A Perfect Brightness of Hope

This was the theme for our Regional Youth Conference. It was three days of service, speakers, games, a dance and carnival, and a concert given by Kenneth Cope. On the last day there were three music permformances at the fairgrounds. Youth had been practicing since October for this (orchestra, choir, and dancers).
Practices for the orchestra began in March. Rhaevyn decided to step out of her comfort zone and give it a try. She hasn't looked back. This has been absolutely fabulous for her. She has really learned a lot and has made quite a few friends.
After practices and more practices over four months....................
 

 

 

 

 

 

 the big day finally arrived.

 

 

 

We went to the first performance on Saturday. There were at least 800 youth involved in the choir and orchestra together. This involved all four stakes in the Vancouver, Washington area, as well as The Dalles, Oregon, and Longview, Washington.
When I say they "hit it out of the park"and "blew it out of the water" I am not exaggerating.
If I had closed my eyes I literally would have thought I was on Temple Square listening to the MoTab choir and orchestra. They were that good, and the Spirit was so amazingly strong.
Chris and I aren't ashamed to admit we shed some tears during the opening song, which was done by the orchestra. It was " Beethoven's 5 Secrets mashup". Yep, our Miss Rhaevyn was out there playing, and we were so awed by how wonderful this orchestra sounded. They really pulled it together. Not ashamed to say we were proud parents at that moment.
 

 

 

 

It was a two hour program, and they did two more performances on Saturday. Rhaevyn said that when they started to play the Lord of the Rings (The fellowship of the Ring Theme) during the first performance that she was so excited that her hands and arms were shaking. Probably not the best thing when you are playing violin. But she loved every minute of it!!!
Side note: In her testimony yesterday she said that she had one song she just could not get right. She practiced and practiced but always messed up. However, she prayed that all would go well for the performance. She said she knew Heavenly Father heard and answered her prayers because she didn't mess up at all while performing. 
I went back to watch the third and final performance that night at 7. I figured why not since I had to pick her up at 9 anyway. It was just as good as the first performance. The Mayor of our little town was there (he just happened to be Rhaevyn's seminary teacher this last year), as well as Brandon Vick (He is a member of the Washington House of Representatives, representing the 18th district). Rhaevyn, Aeva, and I met him and thanked him for coming to support the youth.
I recorded three songs from Saturday, but need to figure out how to upload them for your viewing. I have not been able to upload video for a few months to my blog. We are hoping that they will post the performance on the Youth Conference webpage, as they were filming it with high quality cameras.
For any of you who are on facebook, I did post about 10 seconds of footage that shows Rhaevyn (look for the white flower) playing the opening song. It isn't much, but you get a feel of the performance.

On another note, the kids and I spent a few hours at Lewisville Park this last week.
We played down by the river and had little blue butterflies landing on us. It was pretty magical.

 Can you see the little butterfly on my foot?

 This little green guy was crawling on my pants, and boy was he fast!

 I love looking up when I swing.

 

 So last weekend Myles and I had dinner together on the front porch. When I came out with my dinner plate I found this sweet bouquet on the table. He said he wanted to make our dinner special for me. Then he kept telling me how much he loved me. Warm fuzzies!! I love being a mom. Those kind of bonuses are the best!!

 And I will end with these pictures of the conductor of the orchestra. I loved watching him getting the kids ready for the next song and just how animated he was while conducting the youth. These were all taken at one of the practices.

 I wish I could have transplanted all of you here for the Perfect Brightness of Hope performance. Not just to see Rhaevyn, but to feel of the Spirit and to feel of the Saviors love for each of you.

It's been another great week at the Lindsay home.
Lots of great weather for playing outisde, eating outside, and letting the fresh air in.
We enjoyed our un-Father's day cake last week.

 I made a new one for the real Father's Day.
I kind of came up with this one on my own. I gave half of it away to our friends. The husband was hoping I was bringing it to dinner on Sunday night. Since I didn't he was very put out. So, I told he and his wife to swing by on the way home and I would have it waiting for them. It worked out good because we really didn't need all that cake to eat ourselves.

Our ward had a Father/Daughter dinner and cake contest.
Chris and the girls worked hard on their cake.
Meg stayed home with Myles and me. Myles and I had dinner outside together and built with Legos.

Meg turned 6 months on Friday the 13th. We started rice cereal. Here she is trying to add some extra to her morning breakfast..........Rice cereal served with toes and bib.

 Chris and Myles have a project car. It was that or a fish tank. Seeings as how there was no room in the house for a fish tank, but room in the garage for a car....................well you see what they wound up with. They are having fun working on it here and there. The windows have been cleaned, wheels taken off, and it is now running. Myles got to turn the key in the ignition to start it up.
They are working on brakes in this picture.

 This week's infused water:  Lime, Strawberries, and Raspberries.

Rhaevyn and I made Chris breakfast in bed for Father's day, and then all the kids gathered around him to give him the card each had made him.

I Love this guy.
















 He is the most amazing Father to our children. I love that he loves each one of them immensely and treasures being a father to them. I love watching him spend time with them, dance with them, rock them to sleep when they are beyond tired, play games with them, teach them, take them out on special dates. I am so grateful that God saw fit to bless me with him and walk this journey of parenthood along side of me :)

Laughing At Myself

I am laughing at myself right now.
I keep life pretty interesting for myself.
All week long I've thought Father's Day was the 8th.
I did a Father's Day card project with the kids, got all the Father's Day cards mailed off, and planned a very nice Father's Day dinner for tonight which included a three layer cake that I made last night.

 

 

 

 I happened to check out Facebook before bed last night and saw the message that there would be no choir practice (for Chris) for Sunday, but would resume next week. Someone reminded the choir director that next week was Father's Day.....................what??????
Well, at least all my Father's Day cards are early and not late :)
And we'll just make our dinner a Happy Un-Father's Day dinner. I'll have to come up with something even better next week :)

Rhaevyn had some friends over last night to watch Saving Mr. Banks and eat her homemade pretzel bites. That was a lot of fun I think.

We finally finished our bathroom. It started as just the ventilation fan, and then grew to new paint and fixtures, etc, as well as fixing the ceiling in the girl's room from Christopher fall.
So here is the final result. We just went with white, as picking a color was too daunting. We got a new light fixture, towel bar, tp holder, and new shower curtain rod.
We had a roll up shade in there that seemed to roll itself up at the most inopportune times. We decided to frost the window using vinyl. I am loving it. It makes it so light in there.
I am loving the new fan! The old one was not sucking the air out. In fact, we think it was blowing it into the bathroom and all the fixtures were rusting.
I like our new shower curtain rod because we can hang our bath towels on it and not have everyone drying their hands on them.
I think that is our household fix for the year.

 

 

 

I've been in a rut with cooking. I feel like I just make the same things week to week. I make what I know, what I'm comfortable with and what I know everyone will eat.
I've decided to redo my cookbook and branch out with recipes.
I tried a couple of new ones last week..............
shredded beef tacos, stuffed meatballs, pesto chicken and berries and cream trifle.
They were all a hit, especially the pesto chicken (thank you, Cullen).

Today we are trying chicken burrito bowels and lemon blueberry cake in honor of my mistake with Father's Day.

Anyway I am quite excited about trying new recipes, and my cookbook is looking so nice.
I have been printing my recipes up nicely with pictures and have the book divided into several catagories.
I have a category specifically for recipes I wan to try. I threw out a whole stack I knew I at one time thought would be nice to try, but realized I probably would never try.
So, my goal is to wittle away this stack and incorporate one or two of them a month into my meal plan.

 

We got out the picnic table this week. Myles and Elsa helped me clean it off. We ate dinner outside the other night. It was so nice with a breeze rustling the leaves.

This week's infused water: Blueberries & Strawberries. This is a hit with Aeva. She says it is her favorite so far.

 

I'll end with some pictures of Meg. Happy week to everyone!

Another Week at the Lindsays

This week the girls worked on their outfits for the YW leadership training over-nighter scheduled for Friday night. Thursday I made Rhaevyn's cape with hood. She was Raven, a superhero from Teen Titans. Then she helped put Aeva's outfit together. Aeva went as Gambit from X-men. I think they had a good time. They went to a cabin (more like a luxurious home) about an hour and a half away. They played games, went on a hike, and learned how to do all those wonderful things you do in callings (lead).

Ben came down Saturday to go to a VW bug show with Chris. We were happy he agreed to stay for dinner, and Myles plastered himself to the door in hopes that it would prevent him from going home. Myles was happy to have had some Lego time with Ben. We missed Stacey :(

Myles helped me clear the back patio, set up chairs, and a table while Elsa took Meg for a ride around the yard in her stroller and told her a story. Then we made lunch. Myles and Elsa enjoyed eating outside. The time with just the four of us was finished off with side walk chalk drawings.

This is Rhaevyn's last week of seminary. I am so impressed with her. She has finished memorizing all the scriptures for scripture mastery and finished reading the Book of Mormon. I was never that dedicated. I pretty much showed up to early morning seminary and that was it. I loved doing devotionals as well as to socialize. She is going to miss seminary, but I won't lie, I will be glad to sleep in and not be up at 5:50 am.................at least for a few months anyway.

Aeva has survived her first week with braces. Yay!!

Here are a few pictures of Meg.

 

 

 I love this picture. She often sleeps holding at least one of her feet.

 

 Loved this this morning............

so I had to take a picture. 

And I did Rhaevyn's hair this morning. Not the bun I wanted to make, but the rope twist one was not working out. Sitting and doing her hair reminds me of when she was little and I would sit and do her hair.

  Here we are in June already. Before I know it July will be here, Myles will be turning eight and getting ready for his baptism and cub scouts. Time needs to put the breaks on a bit!