The Hartzheim's: May 2023

John is Married!!

On May 9, 2023, my nephew John was married to his sweetheart Annie. I had been debating for months whether or not I should or could attend. I wanted to be there to support him as I think supporting family is important, but I wasn't sure I could with my foot recovery. I was cleared with the dr to be able to walk on May 2nd, so I decided I needed to try and go.

I got in late Saturday and went to hang out with my sisters. Sunday we went to church with my brothers family, sisters, and parents. Then I visited my friend Ashley.

Monday we shopped and went to the Saratoga Springs temple open house which was beautiful, then we met for a wedding lunch with Coreys family, my siblings, and parents.

We got some cold stone which is always delicious.

Tuesday was the big wedding day! John and Annie were married in the Provo City Center temple and it was a beautiful ceremony, temple, and weather day.

They were so happy!

I can't believe my oldest brother's child is old enough to be married!

The reception was beautiful and I got to see all my Aunts and Uncle's on my mom's side of the family which was nice.

I was so glad that in just 3 months my siblings and I have been together twice in Utah. Once for a funeral and once for a wedding. It is not often that we get to be together. I don't see my brothers enough and I wish that were different, but I am grateful for the times when we are together and know that even if things aren't perfect that family is the most important thing in life.

I flew home Wednesday but was able to catch up with a good friend Kristen before I left to the airport. I am grateful to have many good people in my life!

I am so glad I had the chance to go and Ragnar held down the fort while I attended and supported my brother and nephew. Family is a gift from God, even in its imperfection, I am eternally grateful for mine.

Spring Soccer Champions!!

Deacon and Channing finished up their soccer seasons with the Heatwave organization this last week. Deacon still played for the same coach, Coach Brown. He had about half of his team that moved up divisions to play 11u. He is only 8 but is playing three years up. He likes the competition and does well. He is very naturally gifted and loves soccer like a good German boy would! His team was slotted #1 all season and they made it to the championship game and Deacon scored the winning goal! Yay!

These were the green goats! He really loves to play with Jonny and Tate.

He has now played 6 seasons and never lost! That is kind of incredible.

This year with Channing we decided to move her back to her age group, so she actually played in the same age group as Deacon. She wasn't confident enough to play with bigger girls and on such a big field. Her friend Berkley invited her to join her team, and it was a blessing for her. She had so much fun with those girls and was much more confident.

They were slotted #5 out of 8, but they won the first game, then the second, and made it to the championship game! She was so excited and played so well!! She mostly played defense, but did a great job!! It was so fun to watch her feel good about herself and play with more confidence.

The Red Dynamite won the championship game in a shootout and her Coach Joseph was thrilled!

So proud of her and Deacon and their efforts on and off the field! They love soccer. Our whole family has adopted that love from Ragnar. Cavin and Ragnar reffed a lot this season and are glad to have a little break now that it is over. Until next season....

Ella is a Star!

Ella has been a busy lady these past couple weeks! She has done many great and exciting things and we are proud of her! She turned the ripe old age of 17 a couple weeks ago. We didn't do a lot for her birthday due to her taking an AP test and the end of the year craziness, but hopefully she knows we love her!

She had her birthday donuts and sign!

She is always saying "I'm gonna throw hands!" or uses the word aesthetic often. We joke about it all the time :)

She got a new phone for her birthday and clothing/jewelry.

She loves a cookie cake and we celebrated with my parents and had brownies and ice cream at that family party.

Ella loves all things music. She is always listening to music or playing the cello, guitar, singing or teaching cello lessons. She likes to dabble in writing music and has composed a song with some friends this year called "Be the Spark." She is very smart and has tried harder this year to apply herself, now we just need to teach her to study :) She still loves to read and write and is into bullet journaling now. Her favorite color is black and she wears black often, but says she is starting to like pink...so there is hope. She is always saying she wants chocolate..must be a teenage girl thing ;) She has a beautiful voice that she shares and got the lead in her Shakespeare play this year. She is growing, developing, and maturing into a wonderful lady. We are proud of her!

The day after her birthday she celebrated Simply Prom, the church's version of Prom. She was asked by Isaac Davis. They began the day with a day date to an escape room.

They were smart enough to escape! :)

Issac picked her up and they had a fun dinner and dance.

She was excited to go and looked beautiful.

After Prom she had her National Honor Society induction. She has worked hard this year and we are proud of her efforts and be be nominated to join this prestigious group!

This past weekend she also had her choir pop show! She auditioned and got a solo in the performance and we were so excited! She sang "Stay" by Rihanna. It fit her voice well and she did a fabulous job! I am in awe of her courage. She hardly gets nervous and just gets up and does what she knows she's capable of!

She did a great job and it was so fun to watch. The show was awesome!

She has a lot of good choir friends.

We hope she continues to develop her love of music! She also had her last orchestra concert with Cavin last week. Unfortunately, she will not be able to do orchestra next year because she made varsity choir and Madrigals so that takes 2 fine art periods and they moved her orchestra class to the same period so she had to choose and she chose to develop her voice. I hope she continues to play the cello and there are opportunities to play.