Who woulda thunk it?

Lately our house has been all about music--even more than normal. Jer and the boys sang with their young men's president at our ward Christmas party last week and Junior had a solo during Silent Night. I knew Nick and Jr could sing but Nick has always been a lot more vocal (ha, pun intended). Jer gave Junior the solo and I was worried because he's a lot more shy than Nick. Imagine my surprise when Junior totally nailed it in front of a large audience. Total Howe genes coming through. Stupidly I didn't have any kind of camera, but thanks to a friend of mine, I at least got this picture. Working with Jer apparently gave Junior the confidence to try out for the high school musical which will be The Music Man, and my watching Oklahoma for the first time and gushing about Hugh Jackman in it probably helped too. (Any man that can sing about "a surrey with a fringe on top" and come off that manly is seriously talented.) Anyway, some of these kids that tried out for the musical take acting and singing lessons in Nashville, and Jr. has never even seen it. So we told Jr. just to try out for the chorus. He found out yesterday that he actually got a small speaking part instead and will be Salesman #1. On their first read-through today, he did the "you can bicker" part so well, everyone applauded. It's so great to watch your kid find something that they love doing. The play will be the middle of March and I'm sure I'll have a camera by then. :-)