Dallin's first Variety Show

Dallin is the first of my 3 kids that has had any desire to audition for the school variety show.  Why did he want to audition? Because he wanted a pizza party! The kids who participate in the variety show get a "cast" pizza party afterwards, and that's why he wanted to be in the variety show...funny kid. Just to make sure he knew what he was getting into, I explained to him that he would need to perform in front of some teachers to audition, and then if he made it, he would be performing 3 times (2x at school and 1x in the evening).  That didn't seem to bother him.  He definitely doesn't take after his mother in that regard. :) So, we went to auditions and he made the cut! He recited the funny story of Briar Bear and Briar Rabbit (a long time tradition in the Roberts family). Here's the video of the evening performance (about 1 1/2 minutes).


I was so proud of him! He was one of the youngest performers.  Not too many kids his age would be brave enough to get up in front of everyone like that.

For some reason, another kid that was in the talent show wanted to get his picture with Dallin. :)

2nd Year of Regionals

Cassie once again auditioned and made it into the Regional Orchestra this year.  It is always a lot of work on her part, but worth it in the end.  The concert was on February 18th. The orchestra was AMAZING!! It will be hard to go back to listening to the regular High School orchestra after a performance like that! ;)  The Asian conductor was awesome.  He definitely kept us entertained with his enthusiastic conducting style. :) Great job Cassie!! We’re proud of you!

Valentine’s Dance

The Young  Women in our ward put together a Valentine’s Dance for the adults to raise money for girls camp.  They did a fabulous job.  We had a great time dancing the night away.  My only regret is that I didn’t get out my camera fast enough to get video of Stan breaking out his break dance moves!  Yep, he even spinned on his back and I didn’t even get a picture!  I wonder how many more years he’ll be able to do that?? :)  He surprised the heck out of everyone in the ward.  I think everyone looks at him a little differently now… :) 

It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a photo booth! After we printed out and looked at the pictures, Stan joked that this shows the progression of our marriage…

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir!!!

Stan and I had the privilege of attending the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert here in Phoenix on February 11th.  The Governor of Arizona invited the choir to come as part of the Arizona Centennial celebration.  The Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs all over the world, but it has been 40 years since the choir has performed in Arizona.  So, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Interesting story…It was actually not until the day of the concert that Stan and I found out that we would even be going to the concert!  Finances are extra tight right now, and when I heard that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was coming to Arizona, I was SO disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to buy tickets.  I REALLY wanted to go.  Well, the morning of the concert, we get a knock on our door.  It was our friends and neighbors Dawn and Duncan.  In Duncan’s hands were 2 tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert.  They had another commitment and wouldn’t be able to go, so they were giving them to us!! Oh my goodness! I couldn’t believe it! One of the blessings of paying tithing right? :)

Not only did we get tickets, but the seats were awesome! They were floor level, 11th row from the front.  We saw Governor Jan Brewer and Mayor Scott Smith who were sitting in the row behind us! The arena was packed so we were glad to have an up close and personal spot.

Sandra Day O’Conner was the guest conductor.

Sandra Day O’Connor with Music Director Mack Wilberg and Associate Music Director Ryan Murphy.

To the left is Lloyd D. Newell, the long time announcer for “Music and the Spoken Word”.  It was nice to see the face behind that fabulous voice.

The concert was so amazing. I would love to listen to it all over again. Such a powerful and angelic choir. It was a wonderful experience and I feel so blessed that we were able to go.

Cassie’s First Formal Dance!

On January 21st, Cassie went to her first High School Formal Dance.  Winter Formal is girl ask guy and Cassie chose to ask her friend Trent Patterson. During Christmas break she asked him by filling 6 balloons with confetti along with 1 letter of her name in each balloon.  She put the balloons in a box, wrapped it up, and left it on his doorstep.

Inside the box were the balloons and this note:

About a week later, this was on our doorstep…

Cassie put the flour in a bowl and went to work.  She searched and searched but no answer was in the flour.  At one point when Cassie walked away for a minute, Stan quickly wrote a “NO” on a small piece of paper and put it in the flour.  So mean!! When she came back, she decided to search a little more and discovered the “NO”.  She was a bit confused until Stan started laughing.  What a stinker!

A couple of days went by, and finally Trent showed up with some real flowers and said, “Sorry…wrong flower”.  Too cute. :)

The day finally came for winter formal.  Cassie was SO excited! She looked beautiful in her pink formal gown.

Hanah Bonilla was nice enough to come and take pictures of the group.  Cassie & Trent went with 4 other couples. 

Awww…so cute. :)

Love this one!

My beautiful girl all “growned” up. :)

Tia’s date wasn’t able to make it until later…hence the reason for 4 girls and 3 boys. :)

“CTR” (Choose the Right)…Ha,Ha….Love these guys! :)

One more couple joined the group. From left to right…Tyler Teeples & Laken Fletcher, Tia (missing-Austin Wheeler), Trent Patterson & Cassie, Caleb Rash & Sicily Wilcock, Spencer Hughes & Rebecca Marshall.

Such a great looking group! I love the girls’ modest dresses. Goes to show that you don’t have to dress immodestly to be beautiful. They were definitely in the minority at the dance, but that didn’t bother them. While they were eating at the restaurant, a lady came up to them and said, “Thank you for dressing modestly”. It’s nice to know that others appreciate modest dress as well.

 

No worries…it’s just Sparkling Cider. :) These kids don’t need alcohol to have a good time!!  It was a really great night for Cassie.  She had so much fun.  This girl is loving this whole dating thing! It’s been so much fun watching Cassie grow up into the lovely young lady that she is.  We are so proud of her.

Preparedness Palooza

For Mom Roberts’ Birthday in January we had a Preparedness Palooza! Considering the fact that Mom Roberts is the “Preparedness Queen”, Mark & Noelani Porter (Grandson & wife) planned a fun activity where we could all learn more about preparedness.

We all brought our Sun Ovens that Mom and Dad Roberts had purchased for us and Donna taught us how to bake bread, muffins, soup, and hard boiled eggs.

We also learned about Dutch Oven Cooking and cooked up some stew and peach cobbler.

Time to enjoy the food! It all turned out yummy!!

After lunch, we played a fun game of Family Feud that Noelani had prepared using questions about Mom’s life.  It was a great afternoon.  Happy Birthday Mom!

Christmas Day

This year Christmas was on Sunday.  I really liked it.  It was easier to focus on the true meaning of Christmas by going to church in the morning.  It brought an extra measure of the Spirit into our home that Christmas day.

We made the kids wait until after church to open up their presents.  The first thing they spotted was the 2 cute dwarf hamsters.

These hamsters were so adorable and so cute together.  However before we could even name them, and only a couple days after Christmas, tragedy struck.  These 2 little brothers started fighting over the hamster wheel. The fighting continued until it started to get a little vicious, and at one point one of the hamsters bit the others’ leg pretty badly.  We separated them and took care of the injured one the best we could but it died a couple days later.  I was NOT too happy with the more aggressive hamster, so we took him back to Petsmart.  So much for having hamsters.  When we purchased them the Petsmart employee said that it’s fine to have 2 hamsters together as long as they are from the same family.  Well, brothers will be brothers I guess…if we ever do that again, we’ll have 2 wheels to avoid conflict.  Lesson learned.  It was sad.

Stan’s sister Linda crocheted these beautiful blankets for us.  It was truly a labor of love.  They are beautiful.

Dallin admiring his gifts…

Santa really surprised Parker with a Ripstick (a variation of a skateboard).  He definitely didn’t see that one coming.

Cassie asked for clothes, clothes, and more clothes.  That’s what she got!

Later on in the day we headed over to my parents’ house for chimichangas…my favorite part of Christmas day.  Yummy!!!

My Mom and Dad gave every family one of these fun Spinsticks.  So fun!!

Little Annie thought it was great!

Wren, not so much…

So the guys thought it would be funny to make the kids run a race while they were dizzy.  They spinned the kids all at the same time, stopped and said, Run, Run, Run!! We got a kick out of watching them try to run across the yard without falling down. :)

In the evening we headed over to the Roberts’ home for a night of relaxation, food and visiting. 

We feel so blessed to have such great families to celebrate Christmas with.