Tuesday, November 21, 2023

November - basketball

Kendal had a game against Robert Stuart at home on the 8th. It was the hardest fought game of the season so far, with a lot of force coming at them, but the girls pulled out a win with a hard working performance. Kendal was supposed to play at Robert Stuart this past week, however the other team didn't have enough players. So Kendal had to travel over to Robert Stuart and was stuck there for over two hours waiting and watching the 7th grade girls play without getting to play that night. 

Alice finished up her basketball season this past weekend. She had a game on the 11th against the green team. The other team was rough, and kept grabbing the ball. Alice's team held on and ended up barley getting a win! Her last game was this past Saturday on the 18th. They played a nice clean game (can't say the last three teams they've played have been nice), and came out victorious! Her team came out of the season undefeated!! Alice had her good moments throughout the season, and grew in her skills. When she was into it, she did a great job on defense and offence, but when her heart wasn't in it you could tell. Cheers to a fun first season!


Kendal gave a talk in Church on the 12th. She spoke about being a disciple of Christ, and did a wonderful job. She was stressed about her talk being too short, so during the sacrament she looked up more to add to her talk. (She goes above and beyond for so many things.) She blows us away! 

Casey's in the depths of his basketball season. Given his somewhat hodgepodge team they're doing good. So far they've played four games and won three of them! Kendal and I got to go to his game last Monday. It's always a treat to watch Casey in his element! He's a great coach and so wonderful with his team! 

I joined Kendal bowling this past Thursday for her YW's activity. She had just come from her no game basketball games, and wasn't in a competitive mood. She did her best though. Somehow I ended up wining the night with a 140!?! 

Pete and Alice have been wanting to put up Christmas for a couple of weeks now. We relented and let them pull out everything and set up Christmas after Church on Sunday. We put on Christmas music and had a great evening setting everything up around the house. 


Kendal had a busy birthday with an early morning basketball practice. She actually ended up opening her presents the night before because she had early morning practice, and Casey was off to games all night. She got a new chair for her room, silk jammies and pillow cases, a new ring, and a few other smaller things. Her friends spoiled her with balloons, a few gifts, and a lot of sweet birthday wishes all day long. We had a quick pizza dinner before I had to take dinner over to Casey and drop Alice off at basketball practice. I made Kendal Oreo cupcakes with mint chocolate chip ice cream and she was happy about her favorite treats I put out for her that morning. 


Yesterday Kendal had her main group of friends over for a birthday party. They played around and then we did a minute to win it competition. Afterwards they ended up doing each other's hair with the hair kit she got from Hope, then continued to play games till time was up. Kendal's got a sweet group of friends and were lucky they're in her life! 

Pete is in between sports so he's not got much to report on. He is doing well in school and when he can finds his buddies to hang out and play with. He recently had a Lego unit in his STEM class and was so excited to play with Lego's in school! Pete had his Temple and Priesthood preview on Sunday. I bought him a suit a little over a week ago and I've got to say, he's so very handsome in it. It hit me Sunday night that my little boy is quickly growing up and I don't think I'm quite ready. He's turning into such a wonderful young man (still has his crazy / silly moments), can't wait to see what these coming years bring for him! 

 
A couple of extra picks. Kendal's SOS group made this tree in school and my MS Library bulletin board. 


Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Kendal is 14!

 Favorite color: pink, purple, and blue





This gorgeous daughter of ours is 14 today! Kendal is a sweetheart through and through! She is smart, and talented in so many ways! Kendal has stich a big heart, she loves and cares for others in so many ways! She's growing up before our eyes and becoming an amazing young woman! Kendal continues to excel in school. She's our A student and works hard for her exceptional grades. Kendal enjoys sports and has come to love running this past year! She continues to improve and grow in her athletic pursuits. Kendal plays the piano so beautifully! Her talent blows me away! Kendal is still all about her books, but more often she's getting to squeeze in friend time to her busy days and loves being with her friends often. She is a blessing to our family and a joy in our home. We love you Kendal! Happy 14th birthday!! 

Kendal's 14th birthday interview:

Favorite activities: reading, sports, hanging out with family and friends.

Favorite food: Costa vida sweet pork, or lime chicken taco's

Favorite treat: home made treats or twix

Favorite subject in school: all 

favorite book: 5th Harry Potter,  The Hunger Games

when I grow up I want to be: Something in the medical field (that doesn't have to do with blood), or a teacher.

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Basketball starts, Halloween, etc.

 Pete had his Choir concert on Oct. 16th. The 6th grade students did one song on their own and two with the combined choir's. Choir definitely wasn't Pete's first choice for a class, but he was willing to be there. Mrs. Bellistin gushed about how awesome Pete is (even if he's constantly moving in class ; ). 

I was a pill and made my peeps take family photo's. I wasn't in the mood to put together professional photo's this year so it's just a bunch we took here at home. 





Casey and I got to be part of the third annual Wanda Witch race on the 21st! We were team grey, dressed up as sharks, and had Amber and Mike Germonie as our teammates. We drove all over twin falls solving clues, puzzles, riddles, etc. Our first leg took us to a lot to dig up treasure, a dance studio to get scared by some teens, and first fed park where we probably scared a lot of kids looking in all areas of the playground for our clue. Round two took us to cold stone where our clue was inside of a caramel apple, we danced the hula with a little girl at Mo Betta's, and we went to a hiking trail for another clue (had to ask Wanda to decipher our clue to get there, some were very hard to figure out this year). Our third clue bag was so hard to find we spent 40 minutes searching and found many other teams bags, but not our own, one team left without their bag (Des' son's team) so we commandeered their bag and went around Kimberly. We went over to the track, and the water tower for two of the clues and ended with Casey getting a giant brain freeze chugging a slurpee at the gas station. We found all of the clues this year which was a first and came in 2nd place overall!! (We drove around Sunday to show the kids some of our clues and talk them through the night and ended up at Stricker trying to find our clue bag, which we did; another team had shoved high up into a bush.) It's a date night we look forward to all year long, and we had a great night! (Most of our night was in the dark, all my clue picks are at home or when we took the kids around the next day.)

 





That same night the kids went to our ward carnival. Kendal was in charge of face painting and doughnut contests with the kids. Pete and Alice got to go around and enjoy the fun! We had committed to Wanda Witch before we found out about the ward party, so we're grateful our friends the Dansie's were able / willing to bring the kids home from the party that night. 

Kendal played a song in church on the 22nd. She played beautifully! She also had her fall piano recital on the 27th. Kendal played one song on her own and a duet with Tayven that they've been working on for months! It was a hard piece in the first place, then combining it with another person proved to be a challenge. They did a great job in the end, and we're so proud of her talents. 

Alice had her first basketball game on the 28th. She'd been practicing for a couple of weeks and has been working on her skills. The team is a mix of 1st and 2nd graders. They're a cute bunch, and I'm excited to watch them this season. Alice did well her first game, she did well on defense, and made a basket, plus attempted a few more. Her team won 26 to 6! 

Kendal got to go to a friends house for a Halloween party the night of the 28th so we let Pete have a movie night with friends at our house. 

We ended up carving pumpkins on Sunday 29th. It ended up quite chilly, so the kids went easy with some fun faces. They loved putting lights in their pumpkins and watching them glow! 


Kendal had her first basketball game of the season this past Monday (30th) against Jerome. Her team was on it from the get go and won 76 to 8. Kendal was so fun to watch, she's grown over the years and it's fun to go from watching Alice and then Kendal and remembering where she started and how far she's come. She made a few baskets in the game and was a great team player. She also had a game on Wednesday over in Wendell. I was stuck at parent teacher conferences, but I was told she played a great game and she came home thrilled she made a handful of shots! Their team won 35 to 16. She came home made she fouled twice, but that's part of the game. (Lacy Hill took these amazing shots of Kendal at the game in Kimberly.)




Halloween day the kids got to dress up for school! Pete couldn't wear his ape costume because the mask was attached so he ended up going to school as Harry Potter. Kendal was so indecisive she ended up with her trusty butterfly getup. Alice has wanted to be a butterfly for months. Casey and I utilized our costumes from a wanda witch adventure we did a few years ago and were ghosts for school. It was book fair week all week so my days were full. I got home from the book fair and threw together a simple dinner before trick or treating began. Casey was also gone most of the week for basketball tryouts and his first couple of practices the last couple of days. Kendal offered to take Alice trick or treating so I could get some studying in, and Pete was off with his crew for the evening! Alice came home a bit later, and Kendal went back out for a bit with Hope to hit up some more houses. Alice loved answering the door to trick or treater's and she donned the witch hat to go through her candy. Pete stayed out the longest coming home around 8:30. (He even got high praise from a parent that saw him and his friends putting their own candy into empty candy bowls that were set out on people's porches. - ((some other teens were going around pouring the whole bowl into their bags!) We agreed these boys are pretty special!)

 

 

We're getting a lot of use out of the gorilla costume! These boys!! 


Since we had parent teacher conferences and book fair this week there was no school on Friday. I had Alice's conference last week. She's doing great in her class. She's a grade level 3 in reading, almost in second grade math, and she'll start second grade spelling this coming month. She's a smart little cookie and loves school! Lately she's all about art and drawing / creating all of the things. Peter got on the high honor roll in school for his awesome grades. His teachers enjoy having him in their classes. He's friendly, funny, respectful, and a willing participant in classes. He's finally catching on in math (skipping math and being in advanced math has been a journey) and we're grateful he's doing well now. Kendal got a 4.0 and is going great in school. She stresses about her grades and work too much, and her teachers are grateful for her efforts and positive attitude she gives in her classes. We got more comments of cloning her and replacing some other students ; ). We're so proud of these kids and their hard work. They're doing a great job and we hope they continue to strive and succeed! 

Yesterday Alice had two basketball games! Her team did great and won both of their games! The first game they won 24 to 4, and the second game they won 12 to 2! The second game they had a lot of aggressive def-fence coming at them, but they rallied and did well. Alice did great on de-fence. She wasn't given the ball a lot, but she made a basket and got into the game! 



 

Casey was at practice all morning, and Kendal got to be in charge of the score board for all 4 games yesterday morning as well. After lunch Casey and I put up our Christmas lights! We've promised the kids for years that when we finally had a house we would get lights, and so we did! Kendal had her friend Hope over for the afternoon to cook and hang out, and Pete got to have a movie night with his buddies at the Sumsions. 

Memories on my phone from 1 yr ago!