A Child is Born

December 6 & 7, 2013
(I'm writing in January, but trying to date these catch-up posts close to when they actually happened.)

We began the month of December with our Stake's annual "A Child is Born" event.  My part in this event is the concert.  This year we did selections from "Messiah."  I prepared the choir, and handed over the conducting of the actual concert to Brother Jim Thompson, who asked me to sing a couple of the soprano solos, which I was happy to do.  (Since I've been the Stake Choir director for 8 years, I don't get to actually sing in these concerts very often.)  I began to prepare my solos in September, but couldn't practice very much because I was experiencing severe allergies that left my voice hoarse.  In October, my voice was still having trouble, and finally in November I went to see an ENT.  After scoping me they determined that there weren't any nodules, but my vocal chords were swollen--I got on some medication to reduce the swelling and the nasal drainage in the back of my throat.

I also got a priesthood blessing from Arthur.  In the blessing, he said that my voice would be fine to sing the solos and I would be pleased with my performance.  I was assured by that blessing because I think we are all our worst critic, and if I could be pleased with my performance, it would be pretty good.  I grew nervous, however, as the weeks went by with little improvement to my vocal quality, and therefore not very much practicing.

When the day of the performance arrived, I was in tears because my voice still wasn't where I'd wish it to be.  But I tried to have faith in my priesthood blessing and just prayed and prayed.  And that night when it came time for me to sing, my voice was clear and agile and I was pleased with my performance.  The second night, I was nervous because I thought my performance might be a little  disappointing in comparison with the first performance.  But the second night was even better!  And several of the choir members told me they thought so too!  I couldn't believe it.

So here's my witness that prayer works and the Priesthood power is real.  Heavenly Father gave me a voice to sing praise to His Son those two nights when I hadn't had a voice for months.  I have continued to have problems with my voice being hoarse for the rest of December and into January with sicknesses and allergies and who knows what else.  But for those two nights, he gave me an angel's voice.  And I am grateful.

Me (and Bennett) before Friday night's performance.

November Quotes

Sydney: (quoting Tangled) "Ahhh, the Snuck-ehling Duck-ehling."

Sydney:  Mom, can we go to Chick-Fil-A?  

(Sydney asks me this question every time I pick her up from preschool.  This is an extremely dangerous question, because I am particularly susceptible to the Chick-Fil-A temptation.  And especially if it's just Sydney and me to pay for  . . .)

At Hayden's parent/teacher conference, Miss Phillips told me a cute story about Hayden.  She said the new school counselor is legally blind and came to talk the class one day.  The children were asking her questions.  One asked her if she could go to a doctor to get her eyes fixed.  She told them her eyes couldn't be fixed by a doctor.  Then Hayden raised his hand and said, "Don't worry.  When you get resurrected, your eyes will see perfect."

Sean:  Can I have screen time?

Me:  Have you read your scriptures yet?

Sean:  Yes, I read them. 

Me:  What did you read about today? 

Sean:  Oh, just some battles and whatnot.  The Lamanites are having a big battle.  Kinda reminds me about Star Wars.  How the Empire decided to strike first instead of waiting for the other guys to attack.

(Hey, whatever it takes to stay engaged, right?)

Sydney:  Can the Carter's come to our house tonight?

Me:  No, they are coming to watch you tomorrow.

Sydney:  When we go home, we will sleep and sleep and sleep and then tomorrow, the Carter's will come visit!  I like the Carters because they are just so happy.

Hayden's response to the Bishop's question during tithing settlement:   Heavenly Father opens up the windows in heaven and pours out a bunch of blessings on us.  

(that boy has been paying attention in primary!)

During a scary part in a Harry Potter movie,  Sydney said while covering her face, "Hurry, everybody--don't look!"

Hayden:  I totally don't have the priesthood yet!

Hayden is really excited about Dallin's recent ordination to the priesthood.  He has been going around telling anyone who will listen, "Hey, Dallin is in the priesthood now.  Dallin is in the Aaronic priesthood."

At Stake Conference, Sean ran into our former Bishop in the bathroom.  Bishop told him he was looking' good in his suit and he'd better be careful because all the girls would start chasing him.  Sean gave him a terrified look, while Hayden piped up from the stall, "That thoundth good!"  

Later during the meeting, Hayden whispered to me, "Mom, can I have a thuit?  They thell thuitth for little guyth.  I thaw a tiny little guy in a thuit right over there."  (It wasn't until after the meeting that I found out the motivation behind Hayden's sudden interest in wearing a suit.)  

Birthdays for Dallin & Hayden

We celebrate two birthdays in November.

Dallin turned 12 on November 20th.  He chose "Frootinnannies" for breakfast.  They are basically German Pancakes, but my Grammy calls them Hootinannies, and when Dallin was little, he mistakenly called them "frootinannies" and the name stuck.  I had to wake up pretty early to get those on the table for him before he had to leave (at 7 a.m.) for show choir practice.  And that night he chose "Green Noodles" for dinner.  (Pasta with grilled chicken and homemade pesto sauce--my kids LOVE green noodles.)  We also shared cake and ice cream with some of our favorite people EVER, the Carters!  Harvey and Dallin share the same birthday!

Let me explain the candles on the cake.  I was experiencing a candle shortage, evidently, so I was creative with the candles that I had on hand.  So, 5+1 is 6, so that stands for 60.  60+8 is 68, which is the birthday that Harvey was celebrating. And 8+4 is 12 which is the birthday Dallin was celebrating.  So there you go.  68, and 12.  

Happy Birthday!  ;)

Our birthday tradition is having everyone in the family say something they love about the birthday boy or girl.  But since it's been awhile, I can't remember very well what everyone said.  So I'll brag on him myself a little bit.  Dallin is a good guy.  He is responsible and does his homework and practices his violin without me having to remind him.  He gets up early each morning before the sun rises, and is ready for show choir which meets before school starts.  He comes home and plays "chase" with Sydney (who adores him) and then gets busy on his homework.  He recently finished the Book of Mormon for the first time and has made a goal to read 2 pages a day this year so he can finish it again in a year.  He is happy and friendly and kind and we are so glad he is in our family.  

And because he is 12, he is old enough to receive the Aaronic Priesthood.  He was found worthy by our Bishop to be ordained to the office of a deacon and Arthur ordained him this last Sunday.  Later that night, Arthur told me that it had been a special experience for him to do that.  As he gave him a blessing, he felt strongly of Dallin's goodness and of Heavenly Father's love for him. 

Since 12 is a party year, Dallin also got a party that weekend.  He invited 7 boys to come have pizza, cake and ice cream and then go ice skating.  Good times.  :)  

(as you can see, I had replenished my candle supply by then)

Ice Skating was pretty funny.  None of us are very good, and most everyone spent a fair amount of time on the ground.  Hayden's pants were soaked by the time we left.  But he kept a smile on his face and would get up and try again all night long.  So endearing.

Shirtless Wonders!

We were leaving at 9:30, so at 9:28, a few of our party took off their shirts and did a few laps in just their skins.  Awesome.  It was a fun and exhausting night!  

And I have to say that every time one of my kids has a birthday party, I congratulate myself for initiating the birthday party system that operates in our family:  5, 8, 12, and 16.  Four parties each.  

I can do it.  I can do it.

On November 30, we celebrate Hayden's birthday.  He turned 6 this year!  (not a party year.  whew!)  He ordered waffles and whipped cream for breakfast, and pizza for dinner.  He opened his presents in the morning and played with them all day.  It was Saturday so you can't ask for a better birthday present than that!

As is customary, we each say something that we love about the birthday person.  Here are some of the things we said about Hayden:

Sydney:  I love Hayden because (mumble, mumble) and Jesus loves Hayden.
Sean:  I love playing with Hayden.
Daphne:  Something good about Hayden is that he tries to make me feel better when I am sad.  (that is very true.  Hayden really looks out for Daphne.)
Dallin: I love that Hayden is so energetic and happy.
Me:  I love that Hayden loves to help and that he makes me smile with the things he says.
Arthur:  I love that Hayden is a hard worker.

After his dinner of pizza from Dion's, we shared cake and ice cream with the Esplin family.  

Happy Birthday, Hayden!  We sure love this boy.  

And it's gone.

Bam.  Just like that.  November is gone.  21 more days until Christmas and 28 more days until 2014.  It's going so fast!  And since there never seems to be enough time, this may be the new format for my blog.  2 posts a month: One for quotes and one for everything else we did that month.

Here's a quickish run-down of our November:

Enjoyed the beautiful New Mexico fall weather:

Meet Tiny Trevor, our toad.  Sean's school teacher had five that they watched transform from tadpoles into toads, and sent an email out asking if anybody wanted to take them home after they were grown.  So we took one home, and honestly, I expected him to be dead by now, given our previous track record with pets.  But it turns out that Trevor is quite a resilient little fellow, and three months later, he's still here.  So I thought it was time that I introduce him.

Sydney.  She dresses herself.  And it's so her.

 

Another introduction:  

We sold our 7 passenger minivan (which if you are counting, is one seat short for our family of 8;  We've been making it work for the last 9 months of Bennett's life,) and got a 9 passenger Suburban.  

It's big.  And I feel very tall when I drive it.  And now nobody has to double buckle when we go somewhere all together.

Field Trips!  Three of my kids had field trips this month.  I made it to two of them, which was pretty big accomplishment for me.  

Nov. 8--Hayden's class went to the zoo.  It was a perfect sunny day and we saw lots of animals and had lunch and because I was chaperoning, (and there wasn't quite enough room in the bus,) I got to drive Hayden with me in the Suburban.  He wanted his whole class to come look at it because it was new, and he was SUPER excited about it.  Our favorite thing we saw at the zoo was the brand new baby elephant Jazmine.  She is adorable.  I could have stayed there and watched her the whole time.

Nov. 21st--I went with Daphne to a local historical museum called Casa San Ysidro.  It was really neat, but they asked people to turn off their phones while we were there, so I didn't get any pictures.  But basically it is a big hacienda over in Corrales, (a little village neighboring Albuquerque) and they have it filled with historical items and artwork that depict what life was like for the New Mexican settlers in the 1700-1800's.  I love that kind of stuff, so I ate it up.  I had lots of questions I wanted to ask, but was trying to hold back so the kids could ask their questions.  But once in awhile I asked Daphne to ask a question for me.  :)

On Nov. 11th, there was no school because of Veteran's Day.  So we went to the zoo (again) with some of our friends. (Esplins, Trapnells and Breinholts)  It was a a beautiful day and fun to be there with friends.  Here is most of our group.  (There were 4 babies in strollers and two other kids who went to go check out another exhibit during this picture.)

 

Nov. 15th-- I got to fly to CA to be there for my brother Jacob's missionary farewell.  It was a super fast trip because I had to leave right after church in order to get back in time for 2 stake choir rehearsals that evening (Stake Youth Choir and Messiah) but I got to hang out with Jacob on Saturday.  We baked cookies for his missionary open house that evening, and also practiced the song he sang in Sacrament Meeting.  He sang, "I Will Not Be Still" and did a BEAUTIFUL job.  He is serving in the Uruguay Montevideo West Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  

 

So that means I have two siblings out on missions right now, and I am so proud of both of them!

Nov. 24-30th--My elementary kids had the whole week of Thanksgiving off, due to parent teacher conferences on Monday and Tuesday.  I LOVED having them home and was sad when the week was over.  It went too fast!  

Monday was conferences, Tuesday we met the Esplins and McEntires at the church and let the kids play basketball and other games in the gym. On Wednesday we got together at the Esplins to have lunch and make carameled apples.  

Thursday was Thanksgiving, which I'm never good at documenting.  We had a different holiday weekend than we've traditionally had.  For the first time in a long time, Mike and Amber couldn't come spend Thanksgiving with us.  (we missed you guys!) So we had the Esplins and the Madsens over for the feast, and then went over to the Shepherds home for pie.  

Friday we went to see "Frozen" with the Shepherds and McEntires--it was so cute!  We went home and bought the soundtrack and have been singing it ever since.  "Do you wanna build a snowman?"

Saturday was Hayden's birthday, which I'll post about separately, except to say that Bennett took his first series of steps on Hayden's birthday!  He's taken one step here or there for the last several weeks, but that night he just decided to go for it and take 6 or 7 steps!  His face was the best!  He was SO proud of himself!   

 

And Sunday was December 1st.  

BAM.  

November gone.  Just like that.  December has so much to enjoy and look forward to, but I don't expect it to slow down at all.  So I'll be trying to keep up with everything and enjoy its magical moments all at the same time.  Wish me luck.  

And here's to January, when life will take slower pace.  hopefully.  :)

Family Pictures 2013

I think this year was the most unprepared for pictures I've ever been.  It's such a pain trying to coordinate everybody's clothes, and the more kids we have, the more coordination it takes!  So I was scrambling at the end to find everybody's outfits and had I been more prepared, I probably would have made some different choices.  I especially wish I'd found a different shirt for Hayden, checked to make sure that Sean's jeans weren't flood, and that I'd had more time to fix Daphne's hair, but whatever.  Despite my poor coordination efforts, Erin still manages to make us look pretty decent.  :)  (Thanks Erin Schmutz!)

From the time we take the pictures to when we get them back, I'm like a little kid waiting for Christmas.  I just can't wait to see them!  So without further ado, here are a bunch of this year's family pictures.

The Gorgeous Gariety Girls:

The Good-lookin' Gariety Boys

Six Glorious, Good-natured, and Galactic Garietys

(alliteration is awesome.)

Dallin-12

Daphne-10

Sean-8

Hayden- 6 (in 1 week)

I couldn't narrow it down to just one for our two littlest.  You should be amazed I could narrow the older four down to just one!  narrowing is a very difficult and time consuming process for me.  :)

Sydney-3

Arthur said, "Is she really wearing that tutu for family pictures?"  Um,  OF COURSE!  It's Sydney!  And she's three.   And we are documenting her tutu-ness while we can!  Oh, and a funny story about getting Sydney ready for pictures--We could not find any two of her shoes that matched.  When I told her to get her shoes on, she came out with one pink tennis shoe, and one glass slipper.  Well, that might work sometimes, but not for family pictures.  After looking and looking, and not finding any matches (how is that even possible?!?) we gave up and had to make a stop at Payless Shoes on the way to get our pictures taken.

love these glowing curls

Bennett-9 months

 

So glad we got a few smiles out of this kid.  

You should have seen the ridiculous things we were doing to break his stone-face.  

If you look closely, you can see his two little top teeth in this picture.

(ready for more g-words?)  

Good, Gleeful, & Goofy  Gariety kids

I'm so, so thankful for these little, medium and big people in my life.  They are my favorites ever, and I can't imagine my existence without them.