Cooking, by Weston Largey

So one day, I was making dinner in the kitchen and Weston was practicing his piano.  I could hear him in there just playing away on a little song I'd never heard and I thought "Wow, that's really good for only having piano lessons with Maama yesterday!" The song had chords, good counting, repetition... So when he finished and said "Huh. I just made that up." I was floored!  And then I said, "Hurry, play it again! Let's write it down so you can use it for the Reflections contest!"

The theme this year was "Magic in a Moment" so Weston named his song "Cooking" and explained it as the sounds of mixing, the spoon hitting the bowl, and then the timer going off at the end.  What you pull out of the oven at the end is magical!  We recorded it  and wrote down the notation and sent it in on the last day of the contest... Whew.

Meanwhile, Weston (all by himself) learns to play it Jon Schmidt style UPside Down with his head under the piano- I guess you can do that when you've written the song yourself and it's just in your brain...

And THEN, I get an email from the Reflections committee saying "your child is getting an award." YES! 

Here's Weston, with his trophy saying his entry "Cooking" is moving up to the next round of the Contest!

We were so proud of him....

AND, this week, we got a cryptic note in the mail. outside: "To the Parents of Weston Largey From Mr. Will Woodrow"  inside (in handwriting): "Weston Largey won music."

That was the note- no explaination.

Though, there was also an invite to the next assembly for Reflections, so I guess he's moving up to the next round. Is it district? Is it state? Who knows, but we are busting our buttons!

Weston Jon Schmidt is in the house! (in the words of Weston...:)

Winter time things we did...

Without mentioning the holidays yet, here are some things we did this winter

                                                              We ran a "Cold Turkey" 5K!  Zach's ankle has been bad so he didn't get to run it but Hyrum, Weston and I ran with the Turley's plus Kristi and Robby who left us in the dust, of course.  But, we made it to the end in good time- 42 minutes!  I was impressed with my boys! Well, maybe Hyrum was saying "I hate running races like this! Why am I doing this?" the whole time, but he still did it anyway...  Once we hit the finish line, I took Afton back 50 feet so she could run some of the way, and people cheered her like she was the champ- of course she loved it, and pumped her little arms even faster than her legs could go.  She also crossed the finish line. :)
Speaking of Afton, I got to go on a GNO date with my little girl to our first play: Cinderella!  The local high school was putting it on so all the girl cousins and aunts on the Largey side got together for a night of balls and fairy godmothers...

Afton wore her Cinderella dress and was SO excited to be met at the door by ALL the  Disney princesses!

 Thinking it would be the Disney version, I was so pleased when it turned out to be the Roger's and Hammerstein one- "In my own little corner..." "Impossible!" "Why can't a fella ever once prefer..." and so many other great songs!  I was impressed with their awesome costumes AND with Afton who sat still and paid attention to the entire thing!  She kept asking questions like "Mom, where's Cinderella's blue dress?" "What's her's name? What's his name?" "Is that her dad?" etc...   Afton talked about it for weeks afterward and one day, as we were planning Weston's birthday, she was asking about her birthday so I said "Afton what do you want to do for your birthday?" She answered "Go see Cinderella 'gain." There you go, I have my musical buddy! (Okay, ALL of my kids love musicals- Hyrum went to see "Secret Garden" with me at the Hale and listened to the music for WEEKS after until Zach banned it...:)  Anyway, it was so fun, and I can't wait to do it again!

The girl cousins at the play!

 We also went to Festival of Trees!  So my blog storage is getting too full, so I didn't post ALL the tree pics BuT, this is my favorite:

Yes, it is an Office Supply tree. I wish it was mine.  I've decided that next year, I will be donating a tree and it will be an I Spy tree.  Can't wait to get started...

Okay, this is one horrid angle for a picture but it's the only one I got for all the work we did! What work did you do? you ask.  Well, Kobi talked me into singing with a little chorus that her friend Mia Magistro and her family had going on- turns out to be a pretty big deal! Mia wrote and arranged all the music, the Salt Lake City pops (look them up on YouTube!) played for it, they had soloists, a green room full of snacks, and the concert was at the Covey center... I felt like a pro (even though I didn't sound like one. Pretty sure they were wondering who had the not so great voice!) And, it was all for a great cause. Mia and her sister Mendy work with troubled youth and others who struggle with addictions and helping them over come them.  They invited all of their addiction groups, homes for trouble kids, etc, to come and the concert (called Project Heal) was half working with addictions and half Christmas... it was pretty cool being part of it.

The craziest thing was our rehearsals- no music, just lyrics. No piano, just a CD player.  Being an alto, I had the tricky job of picking my part off the CD and getting it right and then making sure I was the same as the other altos... It was a strange way to learn a song but it kept things interesting!

And, one more thing: Weston and Liesel became famous one day when we saw a little add and took them to audition with the Kid History brothers... Who the heck is that? you may say.  They are some crazy Utah guys who use their kids to tell stories and then (the adults) act the stories out using the kid's voices in the films. They are pretty much the funniest things to watch on YouTube. ANYway, Weston and Liesel started out pretty shy in their studio, sitting on big black chairs with bright lights shining down and they couldn't decided on what to talk about... Jennie and I left them to their business and 15 minutes later they were done.

This is the after production shot- nice.

About 4 weeks later, a friend of mine posted the new Kid Snippets on my facebook page because she thought it might be a Largey kid in it... Turns out, it was! So, Weston and Liesel had their first big break in "Weather Team" Kid Snippets, on YouTube- look it up!

They are pretty famous... :)

Date nights with Mr. Weston

Sometimes,  I like to take the kids on date nights. For example, just me and my Weston.  Here are two of our latest.

This is a picture of Weston and Flat Stanley. Yep, the real Flat Stanley.  We saw the play at the Scera theater and it was great!  He even had a suit that made him look flat throughout the play. The songs were great, the characters were great and Weston thoroughly enjoyed it because he has been reading all the Flat Stanley books!

The next date was a DOOZY.  Months before, I found this awesome deal for Disney on Ice in Salt Lake for only $12 a ticket. What a steal!  I had Robby grab some tickets for us (since he lives close by and can get them with no shipping and handling) and then we Waited and WAITed for the day to arrive.

It came.  Yes, it was a school night. Yes, we got home VERY late.

But, we ate at McDonalds and saw an Amazing show and I enjoyed it all!

Weston got some Toy Story binoculars to watch the show with- pretty snazzy!

Mickey and Minnie actually turned out in this picture!

The whole Disney crew dancing on Ice!

Our seats were right up at the front so we could see perfectly- but my camera struggled to get great shots... But it was one impressive show with fireworks, flips, sharks, dragons, and music from all my favorite Disney shows.  I was thinking it would just be a fun Disney show- forgetting that it's on ICE and these are professional ice skaters- I LOVED the ice dancing!  Weston and I agreed that Aladdin and the Genie were the best of all, with Simba and Nala right behind...  It was great. And I loved being with my sweet buddy,  too!

Did I tell you about my Sister?

This is my sister.

 Her name is Wendy. But soon, her name will not be Wendy. It will be Sister. Sister Smith.

For she is going on a mission and not just any mission. She is going to the Michigan State Mission. 

What makes it special? 

It is the same mission my dad served in so many years ago!

He already has her down coat, warm boots and other delightful things ready for her to take into the cold of a Michigan winter. She leaves February 27th and we are so excited for her!

ADD PICTURES

Afton and I were able to go to Mesa, Arizona with Mom, Dad, Cindy and Robby to be with Wendy as she went through the temple for the first time.  It was AWEsome.  I love the old temples with their amazing colors and murals and carvings!  The Christmas lights were great too PLUS we got to see Wendy's cute first grade class and the amazing school she did her student teaching at.  It was pretty mind blowing. Especially the tortoise habit in the middle of the school where they hatch baby tortoises from eggs that the four GIANT tortoises lay and then they sell the babies to make money for the school.  Genius.   I wish our PTA could come up with something that handy!

Anyway, we are proud of Wendy and we're ready to write some letters!

Halloween in 2012

Well, this is close to Halloween- Lydia's birthday!  Afton was so excited to be included in the Princess tea party for Lydia's birthday. Not only that, but we got to bring our cousin Eva with us too because her mom was having a new baby sister.  Fun times!

Afton was Belle this year and must say, she was definitely a cute one!

We made her a cape to keep her warm (and maybe it will work for next year too!)

Grandma Norviel had her traditional Halloween party with the whole family- the boys were SO excited to see what she had planned!  We had a little family night, a dinner of soups and treats, a spook alley downstairs, a parade of costumes while singing Halloween songs... it was quite the party!

Maama, Cindy and Robby showed up in festive spirit as the Ninja Turtles! 

Yes, they are awesome.

Hyrum was Ranger's Apprentice (though if anyone asked who he was he said "I'm a guy in cape, obviously" Silly boy) Weston couldn't be Dash from Incredibles or anything easy. No. He had to be Skippy Jon Jones, the Siamese Cat who thinks he's a Chihuahua.  Maama made him a fabulous head piece with giant ears and he ran around saying "My ears are too big for my head, my head is too big for my body. I am not a Siamese cat- I am a Chihuahua!"

Afton and I were BOTH Belle- she was the fancy Belle, I was the normal, blue dress Belle. Can you see it?

Um, maybe I love my little girl... :)

Barbie House

One day, Jennie called me with the brilliant idea to make a doll house for Liesel for her birthday.  She's been  big into Barbie's and we all know- Barbies are TALL. Seriously, do you know how tall a house for a barbie has to be? Or how wide? Just so she can sit down without her legs touching the walls?  The original cardboard box house was dropped for a bookshelf house, which I think was a smart plan.

So, Jennie found a $15 bookshelf from Walmart, a plain picture frame for $1, a little scrap book paper and ribbon for the walls and boarders. That plus all my junk I've been saving for just such an occasion created the following dollhouse for less than $20... Enjoy!

We used the picture frame to divide the upstairs floor into two rooms with a little paint and wood glue.  I made the curtain with some fabric scraps.  The bed is a capri sun box with sponges and batting covered in fabric with a lot of hot glue.

Living room- ribbon spool, paper, modpodge= table. Sour cream containers, batting, fabric= chairs.  Framed picture= TV

Maybe one of my favorite things is this little box of magazines- the Friend always has a tiny version of the cover on the back page and I've always wanted to make a tiny Friend- I knew it would come in handy some day!  (Excuse Jane's Tarzan attire.  Afton and I grabbed a bag full of random Barbies at DI for $2 so we would have something to measure... They were naked. We made some makeshift clothing. Don't worry, she has a cute dress now- made from the toe of a black and white polka dot pair of nylons:).

Cardboard, push pin, ketchup lid and brad = kitchen sink.  Margarine box and paint = fridge.  Zoom in on the little to-do list... another of my favorite details.

They book shelf- when the barbie phase is done, it will easily turn back into a book shelf...

The Library!  Fake Bells of Ireland stuck into foam=lamp. Small pillow, rice bag= furniture. Cardboard= bookshelf.  Books- the white books are just folded cardstock with a picture on the front, nothing within. The colored books are scrapbook paper with white paper inside stapled together and REAL pictures... Another thing I've always wanted to do- you know when you get pictures developed, at least at Costco, and it always comes with a little proof sheet with tiny pictures on it?  Yep, cut them out, glue them on= instant Barbie sized photo albums.

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Fabric+ empty spools= table and chairs.  Barbie can actually sit on these quite comfortably and they are durable.  So, this is after two nights of staying up late because I was having too much fun making tiny things.  Jennie then took it and finished it up with pictures on the walls and rugs for the floors.  I don't have a finished picture yet but I'm hoping to grab one...

But here's a good picture for you:

Weston the Toothless Wonder lost his second front tooth and now he looks even more like a Jack-o-lantern than before- just in time for the holidays!

Just A Little Afton

So one time, about 2 1/2 years ago, I had a little girl named Afton.  I had no idea back then, what fun this little girl was going to be.   And maybe it's just because 2 1/2 is my favorite age ever, but I LOVE hanging out with my Afton!  Every day is something new, something smart, something funny, something girly...

Like one day Afton decides she is going to sit in, not on, IN the pickle chair for dinner.  She sets her table, gets her food, sits in the chair- the rest of us are sitting at the normal table.  Looks comfy...?

Afton LOVES her babies and her dresses! Here we just made a matching tutu for her baby so they can be twinners.  Afton will say "Mommy, baby sad.  Need food." and she'll get the bottle to feed it.  She'll say "Mommy, hold my baby." and if my hands are busy for a minute, she'll stand there and wait for me gently rocking her doll until I can hold it.  She always runs off but comes back in a minute to get her baby and make sure she is okay.  Sometimes, she'll run the doll all the way downstairs to tuck it into the cradle for a nap.  She's going to be a great mommy!

Afton is already and always my Princess.  I call her Princess Buttercup most of the time but I'm really hoping to avoid the princess attitude- we'll see how that goes...:).  So the other day I went to a great warehouse sale for Little Adventurers.  I picked up a dress for Afton, one for Liesel and one for Lydia.  When I got home I showed Afton the dresses. Well, Lydia's was a Cinderella dress, Afton's was not.  She's never seen the movie (until this week because I found it at DI for 50 cents) but she has a shirt with Cinderella and Belle on it. Anyway, when Afton realized the Cinderella dress was not for her, she was a little put out.  She didn't scream or throw a fit but she went into her room, found a Cinderella book (I have NO idea where it came from!) and she read and carried that book around the rest of the day.   Really?  Now I feel really great!  Luckily, I called up some sources and Kristi let us have Lydia's too small Cinderella dress and Afton was very pleased.  I haven't been teaching her the princess ways. I think they are inborn...

Afton is adventurous and loves to go hiking, bike riding, on big slides, long walks... the problem is she usually falls asleep!  Doesn't matter when we go for a bike ride, she's almost always asleep by the end of it.   This was our hike up to Battle Creek with my family last week- of course, Afton's asleep.  But, I like it when she naps because without them, she is one grumpy girl.  But, if I say "Afton, why are you so grumpy?" She says "No YOU grumpy!"  Course, when I'm in a bad mood she'll break out in a little "Dee doo DA DA!" just to get a smile. :)

Speaking of sleeping, Afton has also decided that she no longer sleeps in her pink bed.  At night, I tuck her in sing her a song, say good night and the next thing I know, she's sleeping in my big chair in my room. So I carry her back to her bed for the rest of the night. If she wakes up in the night, she gets back in the chair. Often I won't even know she's gotten up until the morning when I find her there.  At nap time, I don't even fight it.  I say "Do you want to sleep in your bed or in my chair?" And she says "I want sleep yours big snuggly chair in yours room."  And then she goes right to sleep.  I'll take it.

Last week, she got a cold. Now every morning (though she's much better) she says "Mommy, I have yucky cough!" and then does a little fake one so I can hear it.

Afton's been saying prayers all by herself lately and they go something like this "Heavenly Father, thanks home. Bless Hyrum Daddy Weston school. Karate guys 'Ha!'. Bless food. Mommy's food. My apples. Mommy's apples. Bless Maama Pa Robby. Maama Pa safe home. Amen.

You never know what random things might pop up in the prayer- it might just be the Muppets... My favorite thing though, was one day I was saying the prayer and Afton whispers "Bless my tiny baby" so I had to put that in too. :)

I feel like, no, I know I'm missing a million things that make Afton Afton so I'll probably just have to keep adding to the list but those are some of my favorites!

I love this pretty little girl!

Conference Time!

Hyrum scored us some tickets to conference from the Bishop for the afternoon session on Saturday SO we made arrangements for Weston and Afton to go to Maama and Pa's for the day and Zach, Hyrum and I headed up to Salt Lake early while listening to the first session on the radio.  I was bracing myself for the worst because the last couple times I actually went to conference (yes, it was probably 11 years ago) the traffic was dreadful and we ended up late for sessions, or not back in time for the next or just sitting on the road for hours... But we did it anyway.  Turns out, with the freeway construction almost done, people directing traffic in the city, and parking lots assigned to everyone with tickets we drove strait up to SL with no problems, parked and ate lunch (McDonalds in City Creek, Hyrum's choice.:) before the next crowd came flowing in. Nice!  We also ran into my old Bishop and his family, the McMullins! at the mall.  It's always crazy to see someone you know when you are in such a HUGE crowd.  I love it.  On our way to the Conference center, we walked past the Deseret Book where Alex Boye was giving a little concert, just up close and personal and Lex De Azevado was signing cds.  Zach took a minute to ask the clerk about their up and coming items and got an enthusiastic plug for his dad's new D&D reference companion.  Yeah, he didn't tell the girl he actually wrote 30 articles for the book... :)
Though he has been to performances in the conference center, Zach had actually never been to a session at the conference center so it was a first for Zach AND Hyrum.  Sadly, I didn't bring my camera because back in the old days when the Conference center first opened, if you had a camera you had to check it in at a desk in the back and then pick it up when you were done. I just wanted to avoid any hassle so I left it in the car and took no pictures of our adventure.  Turns out, it's too hard to take cameras and phones from every person in the  audience so they don't do it anymore.   Thus, there were still guys playing on their phones DURING conference.  Hello, people!  Anyway, we had great seats pretty close to the front, Hyrum brought his binoculars to see things even closer up and we got to hear and see our Prophet and leaders... pretty cool.
My favorite talk for the session, I think, was Elder Gay's "Would you sell your soul for a nickle?"


After the session I was just sure it would be crazy traffic getting home... but it was perfect. We got home by 5, dropped Zach off at our house so he could go with his dad and brothers to the Priesthood session and Hyrum (who slept the whole way) headed to Maama's house to get the little ones and then go to Kristi's house to make some fabulous Haunted Gingerbread houses with all the girls. This, I
do have pictures of!

How's that for a party day?  Whew!  Good times, good memories...

And a Little More September Fun

I've done a little canning... or a lot of canning.  Two batches of applesauce, two pints apple butter, 7 quarts of apple pie filling, 20 quarts of nectarines and maybe almost fifty quarts of grape juice... I love having  a full pantry!

 Maama is the professional applesaucer- and the kids love to grind the apples up.  (Hyrum calls the apple torture chamber).

 We took a little field trip to the Sons of the Utah Pioneers party at the Pioneer village in Provo where the kids played games, learned Deseret letters, ate hot dogs, played the dulcimer and were fascinated by the blacksmith.

He made dinner bells by bending crow bars into triangles.

Hyrum and Weston ran the BYU Cross Country Triple Crown Race- it's a whole mile!  Weston did awesomely and finished 32nd in his race- right in the middle of the pack.  His time was 10:17!  The kids that won ran it in 7:50- crazy fast for a first grader!

 Hyrum started out pretty consistent but pretty soon his stomach started to ache... maybe from the two big hot dogs and the snow cone he ate just before.  He finished strong though, and beat his previous time by doing the whole mile in 9:47.   Then he puked out his guts at Grammie's house.  Lesson learned.  The winner of the fourth graders ran it in an amazing 6:19.  Seriously.

                                                      I was proud of them for doing so well!
On the weekend of the 22nd, we headed south... all the way to Spanish Fork!  We went with Maama and Kristi's fam to the Harvest Moon festival- mostly because our very favorite Piano Guys were playing!  We were planning on going to play for a bit, going back to Mom's for dinner and then going back for the show. BUT the Popularity of the Piano Guys caused the seats to start filling up fast so Zach and the kids sat there for two hours saving seats (and they were good seats!) while we ran home to get the dinner, bring it back and then eat dinner in our seats before the show started.   It was so worth it.  Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson are two great entertainers and performers but it just wouldn't have been the same if we couldn't see their faces.  We laughed all night long!  The boys are once again inspired to do more piano practicing- though Hyrum says I need to practice the cello and get as good as Steven.  Pretty sure that's never going to happen (not the practicing part, just the 'good as' part!).  Anyway, here's the pics:

 Sadly, the only picture that half way worked out in the dark... Oh well.

We then stayed the night at Mom and Dad's so we could get up in the morning and go together to the Brigham City Temple dedication which was streamed to all the Utah stake centers.  We dropped Afton and Weston off at Kristi's and picked up Bryson- it was fun to take two handsome boys in suits to their first temple experience!

Then, we came back for a fancy lunch of Meatloaf, zuke casserole, rolls, corn on the cob and strawberry cake in honor of Robby's 28th birthday.  Happy Birthday Uncle Bobby! 

 Then, just yesterday, Weston and Liesel had an audition with in infamous Kid History brothers- of Youtube fame!  If you don't know who they are, go look them up... You will laugh.  Anyway, they needed some kids to come tell some stories, act out scenarios and just be kids so we signed up Weston and Liesel to do what they do- talk!  Of course they were a little shy to start but I'm hoping they warmed up enough to actually get some good footage.  Anyway, it was a cool experience to meet them and see their studio!