Quincy is 15!

This beautiful girl is 15! Quincy is such a treasure. She is everyone’s bestie. She loves vivaciously and loves abundantly. It’s so easy to love her right back.  Quincy has a compassionate heart. She loves fashion. She works very hard. She reeeeeally loves her friends. All 217,199 of them.  Everyone who spends a minute with Quincy knows that you’re automatically THE most important person in her life. She’s adored by adults and children alike and we all just can’t get enough. 













For her party, she wanted a full on Quinceañera, with a gown and a dance, but to avoid culturally appropriating her Latinx friends (and her sister), she opted to just take some inspiration from the beautiful tradition and have a big party.  Aaron took the boys for the day up to a BYU basketball game in Missouri and we got into party mode around here.  I took the big girls out for bagels and shopping (Quincy’s dream day!) and then came back home to set up for a party.  

I made a Cafe Rio feast (MVP of the day goes to Kasey, who entertained littles, brought food, and even picked up my groceries so I could focus on birthday girl, and then she came over to hang out so I could slip out to help a friend who’s house was on fire-more on that later. Kasey played party mom with me and stayed to the end and even helped me take one of the round of kids home when we shut the party down at midnight.) 

Quincy is well loved.  She put out an open invite on the flier and texted it to a handful of friends. There were 28 flannel and Christmas clad teens here and at one point, they all crammed into the living room for an epic round of just dance. What fun kids.  

Millie, Lilly, Gracie, Brightyn, Phoebe, Annie, Lacey, Finley, Ruby, Reese, Avery, Bailey, Piper (not shown), Cadence (not shown), Ena, Cara, Ethan V (not shown), Ethan A (not shown), Fancy (not shown), Jacob, Jacen (not shown), Isaac, Landan, Spencer, Luke, Zack, Parker, and Quincy  

Orchestra Concerts

Here’s Quincy with her orchestra crew (plus Piper and Baylee). 



Quincy plays 3rd Chair. She and Lance are stand partners again and it’s fun to watch their dynamic. They perform well together. I also spy Jacob B in the background.  Quincy loves orchestra and I’m so happy for her that she’s discovered and developed this talent. 





Corbin’s concert was the previous evening at the same venue (Arend Arts Center at BHS).  Corbin plays 1st chair in the 7th grade orchestra and he also performed Pachabel’s canon in a group of mixed 7th and 8th graders. He was recognized for making all region and he got to student lead one of the songs they performed.  I caught a pic of him with his private teacher, Mr Finch, who also comes into the school to help the cellists on occasion. It was a week of great concerts and beautiful music! As a parent, Orchestra is, by far, my favorite extra curricular activity my kids have ever participated in. Yay for musical education! 









Also a pic of the pretty cookies I made for the SBO sales cuz I’m a cool booster mom now. 

Elf on the Shelf

Quiz Bowl Scrimmage

Corbin is on the WJHS Quiz Bowl team and they scrimmaged against Fullbright Jr High today. It was pretty fun to watch this intellectual battle go down, and it’s officially the cutest nerd thing anyone in our family has ever done, The questions were tough! Great work today, Corbin! 

Disappointment

We were supposed to have an adoption on Dec 16.

We had all the meetings, I read 3 reams of documents in the disclosure packets, we got the subsidy packets approved and signed, filled out forms for new birth certificates, and the list goes on and on and on. 

Even though DCFS has signed all the necessary paperwork for adoption, they are withholding consent for us to adopt.  

The judge cannot even look at our petition until the consent issue is addressed. 

We can try again after two more hearings. 

My heart is hurting beyond description. I am tired and angry and frustrated and disappointed. 

I don’t even know how the DCFS workers responsible for this delay can live with themselves.

Carly visits!

Carly came to town for thanksgiving! Of course, the only photo I took was of her backside while she tried out violins. We took Q with us to Palmer’s violin shop and she had a blast playing a gorgeous 400 series cello….it was amazing! And it was $3600 🤣 

But she enjoyed playing a nice upgraded instrument, and Carly did find a violin so it was a big win! 

She had a little jam session with Quincy to accompany her on a challenging piece she’s working on for Christmas.  

We also had dinner and games with both Pendleton families, played in a pickleball tournament, and Carly took our family pics.  I can’t get enough and need to figure out how to get them back here!  Our kids had a lot of fun together, too.  The best friendships are the ones that pick right up where you left off. (Or in our case, finish the Marco Polo we had 2 days ago 🤣) 

Crafty morning at the Shaws

We had a crafty morning at the Shaw’s home, today.  Reese, Quincy, Corbin, and Soren worked on ornaments and I stitched a few names onto stockings.  


Clary supervised.






As soon as I finished Quincy’s stocking, I cried because only then did I realize I had put her name on the wrong side of the stocking! So disappointing. I’m considering just giving up until next year. 🤣

Here’s a throwback pic of the old stockings, with names stitched on the correct side.