Springfield High Talent Show

Last year, McKay participated in the high school talent show by singing an original song about Pikachu.  This year he and two of his friends formed a band called Delta and performed another one of his original songs.  I am cursed when it comes to filming these events with my camera, but fortunately Kara was able to catch the performance with her phone.  Its far away and the sound quality isn't the best, but you can at least get a feel for it.  They did a great job and were honored to walk away with first place!

Fifty Mile Hike

So Dad and the boys survived their second fifty mile hike this summer.  Dad wasn't able to make it for all of it (on account he was spending time camping with Hyrum and I) but, he was able to be there for the toughest day!  A seventeen mile hike on rough terrain and little water supply!  I guess it was pretty grueling.  Moroni and McKay did great and really made a fashion statement along the way.  In their words..."We've been rockin' these bad boys all week!"  See for yourselves...

I'm glad I wasn't there to witness McKay standing on this cliff with VERY steep sheer drop offs on both sides...SCARY!

Jammin'!

The other day I went into the band room to find this....it was pretty sweet!

Then, they changed venues and opted for ukeleles on the stairs....

Nothing more fun than a brother's jam session!

GREASE!

The Springfield High School Kaleidoscope choir performed songs from Grease at the spring concert.  McKay chose to, and had fun, dressing as the nerd.  They had lots of fun putting the numbers together and performing them.

Summer Nights

Greased Lightning

Sandy

Hand Jive

We Go Together

Springfield High School Talent Show

 This happened just before Spring Break, but I just now got the video.  (My batteries went dead during the performance, so I had to get a copy from the school, of which, I think the cameraman was a little distracted in the beginning!)  Anyway, McKay auditioned and was one of the twelve chosen to perform that night.  He sang an original song he wrote about Pikachu.  He actually wrote the song the night before auditions.  Where does he get this from?!  He also made his own costume to look like Ash Ketchum.  He sewed his own shirt, without a pattern, and made all the other props and accessories.  Enjoy...

And the winner is....

McKay and Madison

McKay and his friend, Madison, performed at the spring choir concert.  They sang "Lucky" by Jason Mraz.  I think they did an awesome job!

Talent Show Fun!

Tonight was our ward's annual talent show.  Monty was part of the "Creswell Boys."  McKay did a Sinatra number on the ukelele, and an original song he wrote about Pikachu...what a variety!  And Hyrum showed off his dance moves to Short Skirt, Long Jacket, a.k.a the theme song from Chuck.  (Note: This dancing has become a Monday night, 8pm ritual in our house!)

Happy Birthday McKay!

McKay recently turned sixteen and celebrated with friends, family, and an All-American chocolate cake from Costco...his favorite

Homecoming

McKay went to homecoming on Saturday night with his friend, Kristina. She bought a dress and then made it more modest by making a blouse to wear underneath it. McKay and I went shopping and bought the same fabric for his tie and coordinating fabric for his vest. McKay wanted to sew it all himself, but we ran out of time. He did cut out everything and sewed most of the tie. Don't they look cute?!

Building a Bridge

We have a seasonal creek, actually a few seasonal creeks, on the property. Several of them have simple concrete culverts over them, but this is the main one you cross over so we wanted to make it special. With no shortage of rocks on the property, and I mean lots of rocks, we decided to build a rock bridge. Five days, 4000 pounds of mortar mix ( that's two tons people!), lots of water to drink (since the weather was in the mid to high 90's all week), and some help from each of the family members and Bro. Hatch, who is an experienced stone mason and just so happened to need the work, and we end up with a fun bridge that will hopefully give us years of enjoyment. Eventually, we will plant some trees and shrubs around it, but that's for another time!

This is where we started once Monty and McKay put in the culverts and the gravel trucks brought in the gravel.

Monty and Bro. Hatch worked the first day scraping away the extra gravel with the excavator, setting up a plumb line, and placing the first stones.

This is how far we got at the end of the second day.

Day three was spent on the other side.

We decided to put some sort of cap on top of the rocks to make them look more finished. We spent day four finishing the caps on the first side, then going to work on the second side with more stones.

On day five, everyone one had the "blessing" of working, including Hyrum!

Monty mixing up one of the many batches of mortar mix. We used over 50 sacks of mortar mix...80 lbs. each. Thanks Grandpa Mel for the use of the cement mixer and generator!

Placing the capstones on the second wall. That was a LONG day!

Of course, with the hot weather, one of the coolest places was inside the culvert.

Hyrum had fun in there, too!

If you had to be in the sun, a hat was essential. Hyrum is sporting his 50¢ garage sale hat. So cool!

At the end of day five...mission accomplished!

Go Bananas!!

So while Monty and I have been working hard at building a rock bridge on the property (an upcoming post) this is what the boys are doing with their spare time. Who cares about chores when you can make really cool banana suits out of old foam pads. They have been wearing them to various places, including the grocery store where they stood by the real bananas and held a sign, "Please don't eat my babies!" Moroni made a sign that said, "Need $$ my wife split." It's nice to see they are making good use of their summer vacation!

Work, work, work!

We spent all of last week working hard on the road. Our ward had a priesthood camp out at the property this past weekend and we needed to get the road in for them to access the camping area. We also spent time knocking down what I refer to as "devil trees." Actually, I think they are hawthorns, but they are horribly thorny and everywhere! I knock them down with the tractor and haul them to a burn pile. Long, hard days! Sometimes we ask ourselves, "What we're we thinking?!!" I'm sure one day we will look back on all of this and be grateful for the property, but WOW it's a lot of work. I don't know how the pioneers did it without the big heavy equipment that we get to use.

WOW! No driver's permit, but boy can he drive a steam roller!

Dad had fun on it also!

Too much sun so Dad decided to wear a straw hat.

McKay thinks he looks like Twinkie the Kid.

What do you think?

Knocking down trees...

...scooping them up...

...and dumping them in the burn pile! Gotta love the tractor!

Seminary Graduation and Awards

Another milestone....Moroni graduated from seminary! He had a few (okay, about 30) make-ups to do from a previous year, but was determined to finish them in time to graduate. It was crunch time, but he made it! We are so proud of him.

McKay also did awesome with seminary, earning the Stake President's Award. He had to read 200 days, complete the Book of Mormon, memorize all 25 scripture masteries, and memorize the first presidency and the apostles. It was also crunch time for him the last couple of days. He knocked off 13 scriptures masteries in two days! We are proud of him also.

The Tradition Continues...

It all started when Kara wanted to bring little brother McKay to school for show and tell when he was just a baby....

Then, McKay brought little brother Hyrum to school for show and tell when he was a baby (notice the yellow "visitor" tag on him?)...

Then, Uncle Hyrum brought his niece, Olivia (known to Hyrum as "Chubby Baby Olivia"), to school for show and tell...

After the student shares their special something, the class can then ask questions or offer compliments. The dialog went something like this:

Hyrum: Victoria.

Victoria: I like her because she's soft.

Hyrum: Thank you.

Hyrum: Jakob.

Jakob: I like her because she's chubby.

Hyrum: Thank you.

Hyrum: Mercy.

Mercy: I like her because she's cute.

Hyrum: Thank you.

It continued on through the rest of the class with everyone offering a compliment. It was awfully cute. McKay was a hit when he was a baby, Hyrum was hit when he was there, and Olivia was a big hit in Hyrum's class. Maybe someday Olivia will be able to carry on the tradition!

Are these good looking guys or what?!

Ever since Jesse changed his name to Moroni, I've been wanting to take pictures of Dad and the boys and add these scriptures to them. Finally, on the day before Ammon was leaving, and only about 30 minutes before he was to be set apart as a missionary, we snapped a bunch of pictures...very quickly! It was quite the trick to get Hyrum to cooperate. He loves to close his eyes in pictures, but we got a few.

"Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men. Behold, he was a man like unto Ammon, the son of Monty, yea, and even the other sons of Monty, yea, McKay and Hyrum, for they were all men of God." Alma 48:17-18

"Now these sons of Monty had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God. But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God." Alma 17:2-3

On My Honor

Whew!! In a mad rush before he turns 18 on Easter Sunday, Moroni finished his last five merit badges (all required) and was awarded them at the court of honor tonight. (Isn't the scout motto "Be Prepared"?...maybe it should be "Don't Proscrastinate!") McKay, was also awarded three required merit badges and earned the rank of Life scout. Now he can start turning his attention toward Eagle. Of course, I had to get a picture of buddies Zach and Hyrum...future scouts. Yes, we'll just get McKay to the Eagle rank and the whole cub scout, day camps, pinewood derbies, pack meetings, den meetings, webelos, etc, etc, starts all over again!

Four Wheelin'

Just a couple of pictures riding quads out on the property. Dad added a nice grab bar for Hyrum so he has a place to hold onto when they go four wheelin'. The first time he went riding he kept shouting, "I'm having the best time! This is the best time of my whole life!" He loved it.

Creative Lawn Mowing!

McKay was asked to mow the lawn the other day. Being the creative person that he is, he mowed his name in the tall grass and then climbed out our bedroom window onto the roof to take a picture. I wasn't home at the time and didn't even know he did it until I imported the camera pictures onto the computer! The picture kind of cuts part of the "M" off, but you get the idea.

SHS Talent Show

McKay performed at the school talent show tonight and did an awesome job. This is a song he wrote called "Dark Blue Blanket." It's about stargazing. Check it out!

Talent in the Family!

The boys performed at the ward talent show Friday night. Jesse sang a song called "Cliff Diving" by a group called +44. Mckay sang two songs that he wrote himself called "Everyday," and "Go Away."

I think they did a great job!