Adam has told me over and over again that he wants a mandolin. I have been extremely excited about this because I would LOVE for any of my children to pursue playing an instrument. After lots of thought and consideration, I decided to get him a baritone ukulele. They have four strings (mandolins have 8) and the strings are easier to hold down. Baritone ukuleles are tuned the same as the higher four strings on the guitar, so hopefully it will make it easier to transition when he is older. Well, I went out and bought one last night. I went with a more expensive one because I want it to last and to sound good. (and I am an extremely easy "sale") He is so excited and has spent a good part of the day today strumming a G. Caleb and Kiah have played quite a bit too. Adam plays and says, "sing Moma" so I sing something that has a G in there and pretend that it all "goes."






Well, I have not written anything about our family band yet, so this is my chance! Seth and get together a few times a month to play some tunes with my Uncle Larry, Aunt Carolyn, and my cousin Daniel. Well, that is the core group of us but we usually have a few more here and there. We just love making music together and show off our talents at family gatherings and such. Seth and I have both learned a ton from everyone and finally have some music that we can play and sing together. It is lots of fun. During the summer we spent evenings playing on Uncle Larry's porch or by the fire in the backyard. We spent the first part of this winter in our basement but now how relocated to Uncle Larry's and Aunt Carolyn's new timber-framed house in Black Mountain. The acoustics in there are like no other! I will post some pictures from there later. Here are a few from our basement:


I sing and play the guitar.









Daniel sings and plays guitar too.










Uncle Larry sings, plays the mandolin and guitar. Aunt Carolyn sings and plays some tambourine. Seth plays the bass.