Pete and Casey went up for a ski day with the other 6th grade students on the 15th. Because it had snowed so much the previous week they had a lot of fresh powder. Casey wanted to venture out into the fun looking powder, but quickly learned that wasn't as much fun as it looked so he stayed on the more groomed and well traveled paths for the day. Pete had a blast with his buddies on the mountain and has had fun growing in his ski skills this year. 

I stole away to watch Casey's last home game on the 16th. It's always a treat to see Casey in his element coaching and encouraging the girls to play to their strengths and to give it their best. Casey had one of his best season's ever with 12 wins and 4 losses. He's proud of this team and all the hard work they've put in this year to come out on top. His season ended just over a week ago. This past week the JV and Varsity started districts. JV ended up winning both games and made #1 in districts. Varsity won one and lost one last week. They'll continue their district games this week with the hopes of getting to State (that will be next weekend). 

We had school cancelled on the 17th. The storm came in with a vengeance and we wouldn't have made it out that morning to work. The kids enjoyed a random snow day in their week. Casey and Pete plowed out a few houses. Besides Casey getting in an afternoon practice at the school we just had an easy going day at home. 

Pete's got to go to his friend Gage's house on the 19th for a party. They had pizza and got their scare on with a scary movie. His little friend group cracks me up trying to get their thrills in. That same night Casey and I had a staff party for the middle school teachers at the Brickhouse in Twin. We had a delicious dinner followed by games and conversation with our fellow staff / spouse's. It was a fun date night. I won for guessing which teachers said what in a game, and Casey's team won a round of "Family Feud." 

Pete has had games the last three Saturday's. His team won their game on the 20th! He made some baskets and played well. Last week on the 27th his team fought hard and ended up loosing by just a couple of points. Pete put in his best game yet! He was on point for defense and got in some shots to help his team out. It was the first loss of the season and the boys were disappointed. Yesterday was Pete's last regular season games before his tournament day this coming weekend. He finally got to go up against his best buddy Austin (funny enough, they're both #5 on their teams). His team was missing a couple of players and the other team was on a roll. Pete's team ended up losing by a bit. 

 

Kendal got to go up to Magic Mountain on the 20th for a free afternoon of cross country skiing with her friend Hope. She had a good time learning something new. She said she got bored of the little loop they went on, but had a good time anyway. 

Alice had her birthday party also on the 20th. I'm so bummed that I didn't take any pictures of her friends and the fun. Alice had Natalie, McCall, Sophie, and Emma over for her party. The girls made bracelets first and then decorated cookies. After presents we played games. Alice was so excited for her party, she spent the weeks leading up to her party begging to decorate and plan for her party. It was a messy chaos, but the girls had a great afternoon together! 

With the quarter ending this past month, Kendal and Peter got their grades in and Alice had parent teacher conferences. Kendal got a 4.0! She stresses and works so hard and were glad her efforts come out with such awesome grades! Peter got on the high honor roll. He's more casual than his sister when it comes to school and is not driven to get only A's, but he works hard and is doing so good in his classes. Kendal get's to be in Art and P.E. for third quarter, and Peter gets to be in Finance and Computer Basics this quarter. Alice continues to grow and impress us with her smarts and good scores at school. She's at a 4th grade reading level now and working on second grade work in Math and spelling. Her teacher would like her to talk less and listen better in class, but otherwise loves having Alice in her class. 

Kendal and Casey got to go up to ski for the 7th / 8th grade ski day on the 26th. It was overcast, but a nice day for them up on the hill. We had rain here, but nothing crazy. I had to attend a training in the morning, then I caught up on some work before I came home for the afternoon. Pete ran off to play and I hung out with Alice to play. 

It was the annual fundraiser / chili night at the high school Friday night so Casey took the older two to eat and see the games for the boy's last home game of the season. Alice opted out so we stayed home and had a chill evening playing / reading together before I put her to bed and studied for my ABCTE work. 

Nothing major happening to fill this post with anything else. Our days are full of school, work, basketball, church, and living life. Can't believe it's already February. Basketball ends this coming week for Pete and this or next week for Casey depending on how Varsity does finishing up districts. We'll get a tiny break in between sport seasons, and continue to do what we do! 

Sometimes they don't know how to leave each other alone.

Do I know anything about tech, not really, do I deal with the Middle School tech, yes, so fun. . . broken computer # 12 this year. 

Little lady decided to scare her brother and his friends.

Basketball parent life.

 My January bulletin board (the bear once held a book, it fell off).

 

Alice is 7!

 

This amazing young lady is 7 today! Alice is at such a fun age. She's creative, silly, and growing up way to fast. Alice may get her way the most, but she also gets a backseat to big brother and sisters busy happenings which isn't always fun, but it's made her such a creative and little lady.  Alice has a big personality, she lives her life full of love and light! Alice is such a smart girl. She just tested at a 4th grade reading level and she's doing second grade math and advanced spelling in school. She is very into chapter books: especially princess in black and owl  / unicorn diaries. Alice is still on the picky end when it comes to eating, but she's slowly progressing. Alice spends her days making things, playing barbies, reading, and loving life. She's a true ray of light in our lives!

Alice got to have the day off of school for her birthday for MLK day. I still had to work and Casey and Pete went skiing. Alice decided to get up early so she could open gifts before I left with Pete to the school (Casey had early morning practice). She was very excited for her lego set and spent the morning happily ruling the house and directing what she and Kendal got to do. The girls built her lego set, watched Bluey, and baked her cake. I quit around lunchtime and took the girls into chick fill a for lunch. Kendal wanted to buy Alice a present so we went over to Target and she picked a little mermaid barbie. After picking up some groceries we went home. The girls finished the lego set and Alice helped me decorate her cake. She was so happy how it turned out (I've decided cakes made by the kids are 10x better than trying to make beautifully crafted cakes.) The boys came home and we enjoyed dinner, chatting with family, and cake and ice cream before bed.

Alice's top 7 things at age 7:

Unicorns, Barbies, Pink,  her family, arts and crafts, Bluey, and princesses. 

January snow!

 Brett Welch took Kendal and Pete up to Magic Mountain on the 2nd to ski with Netta; Casey joined them at lunchtime and finished the day with the kids. It hadn't snowed much, so it was a bit icy,  but they had a great time. 

We went back to school on the 3rd. It was hard for the kids to go from two weeks of being off schedule and going back to 6:30 wake up call, but they dealt with it. I actually had a very short week because Kendal got to have her braces off on Friday the 5th! Her appointment cut into my work day so I took the day off. I got some studying in and then grabbed Kendal for her long appointment. She is beautiful! She's still getting used to her retainers and bare teeth. 

Pete had basketball games the last two Saturday's.  He had a great game on the 6th with a three point shot, a couple of other baskets, and some good playing time. His team won by a couple of points! Yesterday his team was down most of the game, but they made their way back and won by one point with one second left! Kendal got to go and do the clock at games for a few hours on the 6th then spent the afternoon at Netta's playing her new game Villainous. 

Pete was ordained a deacon this last Sunday by Casey! It still feels weird that Pete is old enough to be in Young Men's, but he is and he's so excited for this new chapter in his life. We're so proud of the young man he is becoming! Kendal and I also got callings on Sunday. I will be serving as secretary in a new primary presidency and Kendal is first councilor in her YW presidency! 

Kendal and Pete got to join the youth for temple baptisms Tuesday evening. Pete was so hyped and excited to go and Kendal was a proud sister telling him all the things and helping him get ready. They had a wonderful evening serving in the temple only to be topped off with frozen yogurt at Orange Leaf with the Bishop!

We had the last week of the quarter this past week in school. Pete is sad to not have PE anymore and Kendal had fun being Casey's aide this last quarter. We had snow come in during the week which made our drives to school not so fun on Wednesday. We continued to get snow and ended up having school canceled Friday for a severe storm warning. We didn't get a ton of snow, but the wind was insane and the snow drifted a ton. Games and practices were canceled as well. 

We had another severe storm warning last night into this morning and had church cancelled as well. We had drifts up to three feet in some places and waves of snow all around the house. Casey, Pete, and I got our driveway cleared (and part of the road, so we could get out tomorrow). After that Casey and Pete headed out and helped some neighbors with their driveways this morning. The girls and I played around in the backyard for a bit. The snow was too fluffy to pack into a snowman, so we made snow angels and tromped around getting stuck in the drifts. After our snowy morning Peter got the opportunity to pass the sacrament for the first time as we did "home church" today. We were given permission to have the sacrament at home today and it was so neat to have Peter and Casey bless and pass the sacrament to our little family. It's been a lazy few snow days. The kids went out sledding in the snow yesterday, but other than that we've been homebodies.

A few extra pictures from the last couple of weeks.