enoch, having just turned twelve, now holds the priesthood and passes the sacrament regularly in our weekly meetings like a fine little chap. Isaac has the privilege to bless the sacrament that Enoch so dutifully and reverently passes. This month the sun set on the soccer season, Miriam, Enoch, and Ellie doing spectacularly in their respective age groups and leagues: Natalie’s team suffering terribly without her. Isaac’s football season came to a crushing end with a tragic loss to Maple Mountain high school. I will not be going into to details for one because the readers of this document will have undoubtedly already heard about the incident many times and have no wish to relive it, because it will be too emotionally crushing for you to handle at the present time. I will be considerate of your fragile feelings and move on to other news that isn’t so hard on the human soul. The kids have started into basketball season, Enoch and his accelerated team called the Thunder have suffered a rocky start to their season, losing their recent game in the last few seconds of the game with a buzzer beater shot that missed by mere millimeters and kept the crowd in suspense for a few nerve wracking seconds while it bounced around between the backboard and the hoop. Meanwhile, Miriam has been picked from the Bantam league draft to a team that shows promise, while I cannot divulge the name of the team at this time (partially due to the fact that one hasn’t been chosen yet) I have good reason to suspect that her team of little girls will go far this year. Auriana is still working hard at school. She is attending an institution by the name of Brigham Young University commonly known by the abbreviated form BYU. Also Ellie has just celebrated her birthday on the fifth of November. Her party was a roaring success, themed “camping,” it featured many activities that you perform while camping but cleverly schemed by our mother so they could happen inside. I wont go into any details because there were far too many things that went on that profess of her genius to describe, but I imagine you have already observed this in the many years that you have gotten to know our wonderful mother. The basketball tryouts for Spanish Fork High School are scheduled for tomorrow and Isaac is understandably nervous. You may find out the results of this endeavor in the near future. Natalie has recently been able to almost completely straighten her leg, she will find out tomorrow if the doctor is going to feel the need to put her to sleep and straighten it for her.  But this is all good, and hopefully her recovery can be speedy. With no other spectacular events of the Pendleton family gracing upon my consciousness at this moment, this is the family letter editor signing out.

-Isaac

Happy 9th Birthday
ELLIE!!

Photo of the Week! Happy Halloween!

Shoulder Angel &
Shoulder Devil

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Handsome 12
and a Brand New Deacon

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The 12 Year old Quilt

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ACL Surgery - NO FUN!

Photo of the Week

Happy 18th

September 2014

I know fall is officially here when a sheet isn’t enough to keep me warm and I have to pull the bedspread over me at some point in the early morning hours. That happened for the first time a couple nights ago. I also know its fall when I have to start wearing a jacket to any of the games we watch our children play. There is definitely something invigorating about the crisp, cool air, especially when combined with a Friday night football game. Although I have to admit it was a bit TOO cold Saturday morning during Miriam’s 8:00 am soccer practice. Whatever coach scheduled that must be crazy. J

It has been fun to see Auriana make the transition to college life. Working out the car situation has been a transition for all of us. It was a bit strange for her to watch all her siblings go off to school on the first day and she just stayed home since BYU starts later. She is handling her class load well, and since she only has classes on Mon/Wed/Fri and therefore has Tuesday and Thursday to do homework and relax a bit, she said, “I kind of like this!” She auditioned for and made a BYU Bluegrass Ensemble and is excited to be in a group of five musicians: bass, guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle. They will have their first concert in November. She’s still trying to figure out which singles or student ward to attend. She’s hoping it works out to go to her friends’ student ward at BYU. Its hard for Becky and I to believe that as of tomorrow we will have an 18 year old daughter! Happy Birthday Auriana!!!

Isaac is excited for Homecoming dance this weekend. He is taking a girl named Abbie Peterson. He’s mostly enjoying football – a little frustrated with some of the coaches and empty promises, but he has fun playing and has been the “go-to-guy” for the JV team and has also had some good plays on Varsity. He is enjoying his classes, though Chemistry is a bigger load than expected. He just finished leading the family in a discussion about the armor of God. We watched that seminary video and I had a flash forward to when he would leave on his mission and I almost started bawling right there. Actually, I’m very excited for him to serve a mission and know he will be a fantastic missionary.

The big news with Natalie is that she completely tore the ACL in her left knee playing soccer and will be having surgery this Thursday. The doctor say she will be out a minimum of 6 months, more likely 9-12. So she’ll miss the rest of the high school soccer season, high school basketball, and probably spring club soccer. It was pretty rough news for her to take, but she’s dealing with it and knows its not the end of the world. Still tough for her to sit on the sideline and not be able to play. She’s always been so involved and busy, this will be a good time for her to slow down and possibly develop some other talents. She was recently called to be MiaMaid class president, so that will give her some responsibility and service opportunities she didn’t have before.

Enoch is running for student council and will give his “speech” on Tuesday. We’ve been throwing out ideas for him to use and had some good laughs as he started quoting Shakespeare. He is really good at making friends and including others, and he has many great leadership qualities. If he makes it we know he’ll do a great job.  He keeps us on our toes and laughing here at home with his fun sense of humor and random comments. I have to admit, he’s a pretty hilarious kid. Soccer is in full swing and Enoch is loving it. His team is a lot of fun to watch. They won 6-2 yesterday. We’re excited for Enoch to turn 12 and receive the Aaronic Priesthood and be ordained a deacon. I’m pretty sure we’re planning to do that on October 12 and any who would like to be there are invited to join us.

Miriam is loving 5^th grade and got the famous and beloved Mrs. Patrick as a teacher. We’re anticipating all the fun projects she’ll have throughout the year. She has a great group of girls on her club soccer team and I’m enjoying coaching her. It’s a bit of a transition and an exercise in patience to transition from Natalie’s level to Miriam’s level, but I’m really not qualified to coach well at Natalie’s age, so I’m definitely more in my comfort zone with the younger ages.

Miriam and Ellie were my awesome helpers the other day picking peaches. Our two trees were dropping peaches occasionally until the other day we looked out and the entire area of wood chips seemed covered in peaches. We decided we had better get out there and pick the rest of them before they fell, so I was grateful they were willing to be my helpers and rescue the rest of the fruit. Becky and the girls have already canned two batches and plan to do several more. We’ve been enjoying fresh peaches each day, but still wonder how we’re going to get rid of all we picked. If you want some peaches, come on over.

Ellie is enjoying friends, school, city soccer and piano. She and Miriam and Enoch are learning a trio that we heard a family play up at Quickwater. It will be fun once they all learn their parts and can play it together. The other day Ellie surprised me with how fast she could run. She had just finished a soccer game and we were waiting for Natalie to finish refereeing a game on the next field over, so another dad and I were playing against Ellie and some of her friends. Ellie was racing down the field with the ball and I thought I could catch up with her easily so I started running at a regular pace. I quickly realized that at that pace I would not catch her and so I sped up, and then had to increase my speed again until I was going just about as fast as I could and as I barely caught up to her she increased her speed and stayed ahead of me and scored. At first I couldn’t decide whether to be proud or depressed. I decided that it's not that I’m getting old and slow, its that my children are all just so darn speedy! J

Becky continues to quietly go about doing good.  She makes a big difference in her YW calling as secretary. Several have turned to her for help in times of need.  She is once again babysitting Poppy and Finn, and another baby named Jensen, a couple of days a week.  Our kids love having them over and giving them their undivided attention. It's easy to see why these young mothers trust their children with Becky.  

I’m in the final week of preparation leading up to the Harvest Moon Hurrah. I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for 10 years now. I’m about ready to hand it off to someone else. If any of you want to come you’re welcome to join us. You can learn all about it here: http://spanishfork.org/dept/parkrec/arts/hurrah.php

It seems that people in our ward and others we know have been having more that their fair share of trials lately. In addition to accidents, sicknesses, and a young mother 5 months pregnant finding out she has cancer (Natalie’s MiaMaid leader), we have had two recent deaths, one of which was our next-door neighbor. She was old and ready to go, so its wonderful to think of her being reunited with her husband, but now their children will be selling the house and we’ll be getting new neighbors. With all these things going on we have had opportunities to fast for these individuals and families and it has been a neat experience to see how ward members come together and how these types of things strengthen and unite people and we are part of an outpouring of love and service. Trials are sure hard, but I know the Lord knew what he was doing when he allowed for them in his perfect plan.

Thanks again for a wonderful time in the Manti temple. A very special day! We had a blast at Bear Lake with Jenny and family and Matt and Brenda on Labor Day. We’re excited for Adam to begin his mission. At least some of us are going to try and make it up there for his farewell. It was great to have Matt in our home for the first time since he’s been back. We LOVE having all the cousins over. It was so wonderful to have Teresa stay with us for 2 weeks. We miss her. Thanks for sharing your wonderful lives with us in so many fun and meaningful ways.

Photo of the Week!

Labor Day at Bear Lake
Photography by Isaac