March 29, 2026

I snapped this picture on the Sunday in January when Peter and Eric were ordained Deacons.  I thought it was so cute to get all six of these kiddos together.   Each Fox and Chase pairing has been a friendship match made in heaven.  So imagine my distress about a month ago, when Annie (their mom) told me they were moving.  NOOOOOOOO!!!!!! The only thing that makes it bearable is at least they are still in Riverton.  Even still, it won't be the same as being able to just run a few doors down to play.

Last week we had our 2nd Kids' Book Club -- we read The Wild Robot.  The kids built Lego robots and then (by their choice), they wanted it to be a competition.

George was our esteemed judge and everyone had a turn to tell him about their Robot.

Not only was a he a fair judge, but he was so cute with the kids and was impressed with their creations.  I realize that when Bethany was about his age, she helped out with the kids book club for George's age group.  Pass it on!

Duck Duck Goose because one of the characters is a goose.  We also played animal charades.

Greta has taken possession of Faith's leopard gecko.  She's been so busy with nursing school and being engaged and working, that this little guy has been neglected.  Greta has re-christened him "Arthur" and thus he begins his new life under new ownership.  

Look!  He's a real boy! Peter took a nasty fall from an e-scooter recently.  He's okay.

I LOVE this picture of Clark, Brianna, and Greta.  They took her to the Festival of Colors on Saturday and had a marvelous and colorful time!

Clark said he was amazed at the amount of chalk Greta could retain on her body.  Side note:  being in a chalk fight sounds like a TOTAL NIGHTMARE to me.  I hate, hate, hate, abhor, loathe chalk dust.

I got a cavity filled.  Sorry, it's just funny.

St. Patty's Day treasure hunt was... less than inspirational, but it's hard for the leprechaun to be magnificent every year:)  Truth be told, I think our leprechaun is getting old and tired.  Not sure how many more he has in him.

Festively attired

We saw Hallmarked at the Hale Center Theater and it was really quite good.  I would totally enjoy seeing it again sometime.

George got another fun toy-- we got a laser engraver-- and it's pretty awesome.  Come to him with your engraving needs:)

He engraved this and then cut it into a puzzle for me.  Ooh la la-- I have a personal puzzle maker!

A Lot of Practice Makes a Lot of Progress

On March 7th Greta performed her first concerto for Federation.  Rather than just moving up one level from where she was a year ago, she moved up THREE levels.  She began working on Concertino in G Major by Adolf Huber back in May of 2025.  She worked SO HARD and it paid off big time.  She played it completely memorized and earned a superior rating (the highest possible), but more importantly she stuck with it and followed through and saw the fruits of her labor.   She is still only nine years old (although she looks much older) and is already on a full size violin.  

I accompanied her on the piano, and truth be told, I had to do some pretty serious practicing myself as well.  I was so proud of both of us!

We couldn't record the actual performance, but here is one we did right after we got home. Click here to listen

To quote one of my favorite movies,  Austenland, "What a talented little nut she is."

Many, many thank to her teacher, Diane Peterson who believes in her and challenges her and has been  endlessly patient with an often chatty and distractable Greta during lessons. 
 

Maybe I Forgot to Mention...

Faith is getting MARRIED!!!!! Because I am not so consistent with blogging, sometimes we have really big events that I forget to post about.  And THIS is a big thing!

She is marrying Landen Hiatt in the very near future-- April 21st, to be exact.  

Just like Faith, Landen grew up in Riverton and graduated the same year as Faith.  They met when Faith (homeschooler that she was) snuck into the all night graduation party and they shared mutual friends.  

You might be thinking, "Wait!  Faith can't possibly be old enough to be getting married!"  To which I respond, you are correct-- alas, here we are. 

 Also, she is older than I was when I got married.  She is 20 years old and one semester away from graduating from nursing school.

 

So, while they are "babies"-- they are also two of the hardest working young adults I know.  And as these pictures clearly show, they are in love and so good to each other.  They are each other's match! 

As I sit here in my family room typing this, I am surrounded by boxes of flowers and tablecloths and lanterns and candles and all things wedding.  

Need I mention this is the third daughter's wedding in as many years?  I feel like I'm getting pretty good at it:)  And yet, it's still A LOT and I am looking forward to a wedding planning break after this.   Thankfully, Greta is only 9, so I should have a good long break!

Elinor's 23rd Birthday

We celebrated Elinor's birthday a couple weeks ago at a family dinner.  It was a gluten-free, dairy-free, seasoning-free.  She is very careful with what she eats, so we had foods we knew she liked.  

The food might not have been spicy, but the conversations certainly were!  Conspiracy theories abounded

It is the best thing in the world to have all our people together.

Daniel is so much fun!!

And look... they are all praying together.

Okay, they're not exactly praying.  They are actually playing One Night Werewolf.  

Elinor sent us this picture of Daniel and his block of cheese.  I guess he takes after his Great-grandma Fox.

George has really been into biking at local skateparks lately.

Ben and Bethany hosted a fabulous Super Bowl party at their place.  And Ben's first attempt at making chicken wings was a smashing success!

Both Abe and I were prize winners.  Abe won this fetching and over-sized Back to the Future t-shirt, freshly picked from the bargain bin at Walmart.  His accomplishment?  His prediction of the final score of the game was the closest to the actual outcome.   I won the Love Elephants-- which were a wedding gift Ben and Bethany received that they wished to share with the entire family.  My accomplishment?  My prediction being the furthest away from the final outcome. 

Wait!... What Month Is It?

Cannon is heading into the spring of his senior year-- so lots of lasts.  Actually, I am planning a big "Ode to Cannon" post about all his accolades and achievements and upcoming adventures.  But not quite yet.  My heart isn't quite ready.  This picture was taken at the Valentine's "Songs and Sweets" that the Madrigals put on.  Most of these performances are more serious in nature.  But there are always a couple of guys who lighten the mood and perform some gender bending duet.  

This time it was Cannon and his friend Sterling, singing "Love Is an Open Door" from Frozen.  

They were very silly... but they did sing it well:)

Because life is so full and time is passing so quickly, I can not tell you what the date of this picture was.  It frightens me that I'm not even sure what month it was-- January... February?  I know it wasn't March.  I'm going to go with February.    Abe and I joined Andrea and James at a Jazz game with killer awesome seats! 

Like 5th row--  It was so cool!  But the evening was very memorable for another reason.

Poor Clark had appendicitis and went into surgery while we were at the game.  As soon as the game was done, we hustled down there to be with him and Brianna.  Surgery went well and we were there when he woke up.  It was all rather unexpected-- but fortunately he and Brianna had already taken a few days off for the upcoming President's Day weekend.  Aha!  It was February 11th! So he had plenty of time to recover and Brianna was there to help him out.

We went to go see my cute niece, Kaylee, play the part of The Inspector in The Play That Goes Wrong at Alta High School.  Such a funny show and she was wonderful!

On Tessa's birthday I went to lunch with Faith.  It seemed the thing to do.  We went to Chubby's and did more wedding planning. 

I LOVED going to the temple with Peter.

The next generation of Kids' Book Club!!!  We started it up again with the current crop of neighborhood "Homies".  We read Caddie Woodlawn, and it was wonderful.  They are a thoughtful and talkative group.  And speaking of book clubs.  I have rejoined my neighborhood women's book club.  I fell off the wagon there for a while-- but was happy to be back last month.  We read and discussed The Sun Does Shine.  It was good.  I can't say I loved it as much as some others did, but it was worth the read.