Second Gee Graduate

Caden was told at the beginning of the trimester that unless he happened to get an A minus in one of his classes, he would be Valedictorian.  So even though he has never had an A-, I was super nervous all trimester.  Caden worked his tail off, and we still were unsure how one of his classes would turn out until two days before graduation.  So much suspense!  But he pulled it off!!  I was so incredibly proud of him - what a great day for a parent. I'm sure no one else even cares, but it was a big deal to us!

Singing with the Bel Cantos choir at the beginning of the program. In an act of rebellion, Caden thought it would be funny not to wear any of the honors cords - for one thing, he didn't want to buy them:

Giving his speech, which was so well done. I can't believe all that he is capable of - He wrote it the day before.  I need to get a copy of it to put on my blog...

After the ceremony we all met in a gym and Caden was swarmed by his adoring fans:

My parents came, but didn't stick around for all the pictures.  This is everyone that stayed: Aunt Linda, Ellie, our family, grandma and grandpa Gee:

With his cousin Ellie:

Pace spent all of the time climbing into cubicles that were in the gym:

It's hard to find everyone, the gym is so packed, but I did find some of his friends. With his buddies, Brady Dunn and Christian Packer:

Kerns cousins

All of the cousins were so excited to have my kids there, and lots of time was spent with all of them from all the different families.  Katie sent me these pics with her kids up at their house.  Time spent with Kerns cousins is always really hearty.  I don't know how else to describe it...

David, Gideon, Pace, Nolan and Abram

Time with Grandpa Kerns

About a week before school was out for the older kids, I took the younger kids who I had already pulled out of school, and we headed for Oregon so that Shawn and I could close on the house and do all those last minute things. We stayed with my mom and dad for a week.  My dad sure has a way of knowing just what will be exciting to kids.  Maybe it's even more exciting because he does the things he thinks of WITH them.  He decided to build a tree house with Nolan. I wish my picture quality was better.  Nolan is smiling SO big here:

Dad showed him how to use the tools and let him do just as much work on it as he did!

My parents are still so fun-loving that they were planning to sleep in it sometime this summer:D

Some senior things

We enjoyed listening to Caden in his vocal spectrum concerts for the last two years:

Caden is second from the left.  He made some good friends in this choir, which was extracurricular and met after school.  The cool thing about this choir is that it's mostly acapella (sp?)  Caden sang Bass even though he is more of a barritone...

The last concert, each member of the choir got a number together and sang a solo.  Caden had a hard time deciding on a song, but a couple of days before decided on "Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacific.  I was a little nervous because he hadn't practiced, that I had heard.  But he sang it PERFECTLY! His voice is AMAZING!!  And I was one proud mamma.  I have replayed and listened to it over and over again.

All year long, Caden has had the calling of ward organist and has done a fabulous job.  He was really conscientious of making sure that he found time to practice every week.  There was another boy in our ward, Matthew Peterson, who was the chorister.  It was so neat to see two young men up there taking care of the music every week and doing a professional job.  I was so proud of them!:

Caden also played the organ at seminary graduation.  These are all the kids that graduated from our ward:

back l-r: Aspyn Powell, Emma Clawson, Caden, Marcus Roberts, Clay Wasden, Marshall Briggs, Matthew Peterson,
Front l-r: Alex Hartline, McKayla Mauer, Nathan Powell, Bruin Bair

hayseeds

For FHE activity one Monday, we walked up to the farm with Grandpa and Grandma Gee.  We thought we had better practice for the "Hick" scene that we would be moving to;)

Idaho Falls Temple rededication

One of the weekends that Shawn was home, we grabbed the opportunity to attend the Idaho Falls Temple rededication.  This was so great, because this was our temple for YEARS. It was nice to show it to the kids and spend the day together.   

Afterwards, we went out to lunch and Pace crashed:

And I am adding in this picture just because I had it on my phone from putting it on Instagram on her birthday:)

buck tooth

He wins for the funniest tooth loss patterns:

Waiting for release

I don't have many pictures from these days of Shawn being bishop:

Mostly because we didn't see much of him!;) But the boys made a point of visiting his office after church to raid his candy drawer.

I do need to record that after Shawn took the job in Pendleton, in February, he had to drive home every weekend because of his bishop responsibilities.  The stake presidency told him they didn't want him to feel like he had to do this, but there were people that needed to see him and stuff.  Weeks went by and we kept expecting that every week would be his last week as bishop, but then it never was.

FINALLY at the end of April, he was released.  Mike Bressler, who was serving in the Stake Presidency, was called to be bishop.  This was PERFECT!  There were so many incredibly good men in our ward, but none of them had seemed like the right fit somehow.  And no one even considered Mike because of where he was serving!  The Stake Presidency said that they had a hard time figuring it out for that reason, too.  So that is what took so long.

We wondered if we would be sad when Shawn was released.  One of Shawn's siblings asked him if he was happy or sad, and Shawn said he was both.   I can only say that I was happy!  Pace was getting really hard for me to control myself, and needed a dad sitting with us on the bench!  It has been SO GREAT to get to sit with him again.

Our ward and neighbors had a going away party for us, which I missed because I was sick.  But it was really touching all the kind things that people said and how genuinely sad they were to see us go.  They gave us a picture of the Rexburg temple, and everyone signed the back and wrote kind notes.

I would have loved to get pictures of everyone to remember them all by...I did have a friend send me these of the kids from that day:

I loved the good friends they had in the ward: l-r Madeline Bressler, Shaunae Green, Peter Bressler, Caden, Maddie

Goldilocks

While we were living at Shawn's parents between moves... Pace having a breathing treatment in the background...

And do you ever have those moments where you can't get over how cute your kids are to you?  Well that's how I was feeling about Maddie and her beautiful hair on this particular evening.

Such a teenager look - I love this age and this sweet girl.  And what gorgeous hair!!

prom 2017

Caden took Kallie Whiteman to prom this year.  They have spent a lot of time together and been good friends for each other.  Caden told me that she would be wearing a gold dress.  That didn't seem like enough information to me, because there are lots of variations of gold! I told him to ask her for a picture.  He did, and she said, "It's just gold.  Tell her to use her wedding ring to compare colors with."  I was still a little unsure, but went looking for material to make his cumber bun and bow tie and corsage...

The corsage didn't end up being one of my favorites, but it was okay:

Then I found some material that I thought was a whole lot cooler than just plain gold, so I made his cumber bun and tie and was really happy with them:

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture that shows the material really well.  But anyway, Kallie's mom and I know each other, so she sent me a picture when Caden picked Kallie up.  And I had NAILED it!!  They matched each other perfectly!!!:

I love those happy accidents:)