At the end of February I had parent/teacher/student conferences with the three older kids. They are doing well in school and progressing in their goals and studies. They are good students. I am thankful for that. I had my annual IEP for Caleb too. He is doing well with his gifted program and loves his gifted teacher. He wishes he could be with her more but we take what the school district will give us. He is with the gifted teacher for his core subjects and with a regular class for the specials (library, PE, computers, music), social studies and science. He likes both teachers and is a friendly happy boy.
The last weekend of February the middle school band had their annual retreat scheduled at a music camp in the mountains but had to cancel it due to a snow storm right during the time they were planning on traveling. The bus company didn’t feel that it was safe to drive at that time. They did a day long clinic and rehearsals at a high school and have rescheduled their mountain retreat for later this month. Andrew really enjoys band. Their symphonic band earned high marks at the festival assessment and the jazz band won honors at the jazz festival. Andrew signed up for band at the high school and is excited to be a part of it. It will be a big commitment in high school. I did the on line registration process for the kids this week for next school year and realized that Andrew will be in high school so soon! The kids are just growing up so quickly.
Ruth has enjoyed time with friends. She went out to a movie with her friend Brianna. Ruth was given tickets for a movie theater from her boss at work for Christmas. She enjoyed going out. Brianna came over one day and made cookies with Ruth for a camp meeting. Then last week she came over just to hang out. Ruth went to her friend Hailey’s home one day to hang out and came home with her hair all braided cute. Ruth also went to a obstacle course gym with a friend, Melina. I am glad that she can have some fun friend time. She works hard at school things too and manages to keep up with it all with a smile on her face.
The kids had spring break last week. The boys enjoyed working on things at home with Lego and trains. Andrew has finished wiring his N-scale train lay out. The trains run on it now. He is working hard to decorate it and get his mountains built. He did a lot over the break. Spencer has fun building with Lego and all the boys have enjoyed making a Lego city on the HO-scale train lay out.
N scale work in progress
HO Lego city
On March 2nd we had a busy day. Neal and the boys went with Mr. Hovey, the organizer of the youth train club, to see a rock quarry. They were able to get a tour and visit with people there. They could see things and learn about a quarry. They did this so they could decorate their modules for train club as a quarry. The youth train club has been invited to the national model railroaders convention this summer. They will be bringing their train modules to the convention and showing it. Our family plans to attend the show, which is conveniently in Salt Lake City this year. The boys will take a day or two helping with the train show while we take a summer vacation to visit family. Now they need to work hard to get their modules decorated so it will look good at the convention.
March 2nd Ruth and I participated with a youth fundraiser by power raking a large lawn for a company. The ward does this every year and it is a lot of work but we get paid well for it. The grass seemed extra long and heavy this year to rake after the power raker went over it. That evening we had a fun dinner party with friends. Neal’s room mate from USU, Ken Vanhille, and his family recently moved here. We invited them over for dinner and enjoyed meeting their children and visiting with them about the area. I hope to see them again soon.
On March 4th a man in our ward passed away. Stephen Graham was a kind, generous person. He had struggled with kidney problems his whole life. The last year or so has been hard on him. His family had hoped he could get another kidney transplant and do better again. Sunday the 3rd we had a special ward fast for him. Then on Monday he passed away. It was a bit hard on me because I kept thinking about his wife and step-kids and how they were going to cope. I hope we can continue to be a support and help at this hard time for them. Ruth and I were able to attend his funeral on the 9th. (Neal and the boys were at train club where they had prior commitments). I am glad I was able to go and show support to the family.
On February 24th Neal’s Grandma Johnson passed away. She lived a great life of 93 years. We were thankful to be able to attend the funeral. We left for Utah in the afternoon of the 9th (after the funeral and train club) and arrived at my Mom’s house late at night. We had a little visiting time with her in the mornings and evenings but we spent most of Sunday and Monday with Neal’s family. It was good to be together. Neal’s sisters also traveled to Utah. Andrea’s family stayed at our home on their way up and back. So we enjoyed having them around here too. We enjoyed being with the Johnson family and seeing aunts, uncles and cousins that we hadn’t visited with in a long time. It was a happy time really. Monday afternoon we enjoyed time with Neal’s siblings and the cousins had a blast playing together, all 20 of them that were gathered together at Dallin’s home. It was good to see Neal’s parents too. Tuesday we drove back home. It was a good trip but quick. The kids didn’t miss school because it was spring break. We made the trip short because Neal couldn’t take off more time.
Cousin time!
Caleb got to celebrate his birthday a week early with Grandma Hancock
The funeral was on a beautiful spring day
The Johnson siblings
We have been enjoying some nice spring weather and have worked in the yard. Last week end Neal, Andrew and Spencer worked on the garden boarder project. We are going to build a short brick fence to raise the garden bed up so we can add more compost and have a better boarder. Saturday they poured the cement foundation for the fence. It looks good and hopefully they can start laying the brick next week. The weeds are starting to grow so I have worked out there getting them pulled and also I moved a few plants around before they came out of dormancy. I hope they survived it. It is fun to see the yard coming back to life after the winter.
The back yard at the first of the month
The back yard last week, and my first flower of the season
Last Sunday was Caleb’s 9th birthday. He was so excited for it. He didn’t want to do a friend party this year. He was happy with the family being together. Neal and I played a game of Settlers with the boys Sunday afternoon. We had a nice dinner and had fun watching Caleb’s excitement opening gifts. He has really wanted a basketball and was so excited that I got him one. He is doing pretty well with learning to play the sport too. He likes playing at recess and whenever he can get someone to go with him to the school to shoot baskets. That evening Neal took the three older kids to a Stake youth fireside. They enjoyed it and enjoyed eating the ice cream served. Caleb and enjoyed some time together reading and talking. It was good to have some special time just with him on his birthday. I measured him this morning and he is getting tall. He thought it was fun he is the same height that Andrew was at 10. We have always predicted that he will be taller than his older siblings, I guess we will see where he ends up. Currently he is 4 feet 9 1/2 inches tall.
Last night we went to the cub scout blue and gold dinner. The boys had fun with it. I am glad that it went well.
This week we have house painters working on the exterior of our house. It is going well and I like the colors we choose to paint. It is a bit different for me to have the men working in the yard, I can hear them and their music. I am glad that it worked out for them to come this week and I cleared my schedule so I can be home all week to be here while they worked.
Above is an old picture of the back of the house, below is the new color
That brings me up to date. I hope everyone enjoys this beautiful spring.
