Sounds of Silence

It's the New Year!! Hello 2022. Covid is worse than ever before. The new Omicron virus is super contagious and everyone seems to be sick. Things are shutting down again and I'm hoping we can still stay in school, even if it means masks. 

The world continues to be in crazy upheaval and we continue to try to keep things as normal as possible. Well, as normal as things can be with June leaving shortly for her mission. But it is pretty normal for me to be ridiculously behind on blogging. I have noticed a marked difference with working. I don't have the same amount of time as I used to and it affects so many of the small things. So with the new year, I'm going to give myself some more time to blog. It needs to happen. 

So today, you get a bit of a hodge podge of last May. There are always so many performances and part of what is slowing me down is trying to get things into video format. (Which is ironic, since you can't see videos in the blog books anyway.) So to speed up the process just a tiny bit, today you get some highlight pictures and NO videos. You can just imagine singing and playing and we'll move on with life. 

First up was choir at the Junior High. Ivory and Daisy both sang and did a fantastic job. Ivory had some duets where she got to sing at the microphone. She did such a splendid job. She is becoming such a good singer. She is starting to make up her own songs and sing them while she plays on the piano. Daisy also is growing in leaps and bounds. She did her first solo this last December. I'm so proud of both of them. 

Robyn continues to play amazing on all the instruments she does. This was her end of year band concert and I can't remember which all instruments she played for her concerts, but you can see her on the left, playing Marimba in the second picture. 

As usual, we all try to come and support. It isn't always all of us, but it's always some of us. 

June had her final choir concert. I'm so glad she took choir her last year. There is something special about participating with Mr. Taylor and I'm glad she got to have the experience. They recognized the Seniors, but the pictures I took were so bad, I didn't include one of those. It was a wonderful concert.

Since we're on a roll, I'm going to include 9th Grade graduation. Depending on the year, it is a weird event. They didn't have it in 2020 obviously, so this was an attempt to get back to normal. The choir sang, so Ivory got to do that again. Mostly it is a recognition of students that excel in certain classes. Ivory excels in all her classes, but wasn't picked as a stand out student. That's fine. We know she is the tops. It was fun to see her with friends and celebrate the end of Junior High.

These kids are so awesome and I love all the concerts and performances we get to attend. Today was a silent tribute, but don't worry, we'll make some more noise soon!

Daisy's 13 Year Gallery

Back again today (after a bit) with some cute photos of Daisy. Yep, I once again let the time lag, but Daisy isn't yet 13 and a half, so I'm counting this as a win in my book. It is a tad snowy outside, so we went indoors to our local university and it was warm and easy to take photos. 

Daisy is a doll. She is a bit sensitive of the gap in her teeth which was created by her expander but not yet closed by braces (that she won't get until next year). I think she is adorable, but teenagers care little what their mothers think. I say that the gap in her teeth doesn't stop her inner radiance from coming through. 

Enjoy this lovely girl.

We had a good time. We went out to grab some treats after and share them with June (who was a few doors away) but I forgot to get a picture then. But I did grab one in the building. I sure love this cute Daisy of mine.

Bubble Photo Shoot

Weirdly, I feel like I blogged about this already. But I can't find it, so it's going on the blog 'again.' We got a bubble machine for Prom, but the younger girls wanted to play with it as well. So Robyn took them out and they did a photo shoot. They were pretty adorable. Here are a few of my favorites.

That's all. Gotta love sisters and bubbles.

October Chatbook 2021

Let's get October in the books. I only have a few tidbits that don't have a home this time around. 

In October, June was doing college, dating Isaac, getting ready for a mission, and working. (She finally quit her second job at the end of September.) She was a tired chica. I often would find her sleeping on the couch or with her homework nearby. Such is the life of a young adult. In general, she does a good job balancing all the chaos.

Daisy has a lot of hair and it often ends up on top of her head in some kind of bun. On this particular day, it looked like an angry octopus sitting on her noggin. Can you see it?

Ivory and I went to see Mousetrap. It was so fun. They make you promise not to give away the ending, so people can go and enjoy the plot for themselves. So I won't tell you what happened, but I will tell you that I guessed part of it. ;)

Probably because we've watched some GLOW UP, but Pearl has been experimenting with makeup. It is fun to see her try new things. She'll play with eyeliner and eye shadow, but her favorite by far is the bright red lipstick.

Tyler taught the kids poker. Well, just Pearl and Ivory. I think Pearl cleaned up. I'm impressed since I'm still not sure how the rules work. I only know Blackjack.

Tyler has the most epic hair. I especially like when it looks like a surfer wave. It's hard to find a ripcurl like that one.

Ah Nova. Some days I love her and others I can barely tolerate her. But Pearl always adores her. Someone should.

Tyler went bowling with friends. He hasn't been in years and he straight up bowled a 142. Very nice. The only thing that could make it sweeter would be to get a turkey.

Nova likes to hang out under the beds. She looks rather sinister.

This is Nauvoo. Ivory is taking a Child Development class and she took care of Nauvoo for two days. I sleep really well and didn't wake up at all to her crying, but I think Ivory has more respect for the sacrifice of mothers.

We'll leave you with this lovely selfie of Robyn. She's such a beauty.

Bert

In the spring, we sometimes will spy a nest in the trees. In 2018, it was fun to watch a nest of baby birds get fed and grow up. It is important that the birds stay in the trees because Nova will clean them up if they reach the ground. 

So this year, when Pearl found a baby bird outside, she was so afraid for it. We had patrols that would take Nova outside and make sure she didn't go near the bird. Pearl named him Bert. He was just a baby. He had some fluffy cute feathers, but they weren't good for flying yet. His mom stayed near and kept bringing him food.

Every day we would check on Bert and make sure he was doing okay. He'd hop around the yard and we'd find him in different places, but he never went too far.

He got on the trampoline for awhile. He had trouble finding his way out of there.

 

Then we found him in the branches of a low bush. This was progress. He was able to flutter up there and you could tell his wings were getting stronger. 

Then one day, he was gone. We don't really know what became of Bert, but I like to think he flew away and became a strong Robin that will come back in the spring and make a nest of his own...maybe in the neighbors yard, away from our dog.