Rockelbel's Canon (Pachelbel's Canon in D) - 4 Cellos - ThePianoGuys

Steven Sharp Nelson adds some flair to one of the biggest one hit wonders, Pachebel's Canon in D. Also a great chance to see Jon Schmidt in touch with his feminine side.

Dare to Stand Alone

Sometimes we are thrust into situations where we must "Stand Alone." President Monson shares one such experience here, as well as every day examples where we can be above the crowd.

Pomp and Circumstance

It has been a momentous week for our little family, as our sweet girls both had graduations!

Tayah finished up preschool and did a wonderful job in her program. She knew all the words, was active in the songs and actions, and just looked sweet up there.

Here she is with Miss Gaelene (left) and Miss Mari. She LOVED them and they did such a wonderful job teaching her!

Kadence finished up kindergarten, properly donning a cap and gown. She too did an excellent job in her program, standing on the front row and giving her usual earnest effort. She even had a line, en espanol!

Here she is with Mrs. Arroyo. Kadence already bemoans the fact that she will "miss her SOOO MUCH!" What a wonderful teacher. We are greatest for our girls' teachers this year. I can not think of many more professions that are more noble. THANK YOU!

Elizabeth and I both got teary. It's all going so fast. Today it's preschool and kindergarten graduation; tomorrow, it'll be high school and then BYU (as if they had any other choice in the matter. We believe in free agency, but only to a certain degree). We are always so proud of our sweet children. They mean the world to us and we want nothing more in life than to see them succeed and to be happy. Days like these are what life is all about!

Oh, and little Tayah also got her first "real" haircut. I suppose she wanted to be like Kadence (big surprise!). She's been asking for one for a while, so we finally did it. Her long "Ariel" hair was so long that she qualified for Locks for Love.

Isn't she adorable?!

Our Movie Reviews

We've been catching up on movies lately. We all know we're your trusted source in movie reviews (at least our hubris tells us so!), so here they are. It's been a while since we've done this, so some of these movies have been out for quite a while:

Loved: The Hunger Games, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Muppets, Courageous, Sarah's Key, Moneyball, The Help, A Better Life

Liked: The Vow, We Bought a Zoo, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, War Horse, One Day, Midnight in Paris, Water for Elephants, Super 8, Cars 2

Indifferent: Tower Heist, Thor, Captain America, The Iron Lady, Like Crazy, Puss in Boots, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Cowboys and Aliens, I Don't Know How She Does it, Crazy, Stupid Love, Footloose, Something Borrowed

Disliked: Larry Crowne, Mr. Popper's Penguins.


Any thoughts? Are there movies you've seen recently that you'd recommend? Leave a comment!

Getting Some Utah Jazz Publicity

I wrote a pair of blog posts over the weekend about Steve Nash possibly being interested in the Utah Jazz. Here is part one:http://www.utahjazz360.com/davidjsmith/steve-nash-in-utah-part-one/ and part two:http://www.utahjazz360.com/davidjsmith/steve-nash-in-utah-part-two-nashs-potential-effect/. Today in his podcast, Utah Jazz announced David Locke talks about this (go to the 13:30 mark). His tip-off can be found at: http://weareutahjazz.com/lockedonjazz/2012/05/14/tip-off-may-14th/. 


Lastly, on 1320 KFAN, they will discuss this blog post on their 1:00-3:00 show.


Fun times!

Christina Perri -- A Thousand years (Piano/Cello Cover) - ThePianoGuys

Could a new Jon Schmidt/Steven Sharp Nelson musical collaboration come out and we not share it with you all? Absolutely not! Just a beautiful way to start a beautiful day.

Love Her Mother

As a father to two--almost three--daughters, Sister Elaine Dalton's masterful message on how to raise a daughter (Oct '11 Conference) was one of the most poignant in my recent memory. Such an important, sacred charge to raise these precious daughters of our Heavenly Father. And the best way: to love their mother. Watch this video, fathers, and like me, you may get a little teary!

Amazing April Adventures

Without further adieu, here is our family newsletter entry recounting our April:

We loved General Conference and all in all, the kids did a good job. April Fool’s Day was tame, but the kids still have no idea how their eggs turned purple and their milk turned green.

This year’s Easter was more special for us. We recounted each day of Jesus’ last week, using the Church’s new Bible videos to help. While we naturally did the egg decorating, an Easter egg hunt, and Easter baskets, we felt the girls learned more about the true meaning of this holiday.

Spring Break does not mean as much for us yet, but we managed to do some fun things that week: bowling for FHE, lunch at Tucano’s, an excursion to Cabela’s (amazing aquarium and animal displays), IKEA, other dinners out, etc. Sarah carried on a tradition in taking the older girls to a special cultural outing. This year was the Little Mermaid ballet, with dessert afterward. During that, Tayah and I enjoyed walking around Temple Square and spending most of the time at the Church History Museum.

Kadence had her bilingual kindergarten program and our sweet girl did such a good job! She knew all the words, actions, and dances and was beautiful in the front row. She didn’t know what to do with so much time off this month at school.

Here is a rough draft of a picture my Japanese friend/huge Jazz fan is drawing of my once-in-a-lifetime experience sitting front row with Jazz owner Greg Miller. Isn't this the Coolest. Thing. Ever?

Tayah and Stockton just continue to keep us entertained. Stockton has to say a prayer at every meal, so our food is almost always doubly blessed. Tayah is so spirited, mostly in good ways. She can have her moments with Stockton. She is “practicing for the 5K” anytime she’s running (we’re doing one as a family in June).

Elizabeth keeps busy with Primary and Activity Days, reading, working in the yard with our fantastic weather, helping provide meals for others, etc.

I just try to stay out of her way. My writing continues to be really enjoyable, especially as the Jazz improbably made the Playoffs.

Church happenings: Elizabeth and I did sealings with the ward; Activity Days recognition night that Elizabeth helped orchestrate; the final ward conference this year; book group for Elizabeth; reorganizing our Elders Quorum Presidency

Family fun: our regular family dinner (this at Danny and Mary Sue’s); Elizabeth attending Rebecca’s bridal and Spencer and Whitney’s baby showers (congrats to everyone and sorry we missed the wedding reception!); a special FHE on emergency preparation (stake-wide); we loved having Marc and Marie (Elizabeth’s sister) and family down over one weekend (the kids LOVED playing with their cousins); having a quick overnight trip up Dad and Donna’s condo in Midway where we swam, watched movies and enjoyed the company and beautiful scenery.

Work events: attended the BYU—Hawaii donor meetings at the Church Office Building (hearing from Sister Elaine Dalton), had LDS Business College president Larry Richards give a devotional to our Telefund staff, LDSBC’s Commencement (with Elder Christofferson speaking and Sister Holland being honored), our BYU Employee Giving luncheon with President Samuelson.

Now on to May!