Cooking, by Weston Largey

So one day, I was making dinner in the kitchen and Weston was practicing his piano.  I could hear him in there just playing away on a little song I'd never heard and I thought "Wow, that's really good for only having piano lessons with Maama yesterday!" The song had chords, good counting, repetition... So when he finished and said "Huh. I just made that up." I was floored!  And then I said, "Hurry, play it again! Let's write it down so you can use it for the Reflections contest!"

The theme this year was "Magic in a Moment" so Weston named his song "Cooking" and explained it as the sounds of mixing, the spoon hitting the bowl, and then the timer going off at the end.  What you pull out of the oven at the end is magical!  We recorded it  and wrote down the notation and sent it in on the last day of the contest... Whew.

Meanwhile, Weston (all by himself) learns to play it Jon Schmidt style UPside Down with his head under the piano- I guess you can do that when you've written the song yourself and it's just in your brain...

And THEN, I get an email from the Reflections committee saying "your child is getting an award." YES! 

Here's Weston, with his trophy saying his entry "Cooking" is moving up to the next round of the Contest!

We were so proud of him....

AND, this week, we got a cryptic note in the mail. outside: "To the Parents of Weston Largey From Mr. Will Woodrow"  inside (in handwriting): "Weston Largey won music."

That was the note- no explaination.

Though, there was also an invite to the next assembly for Reflections, so I guess he's moving up to the next round. Is it district? Is it state? Who knows, but we are busting our buttons!

Weston Jon Schmidt is in the house! (in the words of Weston...:)

Winter time things we did...

Without mentioning the holidays yet, here are some things we did this winter

                                                              We ran a "Cold Turkey" 5K!  Zach's ankle has been bad so he didn't get to run it but Hyrum, Weston and I ran with the Turley's plus Kristi and Robby who left us in the dust, of course.  But, we made it to the end in good time- 42 minutes!  I was impressed with my boys! Well, maybe Hyrum was saying "I hate running races like this! Why am I doing this?" the whole time, but he still did it anyway...  Once we hit the finish line, I took Afton back 50 feet so she could run some of the way, and people cheered her like she was the champ- of course she loved it, and pumped her little arms even faster than her legs could go.  She also crossed the finish line. :)
Speaking of Afton, I got to go on a GNO date with my little girl to our first play: Cinderella!  The local high school was putting it on so all the girl cousins and aunts on the Largey side got together for a night of balls and fairy godmothers...

Afton wore her Cinderella dress and was SO excited to be met at the door by ALL the  Disney princesses!

 Thinking it would be the Disney version, I was so pleased when it turned out to be the Roger's and Hammerstein one- "In my own little corner..." "Impossible!" "Why can't a fella ever once prefer..." and so many other great songs!  I was impressed with their awesome costumes AND with Afton who sat still and paid attention to the entire thing!  She kept asking questions like "Mom, where's Cinderella's blue dress?" "What's her's name? What's his name?" "Is that her dad?" etc...   Afton talked about it for weeks afterward and one day, as we were planning Weston's birthday, she was asking about her birthday so I said "Afton what do you want to do for your birthday?" She answered "Go see Cinderella 'gain." There you go, I have my musical buddy! (Okay, ALL of my kids love musicals- Hyrum went to see "Secret Garden" with me at the Hale and listened to the music for WEEKS after until Zach banned it...:)  Anyway, it was so fun, and I can't wait to do it again!

The girl cousins at the play!

 We also went to Festival of Trees!  So my blog storage is getting too full, so I didn't post ALL the tree pics BuT, this is my favorite:

Yes, it is an Office Supply tree. I wish it was mine.  I've decided that next year, I will be donating a tree and it will be an I Spy tree.  Can't wait to get started...

Okay, this is one horrid angle for a picture but it's the only one I got for all the work we did! What work did you do? you ask.  Well, Kobi talked me into singing with a little chorus that her friend Mia Magistro and her family had going on- turns out to be a pretty big deal! Mia wrote and arranged all the music, the Salt Lake City pops (look them up on YouTube!) played for it, they had soloists, a green room full of snacks, and the concert was at the Covey center... I felt like a pro (even though I didn't sound like one. Pretty sure they were wondering who had the not so great voice!) And, it was all for a great cause. Mia and her sister Mendy work with troubled youth and others who struggle with addictions and helping them over come them.  They invited all of their addiction groups, homes for trouble kids, etc, to come and the concert (called Project Heal) was half working with addictions and half Christmas... it was pretty cool being part of it.

The craziest thing was our rehearsals- no music, just lyrics. No piano, just a CD player.  Being an alto, I had the tricky job of picking my part off the CD and getting it right and then making sure I was the same as the other altos... It was a strange way to learn a song but it kept things interesting!

And, one more thing: Weston and Liesel became famous one day when we saw a little add and took them to audition with the Kid History brothers... Who the heck is that? you may say.  They are some crazy Utah guys who use their kids to tell stories and then (the adults) act the stories out using the kid's voices in the films. They are pretty much the funniest things to watch on YouTube. ANYway, Weston and Liesel started out pretty shy in their studio, sitting on big black chairs with bright lights shining down and they couldn't decided on what to talk about... Jennie and I left them to their business and 15 minutes later they were done.

This is the after production shot- nice.

About 4 weeks later, a friend of mine posted the new Kid Snippets on my facebook page because she thought it might be a Largey kid in it... Turns out, it was! So, Weston and Liesel had their first big break in "Weather Team" Kid Snippets, on YouTube- look it up!

They are pretty famous... :)

Date nights with Mr. Weston

Sometimes,  I like to take the kids on date nights. For example, just me and my Weston.  Here are two of our latest.

This is a picture of Weston and Flat Stanley. Yep, the real Flat Stanley.  We saw the play at the Scera theater and it was great!  He even had a suit that made him look flat throughout the play. The songs were great, the characters were great and Weston thoroughly enjoyed it because he has been reading all the Flat Stanley books!

The next date was a DOOZY.  Months before, I found this awesome deal for Disney on Ice in Salt Lake for only $12 a ticket. What a steal!  I had Robby grab some tickets for us (since he lives close by and can get them with no shipping and handling) and then we Waited and WAITed for the day to arrive.

It came.  Yes, it was a school night. Yes, we got home VERY late.

But, we ate at McDonalds and saw an Amazing show and I enjoyed it all!

Weston got some Toy Story binoculars to watch the show with- pretty snazzy!

Mickey and Minnie actually turned out in this picture!

The whole Disney crew dancing on Ice!

Our seats were right up at the front so we could see perfectly- but my camera struggled to get great shots... But it was one impressive show with fireworks, flips, sharks, dragons, and music from all my favorite Disney shows.  I was thinking it would just be a fun Disney show- forgetting that it's on ICE and these are professional ice skaters- I LOVED the ice dancing!  Weston and I agreed that Aladdin and the Genie were the best of all, with Simba and Nala right behind...  It was great. And I loved being with my sweet buddy,  too!

Did I tell you about my Sister?

This is my sister.

 Her name is Wendy. But soon, her name will not be Wendy. It will be Sister. Sister Smith.

For she is going on a mission and not just any mission. She is going to the Michigan State Mission. 

What makes it special? 

It is the same mission my dad served in so many years ago!

He already has her down coat, warm boots and other delightful things ready for her to take into the cold of a Michigan winter. She leaves February 27th and we are so excited for her!

ADD PICTURES

Afton and I were able to go to Mesa, Arizona with Mom, Dad, Cindy and Robby to be with Wendy as she went through the temple for the first time.  It was AWEsome.  I love the old temples with their amazing colors and murals and carvings!  The Christmas lights were great too PLUS we got to see Wendy's cute first grade class and the amazing school she did her student teaching at.  It was pretty mind blowing. Especially the tortoise habit in the middle of the school where they hatch baby tortoises from eggs that the four GIANT tortoises lay and then they sell the babies to make money for the school.  Genius.   I wish our PTA could come up with something that handy!

Anyway, we are proud of Wendy and we're ready to write some letters!