Summary of Events

So, like, maybe I should post some thing to tell you that we were alive the past four months......
Here are just some of the events that happened and that are currently happening.
Spelling Bees Paul
Paul participated in the school spelling bee. He studied a little bit but not too avidly. He came in fourth in the school, but since he was third in his grade, he went on to the district spelling bee. This is when he studied hard, and when I say hard, I mean it!!!!! He won the entire district spelling bee. Because of this win, he went on to the Regional Spelling Bee where he came in Fourth Place. But, that doesn't say enough about the story. After it was down to just four people, it was only Paul and three eighth graders. One eighth grader had won the entire regional spelling bee the year before and had advanced to Washington D.C. Another one of those eighth graders ended up winning this year, and the other one was very good at spelling. Paul got out on a Japanese challenge word, one of the few sections of the studying he didn't get to. Plus, he couldn't hear the announcer, who pronounced the word with an l. But, however, Paul did very well! He still received a plaque from it that now sits by his trophy.

James
When I titled the heading Spelling Bees you may not have known why the subheading was Paul. Well, that's because there's another subheading as well. Paul wasn't the only one to participate! James participated in the unofficial 2nd and 3rd Grade School Spelling Bee. And, yes he follows after Paul. He won the spelling bee! However, he had quite a showdown with a 3rd grader named Damion. They were word-battling for a long time! That's why Mom missed Anna's Solo & Ensemble Performance, shown below (beneath picture of James at spelling bee)


Anna participated in Solo & Ensemble this year (where you get in a group or do a solo for the judges). She did it on her sax with two other flute players-yes, a very strange group. They achieved a pretty good score, but some members of the group weren't very committed and it was a strange song.

Anna also participated in Band Festival with the 7th Grade Band. They played some neat songs.

Anna has also been working very hard in Personal Progress for Young Women's. Her goal was to finish 24 experiences this year and she has already exceeded that goal in about 2 1/2 months. She has also finished some projects and is working on others.

Paul has nearly achieved his Arrow of Light and is almost ready to advance from Cub Scouts. Both boys have been working very hard!

Paul and Pierce and Garrett have been playing soccer. Their last game is tomorrow. Paul enjoys it very much and is on a team with all his neighbor friends. He's getting and is really good, too. The twins (for the most part) enjoy playing soccer. However, that may be questionable. Why? When Pierce was asked if it was okay if he missed his soccer game (we were too busy) he said, "Well, probably we could miss it, but I don't know what the treat is yet." Hmm....

Anna and James are playing baseball/softball. (Anna-softball, James-baseball). James gets the biggest hits on his team. He is also becoming a very good ball player and is great at catching pop flys! Since he is in Pee Wee, he doesn't play a certain base, but is good at most of them.
Anna is being a pitcher (fast-pitch) and also whatever other position that needs to be played. She can hit pretty well, too.

Ali is in the Disney Princess mode. On a shopping trip in Phoenix to Ross with Mom and Anna, Ali was able to find just about every Disney Princess item in the store. That means the sweater for an eight-year old, the gigantic storybook, and the tent, and the sleeping bag, and the light-up jacket.... She's very cute but very demanding. Dinner can save her life some times. Her best friend right now is Janie and she always talks about playing with Janie. She also runs off to Janie's house and jumps on the neighbor's trampoline without notifying anyone. Nick Jr. is still her favorite channel.
On a recent trip with Grandma and Grandpa Bryner to Provo, Ali showed that Anna was her sister. As soon as they drove in to the city, Ali started yelling, "It's BYU. We're going to BYU. I see the BYU." Anna was very happy when she learned of Ali's triumphant shouting.

Mom attended Women's Conference with Becky and Sarah. Becky and Liz ran a half marathon. Liz trained hard for it and luckily had enough energy on the day of the race.

Science Fair
This is one of the reasons no one has posted for so long. We'll just say there were a lot of nights where Anna and parents were up a lot later than anyone should be on a school night. Building, testing, destroying bridges and writing all kinds of long reports was what Anna and Christian and Liz's life looked like for a few days. Just a few days, though. Those few days that did the project.
Everyone was glad when Science Fair was finally finished. It was such a relief. Dad was just happy that Anna wasn't failing her science class because of everything going on for Science Fair. Finally, after a day of judging and a day of explaining to public, they cleaned up the boards and went to the awards assembly. After the special awards for Junior Division were all given out, Anna was sure she could sit in her seat the rest of the night. Apparently, the judges had other ideas. When third and second place were announced, Anna was WAY surprised that she was called up for first, it was really surprising. Then, she was recommended to Regional Science Fair. She got to stay with some of her best friends. They were all surprised that after their teachers had told them to go into their bedrooms by ten, that the teachers brought pizza, pop, and candy at 11! Anna had fun going to workshops the next afternoon after judging was over. Judging was also fun and Anna was able to sit by a friend. After the workshops were finally over, the awards ceremony began. There were tons of awards before they finally reached the category awards. To shorten the story, we'll just say that Anna was REALLY surprised that she won 1ST place at Regional Science Fair.
Anna at local science fair

In April we went to Phoenix to visit Garth. The Doigs' visit also overlapped us and we got to spend some time with them. Lots of swimming was involved. We also got to go to a spring training baseball game with our family and Garth. It was the Diamondbacks vs. Cubs. We all had fun watching the game. Garrett, however, had issues with something outside of the game. Because of all the beer drinkers, he was really scared. He cried most of the game and wanted to go tell "those guys that the prophet said that beer was bad for them and could make them frow up!" He was worried they would throw up on them. Now, whenever Garrett sees Christian watching baseball, he asks, "Do they sell beer at the baseball place?" We're just hoping he never asks what Brewers are. He won't be able to handle it.
The night before we left we attended the Mesa Easter Pageant. It was incredible. The angels even seemed to be appearing from heaven. It was very neat to see the life of Christ. As we were leaving, Garrett made a comment that made us all laugh. There was music from the Tabernacle Choir playing and Garrett said, "Someone needs to tell those guys to stop singing." When he found out it was a CD he said, "They need to turn that CD off." Apparently, enough of the Tabernacle Choir is enough!

Paul, James, and Anna got to stay with Garth at his awesome apartment that had an awesome swimming pool, TV, and just everything cool like that. We'll all remember making brownies at 11, following asleep before they were ready, waking up, eating them, and watching more "Get Smart" episodes. Paul and James now put syrup on their eggs, as well.


Lots of other things have happened around her too, but nothing else really big is remembered at the moment. School gets out on May 20, which is right around the corner and we are excited to be out! Anna is especially excited after so much junior high experience and tons of homework. After school's out, hopefully we can have more time for posting!