Go For the Gold!

 

It's Olympics time again!!!!!  These Winter Games are in Italy-- hence our Italian themed opening ceremony party on Friday night. 

Which ceremony, was in fact, extremely well done and very classy.  Especially so in comparison to the horrific monstrosity that was the Paris Opening Ceremony.  Sorry, not sorry.

Italian sodas

A taste of Italy for dinner

Me and my Clark-- 

This is a 3D printed figure called a "Dummy 13".  It's made of tons of little pieces assembled together into lots of moveable joints.  

George took it to the next level and created a 6ft tall Dummy 13 named "Little Ricky".  This is a project he's been working on for many months and he's finally finished.  

On this day, Little Ricky was just chillin'.  But in the future, you can expect to see him festively attired for holidays and special events.  The possibilities are endless

We enjoyed a Fox siblings dinner out last night.

Cannon and his date, Sophie, headed to the school's Sweethearts dance last night.

Once they are married, Faith and Landen will be moving into a basement apartment in his aunt's home that is quite near to our house.  Yay!  I like having grown kids living close by.  They've been working hard painting and preparing the apartment.

Since Clark was quite a little boy, he and Abe have had a tradition of going out to a seafood feast about once a year.  The last couple years, Clark gifts the meal to Abe for Christmas.  

Greta and Aly having fun with my phone

Rock On, George!

 

George is the bass player for a band-- Redwood Revival-- and they recently competed in Corner Canyon High School's Battle of the Bands.  

This was his (and all of our) first experience with Battle of the Bands-- and it was so much fun!  There were 11 bands competing and each played a cover song and an original song.

Over the last few years, George has taken piano lessons and some bass guitar lessons with Nate Anderson.  So when a band of high school aged musicians that Nate mentors needed a bass player, he invited George.   

George joined and that was a very good decision!

Have a listen....click here

They did so well-- and THEY WON FIRST PLACE!

The highlight of Peter's life was crowd surfing!  

They'll be performing a 30 minute set on the main stage at Draper Days in July.  

It was fun to be there with lots of family to support our Jorge.

On the left is their mentor-- Nate Anderson.  He helped them not only with their musicality, but also how professionally they presented themselves.

They be making a recording of their original soon-- can't wait!

After their sound check the night before, there was a guy making a documentary about Battle of the Bands and he interviewed the band.  Kind of fun

Rock On! Abe is 51

Hee hee!  We were so tricky!  We planned a surprise birthday party for Abe's 51st birthday.  Everyone gathered at the Riverton Chubby's banquet room and then--after running a few made up errands together, Abe and I showed up, and we all enjoyed a tasty dinner.  Then we all went around sharing what we loved about Abe.  Most of the comments were about how caring he is and how much he loves his family.  It was very tender.

The surprise gathering was Clark's idea-- and a very fine idea it was.  

But the surprises weren't over yet....

Before we ran our excuse errands, we dropped Peter and Greta at Ben and Bethany's for a "movie night".  But as soon as we dropped them off, they all headed back to our house to decorate for Phase 2.

George "went to the gym" with Landen.  But actually, they headed over to Chubby's to decorate for the Phase 1.

This is what we came home to-- a karaoke party!!  This was most definitely our family's cup of tea.  It was sooo much fun!

Clark kicked it off with a little Billy Joel-- "Movin' Out"

Ben and Beth did couple of duets-- "Double Trouble" from Eurovision and "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton.  And can I just say-- these two can SING!

Abe and I performed our traditional and ever-inspiring "Endless Love" by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross.  We've been doing it for years... and dare I say, we are actually improving?

Faith and Landen sang "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"

In one of the most hysterical moments of the night-- Cannon singing "Lion of Love" from Eurovision

Peter's first ever karaoke-- "Viva la Vida".  Well done, Peter!

Greta rocked "Party in the USA"

George-- who was quite the vocal revelation-- performed "A Man Without Love"

Hunter-- who, btw-- is also an fantastic singer performed "Hooked on a Feeling" .

The whole night it was so fun to cheer and sing along.  It was like our own personal little rock concert.  

You probably wouldn't... but you might ask... Betsy, why did you get such a boring cake?  Well the truth is, I was trying so hard to decide what message to write on the cake that I forgot to specify any other decoration or frosting color.  So I suppose the Costco worker went with the gender neutral yellow.  Oh well.  It was tasty, nonetheless.

Go ahead and treat yourself-- have a little listen

January Gets a Bad Rap

We have our extended Fox family, our extended Cannon family, and our book club family.  This book club family has been a joyous part of our lives for over 20 years.  The Schramm's daughter Sariah got married at the start of January.  It was wonderful to be at the temple together to celebrate

It was fun to help out at the reception along with Corrine and Landon.

Camille is my dear friend and walking partner.  We've helped each other through some periods of serious parental growth!  The best advice I can give to other moms in any stage of mothering is to get a good walking partner who is in a similar stage of life.  And pray that, like Camille, she is dependable and funny and open and trustworthy and willing to bear your burdens with you

And along with working through the hard times, you can thoroughly celebrate the good times together as well.  

And then someday, you too, can get matching winter-walking hats.

We had a really memorable moment on January 11th-- George was ordained to be a Priest and then he joined Abe, Cannon, and Hunter in ordaining Peter to the office of deacon.  

Of course I love these boys--- but I sure like them as well:)  I feel very loved by them and blessed to be their mom.

We recently learned to play a fun game-- The Fox Experiment-- in which you get to breed baby foxes.  Obviously, Abe and I are experts:)

Tons of pieces, but very fun to name your baby foxes

Taking Peter to the temple for the first time

These three little dudes passed the Sacrament for the first time together.

We had a lovely evening of games over at Landen's family's house.  

Faith has mastered the art of the sourdough bread.  It is  A LOT of time and effort to make a delicious loaf of sourdough.  

When she finishes a loaf we all descend on her and beg for a slice. She also makes her own .honey butter--- mmmm, yummy!

We had a few scary days last months when my dad suffered a minor stroke.  Well, it seemed minor, in that, he suffered no lasting ill-effects.  But he did end up in the neurocritical unit of the University of Utah because a clot was lodged in a precarious place near his brain.  Abe and Steve went up to visit and give him a Priesthood blessing.  We are very grateful he is home again and doing well.

We were excited to go see A Beautiful Noise with Andrea and friends.  It is a musical about the music  and life of Neil Diamond.

We were, and still are, big fans of the music of Neil Diamond.  Maybe not so much the life of Neil Diamond.  But who am I to judge? 

I love to see how much our kiddos love our grandkiddos.  

Daniel's newest trick is playing dead.  He is such a funny little guy and he's basically a rock star when he come to the house.