Søster Barrett

Our little Hannah is a missionary!  During the October 2012 General Conference, there was a big change in the missionary ages for the Mormon church.  Young women are now able to serve missions at 19 years old (before they had to wait until 21 years old) and young men are now able to serve missions at 18 years old (19 years old is what the requirement used to be, not a huge change, but it allows boys to go out as soon as they graduate from high school.)  That Saturday, during conference, we talked to Hannah and she said, I'm going!  

Way back in early November she started her missionary paperwork.  In mid February she submitted all of her paperwork, and on March 7th, she got the big white envelope in the mail!

She is called to the Denmark Copenhagen Mission!

I can't get the video to upload here, but you can see the video at our Facebook page.  But maybe only if we are facebook friends...sorry!

We headed to Utah for Easter to go to the Provo Temple with Hannah!

We were so lucky to see some of our good friends from Hawaii!  Diane Alailima just happened to be in Utah to visit her son Tavanah!  Aloha!

I'm not sure if you notice something odd about that picture... am I really that short?  yes

We had lots of family there to go through the temple with Hannah!  It was such a special day!

Grandma and Grandpa Barrett were there, along with Aunt Barbara and Uncle Keith Damon.

Uncle Terry and Aunt Lori Barrett were there!  Even Jennah Barret was there!

Grandma and Grandpa McBride were there as well.

It was an incredible day!  I'm so glad that I was able to share that day with Hannah.  That Hannah girl just shines so bright!  

She has been in the MTC for one week!  And she is doing great!  She is blogging about her mission over at Livet er Dejligt (Life is Lovely)  Posting up her thoughts has made me want to make sure to journal my own thoughts, as well.  Tomorrow I will post about the MTC drop off.

Spring Snow

It started snowing Monday night.  And it kept snowing...

and snowing...

and snowing...

By Tuesday we had about a foot and a half of snow.  The weather forecasters had predicted about 2 feet of snow.   But, I didn't really believe them.  All winter we have heard big storm warnings, and each time the 15 inches of snow predicted, has ended up being about half an inch of snow.  This time they were right!

School was cancelled, so we started digging in...

and making snow angels.

By Wednesday we had about two feet of snow.  More in some places...

Emily and John and the neighbors had a great time digging tunnels

and more tunnels..

John was outside on Wednesday from about 10am to about 5pm.  He and the neighbors were digging and jumping and swinging and sledding all day long!

Unfortunately I forgot about the sun, and John ended up with a pretty good sunburn.  

It was still a great day!

Except for the part where I slipped when I was getting out of the car.  

Sydney was right there and said 

"Mom!  Wait!  Don't move!"

While she took a couple pictures of me, instead of helping me up...

Tennis 2012

Last night was the end of the season banquet for the High School Girls Tennis Team.  

There are a lot of really fun girls on the team.

This is Sydney with her doubles partner. 

Sydney had a great season

And those skirts are so cute!

This is just her second year playing.

I am amazed by how much she has improved since last year. 

She is a very serious athlete!

Go Syd!

Happy Day!

Did you know today is "Poem in Your Pocket" day?

Isn't that cute?

You just write up a poem, put it in your pocket, and share it with a friend sometime today.

I wrote up a few poems for the kids to choose to take to school in their pockets, including my favorites: Eletelephony and Holding Hands.

And here's a poem from me to you:

Early Bird by Shel Silverstein
Oh, If you're a bird, be an early bird 
And catch the worm for your breakfast plate.
If you're a bird, be an early bird --
But if you're a worm, sleep late.

Happy Poem in your Pocket Day!


And Happy Birthday to Emily!

Time to open up some gifts!

Emily was born in Florida.  That's why she likes the beach so much!

Emily always loves markers and coloring and art!

and dressing up.

Emily has the best smile!

and the best frown!

baptism day

Emily cracks me up!

I just love this girl!

Happy Birthday Emily!

Prom Prom Prom

Prom was Saturday.

Oh the excitement!

I was still sewing at 10:30pm on Friday!  

But I didn't have to do a stitch on Saturday, which was a good thing, because I had to run to Waldamort for foodstuff for dinner.  4 couples for dinner was a treat!  

A woman in our ward is a hairdresser and she invited the girls to come do hair together at the church on Saturday at about noon.  Hannah had a great time and loved her hair -- a slightly messy french twist.

There is a traditional photo stop at The Chapel in the Hills.  Hannah's large group of friends had a little trouble getting going (hair not done, dress fitting, etc) so just Hannah and her date (and I and about 300 other kids and parents) went to take photos at Stavkirke.  That's where she met up with her friends from school.  It was really fun to see all the prom dresses and tuxes.  

The group of kids from church were finally ready and got together to take photos before dinner.  I had to run home to fix dinner (salad, dijon parmesan chicken, mini red twice-baked potatoes, asparagus, homemade rolls. Yum!) so I haven't seen all the photos that Sis. Lewis took, but I can't wait! 

Emily and her buddy Anna were the cutest waitresses ever (did you see the menu they made?), and listening to the couples talk and laugh was priceless.  

Our bishop was the chauffeur in his fancy blue car.  Looking in the car at all eight kids squeezed in reminded me of the Weasleys!

The dress was lovely.  The jewelry sparkled.  Hannah was beautiful.  The date was handsome.  The group was fun.  And a midnight curfew, meant a nice night for all of us! Yay for Prom!