Saying Goodbye to Benjamin

After school got out, Benjamin's parents came to take him back to Denmark. They took us out to lunch to thank us for hosting him. We went to Texas Roadhouse. Then they took off on a driving trip of the Southwestern United States up into Northern California, where they had family and were flying back to Denmark.

Newsies!

Our exchange student Benjamin was one of the Brooklyn Newsies in our school's production of the Broadway play Newsies.  We were able to see him in it and we all enjoyed the play.  But we admit to still liking the 1990s movie version better.

More Christmas Fun

We always give the kids an ornament every year at Christmas, and these two ornaments are ones I made for Benjamin (exchange student) and Westley.  I ordered the Texas cutouts from a company that does that and then painted the Texas flag for Benjamin and That Wylie Band symbol for Westley.

Caleb's school had an ugly Christmas sweater day.  Since he didn't have one, he made his own!  He used a plain sweatshirt and cut out a felt tree and pinned ornaments from our Christmas advent calendar all over the tree.  It was very clever and fun!

I drove around the old neighborhood in Richardson where I spent several years of my childhood one night just because.  I took a picture of our old house adorned with Christmas lights, something we never did with it when we lived in it.  It looked good and I still miss living in that house.

Annmarie wrote an adorable letter to Santa.  "Deer Santa, I love Christmas Eve and Christmas and I love you."  I truly treasure these types of things as my children are getting older because this precious time is so fleeting. 

Peter and the Starcatcher

Our exchange student Benjamin was in the school play, Peter and the Starcatcher, which is a Peter Pan story.  He played the part of Schmee, who ends up being Captain Hook's first mate in Peter Pan.  It's sort of a background story for Peter Pan. 

Ben Starts School

I wasn't able to get Benjamin in to be registered for school until today, Tuesday; that was the earliest the registrar's office would let us come in and do it.  Westley tagged along to help show Benjamin around the school, and they even signed up for a class together--architecture.  Benjamin is officially a junior.  Also, today was  his sixteenth birthday!  Welcome to America, Welcome to Texas, and Happy Birthday!

I made him a nice dinner and a chocolate cake and we gave him a Texas A&M shirt for college days.  He is excited to get going with school. 

Welcome Benjamin!

We agreed to host an exchange student this year.  We enjoyed hosting Margrethe, who was from Norway, and this time, we were able to select our student.  Benjamin is from Denmark and he is finally here.  Not very good timing to coincide with the first day of school and you'd think that something like could easily be avoided, but oh well.  Westley was the only one who came with us because he wasn't arriving until after 9 pm.  He'd had a long day of traveling, so we went straight home and he went straight to bed. 

A Visit from Margrethe

I am a little mad at myself for not taking more pictures when Margrethe visited us here in Texas.  She brought along her boyfriend and her mom, and it was fun to meet them.  They spent some time hanging out with us and some time exploring Dallas and Austin a little bit.  I'm glad we got to see them.  The only pictures I took were when we ate some ice cream at Braum's. 

Margrethe's Birthday

Margrethe turned eighteen while here in America.  Unfortunately, on her actual birthday, she was in Las Vegas with friends, but we celebrated with her when she got back, a couple of days before she left to go back to Norway.  The kids helped me design her cake.  They wanted it to be half the American flag and half the Norwegian flag.  We decided to divide the cake into quarters and do the half and half by making quarters that were kitty corner from each other the two parts of one half.  It turned out pretty fun.

Margrethe left on Tuesday, the 17th.  We really enjoyed her time with us and felt like she was part of our family.  I hope the experience was just as positive for her and we didn't scare her away too much from kids and family.

Biggest Sister

The biggest sister is Margrethe, our Norwegian daughter. The kids have been loving having her here. She has been a great addition to our family.

Annmarie loves playing with her.

So does Snoopy.

Partial Temple Tour of Utah

Just before the kids went off track at the end of September, Westley suggested that we do a "temple tour of Utah" while we were off track. Originally, we were going to go to all 13 open temples. Ogden is closed for remodeling the outside (and probably inside, I don't know) and Payson and Provo Center Street are being built. Unfortunately, we weren't able to make it to all the temples.  Three of them would have required overnight stays and for some reason, there just wasn't ever a good day to go to Manti.  So, hopefully, during one of our other off-track times, we will be able to make it to the other four.  We also had Margrethe come with us when she could, but we did go during the school day and she was in school while the kids were off track.

Salt Lake Temple

Logan Temple

Brigham City Temple

Bountiful Temple

Timpanogos Temple

Draper Temple

Jordan River Temple

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Provo Temple

We have Vernal, Manti, Monticello, and St. George left to see.

Homecoming

Having a teenager around is kind of fun because you get to know about the extra-curricular things like Homecoming. Margrethe was asked to Homecoming pretty quickly. She arrived in one of her classes to find a T-shirt on her desk with a note asking her to the dance. On the T-shirt were the names of all the boys in that class. The instructions were for her to wash the T-shirt and the name remaining was who had asked her. Then she had to wear the T-shirt to school signifying a yes answer. I thought it was pretty clever. She had a good time at the dance. I've been very pleased to see how easily and quickly she makes friends. She is a very easy-going fun girl and we have really enjoyed having her here this year with us.

A New Addition to the Family

No, it's not what you're thinking.  We are not having another baby, but we are having a foreign exchange student come live with us.  Her name is Margrethe and she is from Norway.  She is seventeen years old.  We are very excited about this opportunity to share our lives with someone new and learn about her as well.  It will be challenging but I hope it will also be very rewarding.  We will be hosting her for the entire school year, starting at the end of August and going through June.  I'm excited about the opportunity it gives us to become a better family and also learn about someone else and their culture.  I hope this broadens our minds a little bit and helps us become less judgmental and more understanding.