Stringed Instruments and a Birthday

 I'll start at the end of our week and work backwards. Myles had his cello recital last night. He has been practicing so hard on getting his piece perfect with no mistakes, and he even had it memorized. He practiced and practiced on introducing himself nice and loud. It is a lot easier to have those things all come together when you are just doing it in front of your family. The minute Myles stood up in front of 50 people he said his hands got clammy and shaky. He opted to have his sheet music instead of work off of memory. We still think he did a great job. Sister Lee, her husband, and her daughter Alayna came to hear him. That was really special for him. He's not happy I have video footage to show of his performance because he doesn't think he did well. He played Mouret's "Rondeau", or as many might know it, the opening theme from Masterpiece Theater years ago. He tunes his cello first before he starts his piece.....

 The recital was really wonderful. Myles went first which I think was a good thing. He was able to enjoy the music played by all the other students without stressing and being so nervous. It was good for him to see that even the students that have been taking lessons for a while and playing really hard pieces make mistakes too. His teacher has been expressing to him that it is okay to make a mistake; the important thing is is to just keep going. I love that there is  such a wide variety in ages.......from kids, to teens, to adults in their 70's. There were cello and violin students performing since Myles's teacher does this with her husband who teaches violin. Several students had a family member accompany them, and Myles is thinking maybe next time he could do something at his recital with Aeva or Rhaevyn. 

 Saturday morning Chris and I went to the temple. It was such a nice way to start off our Saturday. I'd like to see this nativity at night some time. I've seen pictures, and it looks so beautiful at night with the lights and the water.

 

 

 Friday night was Rhaevyn's NW Symphonic Pops Christmas performance at the retirement community. I went, but Chris took the rest of the  kids to the Ward Christmas party since Aeva was part of the nativity. They had a great time and so did I :)

 Meg's first picture ever with Santa

  Aeva the angel

It is always so much fun to go to Rhaevyn's performances. Here she is with Charlotte, the concert mistress (She has been a great mentor for Rhaevyn) and with Charlotte and Jim (another violinist). Jim is very sweet and always says he forgets I'm the mom because I don't look old enough to be Rhaevyn's mom. He never fails to tell me, when I see him, how much they all are so glad to have Rhaevyn come and be a part of their orchestra. He says he hopes she will keep coming until she moves away.

 

Here are just two of the songs from Friday night: 

It was hard to get footage of Rhaevyn, but you can see her to the left of the older lady in red.....

Friday  afternoon Myles was, can you guess????, at Sister Lee's house. He made another gnome, and he made a present for Elsa. He has been sewing up a storm, and all by himself too!

 Friday while I was running some errands Meg decided she wanted to be a tiger. She has blue stripes all over her body that did not wash off completely. This is just what her arms look like, but she has stripes all over her torso and legs. When we were at church yesterday I looked down all of a sudden and noticed that she had scribbled a beard and mustache onto her face with pink and purple ink. Luckily Chris was able to wash it off completely.

 Friday afternoon Molly got groomed. We all love how soft she feels and how pretty she looks after her wash and cut.

 Friday morning Meg had her well child check. We opted for one shot instead of two (I had originally told her she wouldn't have shot this time around), and she had some blood work done. I'm happy to say that she is a healthy growing girl! After her blood work she was super excited to go upstairs and see the huge Christmas tree. She was running towards it, and I had a hard time keeping up with her.

 

Can you tell Friday was a busy and crazy day for us???

Lastly, Meg turned 4 this week!!! I feel like she can't possibly be four already; she was born just yesterday wasn't she????

She was so excited about her Minnie Mouse pajamas, socks, and book that Oma and Opa sent.

 

 She had lemon blueberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. She found sprinkles in the drawer and decided she wanted some on her cupcake.

 

 Meg helped make her cupcakes and Rhaevyn made the frosting.

 Birthday Eskimo kisses and hugs for my sweet little spitfire

Meg got a lot of stickers for her birthday. Both Elsa and Rhaevyn got her stickers. We use stickers to help Meg with reverence at church on Sundays.

 

 And she got new undies, which she was very happy about.

 No time to mess around; she went straight for the scissors to cut the ribbon off.

 Myles is really loving to draw just like his older sisters...............

 

This coming week we get to celebrate our Winter Solstice girl, bake some Christmas goodies, and hopefully send out Christmas cards. I ordered the cards and have become one of  "those" people........................yes, our Christmas card includes a picture of our dog, Molly :) What can I say, I needed one more picture and it was easier for me to just use a picture of  Molly. We are all excited for Christmas day, but it is coming way too fast. I'm not ready for Christmas time to be over yet. Hopefully this week will go really slow :)