I Am Sixteen, Going on Seventeen

Happy Birthday, Katharine!!

Once again going backwards, and following the pictures: Saturday Katharine got to sit in the box with Justin for the very sad football game that ruined BYU's perfect record. They hosted Bishop Budge and President Reese hosted Elder Bednar. Abdiel hosted Elisabeth, who didn't want to stand in the ROC.

Justin often gets little gifts from heaven when taking care of his children. Long-time readers of our blog may recall that while walking about in the lobby of the Joseph Smith birthplace memorial visitor's center, hushing a fussy baby Katharine, he had the honor of witnessing the first volume of the Joseph Smith Papers Journals be placed in the case of books they house there. This was special because Justin and Lia were both research assistants on the Joseph Smith papers. The little gifts continued on Saturday: Justin took Gabriel to the bathroom at halftime of the basketball game and ran into one of his favorite humans ever, Andrew Stacey. Drew is a former BYU football player and Justin's mission trainee. He was also a statistics student and research assistant of President Reese, so they were all happy to see one another.

Gabriel had the honor of attending two basketball games this week. Wednesday, Miriam's three month day, Justin and Lia took Gabriel, Elinor, and Miriam to watch the Cougs pound Queens. Gwyn also got to come as one of Justin's colleagues' guests, and though there is strict instruction never to put the President's Section on the jumbotron, Gwyn was sitting right behind the servicemen who were special guests of the President and so showed up on the big screen a lot. We weren't quick enough with our cameras to catch it, though.

While the younger children were at the ballgame, the older two were at Young Men and Young Women. Katharine kept everyone laughing throughout the night sending us historical pictures of herself.

Earlier in the day Justin got to host Jeff Rosen, a fellow constitutional scholar and head of the National Constitution Center at the Wheatley Institute. Justin did a fantastic job introducing and was in heaven learning. Interested readers can view the lecture and Justin's intro here. 

Tuesday was Katharine's Sweet 16. As the only child who has ever had a school birthday (Elisabeth's has always been during Spring Break; every other school-aged child was born in the summer), Katharine convinced her parents to let her skip school except for her A.P. Biology test. They reluctantly agreed though they refused to go so far as to excuse the absence. Justin made lemon poppyseed muffins for her breakfast and read her a birthday poem; Lia picked her up from her test and took her clothes shopping; we had beef stew and a cherry pie completely fitting for the gray, rainy, November day that it was; and then she opened presents. She also got to have a long group conversation with Julia and Elisabeth since it was Julia's p-day. The bigger celebrations came at her surprise party Friday night at Heart & Seoul Karaoke. Elisabeth helped pull the whole thing off, so she gets the trophy.
 
Miriam is always adorable. Monday Gwyn honored Veteran's Day by performing the best parts of Hope of America at her school. Lia, Gabriel, and Miriam cheered her on.

Saturday Gwyn participated in the Church Music Festival, singing the same songs with the same choir that she sang at General Conference. It was an hour and a half performance which Lia watched with the three little kids from the cry room of the Tabernacle since it was a live broadcast, as more than four senior missionaries told her, so tiny children could not be where they could be heard. Lia and entourage stayed in the cry room until Gwyn's two songs were over and then chose favorite trees on Temple Square by which to take pictures and also did contests in the new and improved bathroom building facility. They discovered that Elinor can spin for impressively long amounts of time and Gabriel is a beast at wall-sits. 

We all felt as zombie-like as Miriam looks when returning home around 10 pm for the younger crew and around midnight from the game for the older crew.

Today, Sunday, was the Primary Program. Gwyn and Elinor comported themselves very well and the whole family joined in singing "When the Savior Comes Again" to close out the meeting. Elisabeth had come to cheer on her younger siblings and learned the song in the car on the way over, so she even got to sing with the family. In the evening we attended a fireside sharing details about the Lindon Temple which is under construction. Justin stayed home with Gwyn, Elinor, Gabriel, and Miriam. They passed the time playing Freeze Dance with classical music and scripture-themed charades.

We certainly feel very blessed from so many quarters and in so many ways!