End of the school year

May is always a busy month with the end of the school year.  Roy's and my life will change somewhat following Caitlyn's graduation in a couple of weeks.  We've always planned our life around the school schedule, and now we won't have to do that anymore.  Caitlyn will go up to Utah State in the fall, but we won't be empty nesters because we still have Jennie at home.  Caitlyn had her senior pictures done this past week by Christy Cunningham.  As usual, she did a beautiful job.  Here are a few of the pictures:

 Caitlyn and Jennie did a lot of babysitting this week, so I didn't do much.  Jennie tended Dan's kids one night, and Jed Cook's kids another night.  Caitlyn took Yuna skating on Thursday (Jieun took a picture of an empty skating rink, so Caitlyn headed right over).

Yuna

  On Saturday, Caitlyn had Adrienne's boys for a couple of hours.  We helped her out by visiting the Chalk Art Festival in Bountiful.  The boys loved it and Gunnar enjoyed taking pictures of the various pieces of art.  We chose to take a picture of everyone by this piece, which was drawn by a young girl in our ward.

Artist, Emily Erickson.  Her great grandmother
was a sister to Roy's grandma.

We loved this one, too.  Mary Poppins and the children
ready to jump into the chalk pictures.

                           (Gunnar liked this one)

As is normal in May, we were able to attend some end of year school programs.  Ollie graduated from pre-school as did Ori.  They both went to the same pre-school, but different days and times.  I went to Ollie's program, and Roy went to Ori's.  Yuna also achieved the same amazing milestone, and she had a program, too, but we didn't know about it.  We got a picture though, and saw how well she was dressed (note the shoes). I left my phone in the car, so I didn't take any pictures of Ollie.  I will add  one when she sends it to me :)

z

As usual, Roy performed service at St. Vincent D'Paul with the YSA's. 

Wrapping up the school year also means recitals.  Caitlyn gave our family a private senior recital.  Her teacher accompanied all but one of her songs.  Annika (her friend) also played a cello duet with her.  Unfortunately she missed her seminary graduation because of this recital.  She didn't mind too much since they do it by stake and she doesn't know a lot of people in our new stake.
Our bishop and at least one of the boys in our ward were disappointed she didn't show.

Emily Rice (violin teacher and member of the Temple Square
Orchestra) and Caitlyn

Since we are heading out of town for Memorial Day, Dan and Jieun thought we'd get a jump on visiting Tom's grave.  They purchased flowers and we made a visit to the cemetery after a long  Saturday morning working on the yard.  After putting the flowers on the grave we were told that we couldn't leave them there until Thursday, as they are getting the cemetery ready for Memorial Day.  We enjoyed our time there and then took the flowers home with us to return them later.

It was a beautiful day to visit the grave.  

Hyeji's baptism

Same picture as last week
Adelaide Hyeji Rasband
Baptized May 12, 2018

One of the most important events of each of our lives is when we are baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints.  Hyeji had this wonderful opportunity yesterday.  I gave the talk on baptism, and then we went into the room with the baptismal font, and Daniel baptized his oldest child (and my oldest grandchild).  I felt the spirit so strongly, and the thought went through my mind that this is an example of having "joy and rejoicing in my posterity."  After the baptism, we went back into the chapel where Roy gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, and Jennie and Caitlyn sang, "Gethsemane".  Then Hyeji was confirmed a member of the church.  I want her to know that I am so pleased with her desire to be baptized.  I love her.
I only took one picture on the day of the baptism.  It should have been of Hyeji, but it wasn't:  Dan didn't take any pictures either.  I think he'll get everyone dressed up next Sunday and take some "Baptism" pictures.

After the baptism, we all convened at our home and had a lovely Korean lunch. Jieun served bulgogi with all the trimmings.  There were several people from Dan's ward as well as some of their Korean friends.  The 2nd counselor in the bishopbric thanked me for raising such a great son.

Saturday night we went to Tuchanos Restaurant (because they give birthday coupons and May is Roy's birthday month).  We invited anyone in the family who wanted to come along.  Nick and Sara came, and Crista and Matt, and the four girls.  Kids under 7 eat free, so that was nice.  The restaurant is located in the downtown Gateway mall, which is practically a ghost town, but it appears they are trying to fix it up.  They had a lot of play equipment, so after dinner we hung out for a while and enjoyed the weather (cool, breezy, but fairly nice).

Heeyoung had another missionary discussion this past week.  The missionaries asked her if she was reading anything of the Book of Mormon.  She said she had no interest.  I think she is somewhat interested in the church, though.  Of course, they told her that the Book of Mormon was key.  I told her a Book of Mormon Story (Ammon and the King's flocks) and told her one way to relate it to our own lives.  When the missionaries tried to set up another appointment, she said she'd text them.  I don't know if she really will, or if that was a brush off.

A couple of pictures of our Texas grandchildren:

Mav got an "owie"

Elise painted Max' face--and the faces of all the other
children in his pre-K class.  Of course, they
booked her for next year, now they've seen her
talent!

Jieun thinks Yuna looks like a Rasband

Dojin looks Asian!

It was a nice and quiet Mother's Day.  Thank you to all my kids for being so thoughtful to me.

Baby Blessing of Ila Fae Green

This past week/weekend was so busy that I failed to get my letter done by Sunday evening.  We had such a wonderful event on Sunday, that it was important to get a letter done, even late.  We were able to go to Adrienne's ward (It happened to be their last Sunday in the ward, as they moved out of their house on Saturday) and participate in the baby blessing for Ila Fae Green. AJ gave her a beautiful blessing. It was a wonderful and memorable Sabbath with most of our family present.  We missed Elise and Andy and their family, and Sara and Effie.  Sara is YW president in her ward and cannot get out of her many responsibilities. She thought it'd be okay to take Effie with her, but Effie hates nursery and she cried so hard she threw up.  Nick's kids have a tendency to do that when they get upset! We also had Mark and Lisa Green and Emmie Green and her fiance, Parker.  For some inexplicable reason, Ori was scared to death of Parker and hid under the table until he and Emmie left.

Ollie, Grandpa Roy, Finn, Grandma Catharine with Ila, and Gunnar

Crista with Ila 

Jennie and Ollie

Lisa Green with Ila and Greta (Greta loved baby Ila!)

The earlier part of the week was also busy and family filled.  I tended Ori and Effie on Tuesday for Sara's birthday.  We spent most of the time outside.  Ori decided the bridge was a stage and she sang a song from Little Mermaid.  I think she must know all the words.  Roy and I had bought a couple of big bags of river rocks for the kids to throw in the creek and Effie had a great time with that, easily taking care of at least 20 of them.  I thought that was a lot until Finn, Ruby and Ollie came over and took care of the rest of the bucket.  I should have known the rocks wouldn't last long--it's yet to be seen whether it'll be worth getting them back out of the creek for the kids to throw.  The idea was to keep them from throwing our gravel path into the creek.

Roy and I had to miss the surprise birthday party AJ threw for Adrienne on Friday evening because of the annual ice show.  We thought we might be able to make it for a few minutes, so we ran up there right on time, but,  not surprisingly, AJ and Adrienne were a little late arriving (mother of 3 rambunctious boys and a brand new baby girl!), so we had to leave.   Roy always runs the lights and Caitlyn and I were both skating.  Caitlyn was the star of the show.

Crista sent out this picture with the caption,
"The devoted husband and father.  Always
shining the spotlight on others."  She's exactly right.

Catharine and Caitlyn ready to ice skate.

Here are two links to watch Caitlyn skate.
 Opening Number 
Caitlyn's solo

I am not quite brave enough to put my skating number on this blog.
Caitlyn was accepted to the American Ice Theater for next year, but has decided the commute from Logan would be too difficult--and she'd have to spend a lot of money on gas.

My friend Heeyoung had another missionary discussion this past week.  She invited me to come since the missionaries needed someone extra.  Afterwards she told me they needed a man so I didn't need to come.  I told her I wanted to and I went anyway.  I'm glad I did because I was able to read stories to her 4 year-old and keep him occupied so Heeyoung could listen.  I was able to insert a few comments also.  The sad thing is that her husband doesn't want her to listen to the missionaries.  He told her if she converted, he didn't want marriage.  I don't understand what he has against the LDS faith as I'm sure he knows absolutely nothing about it.  Regardless, she set up another appointment with them this week.  I will go again armed with storybooks for her son.  It's an opportunity to really feel the spirit and I'm glad I can be part of it.  I think seeds are being planted, whether it is the right time for her or not.

I tended Adrienne's boys while she and AJ moved on Saturday.  Caitlyn was tending Ruby and Greta at our home while Roy, Nick, Crista and Matt enjoyed a biking event.  It was fun for the kids to play together (this is when they threw ALL the rocks into the creek).
Here is a picture from the bike ride:

 Matt, Crista, Nick and Roy

We didn't see Jieun and Dan's kids this week because they went on a surprise trip to Disney Land

We didn't see Elise's family either, but we received a couple of sweet pictures of Beverly:

She's growing so fast and obviously has a lot of personality.  We miss her and Max and Mav.  Elise is super busy in Texas with three kids and a husband in medical school--not only that, he was recently called into the bishopbric.

And this is what Jennie has been up to:
She does hair and nails.  These are some of her more unusual tasks.  She does normal stuff, too.  However, if you're up for a change...

Lastly,  Adelaide Hyeji Rasband is going to be baptized this coming Saturday.  She is so excited that she modeled her dress for a picture:

Isn't she beautiful!