Parkside Christmas Program

We have been blessed to get to listen to Christmas music at the school programs this year.  Dallin and MaryAnne were in their first school programs.  They did a great job.  I love the school Christmas programs.  I am glad the children have the opportunity to show what they have been working on.  MaryAnne has also been in the Powell Kids Chorus after school.  They did a song that was really neat with the lights off. They don't look really happy about being in the program in this picture, but I think they really did enjoy the night. I am putting on several videos of their songs.

Matthew moments

Matthew has had several fun events happenings this month.  He turned 16 on the 9th.  He had a great birthday I hope.  We made a chocolate caramel cake that was absolutely delicious!  He got a new game for his PS4 that he has been wanting. Neil worked hard and made Matthew a nice chessboard.  He was really excited about that.

  He went to the Cross County team awards that night at the bowling alley.  His teammates voted him the most inspirational for the boys team.  I think it was because he goes and works hard every day.  He might complain about a practice at home, but he won't complain there he will just work hard.

Today Matthew was ordained to be a Priest.  He is doing a good job being a good priesthood example for his younger brothers.  He is really learning to help and be a peacemaker in our home.  He watches out for his younger siblings and enjoys playing with them. I am grateful for Matthew and his goodness.

What happens at quiet time

Every afternoon I try and get a quiet time out of Joshua and Lydia.  Joshua still takes naps pretty faithfully.  I just lay him down, leave the room and he is asleep in a few minutes.  Lydia on the other hand has given up naps.  I usually get a few minutes that she will lay down and quietly look at books, but she rarely falls asleep anymore.  A few weeks ago she stayed in her room very quietly for much longer than I expected.  I thought for sure she was asleep so I peeked in to check on her.  I discovered that she has watched her older sisters do makeup quite often and she is pretty good at applying eye shadow with a dry erase marker.  She did a pretty good makeup job.

Little Stompers

For quite a while Joshua and Lydia have wanted to join Stomp and Company as Little Stompers.  When we performed in July and they saw the Little Stompers they were disappointed that they weren't doing it. Bethany taught the class this fall so we finally decided to let them do it. They  have loved being Little Stomper cloggers.  They did a great job performing at the recital.  Lydia had fun doing the parade with us. They even got their picture in the paper at a performance.  They sure are cute to watch.  They steal the show every time.  Sorry that the video is a little dark.  Lydia is the clogger right behind Joshua in the first song.

Thanksgiving

We were so blessed to have all of our children here for Thanksgiving.  Rebecca worked on Wednesday and then drove up on Thursday.  She got here a couple of hours earlier than we expected. What a wonderful surprise to see her drive up.

We did all of our cooking, except the turkey the day before.  We were able to enjoy the day together playing games and visiting.  We played card games and dice games.  We enjoyed being together.  We skyped with Grandpa and Grandma Sharp for the last time before they come home from Ireland.  It was fun to see them.

We had quite a feast, but as usual I didn't get any pictures.  I think the only year that I have remembered to take pictures of our dinner I didn't have any film in the camera.  Neil helped me make a truly beautiful lemon meringue pie. Thanks, Neil, I enjoyed working on the pie with you.  I did take a picture of that, but it was half gone.  We had so much yummy food.  We ate it for a couple of days. I enjoyed not having to cook for a few days.  Having two turkeys meant that there was plenty for sandwiches after. Matthew says that turkey sandwiches just might be better than thanksgiving dinner.

We are so blessed and grateful for all that we have.  Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family to share it with.

An exciting weekend at our house!

The weekend after Thanksgiving (Nov. 29 and 30) was pretty exciting at our house.  Saturday was David's 12th birthday and Dallin's baptism.  We were so blessed to have all of our children here to enjoy the day together.  Sunday, David was ordained a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood.  It was a great weekend for our boys to share together.

The hot water heater at the church wasn't working so Dallin had a cold baptism, but a warm heart from making covenants with Heavenly Father.  We were so grateful for those in the ward who ventured out in the wind and cold to support Dallin.  He was so glad that his Primary President, Sister Wambeke, his teachers Brother and Sister Lennon, and Bishop Opps family were there.  It was neat to watch Dallin be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We are grateful that Dallin chose to be baptized and are so glad he is part of our forever family.

Sunday was David's turn for advancement. He received his Faith in God award, graduated from Primary and was ordained a deacon.  He is growing into such a fine young man. He is ready for the responsibility of the Priesthood.  We are proud of him and his accomplishments.  He is an easygoing and obedient boy.  He makes me smile.  We are grateful to have him as part of our forever family.

What  a special weekend for the boys to share together.

Turkey Trot

At Parkside Elementary they have done the Turkey Trot in November for as long as we have had children in school. The children can choose to run laps around the playground at recess.  The boy and girl that runs the most laps from each class wins a turkey.  The school called on Friday and left a message that Dallin had won for his class. Mr. Jones handed out the turkeys on Monday at lunch.  I took Joshua and Lydia and went to watch Dallin receive his turkey.  He was surprised to see us there and wondered what was up.  The winners hadn't been told before.  He was excited to win and that now we could have two turkeys for Thanksgiving.  Great job, Dallin!

Mr. Jones awarding Dallin his turkey

The winners from kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades

You know it has been a cold week when...

You know it has been a cold week when Neil's bike stays parked all week.  He didn't ride his bike at all this week since it was below zero or snowing everyday he went to work.

This morning we woke up to more snow and you would have thought Matthew and Dallin had never seen snow before.  I think they forgot they live in Wyoming and snow is a common part of winter.  Matthew challenged Dallin to lay down in the snow for one minute together.  Matthew made it, Dallin didn't, but they had some good laughs giving it a try.  We had fun watching them.

Eight!

Dallin turned eight on Wednesday.  It was a very busy day so I was really grateful that he wanted grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner. It made it very easy.  I went in to school at 1:00 to take brownies to his class.  Next, I went to a Relief Society Presidency meeting.  When school got out I picked up MaryAnne and Dallin and took them to the church for activity days and Dallin's first cub scout meeting.  While they were there I went visiting teaching and then we all came home just in time for dinner.  Dallin wanted a baseball on his cake.  I got most of it done before I went to town, but not all.  When I went to make the frosting for the baseball part I discovered I was out of powdered sugar.  We were on a tight schedule to do cake and presents before the girls went to Young Women's so I didn't have time to run to the store.  We used whipped cream instead of frosting for the white. It worked pretty well.  Dallin was happy with it.

Dallin was so excited to turn eight and get his own set of scriptures.  He is looking forward to his baptism on David's birthday.  I am grateful he has the desire to be baptized.

I love you, Dallin!

8600

Neil is a math guy and likes numbers.  He has been keeping track of how many days we have been married.  Tuesday, November 11, was day 8600 of our marriage. We decided to do a little family activity to celebrate together.  We worked together to count our 8600 beans.  We thought about doing M&M's, but thought that would be expensive.  It would have taken more by the time we snitched a few.  No one snitched any beans, but we did hand out a treat for every two hundred counted.  We had a good time together.  Now I know that 8600 beans is almost  a gallon of beans.  Thanks for 8600 wonderful days together!

MaryAnne turned 10!

 MaryAnne turned 10 last week.  She wanted a strawberry cake shaped like a rabbit.  She also wanted coconut on her cake, but I didn't think coconut and strawberry sounded too great together so we also made a chocolate rabbit.  They turned out pretty cute.  It was a good thing they were easy cakes because it was a very busy day for me. I think she had a happy birthday.  I hope we made it a special day for a special girl.


MaryAnne had a party at the park on Saturday. I forgot my camera, again, so no pictures. It was a nice weather day which was such a blessing.  The kids had fun decorating cupcakes, doing a scavenger hunt, and playing games together.  MaryAnne was excited to have a party and invite her friends from school.  She has made a lot of friends at school and I am grateful for that. I think this is the first real birthday party she has had.

Happy Birthday, MaryAnne!

Emma's birthday (a late post)

Emma turned 14! She is a fun teenager.  She is excited to go to her first stake dance this month.  She wants to wear makeup now.  It's a good thing she got some for her birthday.  She loves her guitar so I wasn't too surprise when she told me she wanted a cake shaped like a guitar.  I was nervous about making it, but it wasn't too hard.  It turned out cute, except I didn't really like the color the frosting turned out.  Emma was happy with it and that is what matters.

Emma had a party with her friends to play volleyball after her birthday.  She has such a nice group of friends! I am grateful for good friends for our children.  The girls had fun eating cake and playing volleyball together.  I forgot to take my camera so I don't have any pictures. 

Here are some pictures from Emma's birthday.  Happy birthday, Emma!

Middle School Band Concerts

About a month ago David and Emma had their first band concert of the year.  They did great! This is David's first year playing in the band. He has really enjoyed playing the trumpet.  I think they sounded pretty good for playing less than two months.  This is Emma's second year playing the clarinet in the band.  She really enjoys music.  I am so grateful that our children have the opportunity to play instruments and develop their talents.  They have a great teacher and they enjoy band.  I recorded a bit of each song and put it together in a video.  Hope you enjoy listening to their concerts.

School Bus fun

Joshua and Lydia have loved going to Preschool together.  We didn't have preschool the last two weeks because Miss Holly their teacher had some health problems.  She called us Tuesday morning to let us know she was back and there would be school that morning.  She also told them they were going to get to ride a bus.  They were so excited! They got ready for school so fast and started watching for the bus.  They were disappointed when I told them we would drive into school and then get on the bus there.  They really wanted to ride a bus into school like the other children.  They had fun on the bus.  We rode from the preschool to the Middle school to learn how to get on and off the bus.  It was fun to see how exciting it was for them to ride the bus.

Customize a picture collage

Halloween 2014

Halloween is not my favorite holiday. We didn't grow many, actually any pumpkins this year so we didn't carve pumpkins. We did let the children carve pumpkins virtually. The children decided what they wanted to be, some sooner than others. I made Joshua's yellow pikachu pants the day before the preschool party. I made MaryAnne's pirate dress about half an hour before I had to go pick her up. Dallin decided the morning of Halloween to be Harry Potter. He and Adam had planned something else, but it fell through. Joshua found the Pikachu hat at Walmart in July and wanted it for his costume. Lydia wanted to be Elsa, but she didn't tell me until we were out trick or treating downtown. I guess she can be Elsa next year. It reminded me of when Rebecca was two and I made her a Snow White dress. When it was finished she said it was cute, but she really wanted to be Cinderella. I don't think she ever got to be Cinderella. At least this year I did let the children stay and go to the Carnival at the Church. They didn't get to stay as long as they wanted, but they did go. We also went out to Dallin's teacher's house. I thought of Martha as we ate pizza. It has been a tradition for a lot of years to eat Pizza on Halloween. We had nice weather for Halloween and I was glad about that. Here are some pictures of our Halloween activities.

Customize a picture slideshow

The end of an era

Joshua has seen Dr. Wiggins at least every 6 months since he was born.  For the first couple of years we saw him more like every other month.  I am so grateful for Dr. Wiggins and his peaceful and caring manner.  It has been an amazing experience to work with him and his staff. 

When I called in September to schedule Joshua's appointment in October I heard the words I have worried about since starting this heart journey.  "Dr. Wiggins is not coming to outreach clinics anymore, he is working towards retirement."  He has hired someone else to take over for him.  I decided to go to Billings to see Dr. Wiggins one last time instead of going to Cody and see Dr. Lashus.  Evee George was taking her daughter, Brinlee, up so I scheduled Joshua's appointment at the same time so we could go up together.  We enjoyed the day, it was fun to listen to Joshua and Brinlee in the back seat.  They had a great time talking together.

I love Dr. Wiggins nurse, Melissa, as much as I love Dr. Wiggins.  Melissa is also leaving in May. She has been going to school to be a nurse practitioner.  I have always thought that Melissa has an amazing ability with children.  She loves to talk to them and makes them feel so comfortable.  I have always thought if she wasn't a pediatric nurse she should be a children's photographer.  She is so good at getting them to smile.  I wanted to get a picture of Joshua with Melissa, but she avoids cameras.  I did get a picture of her on the floor with Joshua while he was picking out stickers for doing so well.

Joshua had a great report at this visit.  Six months ago Dr. Wiggins didn't like the rhythm of Joshua's heart so he had to wear a holter monitor for 24 hours to monitor his heart.  Everything looked good this time.  Joshua's oxygenation was better this time also.  He fenestration from his Fontan surgery is starting to close up on its own.  That helps him have more oxygen.

It has been a tender mercy to have a pediatric cardiologist so close and I am grateful that Dr. Lashus will be here now.

Melissa always calls Joshua sticker man when he has his EKG

Brinlee, Joshua and Dr. Wiggins

Melissa letting Joshua and Brinlee bring a bunch of stickers home

That's a new PR

Right now as I am typing Matthew is in Star Valley running the Conference Cross Country meet.  I so hope he is doing well and is happy with his time today.

Last week the meet was here in Powell, it was the last meet of the season I will get to watch. The meet was at the Powell golf course.  The younger children had fun playing in our fall leaves before the race started.  Matthew ran so well.  His goal this year was to break 20:00 minutes.  He hadn't been met his goal yet.  Running at Powell he ran a 19:09.  He took almost a minute of his personal record.  Way to go Matthew!  I love watching you run!!

playing in the fall leaves with friends

Matthew's first mile

Come on Matthew you can catch him

Matthew and Ben in stride together

Still running strong

The final stretch, keep going Matthew

Who says Waite children can't dance?

Saturday afternoon some of the kids played Just Dance 4 on the Wii.  I love watching them do this together.  Joshua really wanted to win, but didn't want to dance so David stepped in and tried to win for Josh.   I think it is great that they like to this together and aren't afraid to dance.

Conference Weekend

For Neil's birthday I thought it would be fun to give him a trip.  We talked about it and decided to get tickets to the BYU/Utah State game on Friday, October 3 in Provo.  It was the perfect weekend to be in Utah because we also got tickets to the Saturday Morning General Conference Session and to closing night of the musical Rebecca is in Camelot.  I have been looking forward to this trip and all the events.

We left about 8:00 Friday morning on our adventure.  We stopped in Thermopolis at the Hot Springs State Park and had a soak in the mineral pools.  After that we stopped in Shosoni for lunch at Fullmer's Fat Boy.  What a fun place.  I think my mom and dad should stop there on one of their trips to Powell because it is the kind of place my dad would love.  They had great hamburgers, fries and shakes.  It is a small place, but a great one to stop at.

We drove on to Utah and went to the temple.  The temple was very busy before conference.  Neil got in to do initiatory, but there were too many sisters ahead of me.   We drove on to Cougar Stadium.  It took us longer than we planned and we were just getting there at kickoff.  We still had to park and walk/jog to the Stadium.

I love being at Cougar Stadium!  It was so neat to be there again.  I enjoyed seeing LaVell Edwards and Jim MacMahon.  They were retiring his number that night.  We lost the game 35-20, but it was still an amazing experience to be there.  My favorite play of the game was on special teams.  BYU kicked off and about 5 BYU player picked up the return man for Utah State and carrried him back about 10 yards.  He fumbled the ball, but the referees called him down by forward progression.  It was a unique play. The game got over about midnight and by the time we drove to our motel it was about 2:00 am.

We met Rebecca Saturday morning and went to the Conference Center together.  I love being at Conference.  It was so neat to watch President Monson walk in.  I am so grateful we have a Prophet on the earth today.  It was neat to listen to Elder Wong speak Cantonese. We only had my kindle to take a picture with so here are a couple of selfie pictures of us at the Conference Center.

After Conference we went to Pizza Hut and bought lunch with Rebecca.  Neil and I watched the afternoon session in our room.  Then we went shopping and drove out to Magna to watch Rebecca in Camelot.

The cast of Camelot did a great job! It was fun to watch Rebecca and think about how far she has come in her dream on being on stage.  I remember when being in MCT was the most exciting thing of the year.  She has definitely outgrown MCT.  You can just tell how much she loves to be on the stage.  My favorite part was that after she had died she kept singing.  It was cute.

We enjoyed meeting some of Rebecca's friends from Camelot after the show.  It was late and luckily there was Mexican restaurant right by our motel that stayed open all night.  We grabbed some dinner and took it back to our motel.  Our sleeping and eating schedules sure got messed up on this trip, but it was so worth it!

We left about 8:00 Sunday morning to drive home.  We wanted to get home about 4:00 so the children wouldn't have too much time after conference without us there.  We were able to listen to both sessions of conference on the radio while we drove home.  It was harder to take notes and I definitely need to read the talks again.

It was a wonderful weekend getaway!  I enjoyed every part of the weekend and I'm already thinking of what we can do some other time.  Maybe we need to make a BYU game and annual tradition.

A is for Alligator and C is for cookie

I love doing kindergarten at home! It is so much fun to learn with the little ones.  I also feel it is time for them to play and be children longer.  Joshua has learned two letters this month.  We learned the three sounds for A.  We did several fun activities with A, but Joshua and Lydia's favorite was the Allingator cupcakes we made for Family Home Evening treats.

This week Joshua has learned the two sounds for C.  We baked C cookies.  They turned out cute and Joshua and Lydia enjoyed eating them.