My guitar hero

Shortly after Christmas, Brad purchased a guitar. He's been wanting to learn to play for years and decided to finally bite the bullet. Now, we get nightly serenades as he learns to play. I love it.

I've always been impressed by Brad's "stick-to-it-tiveness" when he wants to learn something. And, I'm amazed at how quickly he's made progress with the guitar.

A few weeks ago, we got to watch our nephew Samuel for the evening. He was mesmerized as he sat perched on Brad's knee listening to him strum away.

scripture bags

I finally got the boys their own set of scriptures, but they didn't have bags big enough to fit them in easily. That's when Grandma Halverson came to the rescue. I found some placemats at the dollar store and she sewed them up for us.

The kids love them and so do I. Thanks Grandma!

Birthday boy

Today is significant. Seven years ago Charles Frederick Halverson was born into our family. He has been such a wonderful addition. I told him we weren’t going to let him turn seven- he’d just have to stay six forever!

Charlie came home from school yesterday and got busy making birthday cupcakes to share with his class today. Except for a quick trip to the grocery store to get frosting, cupcake liners, and sprinkles, Charlie got everything mixed, baked, frosted, and packaged up by himself. Well, Spencer helped some with the sprinkles.

Anyway, I love how independent Charlie is about certain things. He loves to help cook, peel potatoes, bake, etc. and prepare lots of his own food. I keep telling him, if he keeps this up, he’ll be a sure catch for some lucky young lady.

Wednesday, we celebrated Charlie’s birthday with German chocolate cake, pizza, and gifts. We bought him a Nerf tag set, which has been fun and also a source of contention, the video Homeward Bound, and Grandma/pa Halverson sent a fun game called Qwirkle.

The party was very simple, (which I like), but made Charlie feel special. We have a tradition to say something we like about the birthday person before they open gifts. Every year it seems the kids become more thoughtful about what they say.

Getaway

Thanks to wonderful friends who were willing to watch our children, I was able to accompany Brad on a business trip to sunny Arizona. His conference was at the Biltmore Hotel. So, we enjoyed two days of beautiful weather, warm outdoor pools, blooming flowers, and no responsibility (at least for me).

One of the benefits of going to Arizona was seeing great friends and family. Like these guys.

Keith and Brad were college roommates. We loved spending the evening with them and their five darling boys. I loved the fact that we could walk out into their back yard and pick grapefruit, lemons, and oranges. I had several glasses of freshly squeezed grapefruit and loved every minute of it.

I got to spend an afternoon with my Dad.

One of the things my kids know Grandpa Doug for is his candy stash. His pantry is loaded with treats and the kids love to talk about it. So, I had get a picture of the goods. He sent home a stash for the kids, which delighted them.

I also took a bunch of pictures of the sculptures my dad has done. He's one of the most talented people I know. One of his "hobbies" in recent years has been creating life size sculptures. Here's a few:

This is my great grandfather Burns Crookston. My dad put one of these sculptures of him in my grandparents cabin (which he built) as a surprise. You really feel like he's there when you walk into the room. It's neat.
We were also able to spend a few hours at dinner one evening with Brad's mission president and his wife. It's wonderful to have so many great influences in our lives.

Pinewood Derby 2009

Well, we've now completed our third Pinewood Derby and Spencer's last. He and Sawyer had a good time working on the cars this year with both Dad and Grandpa Halverson. I think their cars came in 2nd and 3rd. One of their good friends (who lives down the street) won this year, so that was fun to see. Spencer won last year, and was gracious about letting someone else have the limelight. Sawyer's car improved so I guess we can say it was a success all around.

Johnson County spelling bee

Well, today was the big county spelling bee for Spencer. The whole family (minus Lucy) went in support. Spencer did a great job. He came in seventh in his session of 27 kids grades 3-8.

Some of the words were pretty challenging like: whippoorwill, ingot, cynosure, orthogonal. Each candidate only spelled 1-5 words total. So, it was really the luck of the draw, which word you got. Some were really easy, others very difficult. One of Spencer’s words was “prerogative”, which he had missed when studying with Brad, so he remembered to put that first “r” in.

Spencer did a great job of pronouncing the word back, asking appropriate questions, like the language of origin, definition, or use of the word in a sentence. The word that stumped him was recognizance. He repeated the word back, tried to figure it out on his palm, then looked up with a quick smile and shrug, and made his best guess.

The look up and shrug gesture reminded Brad and I of when he was in a ward talent show as a five year old, performing a magic trick that went awry. He just looked up and shrugged like “oh well”, but kept his composure and continued. The spelling bee was the same type of deal. He didn’t get all bent out of shape about losing. We were so proud of him and just happy to be there, supporting our boy. I think he was the only elementary student left in the round.

It was funny to hear Sawyer and Charlie on the way to the spelling bee saying things like, “I don’t think you’re going to win Spencer. I don’t think you’ll go to the regional competition. I don’t think you’ll win, but you won’t be the first one out either.” Thanks for the vote of confidence guys.

I got a little teary eyed when they asked the parents to leave their kiddos and take a seat in the other room just as the spelling bee was about to begin. I gave Spencer one last hug and wished him well. As I exited the room, my eyes suddenly welled up with tears for no apparent reason, just a mixture of nervousness, pride, exhilaration, for my boy. I’m sure the tears will only get bigger as he approaches other milestones like college, mission, marriage, fatherhood, etc. We feel so grateful to have Spencer as a son. He brings so much joy to our lives.

Pretzels

One of my favorite treats is chocolate covered pretzels. So, I finally took the time to go to a friend's house and learn how to make them. Thanks Valerie.

For the kids, I usually break the rods in half before dipping. Then they feel like they have two treats in their lunch box instead of one.