Opry and Talking with Travis

Eliza sang at the Opry the Saturday after Thanksgiving. She keeps getting better and better! I think in the future I'm going to start writing in these books the songs they sing so we can remember. I took a screenshot of us talking with Travis to show how we can all get on the call and we can see and talk to him weekly, a far cry from when Corey and my brothers were on missions.  Here, Corey is downstairs and I'm in the guest room and Westley is in Utah.

 

More Opry Fun

Eliza performed at the Wylie Opry again.  These performances are fun for the family to attend.  I love that they get to perform on stage with a live band.

Day After Wedding

The very next morning after the wedding, Corey and I, Toby and Jen, and Nana, and my parents, went to the temple so that Nana could be sealed to her parents and her sisters who have passed on. It was really cool to get to be there and be proxy for one of her sisters. Jen was proxy for her mom when she was sealed to her parents. Corey and I had done the work previously to seal her parents together. While we were at the temple doing that, Eliza had gone to the stake center for a special service project day building bunk beds. And that night, Annmarie performed at the Wylie Opry, so Nana and Jamie were able to come hear her sing.

 

Eliza Opry

Eliza sang at the Wylie Opry again Valentine's weekend.  She always does a great job and we are proud of her for branching out with her singing.

Start of the Year

Christmas Break has been busy.  We have some great neighbors down the street, Jeff and Stephanie Brown, and they are always having a ton of kids playing outside their house.  We have about five or six kids on our street that are in Nathan's grade as well, so it's a good group of kids.  Jonah and Annmarie often join the group to play.

Annmarie sang at the Opry the first weekend in January also.  She did amazing as usual.  She has no fear when performing; it's so great!  And she always starts on key, something that I do not do well at all.

Pretty much all of December and most of November was wet on the weekends, so the kids never got outside to pick up the dog poop as their Saturday chore.  Because of that, it really needed to be done, so we made all of them do it.  We made it a contest.  We gave them a time limit and told them it all had to be cleaned up and whoever's bag weighed the most would get a treat.  Well, the bags all weighed pretty close, so we just all went out to ice cream together.

 

Another Night at the Opry

The Opry let Annmarie and Eliza sing on the same night, which was really convenient for us.  They sang a duet "Crying Game" together also.  They also coordinate their outfits and looked really cute.  As always, they did a great job!

And August Comes to an End...

We finished out August with Annmarie's coach, Coach Makayla, leaving Precision for another coaching job that paid more money.  It was a rough day for Annmarie, as she really loved her coach.  She is now competing Level 7, which is optionals, and to lose her coach right when she is starting to learn her routines has been difficult.

And Westley performed again at the Opry.  We seem to be taking over that place with Annmarie, Eliza, Corey and Westley all having performed there in the last couple of months.  

Another Week in August

This week was another great and busy one.  Eliza had her orchestra concert and parent meeting that she has at the beginning of each year.  This is her third year of high school orchestra.  It's a potluck dinner and meeting and then the orchestra performs.  

Travis had a scrimmage game.  He wasn't able to play because he was injured in practice when he got a cut on his face from someone else's helmet.  Because of where the cut is, they don't want him to sweat on it so he has to take a break for a week or so.  He cheered his team on from the sidelines.

We also had Meet the Pirate night where we meet the athletes involved in fall sports and the marching band performs.  There were also booths by lots of student groups giving out freebies and hosting games as well as food trucks and other fun things going on.  The varsity players were signing mini footballs and Travis was involved in that. 

And another thing happened.  Charleen Bach, who has been the librarian at Groves for several years, has moved on to a new position with the district away from Groves.  She left and I spent a couple weeks subbing while they found a new librarian.  She came back to present Bluebonnet awards and I had Nathan read over the summer so he was able to be one of the first recipients and have her present him with the award.  

We finished out the week with Corey singing at the Opry.  

Opry Star

Annmarie sang at the Opry again.  Since the 4th was earlier this week, she dressed the part and even sang Martina McBride's "Independence Day" as one of her songs.  She keeps getting better and better at it and it's so fun to come hear her sing.

Westley's Opry Comeback

 

The Rest of October

October really flew by. Annmarie and I went to the Wylie Opry a random Saturday in September and she auditioned to sing.  She was given the date of October 28th.  She worked really hard and prepared two songs, "Any Man of Mine" and "Independence Day".  She loved singing in front of a crowd.

Jonah had his last football game on Halloween.  His season went pretty well and they won more games than they lost.  He also enjoyed playing football.  He went straight from his game to trick-or-treating with his siblings, so he dressed as a football player.  Annmarie was a country girl.

 

Wylie Opry Performance

Westley got invited back to the Wylie Opry and performed again. It's his last performance there before his mission. He hopes to perform again after he gets home.