Thanksgiving 2014

This year we were on rotation to do Thanksgiving with Jason's family.  Unfortunately, Keri's family brought a cat to Grandma Linda's house when they moved in and Laura and I just really suffer from allergies.  We thought she had pink eye when she came home from grandma's house recently.  Despite our best efforts to change it up in order to spend time there and make things easier on Linda who had just had surgery, things didn't work out.

So, we went out to dinner while the rest of them ate together at the house.  Tucanos was delicious! It was wonderful all week not to plan or shop and the cleanup was a breeze.  We did make homemade key lime pies and brought them over to the family for dessert.  We took both claritin and allegra and stayed away from soft surfaces/carpet and were able to be there about an hour and a half and chatted and played games.

The little girls had each had a stomach bug (that lasted 5 days each) in the weeks before.  It was super lucky that they had recovered by Thanksgiving.

I am so grateful for our blessings.  I am thankful for our little family and extended family and dear friends, for the opportunities the girls have to learn and grow, for an amazing husband who is my best friend and works so hard to provide for us, and for the Savior.

Laura's Macbeth at Echo

Laura got the distinct honor of being cast as the Third Witch and Macduff's Child in Shakespeare's Macbeth at the Echo in Provo.  This was quite the experience for her as it was her first time doing Shakespeare, the first time as the only child in a play, and the first time acting not in a musical.  She rose to the occasion!

The play poster

Laura's headshot taken for the play (luckily taken on the same day as her school picture)

She made wonderful friends, learned so much and had an amazing experience.  She is so blessed to get to associate with such amazingly talented, sweet, and fun people. Here's her cast picture.  Clockwise from Laura:  Esther, Mandy, Amos, Brynn, Josh, Mallory, Ben, Joel, Jacob, and Laura.

It was a long run and we got very good at driving her.  We only took her sisters to see her twice since it was very disturbing to see her be murdered onstage and rather hard for a 5 and 7 year old to follow Shakespearean English.  Thank you to everyone else who came and supported her!

She got the chance to be reviewed in this play.  You can read them HERE and HERE.  But, if they ever go away, the parts that mention Laura are as follows:

"Finally, Laura Randall—the youngest cast member—had a performance beyond her years as the third witch, and her disturbing physicality removed any doubts I had about casting a child in such a large role." 

"I have to applaud Randall who, being the youngest of the cast, tackled a very heavy role and did so beautifully. There was something truly disturbing about her innocently creepy portrayal of the littlest witch that gives you the chills."

 Here are some pictures I took at the play.

As Macduff's Child

Two others taken by Kelton Davis.

Halloween 2014

Halloween 2014 was a bit of an adventure.  We went to the chapel for a trunk or treat on Thursday.  Laura could not come because she was performing Macbeth.

Laura was super bummed that she had to wear something Egyptian in order to pass a unit at school.  She had already purchased the adorable witch costume.  Fortunately, she was able to wear it for her birthday party. The only way she was able to do trick-or-treating because of Macbeth was that I picked her up early from school so we could trick or treat at Dad's office.  Daddy's office was a HUGE haul and so much fun.  Hopefully we can convince Rosie to come with us next year

Eliza was so excited to be Elsa this year!  She wanted to wear the costume as much as possible.  So, she went to the ward trunk or treat.  She went to school.  She went to Daddy's work.  Her favorite thing was definitely her hair with the snowflakes, crown, and braid.

Rosie loves to choose something unique for her Halloween costume.  This year she chose to be a flapper!  The headband was way small so I adjusted it to fit her head and shifted the feather to the side.  She was adorable.  She wore her costume to dance, went to the trunk or treat, and had to explain to her friends at school that, no, she was not a pink Indian.

 My folks joined me for the parade at school and we had a great time!