So long February, Marching on. . .

 Peter had his 3rd/4th grade basketball tournament on the 19th. His team went in with no wins so we didn't hold any expectations. Peter got in a couple of baskets during his game!! Peter's team played well, but as usual were outmatched with height and defense. They were out first round, but had a good attitude about it. This was definitely a year of growth and learning. We're proud of the progress he's made this year! 

Casey took Peter and Kendal skiing that afternoon up at Magic Mountain. They had a such a great time together, and their friends (Dansie's) were up there as well! It was only Peter's second time and he continued to improve and impress Casey. Casey says he'll be out-skiing him in no time. Kendal enjoyed her time up on the mountain and is getting very comfortable up on the mountain. Both kids wish we would go more. While they were gone Alice and I fit in some errands and I took her to Chick-fill-a where we ended up bumping into some buddies that she got to join in the play area for a bit. 

We had the 21st off of school. Casey offered to stay home and grocery shop / do laundry while the rest of us joined friends and went to Banbury hot springs in Buhl. Alice loved had fun with Sophie and the other two paled around with friends. 

Alice got to go to the Fire station for a preschool field trip on the 24th. I asked her about it later and her most memorable part was that they had a kitchen. 

Casey went up to Boise yesterday with his Dad to watch State basketball games. Kimberly won state for the 3a division!!! First time since 1952. It was a one day trip up and back, but they watched a handful of games and had a good day in Boise! Casey spent many years going to state games with his family, so they continue the tradition whenever they can. 

Now that we're in between sports our days pretty much stay the same. A few updates . . . 

Casey got "fired" from his PBIS coach position. He got put on this team last year, and has gone to many conferences / trainings. He's put a lot of work into this program for school. . . However, just because he can't make a training this summer (He'll be on his DC trip) they decided to take his position away and have a teacher with less "extra" things on their plates handle it. Funny enough he was told this and still had to go to Boise a few days later for the training since the new coach was out of town. I'm sure he'll still have a hand in this program; he's just no longer a head person for it in his school. Track starts soon for the middle school. Casey's ran off and on the last month, he fits it in between bad weather days and when his knee isn't hurting him. 

Work is going well for me. I'm in a good groove and feel things are going well. I've processed a lot of new books lately, revamped our reading programs a bit, and am working on weeding out bad / unread books in the library and re-labeling all of the books that still have the old system info on them. My days are busy, but I do my best. I did a movie night with some friends a couple of weeks ago. We watched the new Emma that I haven't seen; it was pretty funny. I had a book club last week with some friends. It was such a sad book, but it pulled me in. Casey and I are still on our reading kick and we decided to read a few books together this year. We read Angels and Demon's at the beginning of the year, and now we're onto The Davinci Code. 

Kendal had parent teacher conferences last week. Casey went and chatted up her teachers. They are impressed with her. She's a good student and a good kid and that reflects in many things. Kendal finished her last set of piano books!! She's gone through five sets of books in the last four years. She's now onto harder songs / concepts and will work on what she wants to to further her skills now that she's got all of the basics down! We're proud of her hard work with the piano and look forward to her skills continuing to flourish! Kendal has had a spa night, game night, and an escape room night for Young women's these past few weeks. She's taking on more being first counselor, and doing a good job of it. 

Peter is onto a new set of books he's liking (wimpy kid series). He is liking STEM this semester! He dissected an owl pellet last week and said it was cool, but he gagged doing it. This week he got to shoot soda into the air with chemical reactions. He finished his Idaho history report and brought home his packet that he's worked months on. Peter had an activity days a couple of weeks ago where the boys took their favorite games and played around at the church. Now that basketball is over he's gotten to spend more time playing with friends after school. He's at Austin's as often as he can be, and got to go over to Wyatt's house last weekend to play. 

Alice continues to love in person preschool, and is making good progress in online preschool. While I wouldn't have originally picked putting Alice in day care it's been good for her in many ways. She's learning to work with others, be respectful and listening to adults, and has so much fun playing with the other kids. She's going to go into Kindergarten well equipped! She's lately discovered the joy of video's and silly pictures on my phone. I have so many video's of her little sing song voice talking about her toys and random silly things. She is picking up words all of the time, and made it through her next set of early reader books recently! 

 

Basketball and Love

Peter had basketball games on the 5th and 12th. Both games ended in losses. Peter's had a tough season. He's playing his best, but his team is on the short side of things and their defense is very lacking. It's a year of growth for sure, and throughout it all he's maintained a good attitude. 

Casey's basketball season is over. JV was out in their first game, and Varsity got shut out a week later. They hoped to make it farther, but that wasn't in the cards this year. Since we didn't know Casey's basketball schedule we got in our Valentines date on the night of the 5th. We used a gift card and went out to Texas Roadhouse and ended our date walking around Home Depot for "dream home" ideas. 

Peter reached his reading goals at school and earned recognition and a free game at a CSI basketball game. The game was on the 9th; Casey was supposed to be at a game that night, but since the girls lost Monday he was able to take Peter that night. They had a good time, and came home just after half time because it was a late game on a school night. 

Another perk to basketball ending for Casey is he was able to join Peter on the 4th grade ski trip last Thursday. Peter was so excited to go and came home all hyped about his day. I think he considers himself an expert now at skiing and is begging to go back. Casey said he did well for his first time skiing. Peter had his lessons and then they hit the bigger hills and stayed on them till closing! 

Alice had her preschool Valentine's party on the 10th. She was so sweet writing her class mates names on each valentine along with her own. She is loving preschool and Mrs. Tysha. I got a call from her Waterford rep and Alice is reading in the first grade level now! (Holy Moly!!!) She's almost in first in her math and science skills as well. The lady was so impressed with Alice's progress, dedication, and drive. She is working really hard and enjoying it for the most part. Sometimes the repetition gets to her, but she's rolling along so well!

We headed out to Raft River for our monthly family dinner and watching the Super Bowl. The kids just wanted to watch cartoons and pal around with cousins. The game was on downstairs and I didn't really watch it because I was sucked into a book. We had delicious pork burritos and enjoyed the day with family. 

For young women's Kendal has had a hair braid tutorial night with all of the girls. They boys put on an escape room night last week, and tonight she had a get to know you night that she put together herself. She's now first councilor in her YW's class. She's in the thick of planning and meetings. Piano is going well, she's going through her last lesson book this year and she'll probably be done with it by summer. So talented! 

Valentines was a good day. Casey and I heart attacked the kids' doors with love notes and left a treat for them to find in the morning. Alice had a Valentines party at preschool and got to play games, make a craft, and enjoy her buddies there. Peter's teacher opted out of a party and let his class pass out treats and watch a movie while they ate their goodies. Kendal exchanged a few valentines with friends and wondered why her classmates are all of the sudden weird about valentines and boys/girls. ; ). (I'll enjoy her innocence as long as I can.) We ended our night with a fancy dinner. Pulled out the China and had a delicious dinner and cheesecake. 

Some extra pictures of my awesome family. Love these peeps so very much! 

End of January catch up.

Casey's basketball team finished up their season on Friday. He's had a rough second half to his season with injuries, illnesses, and girls that have been flaking out and making things hard. The number of girls he's had for practices have been sporadic in attendance, and he even had to cancel a game because only 3 girls were available. He still has districts and possibly state to go with JV and Varsity so a few weeks more. 

I've had to do a lot of extra work at the school library. Camille got Covid and was out a few days one week and this past week I took over for a day because she didn't feel well. It's a lot to handle, but I get by and do my best. Casey and I got to go on a date last Saturday and listen to a guest speaker on marriage and family that our Stake put on. It was such a good presentation, and gave us good things to talk about and work on. I'm so lucky to have Casey by my side in this crazy journey we call life. We are nowhere near perfect, but we are perfect for each other. (You don't find your soul mate you help create them.)

Kendal earned a 4.0 for her semester! She's working hard in school and is doing her best! This semester she gets to have keyboarding and computer basics as her elective classes. She's so close to finishing her lesson books for piano. From there she'll be done with basic lessons and knowledge to special pieces, and learning / working through harder pieces. She's decided to take on two spring sports this spring. So her month of April is going to be packed / crazy!! We'll see how it goes. Kendal is getting into her roll as first counselor in young women's. They had a murder mystery night, and a goals / dream board planning night. 

Peter's had a couple of more games the past two Saturday's. Grandma D came to watch him play on the 22nd. He played hard and got a couple of baskets. They barely lost but gave it a good try. Yesterday they were just outmatched in defense and lost again. Peter's growing in skills and doing a good job, hopefully his team can pull out a win in the next week or so. Peter's parent teacher conf. was this past week. He's doing well in school with good grades and his test scores have improved! His teacher has only good things to say about him and he is doing well overall. Peter got to have his AR party last week! The fourth graders went to the CSI planetarium and watched an IMAX show. Peter had his first activity days meeting on Friday. He got to play games that taught cooperation and working together, then they talked about goals. 

Alice had her 5 yr old well check this week. Aside from being a picky eater she's doing great! She's growing in mind and body. She's still our little ham that keeps us laughing and her imagination makes us smile constantly. (Like today. I told the girls to secure us a bench for church while I went to the primary room. She went to the chapel, found a bench, spread her arms out at it and said boo, thinking I had told them to scare the bench ; ). Alice is loving her new preschool and doing great with her new teacher and having boys in her group. She's her own person - as you can tell in the picture below. Boots on the wrong feet, hat backwards, marching confidently up the stairs like she's the boss of life. 

Friday we had school off. Casey still had meetings and then away game so it was just the kids and I. We cleaned the house for most of the day. I rewarded their hard work with Fiesta Ole dinner in the living room while they watched a movie. 

Since we accidentally got an extra set of bunks we offered them to David and Anica. So yesterday they came up to claim the beds and we got to spend some quality time with them. The kids loved having cousin time and playing the afternoon away! The kids had fun doing nerf wars and Lego's. We went to the little Herrett Center museum at CSI. It was a short visit, but so good to see them! 

It's been very cold the last couple of weeks. Our ice and snow is sticking strong, we're all over it since our winters have been fairly mild the last couple of years, but I'm sure February will pack in some more weather for us to deal with. 

Alice is 5!

 Alice turned 5 yesterday! The past few years I do a list of favorites on the kids' birthday card. So Alice's 5 favorite things right now are. . . Unicorns, noodles, barbies, singing, and preschool. We often find Alice making up songs and singing away when she's doing her own pretend play or just sitting around. She picks up on songs fairly quickly and we love to hear her made up tunes. 

Preschool is a definite favorite for her this school year. She is thriving in Waterford. She is reading simple books and doing math and other advanced things that are cool. She wishes everyday was a preschool day with her friends. She's loving learning and is growing in many ways there as well. Alice can read simple books. We know she's picked up a lot of words from preschool, so the other day I pulled out a stack of pre readers and she read them all! She blew me away with her reading skills! 

Alice has such a fun personality. She is so funny. The things she says, or does make us laugh often! She now recognizes when she's getting a laugh and will ham it up extra for us. She's got such a light and sweet personality it's easy to fall into her spell and truly in last kid fashion she gets away with quite a bit. 

Alice is our go with the flow kid. Her opinionated side is coming out strong this year, but generally she works with what she's given and deals with busy family life. While having her in day care this year isn't my ideal, I think it's made her grow and learn in many ways. She'll go into kindergarten later this year doing better at working with others, and following rules set by others. 

Alice's independence is also growing this year. She knows what she wants and works to get it. She wants to do things on her own more without help or interference. When others are gone or to busy to play she'll play on her own and is in her own beautiful world of imagination for a time. 

Alice at age 5!

favorite color: Pink 

Favorite activity: "play with my birthday stuff"

Favorite food: Macaroni

Favorite animal: Unicorn

Favorite song: I am a child of God

Favorite holiday: my birthday

Favorite book: Piggie and Elephant

When I grow up: "a teacher" 

Nicknames: "noodles", short cake, fluffy, Ali

Alice: our little caboose - we love you so very much; Happy Birthday!

At 5 Alice is 44 in. Tall (90%) and 40 lbs (50%)