Eight Isn't Enough: Aunt Kathy!!!

What a fun week we've had! It amazes me how week after week we have so many activities and experiences. Life never slows down.

Last Sunday, Freddy and Andrew were ordained as priests at church. They now can bless the sacrament and baptize people along with other new responsibilities as priests. We are so proud of their hard work and willingness to follow the Lord and to love and serve the children of God. They looked so handsome wearing their new suits!

The adventures continued with Aunt Kathy. After the twins were ordained, I drove down to Tucson with Papa and Bubba for Gavin's Christmas concert. Jessi and her girls also drove down Sunday evening. Gram and Aunt Kathy had gone down there the day before. Dandi came with some of her kids too.

It was a beautiful concert. Gavin conducted the Tucson boys choir and also sang in one of the choirs. It was definitely worth the two hour drive down. Gavin is amazing!

Here's the whole gang.

My parents and all my siblings with Aunt Kathy. It's rare for us to get a picture like this with us all together, and even more so to have Aunt Kathy too!

I'm so lucky to have these guys as my best friends for forever and ever!

I love these crazy people!

Monday, after school, Rich and I took the twins to Red Robin for their birthday burgers. Since it is December, Rich got his birthday burger too. These two are such fun!

I love that they photo bombed us!!! Such rascals!

When we got to the car things got silly and a wrestling match broke out in the car.

Dad rescued Freddy, who was pinned in the trunk, and gave us, by request, his mean Dad face for the picture. It was all pretty funny.

Laney and Susanna are in the gifted program at school. Tuesday, they were able to show us their projects at the RISE night. Laney built a carousel and Susanna made a ship.

This project says, "I am Susanna and I will strive to be respectful everyday."

That night the twins and I went to see the movie Justice League. Papa joined us. It was better than I expected; I had low expectations. It's always fun to be out with these awesome fellas.

When we got home everyone was in bed already. The twins put on a song and slow danced together. It was precious. They were very serious about it and so cute.

They even did a twirl.

Wednesday, Aunt Kathy came over to hang out. Laney and Daniel helped her load music on her phone and learn to use Pandora. She is just so easy to be with and a lot of fun! We all wish she lived closer. It's hard to cram everything into a little over a week, but we got lots of hugs and concerts and such squeezed in.

The hardest is saying goodbye. We got our goodbye pictures with her before the dance concert, since not everyone was going that night.

So much love!

Gram, Kathy, Rich, Sara, Sam, Josh and I went to Freddy's and Lilli's dance concert at the school. They both did a great job. Freddy LOVES dance and his dance teacher. Lilli danced to Footloose and Freddy's class had 2 numbers Our Favorite Son and Time Warp. They both danced in the finale, Honey, Honey. The theme was Broadway, so the music was pretty awesome and the dancing was great! We loved it.

Makena Zepp and Freddy, dance friends

The post-concert / goodbye to Aunt Kathy picture. She was leaving for home the next morning so we said our goodbyes and didn't cry toooo much. We love you bunches Aunt Kathy and can't wait until the next visit!

Thursday, was Laney's wax museum presentation. They all read biographies for this quarter and then did one minute speeches while dressed as their person. They recited their speech every time someone put money ($.25 or more) in their collection cup. The money all goes toward their upcoming field trip. Laney was an adorable Walt Disney.

Mason Boothby, Laney, Cambrie Owen

Karla, Avery Lawrence, Grace Blankenship, Laney, Luv Crump, Cambrie Owen

That evening Freddy came home from his 2nd of 3 concerts with flowers from his French teacher Ms. Terveen and his friend, Celina Phillips, who is a foreign exchange student from Germany.

We put his flower from Ms. Terveen in the pretty flowers Aunt Kathy gave me.

The high schoolers had spirit week and so each day had a theme that they dressed up for; like pajama day, bling day, toy day, etc. Sara went all out this week and on toy day she wore her Strawberry Shortcake costume. On friday at the assembly she was crowned as the most spirited senior. Since it was winter themed she was crowned the coldest. She had a cute bun that day so the crown didn't really fit on her head. Hooray Sara!

Sam, Andrew and Freddy put up some Christmas lights for Jessi and her girls. They didn't have many lights so they decorated her column and cut out a star that they covered in lights. It was pretty sweet.

The sun was pretty brutal at this time of day, so they had a hard time keeping their eyes open. This was the best picture I got.

Josh, Leigh and Susanna helped me put up the Christmas lights on our house that night, while Dad, Sara, her friend Hannah, Daniel and Laney went to the Valley Vista High School choir concert. They said it was a pretty amazing concert. It was Hannah's first time attending a choir concert. She loved it.

Saturday, Laney and I went dress shopping for the wedding while Sara gave Grandma Alger a perm. We were able to pick Asian pears and pomegranates with Grandpa before we left. They are super yummy!

Saturday evening, I took Richard on a surprise date for his upcoming birthday. We had a divinely delicious steak dinner at my parents and then we went to the Nashville Tribute Band Christmas concert. My parents had also gotten tickets so we rode out together. The concert was awesome and really, a lot like a big party.

While we were out, Freddy and Andrew had their first dates, a double date with Aleah and Genni, friends from MCO. They played games, went to the park and had a great time.

Genni and Freddy took this cute picture at the City of Surprise Christmas tree.