Cute little nerdy boy. 
Crazy Hair Day at Shumway during Spirit Week. Claire's hair is naturally a wee bit crazy so we just kicked it up a notch. Emma was game for super crazy too, but her baby fine (nee thin) hair didn't hold it so well. Katie did a couple crazy pony tails, but she's got a rep......you know.AZ WILLES FAMILY UPDATE
Sunday 15 Feb 2009
Since the beginning of the year the later church schedule (11 to 3) makes life easier in the morning, and makes staying up late on Saturday night not so bad, but I am having more difficulty finding half hour on Sunday to write the update now. This weekend is president’s day, and Rachel is sick, so we won’t be going anywhere. That gives me a little extra time to sit down and write.
Katie
This week in school Katie enjoyed a secret valentine gift exchange – very similar to a “secret Santa” exchange. They gave small gifts to their randomly assigned valentine each day of the week with little hints about who they were. On Friday they gave one larger gift and then the secret was announced.
Katie’s school chorus participated in a district-wide chorus festival on Wednesday. She had a good time travelling to the High School and performing in the big auditorium.
Katie also sang in church today with the other 11-yr old girls from the ward. They sang the primary song "I will Follow God’s Plan" and did very well.
Katie is growing up quickly. She is starting to be a better helper when needed. She got some cereal and cooked bacon for everyone’s breakfast this morning while Troy was at church meetings. Later, she experimented with hair-dos, settling on pulling her hair back and to the side, which she felt made her look “older”. She recently announced that her hairstyle will now correspond with her mood. If she has a pony tail up high then she's happy and energetic. If her hair is not in a pony tail and just hanging down, she's tired or grumpy. We're still waiting to see the hairsytle for "contradictory because I know everything" mood. :-)
Emma
Emma had a couple of fun field trips lately. Last week her class got to go to the local IMAX theater and watch a 3-D movie about ocean creatures. The class then went to a park for a picnic. The rest of the family was jealous. Lately, because of her airtight memory, Rachel has been asking Emma to remind her to do things "in the morning" or "tomorrow afternoon." Emma hasn't let her Mom down yet. Who needs a Blackberry when you have an Emmaberry?
Claire
Claire’s favorite projects lately involve coloring with crayons. She brings home detailed crayon artwork, and prides herself on being a good artist. She likes to ask Mom and Dad: “Do you think this looks like 1st grade coloring work?” to which we say: “Oh definitely 1st grade, and maybe even 2nd grade quality!” Her kindergarten teacher once commented to Claire that she is a "2nd Grade Colorer." What amazes Troy is that all she has at school are the jumbo crayons – which are very hard to color accurately with, but she still manages to stay in the lines.
Sunday 15 Feb 2009
Since the beginning of the year the later church schedule (11 to 3) makes life easier in the morning, and makes staying up late on Saturday night not so bad, but I am having more difficulty finding half hour on Sunday to write the update now. This weekend is president’s day, and Rachel is sick, so we won’t be going anywhere. That gives me a little extra time to sit down and write.
Katie
This week in school Katie enjoyed a secret valentine gift exchange – very similar to a “secret Santa” exchange. They gave small gifts to their randomly assigned valentine each day of the week with little hints about who they were. On Friday they gave one larger gift and then the secret was announced.
Katie’s school chorus participated in a district-wide chorus festival on Wednesday. She had a good time travelling to the High School and performing in the big auditorium.
Katie also sang in church today with the other 11-yr old girls from the ward. They sang the primary song "I will Follow God’s Plan" and did very well.
Katie is growing up quickly. She is starting to be a better helper when needed. She got some cereal and cooked bacon for everyone’s breakfast this morning while Troy was at church meetings. Later, she experimented with hair-dos, settling on pulling her hair back and to the side, which she felt made her look “older”. She recently announced that her hairstyle will now correspond with her mood. If she has a pony tail up high then she's happy and energetic. If her hair is not in a pony tail and just hanging down, she's tired or grumpy. We're still waiting to see the hairsytle for "contradictory because I know everything" mood. :-)
Emma
Emma had a couple of fun field trips lately. Last week her class got to go to the local IMAX theater and watch a 3-D movie about ocean creatures. The class then went to a park for a picnic. The rest of the family was jealous. Lately, because of her airtight memory, Rachel has been asking Emma to remind her to do things "in the morning" or "tomorrow afternoon." Emma hasn't let her Mom down yet. Who needs a Blackberry when you have an Emmaberry?
Claire
Claire’s favorite projects lately involve coloring with crayons. She brings home detailed crayon artwork, and prides herself on being a good artist. She likes to ask Mom and Dad: “Do you think this looks like 1st grade coloring work?” to which we say: “Oh definitely 1st grade, and maybe even 2nd grade quality!” Her kindergarten teacher once commented to Claire that she is a "2nd Grade Colorer." What amazes Troy is that all she has at school are the jumbo crayons – which are very hard to color accurately with, but she still manages to stay in the lines.
Zach
Super Fix-it boy
The other afternoon, Zach and his sisters and cousins decided to play super heroes with all of the dress-up clothes. Zach’s chosen hero costume had a cape and a small backpack full of his play tools. His alias quickly became “Super Fix-it Boy” as he ran around the house “fixing” whatever was handy: the table, a chair, the dishwasher, etc. At least once a day now he grabs his tools and becomes Super Fix-it Boy for a while.
Bedtime Hassles
Unfortunately the lowered bed only kept Zach in his crib for a couple weeks. One night he REALLY didn’t want to go to bed yet and he scaled the side of the crib and got out again. So now we are back to putting him in the crib multiple times per night until he finally decides to give up and go to sleep. If the number of times we have to put him back in doesn’t decrease soon, we may try to attach a bed rail to the side of the crib to make it harder to get out. I have a feeling though, that anything short of an enclosed cage wouldn’t hold him for very long. Heavy sigh…
Rachel
Last Wednesday Rachel helped put on an evening workshop for 11-year-old scouts. She also trained a new Ward primary presidency on Thursday, and then has been going to Ward conferences as a special guest star every other week.
The other big project this week was printing out 150 pictures of kids from the Articles of Faith Reception a couple of weeks ago. Rachel imported, sized and printed each one on her computer and printer. That’s dedication!
Haylee and Haydn have come over for one day each week. Rachel doesn’t get anything else done on those days, but the cousins love playing together. Rachel was even brave enough to take all 6 kids to the grocery store with her. Wow!
Troy
For our twelfth anniversary, we went out to dinner at Chompie’s Delicatessen and then to the comedy Improv theater. We had a fun time walking around the art shops in Scottsdale. Right next to the Scottsdale museum of modern art is a very artsy sushi restaurant called “Pure”. The whole place is white: White plastic tables and chairs; white walls; white dishes, white waiters, etc. We had fun just watching the fancy people come and go. The whole thing looked like a strange movie set. Someday we’ll have to go inside. We'll get our best pretentious clothes on (all white or all black, of course) and do our best to fit in. Rachel thinks we should speak in accents the whole time we eat there. Tee-hee.
For Valentine’s Day, just two weeks later, we went out to dinner and then over to a friend’s get-together.
Troy’s work is going pretty smoothly. Most of his efforts involve coordinating the efforts of the TME’s he manages now. He is also involved in interviewing more people, as his group is one of the very few places within Intel (or anywhere for that matter) that is hiring right now. It’s comforting to be looking for more people to do the work, and to be approved to spend the money to get them.
Finally,
We are all looking forward to our spring break trip to California to visit family. I think we have settled on a visit to Sea World.
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