Connor Graduates

The graduation walk around the track.  I don't really know who that is behind Connor.

Kayli, Connor, and Trisa (Tia was working and Jake and Dan were at school)

I added this picture because it's kind of funny how hard it is to get a picture where
Derek isn't talking.  I had more of these than the ones where he was just smiling.

Me and Connor and Derek

Grandpa F., Connor, Grandma F.
My parents drove from St. George for the graduation and then drove
home the same day.  They are very supportive grandparents and they love Connor.

Grandpa C., Connor, Grandma C.
Naturally his Christensen grandparents love him just as much and they came too.  They don't live very far from us though, so hours of traveling wasn't necessary this time.

Connor the High School Graduate

Connor is a great.  Even though I've tried to tell him, he never does seem to realize how talented and smart he is.  He's naturally athletic, artistic, musical, and a good writer too!  He has a great sense of humor, has awesome moves (which I only get to see if he doesn't know I am looking) and is a favorite with his sisters.  His brothers are pretty fond of him too.  Jake and Connor have some great ping pong matches, and Dan is pretty sure there is no better artist than Connor.  I am sure he will be great at whatever he puts his mind to doing.  Derek and I are happy to have such a good son!

Dan: Future President

Dan the Man
Dantastic
Danimal
Future President

Dan was blessed this year to have Mrs. White as a teacher.  She is really good at what she does, and really helpful to those who end up missing lots of school. She loves her students like they are her own children, and cried over them as the school year ended because she hates to say goodbye.  One of the things she did on the last day of school was to make sure every student heard something good about themselves.  She also gave them each their own unique award.  Dan got the "Future President" award.  He was really pleased with that.  He told me, "I did not see that coming."

On the way out to the car, He was telling me a story about a bomb, and an airport.  I can't remember the story clearly, but I don't think it ended well.  His point?  "What this country needs is better security".  He was already working on planning what he would do as President.  He was very pleased to show his certificate to all of the family.  He can hardly believe that some of his classmates thought he should get that award.

I liked watching him as he came back to his seat.  He went around giving people five and looking rather pleased and like he didn't quite know how to handle such good fortune.

4th grade program.

The fourth grade program was fun to watch.  Dan generally enjoys performing, and after they sang the songs at the beginning, he is the only one who took a bow.  It made me smile.  I love my Dan.  He is smart, and fun, and extremely wiggly.  I doubt he would hold long meetings as President.  He wouldn't want to sit down that long!  It is a daunting task to raise the future president.  Derek and I will do our best.

Flying

I wrote this song for my friend's son.  He turned 16 on the 16th and has been bravely battling cancer for years.  He likes super heroes (I haven't met too many boys that don't).  Most people love to occasionally escape into their imagination. You can go anywhere, and do anything in your imagination! This song is a mixture of both.  You can listen to me singing the finger picking version if you click here.  For the fun version where Tia and Kayli sing with me, and Connor does the video work click birthday video.  The words are below.

FLYING

(Q's Song)

The sun is shining in the sky

And lots of friends are walking by

Music's floating in the air

But I am far away

Flying through the sky today

Lightning flashes when I land

Wearing armor I take off again

Rockets that I shoot make rain

They will not cause you pain

They'll bring earth alive again.

I love flying

When the sun is shining

And when the night comes

I will fly

Way up to the moon

The colors are now bright and fun

From a tree I see everyone

Arrows arc into the sky

And rainbows they appear

Chasing out all doubt and fear

Running so fast no one can see

But good things follow after me

Bad things get pushed far away

As I go on my way

Running right through walls today

I love flying

When the sun is shining

And when the night comes

I will fly

Way up to the moon

I hear a sound that brings me home

I stop flying around alone

I lower the shield I hold

And all is safe and sound

Landing back on solid ground

But someday I'll take off again

Perhaps next time I'll take a friend

We'll take off into the air

And fly up toward the sun

To do good for everyone

I love flying

When the sun is shining

And when the night comes

I will fly

Way up to the moon

I love flying

When the sun is shining

And when the night comes

I will fly

Way up to the moon

Derek Turns 50

Derek's happy birthday was on May 5th.  Derek is thoughtful and fun.  I love him.

Derek and Dan and Jake.  I believe Derek had been teasing Dan about using the face clamp Dan is holding to clamp his face.  Derek wasn't really surprised by these presents that he bought himself, but they were just what he wanted.  He wanted a fancy sports car more, but we can't always have everything we want.

Derek and his presents and Dan and Jake

I think Kayli was extra proud of this picture.  Derek and I have matching weird facial expressions going on.  There are 5 candles.  One candle to represent each of the ten years since Derek was born.

Happy Birthday to Derek

Derek asked for kebabs for his birthday, but we both forgot and so he asked for chicken enchiladas.  I remembered the kebabs too late for Monday's celebration  so we had enchiladas that day, and kebabs the next.  It never hurts to have an extra day of birthday celebration!

Derek and Me: 28 Years of Awesomeness

28 Years ago yesterday (May 11), Derek and I were enjoying a beautiful, sunny wedding day.  One week ago today, on May 5th, it was Derek's 50th birthday. We have good reasons to celebrate in May!

I think every year I get to spend with Derek is full of awesomeness.  I am extremely thankful to be married to someone who is always inclined to think well of me, and who has a gift for helping me, and our kids, to smile.

On Derek's birthday we headed off to St. George for an anniversary trip.  Here are the pictures.

Derek in Kolob Canyon

Kolob Canyon

With a little resting and snack eating I made it to the end of the Taylor Creek trail in Kolob Canyon.  Yay!

I insisted we try a selfie.  This was the best out of three -- I looked more dorky in the other ones.

This is the end of the Taylor Creek hike in Kolob Canyon.  The picture is pretty, but everything is more impressive in person.

On the way back down the Taylor creek trail I had to have a picture of the tree that was growing right on top of a rock (yes the red thing is a rock and not red dirt).

This was the way they built a part of the trail so it wouldn't get washed out (I think).  I hadn't ever seen a section of trail like it and so I wanted a picture.

This was the next day, in Zion Canyon.  This is the upper Emerald Pools (I think). 

I had to try to get at least one picture of the really beautiful scenery that we enjoyed while at Zion National Park.

Derek and I also spent some time on our trip visiting family, or having them do all of the work by visiting us and bringing us food (thanks Quinn and Tonya).  It was fun to see how Jenny and Jeff's new house was coming along, and to spend time with my parents visiting and driving around.  We saw my Fuller Grandparent's old house, and the LaVerkin cemetery -- the "final resting place" of a lot of my relatives.

I'll put the pictures of Derek's belated birthday celebration on a different blog for you to enjoy :-)

Dan and the Keyboarding Contest

Somehow or another Dan was good enough at typing that he got invited to the district keyboarding contest.  This was an event for 4th and 5th graders that went from 3-9 p.m!  It was single elimination though, and so you could leave if you didn't type fast enough to make it to the next round.

This is Dan in the cafeteria at the high school where this was held.

We were lucky to have friends to sit by, but the music was so loud we couldn't really talk to them.  We got there at 3.  I wish we had gone later.  By the time everyone was signed in and we got started it was a little after 4.  Dan was in the first group of the first round.

While waiting for over an hour to see if Dan made it to the next round, we went and got dinner, and then found a quiet lawn to hang out in.

Dan did not make it to the next round.  We were actually quite happy about that.  Dan was done and so was I.  Dan didn't even want to stay if there was the possibility he'd win a hundred dollars!  The most interesting thing about the whole experience might have been the silly disagreement Dan and I had on the way there about whether the animation for Clifford the Big Red Dog, or Pokemon was the worst.  Nobody won.  Usually we are arguing about scientific "facts" that we don't quite agree on -- or discussing them -- in a very civilized manner.

I'm glad Dan was good enough at typing to get invited to this event, but I am also kind of glad that he refuses to go if invited next year.  Perhaps they could find a way to make that contest much, much shorter!

Dan Tries Something New

Dan did really well which was a good thing since I put his wrist guards on backwards and his knee pads kept slipping down.  Maybe it helped that the wheels were kind of broken on the hand me down, down, down skates?  He has new skates with non-broken wheels now.

A Healthy Heart. A Happy Time.

Exactly a month ago I picked up Jake from school and headed up to Primary Children's Outpatient Center for a routine checkup with Jake's Cardiologist Dr. Cowley.  Jake reported with a smile that his friend asked where he was going and Jake said, "To the hospital".  His friend said, "Is everything ok?" and Jake said, "I hope so." Jake had a couple of heart defects when he was born that, without the help of terrific heart surgeons, would have made his life awfully short.

We drove an hour for an appointment that took half hour.  They did an quick EKG, took the blood pressure in both arms and legs and then the Dr. came in.  He looked at Jake and said, "Wow!  You've gotten so big that I feel really old!"  I bet Jake liked being called big!  He's 14, and not super tall, so he doesn't get that a lot.  Dr. Cowley said it seemed like just yesterday when he was talking to Derek and I before and after Jake's surgery.  We remember too, but I am impressed that he remembers.  Jake isn't his only patient!

Just like Jake's last appointment Dr. Cowley mentioned how pleased Dr. Hawkins, the heart surgeon would have been to know how well Jake has done.  Dr. Hawkins passed away due to pancreatic cancer in 2011.  Aside from Jake's scars, Dr. Cowley said that nobody, even a trained cardiologist, would be able to tell anything had ever been wrong with Jake's heart.  Jake keeps growing though, and we keep going up every once in a while to make sure the repair of his heart grows with him.  He won't go again until he's a senior in high school and then he'll have echocardiogram to make sure all is still well.  He's had one before. I think they are fascinating to watch -- they are about a half hour long ultrasound of the heart.

Anyhow, I learned from my friend Susan C. to try to do something fun while we are skipping school for these appointments, and so Jake and I went to the dinosaur museum on our way home.  Jake knows a lot about dinosaurs and could often tell me what I was looking at before either one of us read the information.  He was good company.  Here are some pictures of that:

Selfies don't always work out -- so then you hand your camera over to someone nice.

This was toward the end of our time I think.  I kind of forgot I could get pictures before that.

So Jake is closing his eyes, but for some reason it struck me as funny to have skeleton people
fighting a skeleton dinosaur with spears.  

 We had a happy time, and were happy to hear that Jake has a healthy heart.

Happy Birthday to Princess Tia

This is actually happy belated birthday to my princess Tia since her birthday was more than a week ago.

I love this picture.  I miss my little Tia with her cute squeaky voice.  Back then a song could make almost any problem all better, and she loved to wear dresses to twirl in.

Even though I miss my little Tia, I love the grown up Tia and wouldn't really want to go back -- except maybe for a short visit!  Tia doesn't have a squeaky voice any more, she has a beautiful one, and a contagious laugh to go along with it.  She is kind, as evidenced by the fact that she is a hair stylist and she never gives me a bad time about how her hair was or wasn't done when she was little.  I was obviously not a hair stylist -- but was all the hair stylist she had -- and nothing I could have done could have kept her from being cute.

Tia is a good writer and story teller.  She is so fun to be with and is great with her little brothers.  She does a really great job as a cosmetologist, and I think she is brave.  Even someone who does a great job occasionally has a client who gets really angry when they don't end up looking exactly like they imagined -- but were not so good at explaining.  That must somehow be made up for by the much more frequent happy clients.  I would dread my job every day if I were her because I would be afraid someone would be unhappy with me -- but she likes her work.

I love that Tia seemed to figure out when she was not very old that it helps to be able to laugh at yourself.  One of my favorite memories is still the piano recital where she played beautifully and then missed the last chord -- and then laughed.  The audience laughed too and I was so proud of her for how she handled that.  It's not always so easy to find humor in messing up in front of people!

Here are a couple of pictures of the birthday celebration that we finally managed to have a couple of days after her birthday.

A song may not make everything all better -- but it still helps.  This book had music with it and beautiful pictures.

Tia loves turtles and the towel is a turtle towel.

My attempt to lean my way out of this picture didn't quite work!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful princess Tia!

Trying for a Thankful Thursday

No matter how tired I am, I am thankful for my family!

This morning when the alarm went off I was in the middle of a dream.  I don't remember the dream, but I always start shaking all over when I'm woken up during one, and I have to work hard to turn off the alarm without dropping it!  I was not excited to get up.  I have a mild headache and a lot of work to do.  I was a bit out of it and after my prayer I tried to find my glasses and couldn't.  I didn't realize until I left my room that they were already on my face!

My morning prayer was not long.  I remembered it was thankful Thursday, and so I tried to just be thankful.  It is really hard to feel thankful some mornings, but I did my best, and I promised to try to be grateful today, and so I will.

Today is Gethsemane day in Easter week, which is a good reminder of all I have to be thankful for.  Jesus loves me.  He paid for my sins so I can repent.  He understands hard days and sends comfort.  He made it so that I can be with my family forever.  He conquered sin, and death.  I am thankful for Jesus, and for thankful Thursdays to remind me to look for the good in the day, and to open my eyes to the pile of blessings that I have.

This is from lucydickensfineart.com
It's titled: Gethsemane -- His Will

The Jesus Room

Not too long ago Derek and I went on a date.  When we left we had no inside projects lined up. When we came home, we had decided to paint the piano room, the hallway, the kitchen / dining / family room, and the guest room.  Kayli said we aren't allowed to go out anymore when we have ideas.  We had decided just to do an accent wall in the piano room.  As usual there are not before pictures -- only after pictures.  Kayli helped me with this during her spring break.

When my father-in-law saw it he said, "Is this the Jesus room?"  I guess it is -- but its official label has always been "the piano room" and will probably remain the piano room.  The furniture used to be arranged differently, and Jesus' picture was above the piano.  Things have changed a bit, and we have a couple of things left to do, but this room is mostly done.  It is currently holding piles of pictures from the hallway, which has its first coat of gray.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jog

Picture of Trevor from facebook (Thanks Haven!)

Last week we were in St. George welcoming home our nephew Trevor from his mission in Brazil.  He might have gone to the market there, but I seriously doubt it was to buy a fat hog (in case you recognize the nursery rhyme title).  He did mention having a pig's ear put on his plate once.  He couldn't tell us how it tasted because he lost his appetite.  Missions are good, and they are challenging.  Trevor learned Portuguese, and how to get along with various companions.  He learned how to share the gospel with as many people as were willing to stop and listen, and I'm sure he learned a lot of things that I am not aware of.

The message he gave in his homecoming talk was very similar to the one he gave before he left.  It's all about family.  Every person on the planet is a son or daughter of God and therefore they are our brothers and our sisters.  It is our job to love them even when they aren't really lovable, and to help them to learn where we all came from, why we are here on Earth, and what happens after we die.  We get to teach the great plan of happiness to all who will listen, and we get to love no matter what.

It was really fun to see Trevor.  His hair still looks perfect every time I see it, and he still plays the piano with impressive skill.  He still is good at listening to Dan, and at being kind and cheerful.  We are glad to have him home again, but we are also very thankful that he went.

Dan Talks at Pack Night

Dan explaining, in great detail, what his group had made out of their bag of recyclable stuff .
It's hard to see here, but like the other groups, they decided to make a robot.

Dan still talking

And talking some more.

It is interesting to watch Dan in front of a group.  He is not shy (most of the time), and the more laughs he can get the better!