Away at State

Casey went up to Middleton (Boise area) for State basketball this week. Since he had a free hotel room with space for us the kids and I joined in the fun for the weekend.  We dropped Casey off with the team early Thursday; they got a police / firetruck escort out of town. The kids and I went later and headed strait to the school in Middleton. The team lost a key player two minutes into the game and couldn't quite get their groove back so they lost on Thursday. After watching a bit of the next game we went to the aquarium in Boise. The kids liked to see everything. Kendal got to pet and hold a boa and chatted with the worker for a while about snakes. (I kept my distance -Kendal doesn't get her animal loving ways from me.) She was more than willing to pet the sting rays and happily fed the fish. Peter liked it all but kept his distance for the most part.

Since our Thursday ran late with the Aquarium and dinner we took the kids swimming Friday morning after breakfast. Kendal was thrilled and loved being in the water working on her skills and playing around. Peter clung to us like he was near death, but warmed up a bit in the end. After swimming we went and picked up doughnuts before sending Casey off with the team. The kids and I went to H&M then chick-fill-a before heading out to Middleton for the game. The team pulled out a win! I bought silly putty and that was mostly the kids entertainment throughout the three days of games. They barely touched the other activities I brought. The kids would watch bits of the games, but were never fully immersed in the action. After the games Friday we joined the team for dinner at a pizza place near the hotel. Kendal begged to go back in the pool so I took the kids back swimming after dinner. Peter was more willing to get in the water, but still terrified if I tried to help him float or do anything swim wise. Kendal floated, played, and swam a bit.

Saturday's game for the consolation prize was at 9:15. Casey left early and the kids and I came after breakfast. It was a tough game and the girls gave their all, but came up short in the end. It was pretty emotional for the six seniors since it was their last game. Kimberly got a sportsmanship award for the players and fans. There was a lot of support from family, the school, and the community there for the team and we were loud and proud to be bulldogs!
After the game we headed out to get lunch and go to the zoo in Boise. The kids enjoyed the zoo. Kendal's favorite was the jelly fish like last year. She even plucked up the courage to feed the eager goats in the petting zoo area. Peter threw a few pellets their way but wasn't getting near them. The kids loved everything they saw. We ended with a ride on the merry go round. We hit the outlets for a couple of deals and then headed home.

I'm glad we were able to join Casey and the team for the weekend. It was a fun little get away for us.

Forever my Valentines

 Daddy is number one in our house. All afternoon Casey has been watching youtube Disney songs with the kids. He's telling them all about the characters and singing along with the songs. It melts my heart when I see these simple moments. I love these three so very much and I'm one lucky lady to have them as my forever Valentines!


This week. . .
We got to feed the missionaries on Thursday. Once the kids warmed up to the elders it was nonstop talking. I think Kendal shared everything she had to say possible and Peter wanted to share his toys with them. Thankfully our ward is full of active young families so it's probably the normal for theses elders to be surrounded by so much energy. It was nice to teach the kids about more about missionaries and missionary work.
Peter and I got to help out at Kendal's Kindergarten Valentines party on Friday. We played don't eat Pete, the kids also made a valentine for their parents, played a relay game, and ate snacks. Kendal came home with a bucket of sweet valentines that she's been sharing with Peter. She made Casey and I cute Valentines that she hid and gave us this morning. 
Friday night we went and ate a chili dinner at the high school and watched the end of the boys JV and part of the Varsity games. The kids didn't like having to sit by us the whole time (they have more space and freedom in daddy's limited attendance games ; ), but they did well.
Saturday the kids got to go to David's star wars party. Since then we've had to make light sabors (known as light savors in our house) and played action hero's.

 Kendal has Ray hair, and Peter is the temperamental robot PD3.

Lately. . .

Casey wrapped up his teams basketball season at the end of January. They had 11 wins and 6 losses over the course of the season. It was a decent team of girls this year; they played their best and did a good job. Casey has still been with the JV team helping them out and doing district games last week and this week. The varsity is top in the conference so Casey will join them for state next week up in Boise. The kids and I went to Casey's last game and ended up staying for JV and part of Varsity's games too. Let's just say it's the last games we've attended for the season and I'm not sad about it. (4 hours on a hard bench and 2 active kids : / For the most part the kids do well in games; they watch and cheer for a while and then amuse themselves when bored.  (note the picture below ; )They love seeing Casey and being at the games; also basketball is one of the few sports I can follow and like to watch so we attend most home games during the season.

Last week we had a good snow fall one day so the kids and I finally got around to making a full fledged snowman. They were proud of themselves for rolling the parts and packing him together. They even rolled some stools to sit next to the snowman. We enjoyed looking at him for a few days till our neighbors went out and destroyed it.  They were initially upset, but it was a good lesson about how we can't control what others do and how we can we deal with it. Peter made it all good by turning the snow mounds that were left into a pretend snowmobile that they played with Friday afternoon.

We got to have David, Becca, and Thomas over a couple of times in the past couple of weeks. The kids are getting to the fun age of playing all on their own and have lots of fun pretending together. One night they were over I set up games for the kids to play with. They all had fun and each won at all or at least one of the games.

This past week was a bit rough with district games and parent teacher conferences for Casey. The kids saw him for an hour Monday then not till Thursday when we snuck over treats before his conferences started. I had Kendal's parent teachers conference and got good reports that she's doing very well in class and has top marks in all of her work. Kendal has nothing but praises for her teacher and her class! She is also getting into level two books.

School was out Friday so we got Daddy to ourselves for Friday and Saturday. We just stayed home and got to play and create. The kids made a valentines banner with me. We pulled out the dominoes and created mazes to knock down. Kendal and Casey made some cool mazes, and Peter ended up turning his dominoes into train tracks.

We rented minions for the kids to watch Saturday morning. Afterwards we made and decorated Valentines cookies. Kendal even helped me make soup noodles Saturday afternoon.

1st tooth lost!

Kendal has been having us regularly check for loose teeth for a while now. About a week ago I noticed her front tooth was no longer apart of its neat little row of teeth; sure enough it was wiggly. Since then Kendal has been wiggling and waiting for it to fall out. Today we noticed her other tooth was coming in behind it so we encouraged her to wiggle more, and let Daddy have a go at getting it out. Casey tired a pull and Kendal even let him lasso the tooth to pull it out. It came looser but she lost her nerve in the moment. Later we persisted that it just needed to be done. So finally with a basic pull from Daddy the tooth was free. Kendal is happy to have her first tooth lost; and thrilled the tooth fairy will make a visit tonight!

bits of January

I had to eat my words from the previous post when I said no one got my sick. That very day Casey came home sick and had to take the next day off of work. Kendal also had a touch of it, but her's lasted one day. Peter has escaped it all (lucky little man). While we may still have a couple of scratchy throats the sick is pretty much gone. Yay!
We decided since we're going on a trip to Disney with my family this summer we'd better get acquainted / reacquainted with some Disney favorites. So last week I wrote down all of our Disney movies and a few that I know our library has to watch. The kids will pick a movie every week or so to watch leading up to our trip.  (This is a big deal to the kids since Mommy limits movies / cartoons, so lets just say they're excited!) We started our Disney movie extravaganza with 101 Dalmatians. Peter loved it, but wanted to see the bad guys go to jail, and Kendal liked the dogs, but not the crazy lady.
 After weeks of begging I let the kids take out their new scooters last week. Kendal did great and loved it. Peter liked that he was on a "big" scooter, but he had trouble balancing it so he stood on it while I pushed for most of the ride.

Last Sunday we had our monthly Darrington dinner out at Terry and Sarah's. The kids were thrilled to see each other and we had a good evening together. The kids even did a little dance for us off of youtube. We also got to celebrate Grady turning one! (Kendal is the blur at the bottom, kid can't hold still for pictures ever!)

The kids have been itching to play in the snow. We were sick on and off for the past month so our snow time was limmited, then the snow melted here. So this week when we got a good overnight dump the kids and I went out for a bit Friday morning to enjoy the snow and attempt a snowman. The snow wasn't building quality so we ended up with a mound for a snowman, but the kids had fun making tracks around the yard.

After a month with no home games for Casey's team we got to go to a couple this week. Thursday night we went and watched Casey's team beat Buhl. The kids cheered for the "boodogs", played hide and go seek, and ate giant suckers.

Saturday's game was over near Blackfoot at Snake River so I called up Uncle Arnold for a visit and the kids and I drove over to watch the games and see our favorite Great (great) Uncle. Arnold joined us for Casey's teams game and then the kids and I went over to his house for a bit. He told the kids about the neat art in his home and shared stories of their ancestors with us. He even treated us to some Pizza, and put up with the kids 1001 questions. It was nice to catch up and I'm grateful for Arnold and dear Margaret that love(d) us and are like bonus grandparents to me. It was a snowy day and I got my car stuck going up Arnold's drive way. Luckily we got it out in time for me to go back and get Casey from the games to head home. (Snowy drive, not so fun, but a visit with Arnold made it worth it.) Last picture is of Kendal eating giant snow flakes. She was in awe of their size.

Kendal's back in the thick of school and loving it. She adores her teachers and enjoys all that she does. She likes her "extra" classes (computers, music, library, p.e.) and loves to sing the songs she's learned with us, and is so excited she finally gets to pick and bring home library books.
Peter is doing well with online preschool and learning with me. He knows his letter's and is learning his numbers. He is learning his letter sounds and can sing the song, but has trouble when asked random letters to give the sound. Learning is still on his terms and when he feels up to it, so we'll continue as best we can.

At one of our Library times recently Peter was being his usual stubborn self and one lady told me it's a good quality to be "strong willed". It'll be the stubborn / strong willed that make it through these crazy latter days we live in and make it to the second coming strong in the faith. So while I may not always appreciate my stubborn little man, I know he will make a wonderfully stalwart and strong man someday.

New Year

Last Wednesday Kendal got to join Casey at Basketball practice while Peter went to story time at the Library with me. Kendal loved being among the girls and Daddy even had her stand in place for a few positions because he was missing players. Wednesday night we went to Burley to spend time with Aria, Rhett and their girls. We had some delicious Costa Vida style homemade burritos. The kids had fun watching a kids movie in one room while the adults watched The Martian in the other.
New Years Eve was relaxed and at home. The kids played with their Lego's (which they do pretty much every day now). That afternoon I made crowns and glow jars with the kids. (success on how cool they looked, fail on how bad the inside of glow sticks stink.) We played family games including a new Disney Eye spy Peter got for Christmas. The kids got to stay up a little bit. After they went to bed Casey and I chilled out in front of the tube. I started getting the chills and was tired so I clocked out just after 10. Casey watched some Dr. Who and ended up ringing in the New Year alone. (Sorry hon I'll make it up sometime.)

New Years Day was worse for me so Casey played with the kids, took them to Arctic Circle for lunch and took Kendal to his practice that afternoon.
Saturday Casey and his brothers took the kids ice fishing at Dirkies lake. We bundled up the kids and they had fun. Sledding / playing around. Kendal even caught a fish! Casey and his brother's caught the rest of the fish while the kids played.

Sunday brought a new church time and a lot of questions from Kendal because she thought a new time meant we were joining the ward that usually met at nine. I was still under but bucked up and went to church so I could teach my new class. Peter happily took Kendal's hand and went to Sunbeams all on his own. His new teacher is Sister Arrington, but he calls her Darrington because they sound the same to him. Casey ended up last minute subbing and shifting around classes for his absent teachers. After church we relaxed and had an easy day.
School was back in on Monday. Luckily no one caught my sick so it's been good. Casey had a game in Jerome last night where they won. (Varsity is 13-0, JV is similar with one or two losses and Casey's team has two less games so I think it's 10-1 so far.)
This post has been delayed because I'm still on the mend from my mega flu / cold evil and I've been fighting off migraines and headaches. So while the beginning of the New Year hasn't started off on a high note in my books hopefully it's just up from here. No major resolutions for me. . . maybe a few hopes. . . mainly just to have a good year and good memories with my family.