Some of our February

Pete convinced Casey to join him for his school ski day on Feb 3rd. It was a sunny day, and they had a great time in the slopes! 

Pete started basketball and has had games the last three Saturdays. The first week Pete had a double header. His team lost both games that morning. Last week his team won their game! Pete made a few baskets and played hard. Yesterday Pete got to have some of his grandparents come see his game. He and his team fought hard, but lost in the end. Pete's team is lacking a bit, so this season will not be a lot of wins, but for sure a lot of growth will be happening. 

Casey and I got in a date night the first weekend of February. We went to dinner with friends then we attended the adult session of Stake Conference. A lot of our spare time is together working on the house and I'm so grateful we get to build this dream together! 

The girls basketball team ended up losing in district so their season ended prematurely. Sad / (not so sad to have Casey back for a bit longer.  . . Till track starts. ; )

Valentines was simple this year, we heart attacked the kids' rooms (and even Grandpa Loosle), made treats, and had a nice meal that evening. Alice had her class party on the morning and I went back that afternoon to play "don't eat Pete" with Pete's class for his party.

Uncle Arnold passed away this past week. I took the kids to his funeral yesterday after Pete's game. It was nice to see extended family and catch up with them as well.  He was an amazing man with a heart of gold. I'm so grateful he's pain free and with his eternal sweetheart!

This month started off trying desperately to get the drywall to set (ended up borrowing half a dozen big fans from ward members to get things dry), as well as working on siding. Our focus the last couple of weeks was trim work and painting, with my dad helping us the last couple of weeks and David here for a week. I'm so grateful for their help and very thankful that my Mom and Anica have dealt without them so much these past weeks / months. We can see the finish line but still have so much to do!! We've got this!!!

(I'll order these once I have proper internet and not just my phone ; )

Bonus pics

Ending our January

Alice's parent teacher conference was on the 20th. She got a glowing report. She's up to a 2.7 reading level now and is keeping busy with extra work her teacher is giving her in class. She sometimes wishes she could do what her classmates are doing, but she's so high in many ways that she's doing some extra / different work. Alice got a couple of extra days at Sadie's this past week when we poured cement and an play date with Ava on Thursday. She loves to be social and being with buddies is the best in her world! 

Pete started basketball practice last week. His team is the Clippers and he's being coached by Kimberly Elementary's principal. (Casey happens to be coaching her daughter this year in basketball! ; ) Pete is excited to start his games next weekend! Peter had activity days on the 17th and got to play games at the church and show off his Lego building talents with the boys. He went to Gage's birthday party on the 20th. The boys had a nerf gun war (Pete's still talking about how fun it was), they watched top gun as well.  He also got a play date at Holland's on the 21st for an afternoon away while Casey and I worked on the house. I had Peter's parent teacher conference last week. He's improving in reading and testing fine just needs to keep up on his work, and practice spelling better. 

Kendal got a 4.0 for her semester! She's worked hard for it and is so happy she made it happen! Her anxiety keeps things harder lately and she feels overwhelmed more often these days. We're giving her tools to work through things, and it's up to her to learn and grow through these challenges. She got to go skiing with the middle school this past Friday. She had a great day on the slopes and loves being up there with Casey and her friends. Kendal has spent the last two Saturday's baking at home with friends (Netta / Hope). She enjoys baking and is always happy to have friends around. 

Casey had his last two basketball games in the last couple of weeks. I took the girls to his last home game this past Thursday, then I went back to watch senior night while the kids had a movie night. Casey is grateful to be done with early morning practice for the year. (Early mornings and building a house has been a lot for him some days.) His team only won a handful of games, but they grew over the season and sometimes that's better than nothing. Casey had a good time skiing with Kendal on Friday, however it was a crazy day. (Two kids broke their arms, one girl got a concussion, and a girl passed out / had soe kind of medical issues on the bus ride home.) Casey prefers uneventful ski trips (hopefully when he goes with Pete this week all goes smoothly). Casey's beard is full and fluffy these days. It's the longest he's ever kept a beard, he's very handsome, but it's funny how much he fiddles with it. 

I had book club on the 17th, (couldn't stay long, kids were at activities, and Casey was off at a game) but it was a fun book to discuss and get some time away from the house / kids. Casey and I read the book 'A Man called Ove' together last month. (Combined we finished over 100 books last year! We also read books together - mostly the Dan Brown books but a few others as well). We finally got to go see the movie together in Theaters on the 21st. It definitely pulls on your heartstrings, but it was a well done movie. We've also worked on the house on any spare day we could getting the board and batten all done, little things here and there, and then starting siding this past weekend.

In the past couple of weeks we've had drywall installed, taped, mudded, and now it's being textured. Dad, David, and Andy came up this past Monday so we could pour the garage floors. The weather turned towards the cold side again, but we manged. The boys were amazing and over the span of two days we got the garage poured and set as well as the exterior worked on! We put in some long days and David and Dad even stayed longer to give us more help so we could keep progressing. We have a hopeful move in time of the end of march (spring break ish). It's so close and I'm just so excited this is all happening. My gratitude and joy is definitely overflowing. I am humbled by the hard work that Dad, David, and also Andy are giving us, as well as the sacrifices that my Mom and Anica are having to make for the boys to be up here helping us. I feel immense guilt over it, but on the other hand I'm gushing with thanks for this amazing gift. Work continues and hopefully things go well! We can do hard things!! 

  

  

   

  

Alice is 6!

 Our little lady turned 6 today! Time is a thief and it's crazy how big she is! Alice has gotten to spread out her birthday fun a bit this year. First she opened a cute elephant, hair clips, coloring book and new fun crayons form Grandma and Grandpa Loosle earlier this week when Grandpa came to visit, and a doll dress, and book from Aunt Katherine. Alice has insisted on wearing her hair clips for most of the week and loves putting them on her doll and stuffed elephant! 

Alice got to take birthday treats to school and wear a birthday crown all day (literally all day and most of Friday) that she got from her teacher. She got to pick our family activity last night (Wii games) and tomorrow after school we're picking up her friend Ava for a birthday lunch and playdate!

Today for her Birthday Alice got to wake up to presents and pancakes this morning. Grandma and Grandpa Loosle tuned in and watched her open gifts. She got her much anticipated roller skates. A doll outfit, a couple of barbie outfits, sticker earrings, and unicorn chapstick from us. Grandma and Grandpa Darrington sent her a barbie car and coloring book she got to open as well. She scooted / attempted to stay up on her skates for a bit this morning before church, and had to dress her doll and barbies right away. She got her birthday buck in primary and was happy to tell anyone today (pretty much for the last week + ) that it's her birthday! 

After church we had some lunch. Casey took Alice and Pete over to the house to check on something and let them skate a bit in the basement. They weren't there long (it's a hard floor to fall on and she's still getting the hang of things). She came back and wanted to decorate her cake with me. We've known for a long time (pretty much all year); that this was her "Minnie Mouse" birthday. She's not huge into Minnie Mouse so her presents didn't reflect that but we made plans this week and drew some ideas for her Minnie Mouse cake. She wanted to help me with it so bad and I was happy to let her. The frosting ended up not working out, but she was happy anyways and covered it in all of the fun sprinkles she picked out and topped it with a printed Minnie Mouse image since our frosting situation didn't allow us to pipe a Minnie Mouse onto the cake. I'm so grateful she's easy to please. Alice chose clue and Disney code names as our Sunday Family games today. She chose cinnamon rolls, and chicken noodle soup for dinner. We ate cake and played battleship with Peter after dinner while Kendal and Casey were at a youth fireside. All in all a good birthday for Alice. 

Alice is our little light and joy! She has such a sweet heart and fun personality she wins over many. Alice is loving school this year. She's doing great and her favorite things are being with her class and her specials. She's loving music and the teacher compliments her on her voice and memorization of songs. She loves computer time and the games she gets to play there. She'd love to be in school all day, but I'm grateful for the extra time I get with her this year. I know she's often pulled into our house build along with me which makes for long days these past few months, but she's a trooper and I'm grateful she's just going with the flow most of the time (that and getting a lot of phone time for endless selfies, and bluey watching). 

Alice is still our picky eater, but were slowly trying new things, she doesn't like most of them, but we can get a mouthful most of the time. Alice is still our noodle head and would eat them any day of the week. Her favorite thing to play with is her barbies, but she's into anything play / pretend (dolls, kitchen, ponies, etc.) She loves to be creative and color, and make slime with Kendal when Mom and Dad are working. 

Alice cracks us up often and we adore her fun spirit and bright personality! She's a true joy and blessing in our lives!

Alice at age 6!

Favorite color: Pink!

Favorite activity: barbies

Favorite food: noodles

Favorite animal: unicorns

Favorite song: I am a child of God 

Favorite holiday: Christmas

Favorite thing about school: computers

Favorite book: Piggies and Elephant

When I grow up: A mom and teacher

Nicknames, "little lady" "short cake"

Begining of January

 The kids went back to school on the 3rd of January. Casey had three games the first week of January and two this past week. He has two more, then he's done with the C team for this season, but continues for another month with the older girls. 

Kendal went in for her well check on the 3rd. She's 5 ft tall and 96 pounds. Still on the short side, but she's healthy and that's what's important! She wasn't happy to miss out on school so we got her back to her classes as soon as possible. 

Peter had his basketball observation on the 5th. He got to showcase some skills so the coaches could do a "draft". His season starts the first weekend in February, but he should be starting practice soon! He's pumped to start basketball. It's been too long since he's gotten to play a sport because they cut out fall soccer. 

Casey was off to a game on the 7th, but the kids and I got to go and see Thomas get baptized. He has his own flair for life and was baptized three times, jumped back into the font when he was getting out and danced after he was confirmed with the Holy Ghost. (Gotta love his spirit!) We had a lunch afterwards and then the kids and I had an easy going afternoon at home. 

The kids were out of school on the 13th for the end of the semester. I took the day off, but Casey had to go in and work. I ran errands with Alice and we did a much needed house clean for most of the day. Casey and I spent a couple of hours working at the house that evening. Peter and Alice got to go have a movie night at the Stevenson's so Casey and I took Kendal out for dinner at Idaho Pizza. 

Yesterday we went to Grady's baptism in the morning and then Casey and I spent the afternoon working on the house. We ended our night playing Wii games with the kids. 

We had Insulation go in the first week of January! and this past week we had the house inspected and ready to put in drywall. Dad and David came up for a couple of days to do some odds and ends around the house. We stayed till 8:30 one night to put rock all around the garage floor (which hopefully we'll pour at the end of the month). Dry wall started yesterday and they already have the garage, entry into the house from the garage, and our master bedroom / bathroom started. Casey and I had to pull all of the siding stuff out of the kitchen yesterday afternoon so they can continue work on the dry wall this week. Casey and I worked on the upper siding and yesterday afternoon we finished the west side of the house!

Casey and I both agreed this years goals are house focused. Let's get our house worked on, happy, and done, then we can move on to other things. This house is a miracle, and a dream come true. Hard in every way, but so so wonderful in every way!