Christmas performances

Christmas Classic: Saturday, December 14

Miriam competed in five syllabus events: swing, tango, Viennese waltz, rumba and cha cha at this annual competition at Madison Junior High (still the worst-ever venue). She placed in every event except swing (which is hard to place in because everyone, their dogs and their Tamagotchis compete in that event). It was a long day (as always), but a rewarding one. 

Miriam (and her fabulous hair and makeup) before the junior events begin.

Dancing swing with Makio.

Dancing Viennese with Dallin.

Dancing tango with Dallin.

Choir concert: Monday, December 16

Ana sings "Nativity Carol" with the Bonnevaires. I thought it was cool that we could see Ana's face in Mrs. Nix's tablet. Ana didn't like it.

Ana sings "Last Christmas" with her octet during the show.

Singing "Twelve Days of Christmas" with all the choirs and the audience ... with actions! This was "five golden rings."

Band concert: Wednesday, December 18

Miriam playing the glockenspiel with the jazz band during "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." She had a lovely little feature when everyone else went silent and she played the notes for the line "won't you guide my sleigh tonight." The day before, the band students spent the entire day traveling to assisted living facilities and playing Christmas music for the residents.

Miriam plays bongos during "Have a Mambo Christmas." She played percussion in every single song of the concert: for percussion ensemble, jazz band, concert band and symphonic band.

Lincoln Court: Sunday, December 22

Miriam plays a modified drum set during our performance at Lincoln Court. We didn't play music at the facility last year due to all our family's surgeries scheduled before and immediately following Christmas: my rotator cuff surgery, Rebekah's breast reduction, Ana's wisdom teeth removal. But we came back in full force for Christmas 2024. This was the first time we had any percussion with our music, and it turned out to be fabulous.

Seth and Andrea playing uke/guitar and singing with residents in the background enjoying their dinner and (hopefully?) the music.

Ana singing during our show. This was a new addition as well. In the past, we've had duos or groups of us all sing together, but Ana with her newfound love of choir asked if she could sing along to a bunch of songs I've played before from the Reader's Digest Christmas Songbook. This was another great addition to our lineup. Her favorite one to sing was "Blue Christmas."

Winnie and Andrea playing a piano duet.

The five of us singing "Angels We Have Heard on High" a capella. Winnie and Miriam sang the soprano part; I sang alto; Ana sang tenor; Seth sang bass.

Fall miscellany

Snazzy: Sunday, August 25

Miriam wears Seth's hat outside the church after our meetings.

Math and piano: Monday, August 26

Miriam helps Winnie remember some of the math she learned the year before. Winnie was worried she wouldn't know how to do the math she needed to know in middle school. As it turns out, she was bumped from Prealgebra to Algebra I within the first few weeks of school.

Rebekah works on tuning the piano. 

Temple baptisms: Tuesday, August 27

The family poses outside the temple after participating in baptisms for the dead. We went after the girls' first day of school.

Wasp vanquisher: Wednesday, September 11

A giant wasp nest Rebekah found in our crabapple tree in the front yard.

Rebekah posing with the bucket of water that holds the wasp nest. She wore layers of protective clothing and her fencing mask while she encased the nest in a pillowcase. Then Seth helped her ziptie it closed before submerging it in water and weighing it down with rocks. It sat in the bucket for days. Then Seth dumped it onto the driveway. After a few minutes, the wasps starting moving. Apparently you can't drown wasps. So he poured lighter fluid on the whole thing and lit it on fire.

Fur stole: Wednesday, September 18

Seth poses with Toad on his shoulders.

Scripture study: ??? (I for the life of me can't find this in our album, so I don't have the date)

Rebekah reads her scriptures after going on a morning run. She would often use the porch swing as a reading spot, and Toad would often join her.

Homecoming parade: Friday, September 20

Miriam tosses candy from the ballroom float. She had to choose between riding on the band float or the ballroom float.

Ana waves from the Miss Bonneville float. She had to choose between riding on the choir float or the pageant float.

Biker gang: Friday, September 20

Andrea and Seth pose with their bikes after riding several miles through town mostly on bike paths during their date.

Sleeping on the job: Sunday, September 22

Andrea, Ana and Miriam take a selfie in front of a sleeping Seth in the foyer after church. 

Garage swamp: Sunday, September 29

The menagerie of Crocs in the garage.

Two black cats: Tuesday, October 8

Toad pouncing on a little bird in the front yard. The cardboard cutout of the black cat was part of our Halloween decorations, and it tricked us many times as we looked out our bedroom window and thought it was a real cat.

Mouser: Thursday, October 10

Rebekah holds up the dead mouse Toad left in the back yard.

Fairview Fall Carnival: Saturday, October 12

Winnie and Miriam pose next to a camel that was part of the petting zoo at the Fairview Fall Carnival. Since we didn't make it to the carnival last year (we were at Lagoon), Andrea took Winnie and Miriam tagged along this year. Winnie ended up choosing to spend most of the tickets on raffle items rather than games, but it paid off because we won a basket of Melaleuca products, a date night package with tickets to Idaho Falls Arts Council show and a gift card to McKenzie River Pizza, and two crocheted sea turtles.

Trying out a new look: Sunday, October 13

Rebekah's glamorous makeup (Ana's attempt at doing drag makeup) in a flattering .5 shot.

Kitty snuggles: Wednesday, October 16

Toad cuddles with Ana on the porch swing.

Getting dolled up: Monday, October 21

Ana trying out makeup looks for the Miss Bonneville pageant.

Gravity Factory date: Saturday, October 26

Winnie and Seth pose with the treat they got after jumping at Gravity Factory in Rexburg during their daddy-daughter date.

Cinching in and the Museum of Idaho: Saturday, November 2

Winnie really yanks the strings of the corset we got for Ana from Bindlandia. I think Ana wants it for Renaissance fairs? 

Winnie and Ana play with a simulator at the Museum of Idaho's space exhibit.

The lovely face Winnie pulled for her astronaut pic.

The girls using a simulator to sort through space garbagte.

Rebekah in the rocket simulator. She designed and then flew her rocket and scored the highest of any of our girls.

The girls writing on the Museum's wall of feelings.

Murder mystery party: Mo, November 2

Winnie dressed up as Juan Iron, a golfer with a drinking problem, before her murder mystery party with friends. (The bottle, by the way, has beer of the root variety.) Although Winnie initially didn't want to dress up as a boy, she later embraced the character and won best costume

Math homework: Monday, November 4

Winnie and Seth pose with the treat they got after jumping at Gravity Factory in Rexburg during their daddy-daughter date.

Exhibit night and a concert: Thursday, November 14

Winnie poses at Praxium with her Ancient Egypt artifact and a zombie escape project. Once a trimester, students at Praxium get to spend an evening showing off what they've been learning about with their cross-curriculum projects. After showing off her exhibit, Winnie went straight to Rocky Mountain for her first trimester band concert (which was covered in another post), and then our family went to ...

... a concert at the Colonial featuring Postmodern Jukebox, a group of musicians who take popular songs and perform them in different musical styles. We're all fans of the group, so it was an amazing concert. We bought the tickets before we knew when Rebekah would be leaving on her mission, but it worked out perfectly for the six of us to go.

Girls on a couch: Friday, November 15

Winnie and Miri on the couch in the living room. I think I took the picture because they were cutely cuddling, but I'm not sure why Winnie chose to pull that face. 

Pizza Pie Cafe: Monday, November 18

Everyone in the family (minus Miriam who had come earlier with friends) at Pizza Pie Cafe during a ballroom fund raiser. Rebekah, as a proper home MTC-going missionary, wore her dress and tag to the restaurant.

D&D: Sunday, November 24

Seth and the girls play Dungeons and Dragons one last time with all of them before Rebekah leaves for the MTC.

Arts and crafts: Monday, November 25

Rebekah installs her art project on the wall of the shop before going to the MTC. She found the jaw bones while hunting in Island Park and brought them home to clean and bleach.

She stained the plaque, attached the jaw bones and added the decorative yarn and flowers.

Stick it: Tuesday, November 26

Winnie reaches to remove the giant sticker I placed on her back. The sticker had information about donating to St. Jude's or something like that; it came in the mail with some return address labels. Winnie had previously stuck it to my back, but I sneakily removed it and put it on hers. She didn't realize it until we were in Provo for lunch before dropping Rebekah off at the MTC.