California McMillans

Scott's jazz band had a clinic at Northgate High in which they did a performance and then sight reading clinic.  He played piano for "Take Five" and seemed to do well.  When he's not on piano he plays this xylophone instrument.   They got a pro photo but it was printed on ink-jet and I was more interested in buying the jpg, so I did a bad iphone photo instead. We took the VFR home and I don't think he enjoyed it as much I did.

Kaela and Maeci got baptized today.  I thought it would be so cool to see the youth participate in the program since two youth were getting baptized.  They have amazing friends, I sent out a quick text yesterday and everyone wanted to participate.  Shawna thought the missionaries were doing the program so in our true fashion we did it last minute and it was perfect.  That is what I love about Shawna.  If we want to go skiing, yosemite, the beach in a day or two, we go!  Planning a baptism is no different.  It was the coolest thing to witness.  These incredible youth, eager and excited to give talks, lead music, say prayers.  3 boys gave the talk on baptism and 4 girls the talk on the holy ghost.  They coordinated it, wrote it and it was awesome to see.  These youth are incredible.  I just love that the church is focusing so much on them being our future leaders.   I am so excited for them! Shawna had a great party afterwards filled with so much friendship and love. Blake did a co-op w

I am joining a really small swim team in Discovery Bay in April and super excited.  It is fairly new and I am so impressed with the families I have met.  I feel like I have done everything in swimming that I want to do.  I have no desire to be a college coach.  I have done USS, rec, different age groups, different teams, different philosophies, part-time, more full time, clinics, learn to swim, lessons galore, no lessons.  It has all been great.  I have been blessed that I have been able to go and do what I want and at different capacities with what worked with my family and schedule at the time.  I have been really lucky to work with incredible coaches!  It is really liberating to be able to be where I know I should be and do what I am passionate about.  Right now I am passionate about helping to grow swim in a community where it isn't that big alongside other passionate coaches in our area.  My new team is getting a new pool which will be done next year.  In the meantime we wil

Tyler got the priesthood on Sunday.  It was really special.  The 11 year olds in church now get the priesthood in the beginning of the year so we had a couple get ordained.  What a historic event.  I thought of all these 11 year olds across the world being ordained to such an amazing calling and power.  I am really proud of him.  Since his surgery he has been doing really well emotionally.  Scott and Tyler will be Deacons together for a year which I think is pretty special. Every other year they will be in the same quorum.  Scott and Tyler are serving in the presidency together which is a great opportunity of service and learning.  Scott had his first meeting and came home to tell us that the beach trip is now in August instead of September since he thinks it is warmer in August....so much to learn....lol!  Their setting aparts reminded them what great responsibilities this was and how they can serve their family, their friends and their quorum.  I feel really blessed that it came

This was the first week of Come Follow me and 2 hour church.  The program is focused on a home centered church which is what church really should be in the perfect world.  It should be a supplement to what you are doing in your daily lives and at home.  I LOVE it!  I feel like I need to fill my kids with the spirit and the gospel and doing that everyday in our home will help them and help our home.  We learned about being responsible for our learning and responsible for filling our lives with the Spirit. I am so excited for the new program.  I am excited to fill our home with more gospel learning. Everything is streamlined in church, focused on the essentials and cutting out a lot of wasted time.  3 hour block is HARD with young kids.  Especially when they are my kids.  I don't produce calm children!  But more than that, I am excited for what it means at home.  I am also excited for the importance of the time spent at church.  I have 20 minutes to teach these sweet 3 and 4 year o

Scott was so excited for running club to start.  After breaking his arm and not knowing what to exactly do with swim, I told him to dedicate time to running.  He really likes his running club, has a great coach and great teammates.  I am super impressed with Delta Limitless and Coach Eric.  He is a great coach and runs a great program that is about so much more than running.  The kid are all so kind and supportive and inclusive.  He does a lot of activities with them and Scott has made some good friends.  He decided to sign up for 6 days a week which he has never done and was really excited to start doing something after he broke his arm.  On the second day, he could barely walk.  He said his ankle really hurt.  I felt so bad for him. He limped around and just walking caused so much pain.  He had to walk on his toes.  He ran once or twice a week and it started to feel a little bit better, but never felt all the way better.  Over break, he didn't run at all.  He went to the social

I love the New Year for resolutions.  I am not sure who has determined that the New Year is a time to reflect and refocus but it is great.  It really is something I should be doing daily, weekly, monthly.  Maybe that should be a resolution...LOL! Writing is therapeutic for me and way to process so thoughts so I decided to just write as many things as I can think of that I want to work on and then make more concrete goals after pondering on these for a bit.  Here are some things that have been on my mind. Journaling: I need to journal.  My blog is really my only form of journaling.  Lindsey showed us videos she did from her phone of the year and it was so cool.  I want to take more photos and be more consistent with my blog. Simplify: Danny and I are pretty minimalistic.  The less we have, the better we feel.  I have gotten better and better at getting rid of stuff that we don't use and organizing our home but I want to do more.  I feel like the less I have, the less I have

Danny's siblings all live in his hometown of Layton until about a year ago when his sister moved to California.  For New Years we got in the car to ring in the New Year with them.  It was so fun!  I got to spend Christmas with my sister and her family and New Years with Lindsey and her family.  On the way home, I asked the kids what their favorite part was and they all loved spending time with their cousins. Lindsey was such a great host.  We spent time at the park, went to a fun trampoline/parkour park, we stayed up til midnight, and played fun games and just hung out.  The Drew kids like to hang out and do video games which was a rare treat for my kids.  If I let me kids do electronics they would be on them all day every day so I have to really limit their use but that is what they did most of the day and it was kind of nice to just sit and talk with adults.  Here are some pics....

Tyler's last cath was after his fontan when he was probably 5 or 6.  Echo's and fatigue can indicate a little about heart function but a cath is the real indicator of pressures and function.  Tyler was a little nervous the weeks leading to his cath, asked some questions and by the time the surgery day came he felt pretty calm.  We really didn't make a big deal of it and talked about it just being a minor procedure.  We left Friday morning abour 7 and hit no traffic. Got the hospital about 830 and had some time to kill before our arrival.  We took some pictures and walked around the hospital.  I was so humbled by how amazing it was.  I sat on the family advisory board and when they had the walkthroughs and opening, I was taking care of my parents and life was too crazy to see it in person.  Sitting on that board gave me insight of how much thought and heart goes into all the big and small decisions.  The art, the colors, the layout, preparing for medical advancements.  We