Cheering for Family

One aspect of family life that I just love is cheering on the members of my family when they are performing and competing.  I want my children to cheer each other on in all of their activities.  We attend concerts, recitals, plays, track meets, soccer games, baseball games, Pack Meetings, Courts of Honor and cheer for the family member participating.

This past Tuesday, Sabrina performed with a vocal ensemble "Off Topic" in the Acapella Fusion High School Vocal Contest.  We took the whole family. It was at the Morrison Center on the BSU campus. The contest was decided by popular vote of the audience.  Everyone in our family voted for Off Topic - they sang well and even had some audience participation.  When the results were read and Off Topic did not place in the top 3, Beatrix was sobbing. Loudly.  "But, I wanted Sabrina to win!" It took several minutes to calm her down.

Maybe we're taking the whole cheering for family to an extreme, but I'm glad Beatrix loves listening to her sister perform!

Here is Off Topic performing their set.  Unfortunately, the video camera ran out of space and stopped recording right before Sabrina's scat solo at the end of the second song. Happily I also used my voice recorder, so we do have audio of that solo.  However it is not the same quality or volume.

Blessing Beatrix

On Sunday, December 30, 2012, Beatrix was given a name and a blessing at church by her father.  It was a beautiful blessing and Bea didn't make a peep throughout.  She did spit up quite a bit during the rest of the meeting, though.  My mom wrote in shorthand the blessing as it was being said and then transcribed it for us.

l to r: Alton, Aanja, Milaka, Roderic, Ambrose, Hyrum, Sabrina, Leo, Ryan, Me, Beatrix, Grandpa C, Grandma C.

My parents flew up from Texas and the Stringhams (minus Doug) drove over from Portland for the occasion.  Due to a snow storm and the freeway being closed at LeGrande, OR (a charter bus slid and crashed and rolled down an embankment, leaving 9 dead and 30 more injured), Milaka decided to stay overnight.  My kids were happy with that development because it meant they got to play more games with their cousins!  They played several games of Fluxx and Settlers of Catan (Aanja, playing for the first time, won).

The Ludlows were planning to attend, but they had to replace their van battery instead.  Colter was going to ride with the Ludlows, since his only other means of transport is a motorcycle.  Ryan's parents had also planned on attending, but Dorothy was sick with a cold/laryngitis.