Awarded

 Soren received several awards at his 7th grade celebration this morning. He acted very nonchalant and this is the only photo I took. I’m so proud of Soren for the kind person he is and the hard work he offers.  

VP of Events

Last night I was voted in for another year of SBO (orchestra boosters) as Vice President of Events. This parent meeting was huge. I kind of wish I was doing travel, but after 3 years of events, it is getting pretty easy, so I’m excited hù to stick with this role

 

Home

 Ryan is home. 

I knew he was coming but he still somehow managed a suprise drop in when I was decluttering the basement storage room and he just side stepped through the doorway like nbd. I dropped my armload of stuff for the best mom hug ever. 

“First stop” He ran errands and afternoon kid pickups with me, we took Soren for sonic run and to make assessment of needs for his short term stay at the mains res, home to hoop with my boys, dinner and a few hands of poker with the fam. 

I left for the 2026 SBO board election and came home to Littles in bed and Aaron with big kids watching the Cavs v Knicks (great game). 

These few pics sum up the day perfectly:

Corbin dog piled onto Reese. Logan dog piled on Ryan, who was hitting Corbin and Reese with a sofa cushion. 

We’ve hit up the Fitness Center, CAVA, walmart for 2 pounds of rainier cherries, Sonic, and a dozen other places. 

Full house and a very full happy mama heart.

Throwbacks: Elder Willardson

Found some photos of Aaron on the mission. Dang that smile is 100% Quincy. 

His very humble and very messy 1 room apartment

Hooping with the boys.

 

Big things

Goodbye Big Red: with the coming and going of adult children, we have been shuffling and purging closets. The spring cleaning is working its way to the kitchen cabinets. I finally threw away the big red soup pot. This was the first kitchenware that was replaced after our fire (shout out katie Gulbransen for looting the Sam’s Club associates sample table for us!) and when I had half a brain to start cooking again in our rental, I cooked everything from soup to scrambled eggs in this bad boy. 2 years ago it earned the dent when it was accidentally launched it off the countertop by a friend. The kids hated that it didn’t fit in the dishwasher. Not sure if big red will be missed, but it’s a significant thing to see it go. 

Big day: My Sunday school seniors graduated this morning. Big things ahead for all of them. Esme and Corbin went with me to the ceremony and I got great big lineman tackle hugged after on the field. I love them SO big. Congrats to Madilyn, Bethany, Hyrum, Neal, Davey, Bryce, and Ammon! 

Esme got the Big Three Award at Cooper Roundup yesterday! 

Big A has stayed over at our house with Corbin a few nights this week. Late night NBA semi finals watching, chips and Chuys ranch, driveway ball with Logan, an ice cream run, garage weight lifting, and non stop tomfoolery. Yes they still were up at 1am binge watching The Summer I Turned Pretty. No, Corbin did not wake up in time to make it to his first period class either day 🤦🏻‍♀️. Senior year will be an adventure for sure. 

Big Announcements: attended two more mission call openings for young friends. 

Big Brother: logan is filling the big bro role quite nicely. We realized we do not have any photos together, so we have epic plans to correct that with our own Brogan photo series over summer vacation 😂 but here’s the selfie we took right away because we just cannot have no photos together. Logan will get his own son in law tribute post soon. He’s fitting in just great. Big appresh for this guy.

Twinning with Mary. Love her big. 

Big Growth: Soren came with me to watch Esme get an award yesterday and saw his kindergarten teacher Mrs Hamrick. She was shocked over how tall he had gotten. 

Big L: the Lakers sold hard to OKC Thunder, season is over and some Willardson are more sad than others. 

Big Upgrade: I put up wallpaper for my friend Angie in her home office on Tuesday. I love the way it turned out, and visiting with my friend for 2 hours totally filled my cup. 

Taking myself on a weekly date to the temple has been such a nice practice for me. 

I’m applying for a passport for Corbin after 6 months of it being on my to do list. We want to take a mom and son trip this summer and might end up having to postpone because I didn’t get my act together soon enough, but hopefully it will have a super fast turnaround and we can make some big  international memories together. 

Esme is making progress in violin lessons! I’m so proud of her. I bought her a cd to listen to the Suzuki recordings and she is catching the suzuki bug. Something big has clicked and we have motion! 

 

Congratulations Corbin!

 

Ya boy Corbin made 2026-2027 Chamber Orchestra! 

He worked hard for this, and invested a lot of time in improving his talents over the past last year. It really never stopped being a sore topic for him to not make it last year, but I am very proud of him for persevering and using a difficult and painful situation to practice patience and motivate him to work.  

Corbin is really happy to be part of this group next year. There will good friends to connect with, good music to create, and good times in New York to look forward to! Congratulations, son!

Celloverload 2026

Still have recitals to go, but here’s a sample of recent orchestra things.

Soren had his spring concert. He played 2nd chair in the 7th grade orchestra, which was a surprise since he is not enrolled in the class. Mr J gave him the music to learn and Soren rehearsed with them during priority/flex hours. 

He played 4th chair in the 8th grade orchestra, and was excited to be invited to play in the WJHS chamber orchestra, who performed at various events in NWA over the last few weeks. My favorite of these was a collab with the WJHS choir. They performed a song called Fly Away that was really beautiful. 

(Trace, Soren, Sawyer, Tommy, Santi) 

Soren has had fun running around with the 8th grade boys, this semester. Benson R and Tommy B, and Santi C all live in our ward, and Sawyer H is in Bella Vista Ward. These guys are great musicians and also sing in the choir. I hoped attending their concert might inspire Soren to join, but alas, he wants to take Spanish for his elective. 

Soren with his twin, Trace. This guy is such an easy buddy. They are hilarious together! 

Some pics of Soren at various concerts in the past week. I loved all of them! 

Corbin had his last concert with Camerata on Tuesday night. Camerata was stacked with talent and sounded incredible this year. Corbin had fun with Ammon and Hyrum, Richard A, James S, Kyle, Gisele, Mae, and of course Goatum. 

I love that my Sunday school kids want a pic together every concert and that’s the one they share on their socials. 😂

A pic I grabbed of Corbin rehearsing. It was a fun angle to watch them on the backstage monitor while I tied bows on roses for senior recognition night. 

I failed to take many pics at the banquet this year, but it’s done and the students were celebrated. Cheers to another year of orchestra in the books! I love what this program offers my children. 

2026 orchestra seniors. Time is flying by and it’s hard to believe that Corbin will be sitting at that table next year, sharing his plans for the future.