We have been keeping busy the last two weeks. Here is what we have been up to. Noah has been doing a lot of running with cross country. He has a personal goal he is trying to reach so there are days he does two different runs in the same day. That along with school is wearing him out. He fell asleep at the table while eating the other day. Poor guy!
Noah couldn't fit Driver's Ed into his school schedule so we signed him up for private lessons. He had his first one a week ago. Aaron grabbed this picture as Noah drove off with the instructor. That is one job I would hate to do, so I am glad other people are willing to be a driving instructor--haha!
Noah got a chance with the Cross Country Team to go to the Footlocker race in California the beginning of December. It is no longer called Footlocker, but the Brooks Championship Race. However, Josh and Daniel both went to this race multiple times and it was always called Footlocker so that is what we still call it. They left on a Thursday morning and drove all the way on a chartered bus to California. They then checked into a hotel. The next morning they drove over and scoped out the track. That afternoon they went and spent at the beach. The next morning was the race. That afternoon they drive to and stay the night at Henderson, Nevada. Then the next day they drove home. Noah said it was really fun. Here's two pictures he sent us:
Noah is also needing to shave. What happened to my baby?!
Noah got ordained a Priest two weeks ago at church. He got to bless the sacrament for the first time last Sunday. He was nervous, but did great. Also at church they made some changes. Sarah got released as the president of the oldest YW class. Noah got put in as the secretary in the Priest Quorum as well.
Two Saturdays ago one of Aaron's friends at work gave him tickets to see the BYU and UofU basketball game at the Huntsman Center. Wahoo! We went and grabbed some dinner beforehand and then went to the game. It was a fun night. BYU won so that made it better.
Sarah's dance company does a few performances at some care centers around the area. It is fun to see her dance. Here's a few pictures of some of her dances of the past 5 months:
Ballet Pointe Dance:
Sarah is leaning towards serving a mission later this year. She opened her mission portal two Sundays ago. I don't know if I am ready for that, but it is exciting for her!!
Sarah started her SLP (Speech and Language Pathology) internship this semester. She gets to shadow a Speech therapist at two different schools twice a week. She did the onboarding process the first two weeks of this semester where she got set up and finally had her first shadow day last week. She said it was really interesting and loved the experience. She is looking forward to this opportunity this semester.
Sarah finally was able to get her MRCP which is an MRI of her abdomen/liver. We switched health insurances this year and our policy did not start until January 11 so we couldn't schedule anything until after that date. It finally got scheduled January 13. Here she is getting set up for the MRI to start:
They had to pull her out in the middle to start an IV so they couldn't inject some IV contrast for the imaging as well. Luckily, they were able to start the IV with the first stick. Wahoo!
She couldn't eat or drink for 4 hours before the procedure so when it was over she requested a hamburger so that's what we got:
The MRI was compared to the last one she had in 2017 and, unfortunately, there have been some changes in her liver which is not a good thing. BOO!! The doctor is leaning more towards a possible diagnosis of PSC (Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis) but she does not have all the characteristics that usually comes with that. So the liver doctor will just keep following her with a visit and testing every 3-6 months. He did restart her back on the Ursodiol and she will have to get more labwork done in 2 months. The poor girl is a pin cushion, but thankfully she handles blood draw like a champ.
Daniel got transferred a few weeks ago and is now serving in the western part of Iowa. The Winter Quarters Visitor's Center is in his area which is pretty cool. He and his companion got a chance to stop by for a visit last week. He posted this picture of him pushing the handcart:
Daniel got to be in a Facebook ad for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Midwest. Here is a link if you want to watch the ad:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1A71KDj917/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Here's a screenshot of the ad:
I sent him a package through Amazon Saturday. It is fun to see the picture that is posted to let me know they delivered the package to the apartment door:
It was a good delivery!! Anyway, we got to have the local missionaries over for dinner this past Sunday. One had only been out for 12 days. It was fun to have them for dinner.
We celebrated Martin Luther King Day as a family. A long time ago when Matthew was in elementary school he really enjoyed celebrating all the holidays. He looked at the calendar to see which holidays would be coming up. At one time Aunt Jill was visiting when we were putting away our Christmas decorations. Matthew asked when we were going to put up our Martin Luther King Day decorations. I had to tell him we didn't have any. Aunt Jill heard him ask and was kind enough to make us this plate so we could have some Martin Luther King Day decorations for Matthew to put out to celebrate--haha!
We did celebrate it this year. We got to out together since we seemed to have it all off from work. We went down and did some Top Golf. It was pretty fun! I was there, but no photo evidence. Just take my word for it--haha!
Sarah, Josh and Noah tried to pull a fast one on me. They all went out to do some 'shopping' one evening. I am not the most observant person and missed the 'new' pictures that were put up. It wasn't until Grandma T asked me if we had gotten new pictures of the kids did I finally notice they were different--haha! I guess it is a thing to go and take awkward family/sibling photos. They put the 'new' pictures over their old pictures and waited until I would notice. It took a bit--haah!
They did get these nice ones, but the rest are pretty awkward--haha!
They even got the photographer to give them ideas for poses. Here's all the awkward/weird pictures they got--it's okay to shake your head and sigh at some of them--haha:
They made me laugh. It looks like they had a fun time getting the pictures done and 'surprising' me. I am leaving the photos up on the wall for anyone who comes over to see--haha!
