Happy Kid Update

Right now I have four pretty happy kids. We've had a nice little stretch of good luck and decreased stress lately--in fact, I'm loathe to write this down in case I jinx things. But gratitude outweighs jinxiness, doesn't it? Plus I've been a parent long enough to know to enjoy the good times--helps you ride the wave when things are tougher.

Here's the happy stuff for each of the four.

Wyatt Dean is mostly just chillin as a happy 7-year-old. He's thrilled that it's warmed up outside so he can go out and play with his friends, He's also been pretty much tic-free since mid-November, and although that definitely doesn't mean he's out of the woods (he's cycled in and out of tics for a couple of years now) it's been nice to have things calm down for a while.

I snapped a pic earlier today after he managed to invite four friends over to play. He called one friend and no one answered, so he called another friend and no one answered, then we got a hold of the third friend who said he could come and play, then five minutes later friend number one's mom called me back, and five minutes after that friend number two's mom called me back. The truth is, though, at this age they play so well in bigger groups. One on one the kids can get bored and rely on Mom to come up with fun ideas. But in a group of four, they're just off to the races. Here they are enjoying a healthy snack (juice boxes, potato chips, fruit twists--and yes, Mindy, I'm saying "healthy" ironically :).

Goof nuggets. I like how his friend Clifton came over to play wearing a space suit. Ethan had some theatre friends over in the basement writing a script for the year-end banquet at the same time Wyatt had friends over, and none of THEM were wearing space suits.

He's also in the thick of scraggely-toothdom. Look at that big boy mouth! Makes me wistful.

Jonas Leo just finished a fantastic run of Lake Middle School's production of Seussical: The Musical. Jonas played "boy" and got to utter the first lines of the show (see video clip below) and he was also a Who from Whoville. It was a darling show and Jonas had so much fun. I wasn't sure if he'd be interested in the theater, but he decided all on his own he wanted to try out and has loved it. The video is of the opening scene and there are some photos from cast photo day too.

The photo below is of Jonas and Makenna, a girl from our ward. They were both in the show and were particularly excited to have a bunch of Beehives from the ward come and watch them perform.

Such a cute photo. Jonas really likes these girls. The group of Deacons and Beehives from our ward get along so well; they voluntarily get together once a month to have "Beacon" parties. Which makes the fact that they're splitting our ward tomorrow tougher. As Jonas said, "It's like 'Happy Easter!' Now say goodbye to all your friends."  But the whole ward split thing is for another post.

Jonas also got the "Lake Award" for the outstanding student of the month of the "house" in his middle school (they're separated into two houses). The award came with a gift certificate for a child's meal at Chili's . . . with the purchase of an adult meal. (Hey, Chili's! Methinks this is a corporate scam to get people to come to your restaurant. We are on to you.)

We also found out today that his contact lens prescription, which is two years old (whoops!), is way too weak for his deteriorating eyes. He popped in the new contacts and kept exclaiming about how awesome the world is. It is awesome. Especially when you can see it clearly.

Elise Julia thinks the world is awesome because she got asked to Mormon Prom. The boy is the son of the Stake YW Pres. I work with and he's sweet and fun. He came over, brought her some flowers, then unzipped his jacket to reveal the shirt below:

I like how you can see the blush in her cheeks. We quickly decided to order a prom dress online, a trick that Mormon girls outside of Utah have been trying in order to find dresses that meet the modesty code. We used a website called dhgate.com--it's Chinese and sells just about everything. It's almost like eBay, with a ton of individual sellers or small businesses. I think the business model of the dressmakers is: steal photos of prom dresses and wedding dresses off of the internet; offer to sew them to fit the customer's measurements for much less than the dress would cost in a store; sit back and wait for the money rolling in (especially from the Mormons who like the fact you can search for "cap sleeves" and come up with a bunch of options). We were a little nervous about it, but the dress came in TWO WEEKS. Order received, dress made, mailed from China, boom. Those Chinese businesswomen are quick. And Elise loves it! We'll have to take it in a bit in the bodice and hem it, but overall it works great. 

Elise also had a great experience performing at Solo & Ensemble (a vocal competition) for the first time ever. She got one point below Superior, the highest rating, but was very happy with her Excellent. Her voice has come a long way in the last year and I'm so proud of her for singing an adjudicated solo--nerve wracking stuff, and she handled it with aplomb. She also just found out that she made it into East Ridge's top choir--the Minnesota equivalent of the Madrigal group that I loved so much in high school. The last two years she's been in women's choirs and I think she's going to love the mixed format (for more reasons than four-part harmony! :-). 

Lastly, she performed on Sunday for the Young Women's "Celebration of Christ" program. She decided to write and perform her own song. Although she plays her guitar and sings in her room all the time, she'd never attempted to write a song until now. She wouldn't let me hear it until the day of the event, but I'm glad I got to be surprised. It's a beautiful, heartfelt song, and it touched so many people in the room. It's so fun to see a daughter stretch herself and grow. A video of her performance is below, but the lighting is very low and the audio isn't that loud (taken on my iPhone in a dark room). But I think you can still hear it well enough.

I was also proud of her because we'd found out at church earlier that day that our ward was going to be split. Her three best friends live in the southernmost part of our ward and we live in the north; it's almost certain that they won't be together. When she heard the news she was very upset--and I understood. These girls don't go to the same high schools, so it will be harder and harder to see each other after this. Elise wasn't sure she could perform that night, but she pulled herself together and delivered a beautiful performance. I'm so glad they had the event that night--I think it was comforting for a lot of them to remember who we can turn to when life doesn't go the way we'd like it to.

Finally, Ethan William got some good news of his own. A few days ago we found out that he got a 1/2 tuition scholarship to BYU. We're so proud of him! And I think he's particularly happy because he can now, in good conscience, refuse to work in the Origination warehouse for the summer and instead stick with McDonalds even though the pay isn't as good. (Dad was pushing hard for Origination. Dad is a man and he is tasked with raising manly men. I, however, am a softie and I'm glad that he doesn't have to go shovel mud for 8 hours every day in an overheated warehouse that smells like turkeys.) 

Not to say that I don't try to force Ethan to do things as well. For the past two years I've been trying to talk him into going to Prom and he's been intractably opposed. Hates dancing. Too expensive. Goofy. Stressful. I finally had to throw my hands up in the air and say, "Whatever, dude [even though your refusal to go to Prom is weird and depriving me of the opportunity of posting cute pictures of you in a suit with your friends and a date on my Facebook page but WHATEVER!!]" But the Gods have smiled! Ethan is on Youth Council and since they're also involved in pulling off this Mormon Prom, he decided to man up and go. He's asked a great girl in our ward and has given his mother the gift of agreeing to hold still and pose for at least one awkward picture on the front lawn.

So tomorrow is Easter. And ward split day. I also have a huge pile of essays coming in on Tuesday--the longest ones of the semester--so who knows when I'll get around to updating the blog again. I'm guessing once the semester wraps up in mid-May. Until then!

Birthdays and Eagles

We had a busy weekend last week. First, we celebrated two big birthdays. Happy birthday(s) to my handsome boys!

Forrest had his eyes closed in the first shot and Jonas did in the second, so I thought I'd make a little collage and you can cross your eyes and imagine that I photoshopped somebody's head. And Wyatt likes being in photos as much as possible, especially shirtless. I wonder if this will last until his 13th birthday? 

You can't really tell, but the cake is 2/3 chocolate and 1/3 German chocolate. It wasn't very pretty, but Forrest wanted German chocolate frosting and Jonas wanted chocolate, so I sacrificed beauty for practicality.

We also went to Buffalo Wild Wings--it's become kids' choice for birthday celebrations. I think I now have three or four photos of all the kids at this restaurant. It's like the Mirror Lake photo of the Hallstrom family!

Here's a great one of Wyatt and Forrest. You can't really tell in this photo but Forrest is getting quite skinny in preparation for his upcoming Half Ironman. I was glad to see him eat some wings AND half a cheeseburger.

Jonas was actually a super good sport because his real birthday occurred on Sunday, which was also Ethan's Eagle Court of Honor. I asked Jonas a number of times if he was okay with his laid back birthday and he kept saying yes, yes. He was happy to get a few presents, but even happier to get some money. He's such a good kid. See? He's even happy at the Court of Honor when very few people are paying attention to him! He's holding up the big 1-3. (Or 3-1. I don't have the wherewithal to photoshop heads OR flip photos around apparently!)

And now I have three teenagers in the house. THREE! Jonas doesn't quite count yet. He's still too reasonable.  It did make me a little misty eyed on Sunday, though, seeing my middle boy reach one milestone and my firstborn one reach one as well. We did the Court of Honor with three other families--a GREAT idea, saving us time and money and enjoying the night with a bunch of other people. Here are the handsome boys in a little photo shoot we did the Sunday before:

One of the moms used the photos for our yummy Sam's Club cake, so the kids had a good time eating their brothers' heads.

It was a wonderful evening, and so fun to celebrate that Ethan was FINALLY DONE!

Random people and decorations

Posers

So handsome!

Tough guys

Nerds

"Hey Ethan, take a picture with Jonas on his birthday!"

"Hey Elise, can I take your picture too?"

Caaaaake!

Lately Wyatt has been a total goof-nugget in most pictures. I promise he's still a very handsome boy.

Next up? Jonas's play, Seussical Jr. Closing night is tonight and he's done such a great job!

A Few Fun Things

The first fun thing that's happened in the last few weeks is Elises's 16th birthday. It's hard to believe that Elise is now the same age as I was when I started dating her father, but it's true: she's met one of the biggest milestone birthdays around. She celebrated her 16th at the Mall of America with three good friends. I gave her my credit card and the four of them went and ate at The Rainforest Cafe like grownups--although she had to call and ask me if she's supposed to give the server the credit card again after writing in the tip. (A good question, actually. The things we just do without thinking about them.) Here they are, looking cute in a candy shop:

And here Elise is, trying to pose with her birthday cake in a dignified manner. Then her dad showed up.

Love that girl. It will probably be a few months yet before she attempts the driver's license. The winter has been so treacherous she hasn't done all the driving she needs to with her permit yet . . . but I'm happy to put that one off a few months, especially since she has a brother who can driver her around.

And speaking of Elise and her brother, today was the last day of their speech season. They've both done a great job, learned a lot, and grown. And I'm very happy that the days of waking up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday are now behind us. I went and helped judge at the final meet today and it was bittersweet seeing Ethan up there getting awards. It's been a great four years for him on the speech team--a defining element of his high school experience and identity--and I'm so glad that he's had this opportunity. Here's a shot of the whole speech team, and then Ethan holding a his brother (while his brother holds his trophy).

 
As a matter of fact, while I type this there are dozens of speech students in our basement, laughing and stomping around. I took a photo of all their shoes in the entryway, then snapped a quick photo of a bunch of them watching Frozen and singing along (I tried to make sure no one saw me, then skittered back up the stairs. That's one reason the photo is not of the highest quality: my clandestine photography skills aren't so great). Anyway, speech parties are the best non-Mormon parties you ever want your high school students to attend.

Aaaaand speaking of going to MORMON parties, it looks like Ethan will be attending a few in the future, since he's decided to go to BYU (go Cougs!). He's excited and so am I. He gets to go to COLLEGE. My favorite!! And walk around on BYU campus with the mountains so close and listen to the bells ring. There are few places in the world I like more than a beautiful college campus in the fall. Everyone is so young and alive and interesting, and there are trees and pretty buildings and people lying on the grass reading books. Love it love it. Of course, the transition to college can be hard sometimes too, but I think Ethan is ready. He gets to pick his room this Friday: Helaman or Heritage? Will his roommate be a "night owl" or an "early riser"? So many interesting questions.

Now for the younger two, a few fun things as well.  Both Jonas and Wyatt went skiing at our local "resort" over spring break. I put resort in quotes because it's nothing like a Utah ski resort, but that said, it's one of the nicest in Minnesota and has some hills that are fun, especially for those who don't need to ski down black diamond trails. Unfortunately I don't have any Jonas skiing pictures because he went with friends in the ward--I am certain he looked dashing heading down the mountain. But just so Jonas will get a little photo time, here's a cute shot of him trying to eat the sugar ribbon off of Elise's Sam's Club birthday cake (it was hard as a rock):

Now you tell me: should I worry about getting this kid braces? It seems almost de riguer these days, but his teeth are pretty straight if you ask me.

Anyway, back to skiing. We did get some great shots of Wyatt. He went twice: once for an official lesson, and the again with dad.

 Getting on the "magic carpet" on his first day of lessons:

Figuring it out:

Practicing "pizza" with his class (headed by a teenager named Ethan):

And on the lift for the very first time. All by himself! With NO RESTRAINTS! It made me a little nervous, I've got to admit.

But he looked pretty happy about it:

Heading down the "bigger" hill for the first time.

After the lesson Forrest thought he caught on quickly enough that he could go up with just dad for an afternoon, so Forrest got off work a little early and took Wyatt for a few hours. He was pumped to get some Dad and Wyatt time.

This time, he got a traveling companion on the ski lift:

And Forrest took a great video of him swooshing down the mountain. Those kids, they learn fast:

We have a big week ahead of us as well. Forrest's birthday, Jonas's birthday, and Ethan's Eagle Court of Honor on Sunday. I'm just proud of myself that I got two posts finished in the month of March. I have a feeling my next post won't be for a while. A huge crush of paper grading awaits. We'll see though: maybe I'll surprise myself and become super organized somehow. You never know!

A Bit About Everybody

So it's March now, and although it's still cold and snowy in Minnesota, today gave us small reason to hope. It's above 20 degrees, the sun is out, the snow is melting a bit. I felt so good about it I went and got a pedicure--just a spur of the moment pedicure. Funny to think that I'd never had a pedicure in my life until about 3 years ago; I didn't know what I was missing.

Anyway, do you want some more pictures of snow? Sure you do! I know that last month I posted a picture of our backyard after a big snowfall. But here's ANOTHER picture of our backyard after a big snowfall:

The latest big snowfall occurred (of course) when Forrest was out of town. During this winter of record-breaking consecutive below-zero days and SIX (yes, SIX) days out of school due to cold temps or snow, Forrest has visited Las Vegas, Florida and, next week, Arizona. The photo below isn't our house (thank goodness) but it is a picture of our neighbors' house, and the kind of snow blowing that Ethan and I got to do while Forrest was hanging out in Vegas. (Not that he hasn't done more than his fair share of snow blowing over the years. He totally has. But I reserve the right to complain when he's in Vegas in February.)

But enough about the weather. What about the kids?! Here's a rundown:

Ethan is possessor of the biggest news of late: he got accepted to BYU!

It's gotten so competitive in Provo that it's an honor just to be accepted. Such an honor that it seems near unto travesty to consider NOT attending BYU if you're lucky enough to get a golden ticket, but Ethan's still mulling over his choices. I think he's leaning BYU's way, but he has a few weeks until he needs to decide definitively. I have done my Mom-ly duty and made him sit down with me and make a nice list of pros and cons (which I dutifully broke up into columns using Microsoft Word, but then the columns kept getting messed up and when I'd type a "BYU Pro" it would end up in the "Utah State Pro" column--highly frustrating). We've done a financial analysis, talked to friends who've gone to both schools, and looked at majors. If anything, it's BYU's Media Arts program that I think Ethan's most excited about right now and could be the deciding factor . . . I mean, everybody knows a bachelor's degree in Media Arts is BIG BUCKS! Seriously, though, he's really excited about all the classes he could take in that major, and since he's already planning on grad school I don't feel the need to hyperventilate too much about a not-as-practical-as-mechanical-engineering major. Ultimately, though, it's up to him. I have to keep practicing saying that about my kids: It's up to him (or her, as the case may be very shortly). An interesting position to suddenly find myself in.

Elise has been busy with speech (as has Ethan, of course) and enjoys her new vocal coach, a very enthusiastic and supportive soprano named Corissa. Elise is planning to compete in Solo & Ensemble (I remember that!) and is exceedingly thrilled about heading to Utah in August to go to EFY at BYU with an old friend from South Jordan. It's almost her birthday--sixteen, I can hardly believe it. As I type, she's upstairs cramming for her finals tomorrow. Biology, Geometry, and History: the three hardest classes all have finals on the same day. I can hear her humming up there though, so it must not be too bad. Speaking of speech, here's a photo of Elise taken with her speech team. Doesn't she look sophisticated? True, she's still super psyched about How to Train Your Dragon 2 and saw Frozen in the theater four times with her friends . . . but she is growing up.

Jonas is growing up too. Want proof? I have the BEST proof ever. A couple of weeks ago the Stake YW hosted a Deacon/Beehive dance and it was just about the best dance ever. I think all youth activities should be geared toward 12 and 13-year-olds. They still care. They still try. And dances? Fugettabout it. These kids took their dance instruction exceedingly seriously. It was so fun to watch. Here's Jonas and the 12 and 13-year-olds of our stake learning the box step. Jonas is in the green and grey.

He's also having a great time in the middle school production of Seussical. He plays "Boy" and is a Who as well. I wasn't sure if Jonas would get the acting bug, but it looks like he's been bitten too.

Wyatt Dean has been bitten by a bug as well--the Rainbow Loom bug. And I admit it: I've been bitten a little bit too. Who doesn't like a challenge? When Wyatt got his Rainbow Loom I took it upon myself to learn the basics so I could teach him, and my initial effort turned out like this:

But I persevered through trial and tribulation, and my second attempt (much like Thomas Edison's 99th attempt at the lightbulb, or whatever it was he was inventing--the phonograph? the cotton gin?) was successful!

Since then Wyatt and I have made a number of designs--the Dragon Scale, the Twisty Wisty, etc. etc. Our most recent attempt was a snake attached to a necklace. It's totes awesome. Here's Wyatt, decked out in some of his Rainbow Loom finery:

And he's doing great otherwise: healthy and happy. Our Bubba. Love him.

And Forrest and I are doing are best to keep one step ahead of all the little demons nipping at our heels. Demons sound so negative, but I can't come up with another word so I'm going with it, even though most of the demons are just life demands and not minions of Satan or anything. Speaking of minions of Satan, though: today Forrest broke down and shrink-wrapped our raspberry bushes because the demon rabbits, who've grown fat and entitled on our neighbors' steady diet of carrot sticks thrown outside into the snow, broke through the protective mesh cover we were using and are just going to town on every stalk they can find. It pains my husband, watching them eat his raspberry bushes.

Forrest is also working hard teaching seminary and enjoying it. I think I made it a lot more complicated when it was my calling. I've been busy with Stake Young Women and I'm getting even busier. We have a big YW activity on Saturday, then we're in charge of our 8-stake Mormon Prom in May. Ahhhh! Give me strength. Then we're on to Girls' Camp and Youth Conference, not to mention ward conference visits. Keeps me on my toes. I do love serving with my friend Brooke though. Brooke is da bomb. Forrest's work is good (and overwhelming) and my work is good (and overwhelming). We both fall asleep immediately when we go to bed at night, although I try not to fall asleep before he does because I sometimes snore (so unladylike) but if he falls asleep first it doesn't bug him. It's the little things we do for our spouses, right? Force yourself to stay up five more minutes?

And now I need to go read over Elise's history paper before I turn her over to Forrest for Geometry review. And then Ethan will come home from his shift at McDonald's and we'll have family prayer and I'll clean up the kitchen and the mudroom which I feel obligated to clean up every night now that seminary is at our house and we'll all fall into bed tired, but hopeful. Why hopeful? Because Friday is the beginning of Spring break, then it will be birthdays, then it will be April, then it will be warm! Hallelujah!