TIme Flies

Time has just flown by since my last post... We have been very busy practicing and performing... We have had 8 performances in the last two weeks... We are so grateful for the Lord's sustaining hand... Here are some pictures of our adventures..

We went to Campbell for the first time May 9th... We performed our hillbilly program for their Mother and Daughter Spring Tea Party...

May 10th, we did a musical presentation for the Hildreth Middle school... We had so much fun teaching them about the different instruments, rhythm, genres etc... They did a fantastic job playing a song on handbells... We had a blast and look forward to going back... (sorry we don't have more pictures but our camera died) Two days later, on May 12th we drove under ominous looking clouds to play background music at St. John's Nursing Home in Kearney... I don't know why but whenever we get back home after a program the minute we start unpacking the car it starts to downpour... ok maybe its not every time but when it does it sure makes unloading the car exciting... Holdrege Memorial Homes was having a oldies car show May 13th and they invited us to join them and entertain the folks with some golden oldies... We all dressed up accordingly and had fun watching our friends sing the songs that they grew up listening to... Some of our favorites were:

In the Mood

Tuxedo Juction

Let Me Call You Sweetheart

Goin' to the Chapel

Ba Ba Ba Ba Babara Ann

and many more...

We had a little bit of a break then on the 19th we went to Cozad for the first time... We eventually found the library and had a good time doing our hillbilly skit for people that had gathered... It warmed our hearts to be able to meet such friendly and welcoming people...
Saturday the 21st we put on our best scarves, and headed down to the Golden Living Nursing Home in Franklin... We did a premier performance of our gospel program that we have been working on..

Just a couple of the songs we arranged were:

I Need Thee Every Hour

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Hey Graham, are you sure you can't take a couple more instruments (heehee)... Yesterday evening, was the climax of our week... We had been invited to do a musical service at the Methodist Church in Elwood... All week we had been practicing about 6 hrs a day to prepare and polish a gospel program that would focus on our feelings of devotion and love towards God and His goodness... We had never had to perform a whole church service before so we were nervous... We decided that each of us would pick our favorite gospel song and then give a small spiritual thought about it... It went extremely well and we are full of gratitude for God's mercy and grace... Here are a few snapshots of our performance as well as the songs that we chose...

Dad: Jesus Loves Me

Mom: Rock of Ages

Katie: When I Get Carried Away

Joseph: Nearer My God to Thee

Kimball: I Need Thee Every Hour

John: I'll Fly Away

Seth: Life's Railway to Heaven

Betsy: Love Divine, All Love's Excelling

Graham: Beautiful Savior

Isaac: Amazing Grace

Marilee: All God's Creatures got a Place in the Choir

"For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart... it is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads."

Doctrine & Covenants 25:12

Mother's Day

Today we get to honor a person we all hold dear... Our MOTHER!!!! We love YOU!!! The day was full of "tender mercies" from the Lord...

Covey, Melody, and baby Mack drove up from Council Bluffs, Iowa to spend their first mother's day and anniversary with us... We treasured every minute we had to hold and spoil little Mack all day... He also had his first sleep over at grandma's...Later, we received a long awaited, semi annual phone call from Elder David Richards... He is having fun trying to master the Portuguese language... He loves the food and the people... He lives near Rio de Janeiro in a city on the east coast of Brazil... David enjoys being able to serve the Lord and the Brazilian people...

Country Bluegrass show

We were invited to compete in the North Platte, Country Bluegrass show last weekend and to our utter amazement we took 2nd place in the competition. We put together some bluegrass, folk and gospel music interlaced with a hillbilly narrative and theme. We surprised the crowd when we pulled out a cello bow over 6 ft. long. Three violins and a cello played Boil Them Cabbage altogether on one bow and it was a show stopper....

"...and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

Ether 12:27

Spring is here...

This month was full of new experiences for all of us. We traveled to some new places this month to share our music and messages. In Grand Island it was an honor to be able to share our love for our country through music with the Veterans who have served our country over the years. Thank you Veterans!

Elwood's Salad Supper:

At the Golden Living Home in Franklin we premiered our brand new, hilarious, toe taping, hillbilly program that stars, Zeb (Graham) and recounts his journey to find peace in his life.

Holdrege Methodist Church salad supper:

"how blessed are they! For they did publish peace..."

Mosiah 27:37

New members of the family

With the hillbillies coming to town, John felt he needed to raid the kitchen so that we could add the simple, sweet sounds of a homemade hillbilly style drumset to the program. Nice work John, it has added lots of flavor to our music.

John also decided that Graham's cello bow was not adequate for a routine he had up his sleeve and so he built his own innovative cello bow. He made it over 6 ft. long so that the 3 violins and cello can all play on one bow...unfortunately, it is not very travel friendly and it has been an adventure to try to fit a 6 foot long piece of wood in an already overflowing minivan. It's the material that memories are made of...

"...we did work timbers of curious workmanship. And the Lord did show me from time to time after what manner I should work..."

1 Nephi 18:1