All My Girls together on Christmas!



Christmas Eve PJs



Christmas Eve Dinner



After Church and after a wonderful Skype with Kevin!



Beautiful Christmas Ladies!

Melissa sings in the Winter Choir Concert

Another wonderful concert!    There are 5 choirs at Westview High School.  Melissa is a member of Westview High school's Les Chanteuses which is an audition women's choir.  The concerts have grown  in attendance so has now been broken into two concerts so everyone can come watch.  The Concert Choir and Cantores sing for both concerts back to back, and the other three groups sing at one of them.  We attended the 8:15pm concert and as we entered those exciting were raving at the wonderful concert.  Well, they were right- it was a wonderful holiday concert!  It was a full house and we again enjoyed the great talent of Westview High School.

Here are recordings of Melissa singing with Les Chanteuses (she is in the front row, :

Mary Speaks

by L'Engle/Gawthrop

Noel des enfants qui n'ont plus de maisons

by Claude Debussy

A Present Fur Elise

by Beethoven/Brownsey/Lantz

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

Sang from the balcony in between groups- sorry the lighting was dark

Melissa leans over the balcony to talk with us before the concert began.

Holiday Band Concert

We enjoyed a very festive Holiday Band Concert at Westview High School.  The Jazz Band, Concert Band, Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble played.  To make transitions not so boring, each section of the Wind Ensemble played carols from different locations of the autitorium while they reset the stage.  It made for a very nice concert.  Here are recordings we made of the groups Melissa and Rachel played in: 

Wind Ensemble, Melissa on Tuba

Sleigh Ride

by Leroy Anderson

Wind Ensemble, Melissa on Tuba

Auld Lang Syne

Traditional Scottish Melody

Arranged by Chip Davis as recorded by Mannheim Steamroller

The Low Brass (Invisible) Trio

The First Noel

They also played Carol of the Bells but we weren't ready to record that one- bummer it sounded really good! 

 Concert Band Rachel on clarinet

A Fantasy of Carols

 by Jay Bocook

Concert Band Rachel on Clarinet

A Clebration of Hanukkah

by Howard Rowe

Melissa Shares her Talent

Melissa played her violin for Sacrament Meeting.  "Abide with Me 'Tis Eventide".  We are proud of all the hard work and practice that she has put into her violin.  It was beautiful, and brought a nice calm spirit into the meeting.  She received many compliments.  Good job Melissa!

Oh Christmas Tree: Frosty

Tradition goes on- we went to get our Christmas tree the weekend of Thanksgiving. We went to Christmas Mountain again and weren't disappointed. Such a great place to go to start off the holiday season. I must admit, this was the fastest that we've ever picked out a tree! It must be the fact that there were only 2 kids that needed to agree. This year they named the tree Frosty. He has a nice frosty blue shimmer. It was a fun afternoon.

Free Hot Chocolate

Only two pairs of cute boots this year.

What?

Taking in the view

We found one!

Holding on while dad saws it down (he was missing Kevin).

Rachel helping haul the tree up the hill?

A good view of Frosty's Frost

Counting his age

Waiting for the pick up

Back to the limo

We had to take this cutey home with us (the reindeer too)

Frosty the small tree

Rachel designs our rainbow tree.

Puppies in Parade in Portland

The girls had the opportunity to participate in the My Macy's Holiday Parade today downtown Portland.  The marching band did this as a fund raising activity.  They got paid $20 each to participate.  They were assigned their costume by height and weight.  Melissa and Rachel were happy when they were assigned to be puppies with the Dalmatian float.  They checked in at 7:15am.  Brian and I got there at about 8:45 to watch and were home by 10:30am.  It was a fun parade. Just blow up floats, costumed people, and marching bands all playing Holiday music.



My friend Anne and her boys were stars.



Melissa the beige Puppy with rosey cheeks.



Rachel as a Puppy Dalmation talks with kids with  real dogs.

Melissa waves to the crowd.

Thanksgiving Day Fun



The Leetes and  the Wisemans are ready to eat!  We all fit on one table this year. We are down 4 this year.

Turkey Legs

A Manly Meal

Skyping with the Girls in Rexburg

Jessica and Jennifer eat Pie



After meal activities included Apples to Apples, gaming, hair lightening, and guitar.

Lighten up



Going a little Blond-er

A little fall decor

To Kevin from Dad July 24, 2011

Hi Kevin,

It’s been a great week. The Girls went to EFY at home, so they were gone all week. Mom and I had the house to ourselves all week. We almost didn’t know what to do. We had all our favorite foods (the girls ate at EFY) and almost couldn’t fill the dishwasher with dishes. We went to a concert in the park and several long drives. We also saw the new Mormon movie “17 Miracles”. It was well done, and of course like all of the pioneer stories a real tear jerker.

The Girls had a good time at EFY. They went in the morning about 8:00 and came home at 9:00. Games and spiritual experiences were to be had all week.

We are off next week to the Family Reunion. Be gone for a couple of weeks. We will let you know how it goes. But not in too much detail if we are having fun.

Keep up the good work. The Church is True. The work is hard but worth it.

Dad

P.S. Your plaque looks great. We were able to get all 5 of the scriptures on it. You picked some really great scriptures.

Leete Letter July 11, 2011

We enjoyed a typical Oak Hills 4^th of July.  Our ward put on breakfast for the neighborhood which was a huge success.  There was a long line the whole time.  Brian rolled our bbq up to the park to cook on.  They served French toast, pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs and juice.  We had a good time visiting with neighbors and ward members. We enjoyed the parade at 12:30.  Melissa marched with her trumpet with the Westview crowd (she didn't have a souzaphone to play-so used her trumpet.  She said that she just fingured the notes but didn't play since it would be in the wrong key!)- they got a donation and also free tickets to the bbq at the park for doing so.  It was a small group but they sounded good. Some ward firends invited us over for a bbq at 6- so we went and enjoyed that .  I made choc chip cookies to take over.  They had a nice crowd there- including several elders and our new mission president.   Rachel invited a couple of  her friends to come watch the fireworks with us.  They came early and cooked some marshmallows over the fire pit.  We all went up to our reserved spot at 9:30.  It gets more crowded each year, but the show is always good.  Afterwards we did some fireworks in our driveway. 

Westview mini-band

Once a year we wear these shirts!

Melissa writing Melissa

Writing names

Brian Sparkling

Emily, Serena, and Rachel

Tues the 5^th we kind of just relaxed.  We have been watching the Harry Potter Movies one at a time for the past few weeks gearing up for the last installment on the 15th. (the girls have 12:16 am tickets)  We only have 3 more to go now.  Melissa is racing thru the books trying to read them all in time.  Tomorrow (Tuesday) she and her friend will have an all day movie watching marathon. 

Brian has been taking day trips on the motorcycle with the girls.. He is ready for some new scenery and a longer ride- he says he is tierd of looking at trees- they block anyother view.   He took Rachel to Tillamook to the cheese factory on Wed the 6^th.  Her highlight of the trip was her dad buying her a little foam block loaf of cheese which all of the girls think is soooo cute! 

Melissa went to a friend's sweet 16 masquerade party on Friday Aug. 8th. She spent time making a mask to match her formal that we made for her when she went to the MYS Ball.  We had some drama with that dress the morning of the party- we had been working on repairing some rips in the tulle and had it laid out on the sewing table upstairs the night before.  When Mel went up to look at it (after we had all been pulling weeds in the front yard) she freaked- the cat had barfed all over the dress!  I was at home depot at the time and received the panicked call from her.  I rushed home to find the dress in a horrible mess.  We wiped up and flushed  the “yuck” as best as we could, stuffed the dress in a big garbage bag, and ran off to find a dry cleaner. Unfortunately the only cleaners that could do it in a day, had already turned off their boilers for the weekend.  So we went home and washed it in our washer on the delicate cycle, crossing our fingers.  It didn’t wash all out on the first try, so we spot hand washed it and put it thru again. After the 2^nd try it was ok. Luckily it was a sunny day so we hung it out to dry in the backyard, hoping it would be ready to wear in time.   It was! And Mel looked beautiful in it for the big party that evening.

Also on Friday, we were able to serve lunch to the Elders at the stake center where they were holding a zone conference.  The mom’s of missionaries from our ward were asked to do it.  One remarkable sister in the ward was in charge and organized it all.  All I had to do was put stuff in my crock pot the day before and cook some rice.  It was a build-you- own-burrito and was well received  by all those hungry Elders (about 60).  The girls helped serve at the buffet table.  It was fun.  There was a young lady (she was about 17) that showed up at the stake center and wanted to know what was going on and if she could help.  Of course we put her to work.  Jess and Mel had a good time visiting with her- and they sat with the sister missionaries to eat.  It turns out she wasn’t a member, but likes to volunteer.  She lives in the neighborhood  and felt ok about coming by the church because the elders had tracked into her house the week before. Of course the sisters were eager to talk with her during lunch and got her address for further discussions!  After the meal was over the elders  asked us all from the kitchen to come into the cultural hall and had us stand up front by the stage.  They had us introduce ourselves and tell us where our sons were serving then they sang us a couple of songs- Army of Helaman- with the words changed as a thank you- and As I have Loved You.  Then they all came and shook our hands and thanked us personally.  It was really touching, and wonderful to be able to serve them. Of course we thought of our own missionary eating burritos in Brazil, and hoped the members were watching over and taking care of him too.  It was nice.