12/16/16 The Force Is With Us

This morning Heidi and I joined Papa and Becca B to go see the new movie Star Wars Rogue One. This is the first movie in a long time that I can remember going to that had a line of excited people waiting for the theater open outside. We enjoyed the movie and think it fits well with the other movies in the Star Wars universe.

This afternoon Sarah and Rebecca joined Gram for an almond cookie baking project. While they worked on that the rest of the family drove out to Queen Creek to work on the yard at the Mangum grandparents house. We managed to fill up their trash can full of thorny branches from trimmed bushes.

On our way home the kids spot of this bright rainbow. David was pretty sure there must be some treasure at the end of that rainbow. I believe that the real treasures are the kids that we get to raise.

12/15/16 Rebecca's Band Concert

Here is a photo of Rebecca Noelani with her namesake Becca B as she gets ready to go up for her Fall band concert.

Rebecca has enjoyed learning to play percussion this year in the fifth grade band. The band students have made a lot of progress this year. Most of them started at zero, not being able to make any notes, and can now play very basic melodies. My favorite song was Ode to Joy where Rebecca could be clearly heard playing her part on the xylophone. We were blessed that Gram, Papa, and Becca B were able to come to the afternoon performance at the school. Heidi and the kids and I also went to the evening performance so that we could hear Rebecca and her band perform.

12/14/16 Preschool and Court of Honor

There's a picture of Joseph and his friend Amy. Peter is cheering them on.

Before I write about today I want to fill-in a little bit about it yesterday. Heidi drove the van, with a bunch of Cub Scouts in it, yesterday to a place called "Feed My Starving Children". Between our Cub Scouts and others who were there they packaged more than 27,000 dried meals to send to kids in the Philippines. That sounds like a pretty awesome project.

This morning Connie Lowis, Joseph's preschool teacher, asked me to take a picture of Joseph and Amy for her. Above is Joseph's. She also told us that this month will be the last month of preschool here in Mesa for her. The Lowis family will be moving shortly in order to take advantage of the high home prices here and low prices out in the Queen Creek area. We will be sad to see them go. Joseph has really learned a lot at Connie's preschool. He has also loved attending with his friend Amy. We'll have to start looking for alternate places.

This afternoon Rebecca and Sarah worked together to make cookies to take as a treat for David's Court of Honor. They got the mix put together and the cookies on the tray to be cooked without any help except for instructions from Heidi.

The result was a plate full of cookies that went fast at the Court of Honor refreshment table.

In the midst of the hubbub at the court of honor I didn't manage to get a picture of David. Tonight he was officially awarded his Star rank and three merit badges. We are very proud of David for the progress that he is making. He now will work on his Life rank which is the last rank before working directly on his Eagle.
The photo of me is intended to show the thoughtful card that we received in the mail today from my sister Becca B. She is wonderfully kind and enjoys doing these thoughtful gestures. Thank you Becca B.

12/13/16 Temple and Change

This morning it was my turn to go to the Temple. It is a peaceful place. This morning I felt oddly distracted by work questions. Usually I find it easy to leave the world behind as I enter the Temple doors.

Over the course of the past year Rebecca and Sarah have earned quite a bit of change at their lemonade stand. Grammie Mangum also gave us some pennies that her bank would not accept. Then an anonymous giver left the glass jar on the left on our doorstep. Rebecca and Sarah and TJ counted out the coins and put them into sleeves. Interestingly each jar weighs about 9 pounds even though one has only a third the value of the other. The bank gave me no trouble accepting 18 pounds of change. The lady seemed pleased when I told her about the young entrepreneurs at our house.

The next stop was Walmart. Joseph and Peter entertained themselves by trying on these silly hats.

12/12/16 Puzzle Completed

When we left our readers last night we had a halfway completed puzzle with some clearly missing pieces. We worked on it some more once the kids were ready for school. Then, with some self control, we slid the partially completed puzzle onto a cookie sheet and put it out of reach until the school kids got home. When we got it out this afternoon the kids and Heidi made quick progress finding proper homes for red brick colored pieces and amorphous Christmas tree colored pieces. Before too long all the pieces on the table had been added and four holes remained. Rebecca and TJ began a search. Rebecca found one and TJ found one, both under the table. Gradually we became discouraged. TJ showed perseverance and discovered several long missing items in the crevice of the couch. He was rewarded at last by finding the second to last piece. But still one last piece remained missing. For me having one missing piece was almost more disheartening than four. With four I thought "oh well I guess we're not ready for puzzles yet". With only one missing we were so close. TJ and I kept looking. Finally I found the last piece in Peter's high chair. So apparently, with some effort, we are ready to do puzzles after all. In the end though we are not at perfection. After we had returned the puzzle to its box and replaced it in the game cupboard we discovered an errant piece on the floor. The box had a leak! We transferred the pieces to a large ziplock bag but now a new mystery remains. Did we find all the pieces that fell from the leaky box?

This evening, for Family Home Evening, we read Thomas S Monson's Christmas Train book to the kids. It's the one where young Tommy learns the joy of giving by overcoming his selfishness and giving part of his train to a poor boy down the street. We talked about ways we can overcome our own selfishness and learn to give.
We thought about reading the book pictured above. An anonymous giver, although we're pretty sure we saw President Nielsen sneaking away, gave us this book last night. It is a beautiful, albeit sad, book about a family experiencing Christmas for the first time since the passing of their mother. For obvious reasons this book touched a nerve for Heidi. The idea of her not being with us for Christmas was too much and we decided to skip this one for now. Perhaps there is a family out there who has experienced this kind of loss who could use comfort from a book like this.

12/11/16 A Fun Family Puzzle

Last year for Christmas Jon and Cathy and family gave our family a beautiful 500 piece Christmas puzzle. At the time we didn't dare get it out for fear of losing many of the little pieces in the four corners of the house. This evening we were feeling apparently more daring.

David, Rebecca, Sarah, and TJ all seemed to enjoy very much the process of putting the puzzle together. It was Heidi's idea to get the puzzle out and she seemed very much in her element. Peter and Joseph we're not so sure how well this activity qualified as entertainment. Peter was more interested in taking the cushions off of the couch and turning the lights off and on. Joseph kept reconnecting the computer and turning on non-Sunday approved TV shows. Still, in spite of the distractions, the older kids and Heidi and me to spent multiple hours working on the puzzle right up until bedtime. When it became apparent that we would not be able to finish it tonight I started to be concerned about whether or not there would be any missing pieces thanks to little helpers. There seem to be some edge pieces missing. Tune in to tomorrow's installment to see how it turns out.

12/10/16 Many Gifts

This morning Heidi used her creativity and a pancake pen to remind us of the original and most important gift of Christmas.

TJ didn't need any hints to know that this was a pancake Nativity scene. Heavenly Father and Jesus gave us the gift of His perfect life. What's more, His sacrifice means we have the chance to be an eternal family.

The gift of organization
The picture above shows the large Tupperware container that we've been keeping our shoes in near the front door. It has been a vast improvement over the old method of simply shoving them under the bench near the front door. Still when the pair of shoes that you need has drifted to the bottom of the barrel it leaves some things to be desired.

Today Heidi and I helped a friend of ours clean some things out of her garage. In amongst the things that she no longer needed was this neat shelf. She kindly gave it to us. Look how much more neatly we can store our shoes. We are grateful for her kindness.

Look at these beautifully decorated and delicious gingerbread cookies. Our friend Bob Rhyne and his wife Gerlene kindly brought these over this evening to share with us. We made quick work of them. We are grateful for their tradition of kindness and creativity.