Multi Stake Youth Dance

Our Stake was in charge of the multi-stake New Year's Eve youth dance.  We were in charge of it 2 years ago so it should have been the turn of one of the other 14 stakes, but we ended up with it.  In November, a couple was called to oversee the dance and they met with the Aaronic Priesthood/Young Women Council (youth committee).  The AP/YW council was in charge of figuring out what should be planned.  Between the couple and the youth, we had some amazing ideas.

The theme was "Around the World."  Each room in the Stake Center had something going on.  The dance was in the main cultural hall, card games were in a couple classrooms, dancing lessons were in the Relief Society room, video games (Wii, Xbox) were in the Primary room, and some board games were in another classroom.  We had asked women in each ward to bring cookies/brownies/treats for the youth and we had a lot of food set up in the young women room.

Courtney went up during the morning to help us set up.

Welcome to the dance:


We had a photo booth in the cultural hall.


We had a huge neon sign outside:
  

We even had a balloon drop (which we did at 11:45 because it was Saturday night and we had to stop the dance before midnight).


It was a huge party with over 800 youth that showed up.  It was absolutely crazy.  But we had some great chaperones who were trying to keep things in check.  I was able to walk around and make sure that everything was going well.  We didn't have any major problems, so it was a great success.

At 11:45 pm we did the balloon drop.  The kids loved it and popped all the balloons.  I think they thought they were doing something naughty but it made clean up so much easier to sweep up balloon shards than to figure out how to pop them all ourselves.

We then pushed all the kids out of the Stake Center and moved them over to the Heritage Building where we were serving them breakfast.  They ate a ton of breakfast burritos and then the evening ended at 12:30 am.

Clean up went so fast that it made my head spin.  All the chaperones stayed after to help so we ended up with around 30-40 people to clean up the mess.  It went so quickly and I left the Stake Center at 1:07 am.  I was exhausted but it was a fun night.

Here is the video of the balloon drop.  It sounds like we had fireworks!

Wisdom Teeth

Ethan needed to have his wisdom teeth taken out.  It's unusual for a 15-year-old because the "sweet spot" for the procedure is 16-19 years old.  The last time the kids went to the dentist I asked if he would take a panorama of Ethan's mouth to look at his wisdom teeth.  He is such a nice guy so he did it for me.  The dentist was surprised to see that Ethan's wisdom teeth were coming in sideways and the roots of the other molars would be cut by the root of the wisdom teeth if they weren't taken out soon.  The dentist gave us a referral for an oral surgeon but, after calling around and talking to people, we decided to go a different oral surgeon.  The surgeon's mom was in our ward before the boundaries were changed and she is such a nice lady.  She works at his office so she gave me a bunch of information and a nice discount, so we went with her son. ;) 

Ethan wasn't too excited but he didn't really have a choice.  Bryan gave him a blessing Wednesday night and then Thursday morning Ethan and I were in the office.  Ethan's appointment was at 9:30 am but they asked us to be there at 9:15 to fill out paperwork.  I had been given the paperwork previously so I had them all filled out when she showed up. 

At 9:35 they called Ethan back.  I went with him and answered some questions.  They had him swish with an alcohol mixture to kill bacteria and then the doctor came in.  He talked to us for a few minutes and then invited me to leave.  I asked how long the procedure would take and he told me 20  minutes. 

I went to the waiting room and let Bryan know that Ethan would be finished around 10:00.  At 10:00 the doctor came out to let me know that Ethan was finished and he had done great during the surgery.  One of the teeth was easier to remove than they had thought it would be so the procedure went easily.  Ethan was in recovery and we could see him when he woke up a bit more.

They called us back and this is what we found:



And, much to Courtney's dismay, Ethan wasn't weird on anesthesia.  He was a bit tired and you could tell he wasn't completely with it, but he wasn't goofy like Courtney wanted.  Oh well.  He did let me take a picture though.

We were out of the office and in the van by 10:20-10:25, I believe.  It was crazy how easy it was done and quickly.

When Ethan got home he took out the gauze, swished his mouth (with a lot of blood coming out), and put in some more gauze.  He was still under the influence of the pain medication they had put in his IV during the surgery but the nurse told us to keep him pain-free if we could.  So we switched off giving him a pain pill and then 4 hours later some Tylenol.  He didn't have too many problems.


A couple of days after the surgery his left cheek was kind of puffy but he never bruised or looked like a chipmunk.  It was a really easy recovery.

It has been a week and he still has a few of the stitches but he hasn't needed pain medication for a couple of days.  He was so happy to be able to eat again.

Skiing in Colorado

The day after Christmas, a bunch went skiing.  Courtney loves to ski so Bryan went with her.  She has a great talent and had a lot of fun.  Grandpa treated them to breakfast when they got to the resort and then they hit the slopes.  It was cold but they had a lot of fun.









This is a video Bryan took of Courtney skiing:

Christmas in Colorado

On the Wednesday before Christmas, we left St. George to drive to Arvada for Christmas.  The original plan was for us to drive to Denver on Friday but the weather was looking bad for Friday so we changed our plans and left on Wednesday. 

I checked Courtney out of school early and drove to pick up Ethan from Success Academy.  When we were ready, we went by and picked Bryan up from his office and took off.  The van had been giving us problems but we were hoping it would get it to Denver without a problem.  It did well but it did overheat as we were going over the last mountain range.  I was nervous that we would be stranded, but we got there okay.

It was a fun time.  Here are some of the highlights:

Baby Lizzy was a highlight for Courtney and she couldn't wait to get her baby time in.


Ethan is a bit awkward holding a baby.  I'm not sure which was more uncomfortable in this picture.


Rock climbing was a great activity that Courtney loves.  Grandpa took them one time and then Julie took them another time.  Courtney is a spider going up the wall.


Ethan made his "chemical pie" for everyone and had fun listening to them guess what was inside.


Shopping at the thrift store was a plus and Courtney found this cute chair!


It snowed on Christmas Eve and then again the next week.  The kids had a lot of fun playing in it...for a minute.  It was really cold so they didn't stay out for too long.






Ethan was getting a little better at holding Lizzy as the week went along.  He didn't look so awkward.


Church was at 9 a.m. and we got to drive in the deep snow to get there.  It was cold but we got there just fine.


Courtney was ready to be a babysitter at any moment and took advantage of it.


We had Christmas Eve dinner and the teenagers (and Bryan) did dishes as they sang Christmas carols.  It was fun to watch them.



Christmas PJs was a highlight, was it usually is.
    

Christmas morning:
   

          

He is looking like a natural by the time we were getting ready to go home:


Check out all that garbage:


We left on Wednesday morning.  The weather was great and we didn't have any rough roads but the van decided to overheat.  It was white knuckle driving home waiting for the van to die, but it didn't die and we got home just fine.  It did take longer because we couldn't drive very fast on some of the uphill stretches.  But we made it home safely.  And we had a great time!

Contest Winner!

In Courtney's honors language arts class they are required to enter a writing contest each month.  Courtney entered one that was offered in the Scholastic Scope magazine...and she ended up winning!  She won a book and they gave her a nice letter.  She wasn't too impressed with herself but I was!

Shopping

Each year we like to shop for the Toys for Tots program.  It's fun to be a Santa for other kids and it is a fun night.  Bryan had a meeting so the kids and I went and got in line.  Usually, we are there early so we can get in line but this year the kids wanted to go right on time.  It didn't work out for them because we ended up at the end of the long line instead of at the beginning.  But it all worked out.

We were given a family with 4 kids.  We went all over the store finding clothes, shoes, and toys.  It was fun to see what the kids wanted to buy for them.  We were given a larger amount than normal.  We had a great time.

Waiting for the line to move:


Shopping:

ZYSO

Courtney tried out and made it into the Zion Youth Symphony Orchestra.  They only had a few weeks of practice before they had their Christmas concert.  This is an orchestra made up of youth all over St. George who made the cut.  It didn't matter their age (there is an 8-year-old, I believe), as long as they could play the music for the tryout.

Courtney was required to wear "concert black" so we had to hurry and get her a long black dress.  She looked beautiful.

They did a great job at their first concert.

Courtney is on the left side.

Courtney is in the middle row, second from the left.

Courtney is on the left side, second violin from the left in the middle.

During the concert, we could only see a little bit of Courtney if we looked closely.