David's Birthday and Other Things

It's been a couple weeks since I've written.  Not for any big reason, it's just been a busy couple of weeks.  David has had a lot of festivals and things for his various orchestras so he's been very busy with that.  And in the middle of that he had a birthday!  He doesn't like a huge deal to be made of his birthday so we just did cake and presents at home.  The kids are all now at an age where they get excited about buying things for other people and had a lot of fun picking out presents for David (they picked out a treat, a puzzle, and a couple other things that I can't remember).  The girls also thought it would be fun to hide and yell out "surprise!" when he got home from work, which really confused David but had me laughing pretty good!

Happy birthday David!

He loves getting his picture taken. 😁

I've also been getting ready for our next concert with the Idaho Falls Symphony.  We're going to be doing a couple concertos and Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3!  I've been looking forward to this concert (and the next one) all season!  David was sad he didn't sign up to play this concert, but then they asked him to sub so he gets to play as well.  I've spent the last 2 weeks practicing and I still don't feel real secure about it.  I told David this music feels like a musical tongue twister.  The rhythms are all off and there are accidentals everywhere.  If I could play it at half speed I would get it perfect!  I'm hoping that it's one of those pieces that gets easier when you play together so you can see how your part fits in with everyone else's.  But no matter how well I play, I'll still get a front seat to some amazing music!  My mom had a Saint-Saens CD growing up that had Carnival of the Animals, the Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah, maybe one other piece, and his Symphony No. 3 and I listened to that CD on repeat so many times.  So this piece has a special place in my heart.  Also, I'll get to sing the song from Babe in my head while we play it which is fun too!

The last 2 weeks I have also been getting ready for a visit from David's sister Tracy!  She was bringing her daughter to tour around BYU and BYU-Idaho.  And while they're here she wanted to spend time with her son that lives in Rexburg.  They are here this weekend and it's been fun to have them around!  I wish my kids could spend more time with their Clay cousins because they always have such a fun time with them.  So to prepare for their visit here I had to do a little bit of Spring Cleaning.  It's been good because I've tackled a few projects that I was putting off but now feel much better that they're done.  

This next week is Spring Break for the kids and David, and it's also our concert so we have a busy week ahead of us.  I always try to find a few fun things to do during the break to make things fun.  And my kids are so excited to have babysitters this week!  They love having a babysitter and sometimes ask if David and I can leave so they can have one.  We have 2 different girls from our ward coming different days and then my mom is going to come a couple nights as well.  When the kids were younger they had a hard time having so many babysitters in such a short time, but now they think it's the best.  So I'll let you know how that all turned out next week!

To end, here's a picture of Mia in my messy living room coloring with her doggy.  This weekend has proved to me once again that cleaning is a losing battle.  Our house was spotless yesterday and now it's back to toys everywhere and forts being built and a messy kitchen.  But they sure had fun making all that mess!