Misc. March happenings

We have enjoyed babysitting Will a couple of times lately. Sara loves it the most. She is such a sweet girl and she LOVES little ones.

And little ones love her!

Lukes mouth is full of plastic and metal. He has an expander, brackets for elastics, and a bottom retainer.

He's such a great sport about it. He wins the prize so far for the most orthodontic work in our family.

We recently held a stake conference. Last year at this time, our stake conference was cancelled just days before the conference at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. We have learned a lot over this past year about doing meetings via video. Todd spoke at the leadership meeting on Saturday night. I was grateful to be able to watch his talk from home.

For Sunday's conference, only the people on the program and their families and the stake presidency families were in attendance at the chapel. It felt strange to have so few people in attendance at a Stake Conference. The conference was available to the rest of our stake members via video. Elder Clayton (and his wife) was the visiting authority. They are wonderful people.

I was pulling into the garage recently and had to take a picture of this cute scene. I loved seeing Luke and Nana waiting for me at the door.

These cute girls were so happy to show me their creations after school.

Todd recently finished remodeling the girls bedroom and building captain beds (more on that to come). As soon as that project was complete, he and the boys got to work re-configuring garage shelves. There's always a project going on around here.

Our neighborhood held an outdoor Easter egg hunt. It was very cold and wet but that didn't stop our sweet Sara. She had a blast. I am so grateful for our amazing neighborhood. Many houses were decorated with different themes. One house even had a small petting zoo. So fun!

Michael and his companion Elder Brown are working hard in Washington. I look forward to Mondays when we get to talk to Michael. We love him and we are so glad that he is happy and enjoying his mission.

It's funny how styles change. I just got used to skinny jeans and now I guess they are out of style again. Apparently the new style is wide leg jeans. I still can't decide if these will work for me or not (that's why the tag is still on). It's nice to have teenagers to help keep me in style :)

Student Body President elections

We just found out that Ben didn't win Student Body President elections. He ran against 2 awesome candidates. Over 1,000 people voted (usually the number is around 700). We are so happy for Carson. He will be a great SBO President. Now we will get to work on Ben's Senior Class Office elections to be held after Spring Break.

Here is the process for his SBO President election;

Ben created a 2 minute video for his election. Who knew a 2 minute video could take hours to create? It was a lot of fun though.

We had a lot of fun making the poster(s) and banner for Ben's election too. We made 3 posters and in the end we were only able to display 1 because so many people were running that the rules were changed to only 1 poster and 1 banner for each candidate. We needed the practice on the posters so we could do the banner anyway :)

Ben's banner is 8'X10'

We are so proud of Ben for running. It was a tough race and he gave it his best. He was a great sport about the results. He gave Carson and Marki a big hug and was so kind to all the candidates. He is an amazing kid and I feel blessed to be his momma.

Nana

 Nana recently had a bath and a haircut. She couldn't wait to show off when the kids got home from school.

Nana also started her heat. We decided to try diapers for her this time. She tolerates them because she is a sweet puppy but we know they aren't her favorite.

During this heat, we bred Nana with Odie. We visited Odie twice before Nana was ready to mate.

I think they will have adorable and good natured puppies. The pick of the litter will be donated as a service puppy. Luke says that he will take care of that puppy because then it will be easier to let it go knowing it is going to help someone in need.

Orchestra concert

 After driving to St. George to say good-bye to Grandma Miller, my mom dropped me off at Bingham High School. I made it just in time to hear Mary perform in their one and only orchestra concert this year. Grandpa and Grandma would have loved it. It was exactly what I needed after an emotional day. Our Mary is so talented and I'm grateful we were able to gather for a concert. Each student was allowed 2 masked guests and we sat every other row and 6 feet apart in the auditorium. Mary's orchestra teacher Mr. Munro is fantastic and we will miss him when Mary goes to Bingham in the Fall.

I haven't been to the schools much this year due to COVID restrictions, so I was excited to see the hall displays and take a picture of our Ben :)

Speaking of Ben and SBO's, this week has been elections for 2021-2022 school year. Ben is running for SBO President. He finds out if he was elected at 3:00 this afternoon. I know that whatever happens will be great. However, I am nervous!

Grandma Miller

My grandma Miller was admitted to the hospital with a UTI on Sunday night, March 7. I spoke with her nearly everyday on the phone and on Saturday night she had told me how excited she was to take her 91 year old friend Phyllis to church with her. Phyllis was concerned that she didn't have a dress to wear to church, but Grandma told her to come as she was. I love that my grandma was a friend and a missionary until the very end.

Unfortunately, grandma's infection had spread to her kidneys and developed into sepsis. I drove to St. George and back in one day with Tammie and my mom to say good-bye to Grandma. We sang to her and told her how much we love her. I am so grateful she was able to tell us how much she loves us too. She gave my mom a giant hug which must have taken every ounce of energy she had. It was a sweet and solemn good-bye. I miss her daily phone calls like crazy. She used to tell me how much she loves all of us and that she prays for each of us by name every day. She was always anxious to hear about Michael in the mission field.

Grandma passed away at 3:00am on Michael's 19th birthday. I didn't sleep much that night. Death is hard.

Grandma's funeral was a wonderful occasion to see family and cousins. Her funeral wasn't as sad as grandpa's funeral almost 4 years ago, because we knew how wonderful their reunion must have been. Grandma missed grandpa and she wanted to be with him again.

Todd's parents sent these beautiful pink flowers.

A treasured love note to my grandma from my grandpa.

Due to COVID restrictions, only family was in attendance at the funeral. Others watched via zoom. I gave the opening prayer.

Our kids taking one last treat from Grandma and Grandpa's BYU tray. Carmels, jelly beans and nuts were their favorite treats to offer.

Grandpa and Grandma's burial site is special for our family. Todd's grandparents and his cousin along with my uncle are buried there too. It is a place of peace for us.

These beautiful flowers from the funeral brighten our kitchen and my day.

Our neighbors the Dinsdale's sent these beautiful flowers which also brighten our kitchen.

School, crafts, Spring, date, friends, movie, etc...

My title makes me laugh. I have become lazy at merging many pictures into one post but I want to be able to find things in the future so instead of including the picture dates, I'm including some keywords. I'm not sure it is effective but hey- I'm still maintaining this journal and that's what is important.

Sara loves to play school. She has been giving me spelling tests lately. 

Luke created this poster for his Utah Studies class. 

Ben received his BHS fishing club t-shirt. We think it's awesome!

Ben going to a Bingham Basketball game. He hasn't been able to attend many games or activities this year due to COVID, so we were excited he was able to attend this game (wearing a new pit crew shirt too).

Sara loves to craft. She made this darling magnet for me.

Spring is getting closer. The golf cart has come out of the garage a couple of times this week!

Todd and I took Mary and Luke on a date with us last weekend. Ben was at work, Sara at a friend's house. We shopped at the toy store while we waited for our table at Red Robin.

After dinner we went home to play our new Clue game. So fun!

Luke and his buddies went to a movie last weekend! A MOVIE! WITH FRIENDS! Both of those things have been nearly non-existent over the past year. It was fun for them to be together.

Sara and Mary went to a movie too. They took our 2020 popcorn tub that was maybe used once or twice before everything shut down last March. Luckily the movie theatre is honoring the 2020 popcorn tub in 2021.

This is how Luke was dressed on Sunday for his Sunday School zoom call.

Ben is the VP of Assemblies. Due to COVID, his assemblies have mostly been via video.

Yesterday however, some students were allowed to attend the assembly and it was live streamed into the classrooms for the rest of the students. Ben did a fantastic job.