Early Mornings

Teenagers are stressful.  Really, I had no idea how stressful they could be and Tom and I live with a pretty good one.  Even in all her goodness, I stress.  We only have a few more years with her living under our roof (Unless she starts threatening like Andrew to never move out) and I stress about the little time left I have with her.  I find myself spending quite a bit of time with her in the car early in the mornings.  If it is not seminary, it is heading to a band competition and they are always early.  This poor girl gets very little mornings to sleep in as most teenagers would prefer, yet she is happy and willing to give it her all.

She is smart, and good, and I adore her.  I told her the other day that the best thing I got out of marrying Tom was her, and I meant every word.  She is a light in our family, even at 5:30 am when she is rolling out the door for the seminary.  I am glad she is setting the example for her younger brothers, I could only image what life would be like if Sean was the oldest.  Kira, thanks for the stress you cause, I welcome it.

This is her smug early morning look, not wanting her picture taken.

Band Season

Yep, it has started again, in fact the Terra Nova Band has been practicing since July of this year.  Last weekend was their first competition and they placed FIRST in parade and in Field Show.  It was a big win for the band and made for one happy 15 year old in our house.  

If you want to watch the show, check it out here.

 As for the rest of us, you will find us in the stands on Friday nights at the football games cheering on the football team and the band's half time show.

My favorite last weekend was watching Sean continually photo bomb these girls pictures in front of us. They kept moving the angle of the phone and he would move to get in their picture.  Nothing like doing duck lips with a 4 year old peeping in. 

FEET!

This is a brief moment in our lives where Andrew, Kira and I all have the same size foot.  We will see how long this lasts. 

Sean Loves...

His brother and Dad, but apparently not my singing. 

Normally Sean loves to have Tom sing to him before he goes to bed.  The other night I was requested to do the singing (2 songs) so I quickly jumped in to my version of ABC's with a few added lines of my own.  When finished with that song, Sean looked at me and said, "It's ok mom, you can sing just one song, good night."  Well there you go, I guess Tom will be doing the singing from now on. 

The above photo was from Andrew's bridging over recently.  Sean was happy to get to have Andrew's blue shirt and he has now graduated to the brown shirt. 

Fog Fest

Yep, it was here again.  Comes every year at the end of September.  Kira's band marches, Andrew and Luke box in the jumpies and this year Sean got just as involved.  He jumped on every jumpy they had, then barely made the walk home to crash that afternoon.

We love the Fog Fest, and we love that it is so close we can walk to the fun.  Since you get a report on this festival every year, this year my focus will be a little negative.  There are two downsides to the Fog Fest.  One being that parking is out of control.  I am always saying a little prayer on Sunday that we will be able to get to church and return home with out side swiping the parked cars on our street. 

This was 9am on Saturday.  By the afternoon, cars are parked on both sides making it really hard to get in and out.  

The second negative is that there is always a slightly over weight, very pale skinned girl dressed as a mermaid in the parade.  It is the same girl and she clearly enjoys doing it every year.  Our family can only think of one word to describe watching her flip her tail in the air on the back of a car... "Awkward."  I am not sure at what point does someone say, "perhaps we should skip the mermaid this year?"

Sorry no front picture.  We were sitting on the opposite side of the local news.  She was more focused on the cameras on the other side of the street.   

Sean having a blast. 

Until next year Fog Fest.