Running for Stephanie

At the end of April, an awesome young couple held a fundraiser 5K to raise money to help them pay for infertility treatments and IVF.  The young wife was in our ward and is my friend's daughter.  They live in South Bend so we couldn't do the 5K with them.  But at the least minute we gathered a few friends and did our own 5K in support of them.  It was a great Saturday morning and we all enjoyed the time together outside in the sunshine.

the sign says
"Team Purcell, Salt Lake Chapter"

our team - Jenny, Judd and Erica, Julianne, Sarah, Jenny and me

School Choir

After watching the school choir's Christmas concert, Jared and Kamryn decided they wanted to join the choir for the spring concert.  Practices were at 8:00 am on Mondays and Wednesdays.  When practices started again in February Jared decided he didn't want to do it.  I said that was ok but he'd still need to go early to school because I wasn't going to drive up there twice in one morning (not to mention a lot of those mornings I was working and had to be there early anyway).  He thought he would just  read while he waited for Kamryn and school to start.  After one practice he decided he wanted to join the choir.

The choir directed picked some really fun songs and it was great hearing the kids sing at home - like Duct Tape and Recess.

Sadly, the director did not know that Jared and Kamryn were twins and put them on opposite ends of the choir for the concert.  It was really hard to take pictures and video.

It was a fun concert and all of the kids did a great job.

Student Driver

Way back in February Taylor finally decided to get his learners.  I didn't really push him to do it before then since learning to drive in the winter is not my favorite thing.  I did tell him that he had to have his learners for at least 6 months before he could get his regular license and his 16th birthday was just over 6 months away.

Luckily you can make an appt to take the test now and that sure makes life so much easier.  Sadly, he didn't pass the first time but you can take it again right then and the 2nd time he PASSED!

Proud new driver

 I always thought it would be a good idea to have a student driver sign on my car, just like the driver's ed cars.  Never did get around to it with Justin and Brooke but now with Taylor starting to drive I really wanted one. I thought I'd have a magnet made but then realized someone would probably take it.  Then I thought of vinyl lettering and had a sign made up.  Lots of teenagers would hate this being on there car, but Taylor wanted it on there.  He's aware of how angry drivers get out there and with this sign on your car people are more forgiving.
I've definitely noticed more space around me while driving. I've only had one person honk at me since putting the sign on (and that was in a parking lot).
Taylor's been driving for a few months now and is doing a great job.  The next big thing is he needs to learn to drive the truck, which is a stick shift :)

our van

building a sand castle

flag they made for their "sand castle"

It was fun watching Jared and Kamryn play together in my mom's sandbox.  They are way too big for it (wish I had a picture of both of them sitting in it) but had a great time building a castle (which is just a big mound of sand).  I love that they get along so well and have so much fun together.

Facebook

I don't post too much about Justin and his mission on here but I had to share this photo.
In France, and many other places I'm sure, the missionaries do a lot of street contacting and they use large streetboards to attract people to come and talk to them.  He made this streetboard while working in the office.  This is what he said about it:

" I made a new streetboard this week. The office equipe hasn't actually had one, but I haven't bothered to make one until now because streetboarding doesn't really work in winter. But now that it's good weather, we're doing it more often. But since we didn't have one, we've had to coordinate with other missionaries to use their streetboards, so I just decided I would make one for us. So one day this week I got Elder Dampt working on some stuff, then I went in the conference room and spent pretty much the rest of the day working on this thing (attached photo). We've only taken it out once since then, and the results were hilarious. It's funny because when you get a streetboard that attracts people's attention, they try to look very inconspicuously so as not to give us the satisfaction. But with this one, they look at it for so long, that they can't really hide it. While we were riding on the metro with it, there were five people sitting across from us that were reading it for almost the whole trip. Nothing like a good marketing ploy to lure the young people in."

Soon after this he was transferred to Montpellier, which he describes as California French and is pretty much on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.  He made another facebook streetboard to use there.  He said its great to use there because its a huge college town.

Elder Frazier trained Justin in the office and then Justin trained Elder Dampt in the office

Always behind

It seems like I am always behind these days - behind on household chores and the yard, behind on paying bills - just because they stack up in the mail and I forget to pay them - oops, behind on helping my parents, behind on church calling duties, behind on just about everything.
I've been extra busy because I have been doing a long-term sub job at the kids' elementary school  Its for a 1st grade teacher who had to have emergency surgery at the beginning of May.  Luckily she has a great class and they are very well trained.  I've subbed a lot this year and I've been thinking that I was being prepared just to be able to do this job of working every day.  Any other time that I've subbed I've had lesson plans prepared by the teacher and I just follow them.  But now I am doing my own lesson plans.  The teacher only had 2 days to prepare for being gone the rest of the year and its amazing what she got ready for me.  But its still up to me to plan out each day!  I've never done that before and its quite a task.  The twins and I get to school every day by 8 and school starts at 8:40.  Those are the shortest 40 minutes of my life.  And then we frequently stay after school too, getting ready for the next day.
Jared and Kamryn have been very good sports about getting up extra early every day.  The benefit for them is they usually get all of their homework done before school even starts.
And looking at my blog for the first time in several weeks I see how Behind I am.  So I'm going to try to catch up on about 14 posts.

Truth, Dare or Die

For family night on Monday Jared and Kamryn wanted to play "Truth, Dare or Die" also known as Truth, Dare or DoubleDare.  I asked them what happens when you pick Die and they said its just a really hard Dare.  They had been playing before FHE with Taylor and decided that was what they wanted to do for our activity.  It ended up being the only thing we did that night.  I have no idea how they learned about the game but it sure was a funny evening.
I dared Jared to go outside and pick up a worm off the sidewalk - since it had been raining all day there were plenty out there.  He couldn't do it but his sister did it.
I dared Taylor to go out and sit on the wet grass for a minute - he did it.
Jared dared Kamryn to be tickled by everyone for a minute - a minute is SO LONG when someone was being tickled.  It was pure torture just watching that.  There is no way I could stand that so I never picked dare.  Jared told me if I didn't pick dare at least once I would be disqualified.  OK I said.  Then he informed me if you're DQ'd then you get tickled.
I always picked truth - to be safe.  So did Paul.  That was very frustrating to Jared and Kamryn.
Jared and Taylor had to both endure the tickle dare too.
Taylor would never pick truth - I wonder why?
It was a funny and strange evening but one I'm sure the kids will pick to do again.

2nd Grade Wax Museum

Its a long standing tradition at the kids school in 2nd grade to do a wax museum.  The students spend over a month preparing. They pick a person to study and read their biography. Then they prepare a written report with pictures they draw to go with the report.  They also prepare a memorized 2-3 min oral report about their person.  They are supposed to dress up like the person and can also bring props to go with their report. It all culminates in the afternoon with the wax museum.  All of the 2nd grade classes meet in the gym and the students pick a pose and freeze like a statue for the wax museum.  It is open to parents and all of the other grades come and go through to see the students "frozen"

Kamryn chose to do her report on Helen Keller.  She read several books about Helen and even watched 2 of the Miracle Worker movies - the good Disney version and the very first one made that was in black and white and SO dramatic.  Kamryn became an expert on Helen Keller and even learned the sign language alphabet and presented that as part of her oral report.  She worked very hard on her reports and was the first one to give the oral report in her class.  Her teacher said she did great!

Jared picked Dr Seuss for his report.  He also became an expert and read several books about Theordore Giesel and then read lots of Dr Seuss books.  Jared worked really hard too and got his report all memorized and did a great job giving it in class.

Before the wax museum Jared decided he'd rather find a pose sitting, which ended up being a very good idea. They would stand for 15 minutes and then get a minute break to rest.

Kamryn said her feet hurt after all that standing but was able to hold her pose really well.

Paul was able to get away from work and come to see the wax museum.  The kids were on a break so we could get some photos together.

Jared and Kamryn both said they liked the wax museum and Jared thought it was more fun that he expected it to be.

Happy Easter

Easter is full of traditions

Kamryn showing her 2 favorite eggs that she did

coloring Eggs on Saturday

It was great to have Brooke home with us for the weekend

Jared showing his favorite eggs
most of his were green

coloring eggs is one of my favorite "crafts"

I could do it all day long

Another tradition is getting dressed up in new spring clothes

Jared

the whole family minus Justin of course

my beautiful daughters

crazy kids

handsome boys

Taylor

crazy boys

Kamryn

Another tradition is the clue hunt to find your basket

This year I only did clues for Jared and Kamryn

I think Taylor was a little sad to not have his own clues

Next year I better do them for everyone

Jared with his 1st clue

Kamryn with her 1st clue

In the evening we all gathered at my parents for a big Easter dinner and egg hunt.  It was so great to have everyone together.  It was a BEAUTIFUL spring day and the kids all enjoyed playing outside together.

Festival of Colors

Last year Brooke went to the Festival of Colors down in Spanish Fork and had such a good time that she decided to go again.  This time she let her "little" brother tag along.  It looks like they had a fun time.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Our family loves GREEN

its everyone's favorite color

except for Kamryn - her's is blue

but her 2nd favorite is GREEN

So we just love St Patrick's Day

Since it was on Sunday this year 

we were all dressed up for the event

We even got the boys new ties

Since we were all dressed up

I wanted a family picture

Luckily everyone was good sports about it

due to Paul's busy sunday schedule

we had about a 5 minute window where we could take the picture

All the photos below are us messing around

waiting for Paul to get back.

All I thought about was getting this family photo but we did have other fun on St Patricks Day.  The kids figured a leprechaun came to our house while we were at church and left them some lucky charms and little presents. Then we had an all green dinner (sorry no photos).