Tim's Mission Call

We have been waiting for this day for a long time!  The letter came on Saturday afternoon, just before we left for our choir concerts.  It was a little bit torturous to wait just over 24 hours to open it,  but we wanted to share the moment with family and friends.  I did not do a good job taking pictures. We had over 50 people in our home, excited for Tim. 

Susanna "helped" with the Facebook live video of the event.  We have 16 minutes of crazy video and spinning and then 2 minutes of the actual opening on video.  This one here is the video I took of just Tim opening his call.  It's a little blurry, but it's steady and to the point.  I love the look on his face when he reads the words Korea Seoul Mission.

You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/TpkY1_HF9RQ

Some of the kids watching the video of him opening it again and again.

Kallie, Daniel and Sammy

Lilli, KenaDee, Andrew and Freddy

Kallie, Freddy and Daniel

Makaila, Freddy

Tim, Sara and Tommy

Lilly and Brandon 

Timmy with his Papa and Gram Ely and Grandpa and Grandma Alger

A sweet lady in Josh's area, sent us pictures of Josh right after he watched the video of Tim opening his call.  The lady said it was super sweet to see how happy Josh was for Tim and how grateful he is that they will have a month together before Tim leaves.  They will be apart for almost 4 solid years other than this one month in between their missions.

It still doesn't quite seem real to me. I am thrilled for Tim to serve the Lord.  He will be an incredible missionary, just like his big brothers. It is fun to watch him grow and learn.  He is driven to constantly improve himself and to humbly seek what he can do to better serve the Lord, his loved ones and anyone he meets.  He started an online language program last night so he could learn some Korean before he reports to the MTC in Provo, August 9th.  He is going to be an amazing missionary!

Be Still My Soul

We had our MCO concerts this last weekend.  This one was called Be Still My Soul.  I love working with my kids and all the incredible youth in the choir.  There is just something so wonderful about teens who choose to spend their time building their testimonies of Christ and strengthening their talents through sacred and classical music.  The heavens were truly opened and angels were in our presence as they sang.  There are not words to describe the spirit at the concerts.

Now, behind the scenes, they are a bunch of fun, silly teens who love to socialize and goof around, but they are also respectful and kind.  I saw many acts of kindness and concern, prayers said for others and lots of hugs and encouragement given by these kiddos. I love them!

Sara and one of her best friends, Makaila 

Sam and Lilli

Kissin' cousins / Best Friends

Lilli and Andrew

Sara and her friend Madison

Showing us their choir lips

It was Lilli, George and Noah's first time coming to a concert.  They all loved it!

George with his dance kids!

Alger / Ely gang 

Freddy, Noah, Tim, Andrew and Brandon

High School Bros

 Me, back stage running around with the tenors.

Rachel, Rebekah, Madison and Sara

My buddy, Taylor LeSueur. He's graduating.  It's always sad to have my choir boys grow up. 

Taylor LeSueur, Caden White, Jordan Hopkins, Davis Cullimore, ?, Tim and Freddy

Freddy and Samuel Sheppard

Grammy sweetly helped me with the last concert.  She was our lovely water girl.  She is excellent at hydration!  I loved getting to show her what we do and share the evening with her from behind the scenes.

Truman, Freddy, Tim, Ammon, Caiden, ?, ?, ?, ?

I'm so sad that I can't remember everyone's names. There are over 120 high school guys.

Tim, Mason, Freddy, Jay

Caden

We had several times that we had to squeeze all the tenor in a little entry hall to wait for our cue.  They had to be super quiet, which is pretty tough by the 4th concert, but they did a great job. 

Freddy and his buddy/ guitar teacher, Spencer Jones

Hanging with our friends, Spencer Jones and Rob Gardner.

Kayla and Sara 

Sara, Rachel, Rebekah, Tim

and Spencer 

We love the Smiths!

Sara and our sweet friend Alex Contraras

Sara and Taylor

Me and my boys!

Andrew, Freddy, Steph and Tim

 These cuties were are welcome party when we got home.  It was after midnight and they said Brandon and Noah had just barely left.

I love these crazy kids!

The Sunday after concerts, they wear their concert attire to church.  

Here is our traditional day after, sibling picture. Aren't they cute?!!!

I'm sad that it is Tim's last year in choir with us.  He will be missed, but I am so excited for his adventures as an adult and missionary.  I am also excited that Daniel will be joining us in choir in the fall.  He is going to LOVE it!!!

A bunch of silliness

We continued to celebrate Susanna's birthday with enchilada casserole and ice cream. She didn't want cake this year. Laney took the pictures for me.

Sara has been taking lots of clients lately to practice her cosmetology skills.  This was right after she cut Grammy's hair.  It's been fun to go get hair cuts and have my nails done. She has seen the most clients in her class.  They are having a contest for the month, so she is in the lead!

We used Sam's car to drive to choir since Dad, Sam and Tim were all out of town at a Life Leadership convention in Kansas City Missouri.  Drew asked if he could toss a pepper stem out the window, but instead just dropped it.  It stuck to the bottom of the window so he rolled it down more which just wedged it in.  We rode with it that way for a while until he could pull it out. It doesn't sound that exciting, but to a car full of tired people it was pretty funny.

Drew also took some beautiful selfies for me.

Every Thursday, while Sara is at choir (the girls start an hour before the boys), we go to Costco. It was just me and the twins since Tim was out of town. They had a fun time hiding from me and climbing everything they could. I found them in the refrigerator with the butter.

Another thing that happens every week at Costco is that at least 1 person will ask if Tim, Freddy and Andrew are triplets.  I'm not kidding, it happens every time.  This week, since we didn't have Tim, we did all our shopping with out any triplet comment. However, as we were leaving, the guy who checked our receipt at the door said, "You're missing one of the triplets this week." I'd never talked to him before, but apparently he had seen us. It was hilarious that even with out Tim, someone still thought they were triplets.

Yesterday, Susanna came home and said that she had chipped her tooth but didn't know how. We are going to the dentist today.

Easter Sunday!

I had to get an Easter picture with Timmy. I have so little time left with him at home. I can't believe how fast time has gone. We miss Josh and are excited to get him back soon, but then we send off Tim.  It is painfully wonderful and hard to do, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

I am so proud of all my missionary kids.

They are getting so big!

We had a lovely Easter dinner at Gram and Papa's house.  Nan and Gram made all the food and let me have the day off.  They are so sweet!  They know how crazy it has been with costuming and prom.

We got a picture with all the grandkids that were there. We were missing Cadie and Gavin's family and Jessi and her girls.

Susanna wanted a birthday picture with Papa, since they kind of matched with their stripes.

 Papa photo bombed our selfie. I loved it!

Here is Gavin and Cadie's family Easter picture.

Peter, Gavin, Freddy, Daphne, Cadie and Freia

Jessi's three oldest girls were in Seattle winning Easter dance trophies!