Sweet 16!

Our Beautiful Kendal is 16 years old! I hoped to post closer to her birthday, but was down and out this week so a late post it is. Kendal continues to thrive at school. She seeks perfection for herself and her school work and puts in a lot of work to make sure her grades continue to stay good. Kendal puts more pressure on herself than she should, but she just keeps running on that energy and we're doing our best to support and ease her worries. Kendal has joined BPA and a medical type group this year in school. She also continues to help out with the schools SOS program. Kendal continues to be our vivacious reader and still consumes books like they're air. She even chose a shopping spree to Barnes and Noble over anything else for her birthday. Kendal continues to enjoy running and has found such a great group of friends among the Cross Country team.  Kendal spends most weekends busy or with friends at some point. She's a busy lady when it comes to her social calendar, partly because her friend groups vary so much because she gets along with so many people and they all like her. Kendal is thriving in her piano. Her skills and difficulty levels continue to grow and as she's been taking piano seminar this Semester at school she's been able to devote more time to growing her talent. 

16 hasn't come with the typical things for Kendal. She's been driving since spring of last year with her official license at the beginning of this year. She lost any night time restrictions though on her birthday (so she can drive herself to and from friends houses!). Kendal went on her first date before 16 as well when she went to homecoming. She's definitely not all about boys and dating right now and that's fine with us. Kendal is not a girly girl in any sense, but chooses her own style and her own way of doing things and I love that she's her own person without letting the worlds standards or pressures influence who she is or what she does. 

Kendal's 16 words from this years birthday card: She is loving, kind, has a heart of gold, cozy seeker, strong, resilient, radiant, sweet, genuine, fantasy chaser, book lover, intelligent, musical, talented, loyal, and beautiful inside and out. 

Kendal you're becoming a truly remarkable young woman. We love you so very much! 

Kendal had a very easy going birthday. She had a friends lunch out to chick fill a for incentive lunch the Thursday before her birthday with Netta and Alycin. The day before her birthday Alexis and Becca took her into twin for Ice Cream and a look around Barnes and Noble. Saturday we spent the day with my parents and took it easy. That evening we took Kendal out to Cafe Rio for dinner and then over to Barnes and Noble for her birthday spree. She had five minutes to look and think about her choices and one minute to pick. She was sweet and tried not to go nuts being worried she was spending to much, so I made her add a set she really wants last minute to tip the deal to a level of awesome! 

 

Kendal's current favorites! 

Kendals favorite activities: Running or Reading

Favorite food: tacos

Favorite treat: Twix or sour candy

Favorite subject in school: social studies / math

Favorite book: Powerless or Inheritance games

When I grow up I want to be: Something in the medical field.

November run down

 Alice started basketball at the beginning of the month. Her team is on the timid side so being aggressive on the court is not their strong suit. They lost their first two games. The first one by quite a bit, the second only by 4 points and they won yesterday's game with a score of 12 to 8. Alice is not a go getter on the court, but she's improving in skills just like her teammates. She did a good job on defense yesterday in her game. Alice's team named themselves the Pink Bows.

                                     

Kendal had her Cross Country Banquet night a couple of weeks ago. She was recognized for her hard work and made the 200 mile club this year. 

Pete has been doing open gym sessions for basketball the last three weeks. He's hoping to make the 8th grade team this year. Kendal started winter track this past week. Coach Welch gave them a schedule to follow and she's doing good so far. 

Casey's had two weeks worth of games. Unfortunately his first two games came with him being sick and miserable so he was just trying to make it through those days and support his girls / the teams to the best he could. This week they had one game cancelled due to player illness and then they played Thursday with a small team. 

Kendal and Pete got to go to the Burley Temple open house a couple of weeks ago. It's a fairly small temple, but still beautiful inside and out. 

My parents were able to come up on the 14th. They went through the Temple on their way here and then spent Kendal's birthday weekend with us. They got to see Alice play basketball and then spent some time with us Saturday and Sunday morning they went to church with us. 

Pete got to go to a Friendsgiving on the 15th and then he spent time at Ryder and Gunners for the afternoon. He's got such a fun possy of friends. 

As I said above Casey got hit hard on the 14th with the Flu, he had a really rough weekend, and spent this last week still getting over and through his sickness. It hit me during church last week and after my parents left on Sunday I ended up putting myself to bed and spent the afternoon feeling so crummy. Alice joined me that evening feeling crummy so I put in a sub for Monday. Little did I know that I would be spending the next few days feeling miserable and getting worse. I hit a point where I couldn't handle the migraines so Casey took me to the Dr on Wednesday where I was diagnosed with Influenza (which Casey probably had as well). Thankfully the medicine prescribed helped and I managed to go to work for the last two days of the week. (Was I 100% - nope probably 25% on Thursday and 50% on Friday, but I managed.) 

Yesterday Casey took Kendal and Pete down to Pocatello to see the boys football team compete for the State Championship for the first time in 44 years! The team came up short, but they gave it their best. 

Districts, Tubbs Tradition, and Halloween

 Kendal had her district meet on the 22nd. She ended up not feeling great during her run so it wasn't the finish she hoped for. The girls also came just short of going to State this year (minus CC who got in the top 8 runners and qualified to go to state on her own). The boys got second so they made it to State. Kendal worked really hard this year in cross country. Kendal found times where she felt amazing about her efforts and times as well as meets she fell short of her goals this season. We're proud of her hard work and dedication to all that she's done this year! 

David, Anica and their boys came up for the weekend of the 25th. Casey, Kendal, and Pete were off at a football game / play that night so Alice and I entertained them for a while. Saturday morning we went on our annual visit to Tubbs Berry Farm. It's become tradition and the kids always have fun. We hit up everything we could (duck runs, slides, foosball area, apple shooting, paintball shooting, wagon ride, tractor ride, kids area and most of all the maze. We split into two teams. David and Anica had Pete, Isaac, and Emmett with them while Casey and I had Kendal, Elliot, and Alice on ours. Davids crew made it out first, but didn't get all of the punches, while our group was thorough and found the punches and then made it out. That evening Kendal was off to her friend's birthday party while the rest of us played the night away here at home. The next day was our Primary Program. David, Anica, and the boys stayed to watch the program before heading home. Alice's group did a song instead of parts. I teared up a few times listening to the sweet voices of our primary kids!

This last week we had parent teacher conferences. Alice's was the week before. She's got great scores in school and is doing well in her class. Kendal's conferences were on Monday. Casey went over before his open gym and talked with her teachers. She continues to be a bright student with a lot of potential in school / life. Casey and I were stuck at school for 12 hours on Tuesday thanks to our conferences. We talked with Pete's teachers as well and they praised his hard work this year. He's pulling all A's right now! Thanks to it being a conference week we had Friday off of school so Halloween turned into an errand and pumpkin carving day before the night of fun. Kendal went as a pirate with her friend Alycin, then hung out for a while. Pete and Austin took Alice out trick or treating in Ballards Way. They came home and had a movie night afterwards which was fun.

Pete carved a shilouete of Perry the Platypus (his costume), Kendal a house, and Alice a stage with a her character - Zoey from K-Pop. .. . 

Casey and Alice start their basketball season this week, and Kendal will be starting winter track soon. (We'll see if we can get Pete to join in ; ).