New School Year

Peter & Libby at the bus stop

The 2012-13 school year has officially begun!  Peter and Libby were complete opposites about the clothes the night before.  Libby had to model every single shirt with every single skirt/pair of parts that she had, and I had to rate the outfit on a scale from 1 to 5.  Only the 4's and 5's were selected to go on to the finals, and from there she chose what outfits she would wear the first week of school.  I tried to get in some peeks on Pinterest between outfit changes.  Peter, on the other hand, figured out what he was wearing about five minutes ahead of time.  Except for the shoes.  He had those planned out way ahead of time, because they were the boots he got for his birthday!  It took all his powers of discipline to not wear the spurs with the boots.  I wouldn't put it past him to try it one of these days, when he gets comfortable at school.  I'll have to keep an eye on that...

Mary on the first day of school

Mary is in FX Show Choir this year, along with Madrigals. She also tried out for a Ballroom Dance team, and is looking forward to practicing and performing with them.  She also came out of her Freshman year with a 4.0.  Way to go Mary!

Jesse on the first day of school

Jesse is a Senior this year!  She is the only returning alto in Madrigals this year, and was elected the Section head.  Besides Madrigals, she is pouring all her extra time into maintaining her 4.0 and practicing the piano.  She will audition for the BYU Piano Performance Major in January.  Very exciting!  Her claim to fame this week was that she started her Senior year in high school as a 16 year old.

Jesse and Grandma W on Jesse's 17th birthday

But it didn't last for long, because the next day she turned 17.  I told Jesse it was almost a disappointment to have her turn 17, because now I can no longer say, "She's only 16...!.  She accomplished so much when she was 15 and 16, that I was constantly saying that when people asked how old she was.  Grandma W came over with the "art-deco" birthday cake.  I told Grandma that she was creative with a capital C!  We had a good laugh about it, but I thought it looked awesome.

Joseph and Libby at the Street Dance

I love this picture so much I could eat it for desert.  This is Joseph dancing with Libby at the Family Street Dance.  He didn't have many other people to dance with - he was an oldie - but Libby sure was glad to dance with him!  Our Street Dance was so fun, as it always is.  Our numbers were fewer, because there was a football game that night, but we had fun anyway.

Joseph on Stormy

Here's the posture Joseph has been in almost constantly for the past few weeks - riding a horse!  He and Bruce worked together to break Stormy.  This was a big accomplishment, because the first time they attempted it, Bruce got some bruised ribs and a bucking horse show to go with it.  There was some question as to whether Stormy was going to be broken at all.  But, at the insistence of Joseph, they went out and tried again.  It was wild, from what I hear, but they got a saddle on him and Joseph rode him.  They've since been on him several times, and it's working out!  My hats off to them - I would have given up a long time ago!  Yesterday, Bruce took Mary, Peter and Libby out riding, and they had a great time.

Joseph is enjoying his time here, because he is soon off to Rexburg and BYU-I!  Wow - I can't believe the time has come for him to go off to college.  I'll have to admit that it's been hard - thinking of him leaving, especially because we've been through it now, and we know what it's like!  The college part's not so hard, but knowing that the mission is coming up straight after that, well, that's a different story.  Man, we're gonna miss Joseph!

But he's so excited and happy that it's easy to be happy with him!

By the way, I have to add one more thing.  On my other blog, oilslorena.com, I wrote about Joseph getting thrown off Stormy while they were breaking him, and falling on his hip.  That happened on the day of our Street Dance.  So, when this picture was taken above, of Joseph and Libby dancing, Joseph was in real pain, holding Libby like that for that dance.  He told me later that it hurt pretty badly, but during that whole dance, even limping and all, he was a really good sport and danced and made a lot of girls feel happy.  Thank you, Joseph, for your kindness and cheerfulness, even through pain.

Ha ha - after writing that, it kind of looks like he's grimacing in the picture instead of smiling!  :)