Amelia's end of year Dance concert

As we approached the end of the year, it's also time for all the end of year performances. The first was Amelia's Dance company's end of year concert.

This year Amelia started dancing pointe and so this concert was the first time we got to see her perform on pointe.  The dance was beautiful and we are very proud of her accomplishments.  The number was choreographed to Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Amelia danced during the Winter concertos.  It was cool how the dancers portrayed how the seasons transitioned.  Definitely the best item of the concert.

Part of the Winter ensemble dancing to Vivaldi's Four Seasons

Amelia also performed in the Senior Jazz item to Beyonce's Love On Top. In Amelia's head, this was the next best to thing to her career ambition to be a backup dancer to Beyonce.  It had just been a week since Amelia saw Beyonce live in concert, so she knew the moves and felt like an expert.

 

Joel becomes Elder Scott

On Wednesday 4th September, Joel was set apart by our President Shum as a full time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in preparation to serve in the Ghana Accra mission.  He is now officially a missionary.

This was a cool experience.  There was a time when I thought I might have been the Stake President to set Joel apart.  Then I was released and we thought that President Rigby was going to do the honours.  As it turns out, our ward was reassigned to be part of Fairfield Stake and so the task fell to President Shum.

The next day we farewelled Joel at the airport as he made his way to Ghana to serve for the next two years.

My thoughts go back to when I was set apart as a missionary by President Robert K. Thomas back in 1986.  These are events you never forget.

To keep up to date on Elder Scott's efforts, you can follow him at http://elderjoelscott.blogspot.com.au

Joel is called to serve

Another event that happened in May on the same weekend of Phebe's baptism, was that Joel received a call from a Prophet of God to serve as a full time missionary in the Ghana Accra mission.  Joel completed an application to serve over the past few months and has been waiting for a response to know what and when he will serve for the past five weeks.

The President of the Church, Thomas S. Monson said:
"that every worthy, able young man should prepare to serve a mission. Missionary service is a priesthood duty—an obligation the Lord expects of us who have been given so very much. Young men, I admonish you to prepare for service as a missionary. Keep yourselves clean and pure and worthy to represent the Lord. Maintain your health and strength. Study the scriptures. Where such is available, participate in seminary or institute. Familiarize yourself with the missionary handbook Preach My Gospel."

This is something that Joel has been preparing for all his life.

If you like to know what Mormon Missionaires do, have a look at this video.

Phebe's baptism

So I went AWOL in updating this blog for a while.  I really admire busy people who can find time to also blog.  Over the next few posts, let me share with you a few significant events that have happened this year.

First, back in May, Phebe turned eight.  We consider eight as being the age of accountability and that by this age, she knows the difference between right and wrong.

Now that Phebe is old enough, she chose to be baptised a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Baptisms are always a big family event, however I don't have any photos of all the family, so if you were there and took some group photos, please share.

One small step

Over the past couple of days, Karen has seen Taylor take a step or two without hanging onto anything. Then today he starts venturing further.

This is his 2nd ever walk (beyond a couple of steps).

As soon as I saw him do it the first time, I ran and got the camera.  Luckily he was in the mood to try it again.

Taylor found the mint slices

You take your eyes of a nine month old for a minute and this is what you get.

Sarah

Over the past few months, there has been alot of significant milestones happening in Sarah's life.

At the end of the School year at the presentation awards, Sarah received the schools highest award for Performing Arts.  Quite the accomplishment considering the talent in her year.

Sarah has also graduated from Primary School after completing Year 6 and along with that came her Year 6 formal.

Sarah looked lovely and with her hair and makeup done by her older sister, she was chauffeured to that event in a 1957 Chev looking much older than her 12 years of age.  

I was going to post a picture of the Chev, but wanted to keep the focus on Sarah for this post.

When I went to pick her up at the end, they had a Parent / Child dance and so Sarah and I shared a few dances.  It is a fun tradition they have at this school and I had forgotten that I also had this opportunity with Amelia four years earlier.  I guess I'll need to be sure to be the parent picking up Phebe in four years time also.

Six weeks of school holidays passed by very fast and before you know it, Sarah is in Year 7 and starting High School.   She is growing up fast and we are very proud of her.  

12 week old

Taylor is 12 weeks old today and so I figured it was time for an update.

As each day passes, you can see him develop.  There are a lot of smiles, new noises he makes as he finds his voice, he's grabbing toys, drinking more (up to 150 mls per feed), growing bigger, and the most exciting for us as parent..., he even slept through the night once.

Taylor definitely likes to sit up more and you can see him trying to do it himself though only his head lifts up.

We have even caught him trying to roll over when he was lying on his side.

When it is time to have a sleep, he likes to be wrapped, but if he is not tired, he'll kick and wiggle until he has unwrapped himself.

It's just amazing the rate of development children have at his early age.