Carly Turns 10

Carly turned 10!

Her birthday was on a Sunday, so we had her birthday party with her friends a few days early. We watched the weather and saw that there was going to be one day of sunshine, so we invited her friends to a picnic in the park right after school. We had pizza and cupcakes and they played on the playground. It was fantastic. Her friends are fun. 

Peyton Murray, Lila Kormos, Skye Schaffer, Anna Michel, Lainie Leavitt, Micah Card, Presley Butler and Marley Cottle.

The two days before Carly's birthday we hosted the high school rodeo in Cardston, and Carly was the timer in training with Dixie Bevans and Vicki Cahoon. Dixie bought her a piece of pie with ice cream and sang happy birthday to her.

On Sunday after Stake Conference, we had Carly's birthday dinner. She wanted Hawaiian haystacks and twice-baked potatoes and Dairy Queen ice cream cake. Grandma Nunn gave her a pillow case with a cowboy boot, a violin and Chief Mountain stitched in. She made Grandma's day when she knew it was Chief Mountain. (Hanna and I were both thinking it was  a tent).

We gave her a new bedspread and sheets and The Greatest Showman movie. Lucy gave her a lego friend set.Grandma Carol gave her a packet of fun things and also a doll blanket that she had sewn.

We love Carly's spunk!

Stake Conference & Rodeo Blessings

Austin and the Stake Presidency have reached their one-year mark. For Stake Conference, we had Elder Matthew Carpenter come as a visiting authority. He was an Area Authority Seventy and just got called as a General Authority Seventy at April Conference. Austin had meetings with him all day Saturday,and I got to go to Leadership Training and the Adult Session on Saturday night. Our kids got to come to eat dinner with him in between meetings. Lucy came straight from a basketball tournament and Hanna came from a rodeo. He had studied our names and knew our names without getting introduced, once he knew we were Nunns as part of Austin's family. We really enjoyed visiting with him and listening to him speak. 

The meetings on Saturday were all about the new ministering program. Austin's only speaking assignment of the weekend was in the leadership session. He gave a great talk on ministering - although Elder Carpenter gave feedback after each session and told Austin that his assignment was for 10 minutes and he spoke for 14 minutes.

Along with Stake Conference this weekend, Cardston hosted the high school rodeo this weekend. I am the secretary for the rodeos and Austin helps with the stock, so we were there Friday night. I was there all day Saturday until about 10 minutes before the leadership session started. I changed into a dress in the church bathroom during the opening song. 

Hanna had not competed in her events yet when I left and I thought about staying to watch and then going late to the meeting,but I decided to go and she would be blessed. Carly was texting us during the meeting to give us updates. Hanna won both of her events. I just sat there with tears as she sent us the results. 

It was also important that Hanna did well at the Cardston rodeo because it is the only one of the spring that she goes to both days of the rodeos. Most weekends the rodeos are on Saturday and Sunday, so we only go to the Saturday rodeos so she only has a chance to get points at half the rodeos.

I was so thankful that she was blessed. Hanna was too, but of course she told us it was raw talent. She has had a good year, but this is the only rodeo she placed first in both events on the same day!

Elder & Sister Waite

I hope they call me on a mission.

A year ago my parents were all ready to go on a mission to serve 2 six-month missions at Heber Valley Girls Camp. They bought a camp trailer and side-by-side recreational vehicle so they could. A week before they were supposed to leave, my dad had to have surgery and they didn't go. They were sort of thinking of trying again the next summer,but they were never sure. 

One day they heard about the need for visitor center missionaries for the Idaho Falls Temple Visitor's Center.  It was the right fit. Within a couple days they had started their mission papers.

Elder & Sister Waite - getting set apart

Carol Reeve Waite is with Randy Waite.

April 9

MTC day one. Wow. What a great day. We have already learned so much. However we are very tired. Dad immediately got made district leader and is doing a great job. In our district is a guy who was married to dad's first cousin. A daughter of idalene. We hadn't seen him for years and didn't immediately recognize him. We think we are the only visitor center missionaries here. We think there are about 80 senior missionaries here this week.

Carol Reeve Waite

April 11

Day 3 at the MTC. We are learning and learning. Feeling the spirit. We saw David's Mark and Todd at lunch in the cafeteria where they work. So fun to see them. Our teachers are doing a great job and are patient with all these old brains and bodies. . So beautiful here. Thanks for your love and support

Carol Reeve Waite

April 12

MTC day 4. We have been learning technology. New LDS apps, tags, notebooks, making short clips of LDS media. Pretty amazing. We have been doing practice teaching and today was very touching. We got our packet for next week's visitors center training. We have lots of homework to be ready for that.
This a picture of one third of our senior missionary group
Elder and Sister Waite

Carol Reeve Waite is with Randy Waite.

April 14

Week one of MTC done!
The pictures are of our district and our cute MTC teacher. In our District we had a medical couple going to Guatamala, a couple going to Moscow, Russia, and an office couple going to Virginia. The other picture is the box of goodies delivered to us for hard times! Thank you so much. That was a big smile to get the box. Thank you all.
What I learned this week:

---I am not very good at spontaneously starting up a conversation with a stranger about the gospel
--- Senior missionaries make a huge sacrifice to serve. Many of these couples are on their 3,4 5th missions. Most have health issues, but they are heading out to serve all over the world
---These young teachers are amazing. They know how to work with us and teach us.
---Pres Hurley promised us that our marriage would be strengthened doing this, and we have really loved being together this week
---I learned fun new technology things which I think we will love and use. It will make it so much easier to use my scriptures on a device. I love my paper scriptures with all my markings and notes. But this is great new knowledge
--The MTC is amazing. So clean and beautiful and organized.
---The Lord's hand brought us here and to the opportunity to serve this mission. We are excited and feel really good about this.
--This is the work of the Lord. This is all about Christ and the atonement and what God wants us to know and do so we can live with him again.

Carol Reeve Waite

April 22 at 8:56pm

First two shifts completed. We had crazy crying lady, cutest little families who love to touch the Christus, families dropping off kids at BYUI, Sister Missionaries with various personalities.

And So It Starts

As we were walking in to Carly's first ever basketball game, Hanna and Lucy were asking if she really wants to commit the next 9 years to a life of basketball. Of course they love it and would do it again, but it does take a commitment and lots of time if you are serious about it.

Carly is in grade 4 and her team is playing in 2 tournaments this spring. You have to admit that grade 4 girls basketball games are pretty entertaining and funny. Carly's team was actually really pretty good. They are aggressive and most of them understand the game. It was fun to watch Carly and her red face. Her specialty was getting the rebound and and running to the right and then driving up the floor as fast as she could. She also had lots of assists.

They won their first two games and lost the third game by 3 points.

Hanna had her second rodeo of the spring. Last weekend she competed in Taber, but she missed in breakaway and her goat got up. A few days after the rodeo, she said she knew why she did so bad. She was wearing her unlucky jeans. Luckily this weekend she wore her lucky jeans to Calgary and she placed third in goats and fifth in breakaway.

Carly's braces

Carly was not blessed with straight teeth. Plus she has a mild backbite and it has always bugged her. We had a few people recommend Dr. Devon Kutsch who is an orthodontist in Lethbridge. There are a couple dentists in Cardston who practice orthodontics, but Austin really thought we needed an actual orthodontist for Carly's special mouth.

We have been really impressed with Dr. Kutsch and have been 4 times for the consultation, molds, spacers, braces and expander. I've really actually enjoyed hanging out with Carly on our drives to and from Lethbridge. The first day she just kept telling me how thankful she was that I was taking her and that I was really the best mom. For some of the appointments, she talked most of the way but was pretty quiet on the way back because her mouth was a bit sore.

Now we only have to go back every 8 weeks, and he thinks it should only take about 9 months to fix her teeth this time. She might have to get braces again when she is about 16, but he said it is good we came now to fix the underbite.

She has an expander on the roof of her mouth that we have to turn every night for 10 nights. On the 8th night, we turned it at our hotel in Kalispell and then we must have left the little tool there accidentally. She also has to wear rubber bands every night, so I get to practice my dental assisting skills to put them in. We have only had a few injuries as a I have stabbed her with my fingernail or flung the rubberband into the back of her mouth. 

It will all be worth the straight teeth in the end!

Spring Break & Easter

Easter!

Hanna and her friend, Madison Leishman, decided to plan a spring break trip since they didn't go on the school trip to Thailand (didn't feel good about it, parents wouldn't let them, too much $$$).

Madison's grandparents live in St. George, so the girls flew from Kalispell to Las Vegas and her grandparents picked them up from the airport. Madison's sisters, Jill and Ally, ended up going too. They actually got a ride to the airport with Mike and Cindy Schow who were headed to Kalispell to their cabin. Hanna said it was actually a really fun trip and they all sang most of the way!

Hali Leishman flew down on Monday to join the spring break party. They spent most of their time laying in the backyard in the sun. They also went shopping, to the St. George Temple and to Zions National Park.

Jill and her friend Sadie drove down Friday night and spent Saturday and Sunday morning with Hanna. We haven't seen Jill since Christmas so it was good that they got to see each other. They did both comment to me separately that it wasn't the same and they aren't as close as they used to be. I think it was partly because they were in a different house and they each had a friend that they were with. Hopefully their friendship will always stay strong even though they are moving to new chapters of life.

These four girls all got to share the backseat of Grandpa Uiebel's truck all the way from St. George to Great Falls where they picked up Hali's car at the airport. That's a long way to be squished, but they survived.

For spring break excitement on the homefront, Austin and Lucy went to help Joe at his ranch for  2 days and Carly hung out with Grandma Nunn while I was at work. (It is in the heart of tax season). Then Austin, Lucy, Carly and I did go to Kalispell over night. We went out to eat, shopped, swam at the hotel, shopped, ate and came back home. It was a snowstorm on the way back home. We knew it was supposed to snow, but Austin said he would still take us because we have driven in snowstorms every where we have gone this winter. But it was worth it. There is nothing like shopping in the USA.

We also had our last Southern Circuit rodeo at the end of spring break. Lucy did good in barrels and goats (still working on poles). Carly did good in her events of barrels, poles and goats. Austin team roped but his heelers didn't really catch. He had team roped in the last two rodeos and placed both times. We ended up having three weekends in a row of rodeos to make up for snow cancelled rodeos. Glad to be done!