Basketball Season

We let Sienna play in one more basketball game the same day we left for our trip.  She will be missing the last couple weeks of the season, so we were glad to get to watch one more game.   She really enjoyed her first season of travel basketball.  It was much more intense than the recreation leagues she has played in in the past.  Her team was great; all the girls are really nice and the coaches push them hard, but care about the athletes.  Sienna did not get much play time during the games, but she learned a lot, gained confidence and showed what a great teammate she is.  I am really proud of her and I loved watching her games.  Basketball really became part of her identity since she was going to 3-4 practices a week and often two games on the weekend; I think she is going to miss it.  It was also extra fun because her two best friends, Lain and Madison, were also on the team.  They carpooled to practice every day and hung out on the days without practice.  

Sienna's 5th grade teacher, Ms. Hunt, came to watch her and her friends play basketball.  Ms. Hunt has been a great teacher for Sienna.  

Estelle also played basketball this season and we loved watching her games too.  The little kids are so cute playing basketball because they travel and double dribble so much.  I love it.  Estelle was awesome on her team.  She is very aggressive and quite a good little defender!  Estelle really has some natural athletic instincts.  I think she will be good at any sport she plays.  She also had her two best friends on her basketball team this season too!  The same girls that she played soccer with. Kentley and Kate.  They have a blast together.  It is very fun driving them to practice - I love eavesdropping on their conversations in the car.  Sadly, Estelle has to miss her last couple of games as well.  

 

Fun Weekend

We had a four day weekend a few weeks before we left for our trip.  It was the end of the semester, so the kids had the Friday and the Monday off.  On Friday we went to the Army Museum in the morning.  It was fantastic.  There was lots of hands on stuff for the kids that they really enjoyed and then the more normal museum stuff.  Since it is free, you really cannot go wrong.  

Later that day, I picked up Henry and Adelaide for a sleepover.  We are not normally sleepover people, but we were watching the kids while their parents were out of town.  My kids were excited and couldn't wait to set up extra beds in their rooms.  They stayed up late watching movies and then played the next day together.  They all painted along with Estelle during her virtual girl scout meeting.  Super cute.

Later that evening we went to the Van Dams house and stayed super late...we were making up for the missed New Years Eve party.  We always love hanging with the Van Dams.  We were quite tired the  next day...totally worth it though.

Paint Splatter

 

Sienna went with her Girl Scout Troop to a Paint Splatter party.  She had tons of fun.  I guess they go to throw paint at canvas and they even had a paint war at the end.  Who doesn't love a good messy activity. 

Friend Requests

Estelle has a friend over right now and they just left me a note with a request for snacks.  The note was so cute... I needed to record it.  Because I know that cute 8 year old spelling will not last forever (hopefully: it is less cute when they are 18)

Snack:

pretsols
cheas stick
bananas
penut butter
white chockolite
pares

enything ells we wold like

PS. we wold like it in a  simily face or any other shape

How could I say no that note.  Here are their snacks.  They loved it.  

Then the bigger kids came in and thought they needed fun snacks too. I guess they were not too old for food in the form of a smile.  

Snow...so much snow...and not so much school

 

Monday Morning we woke up to five inches of snow and then it kept going all day long.  We probably ended up with 10-12 inches by the end of the day.  It was supposed to be the kids first day back to school after the holiday break, but it was of course canceled.  The girls loved it.  They played in the snow almost all day long.  

It ended up being a really nice blessing since Jodee was here on Monday and Tuesday and had not had much time to spend with the girls since she was in the hospital most of her visit.  It was nice that she got to spend two more days with them before she had to leave.  

It was beautiful the first two days.  The snow stayed on all the branches and it looked like a snow globe outside.  School needed to be canceled those first two days, so it all felt perfect.  Then they just kept canceling school and the kids ended up being off all week.  By Thursday the roads were in perfect condition but it was forecasted to snow again on Friday so I think they just canceled because it seemed easier than just going one day.  So my kids ended up with a three week Winter Vacation.  

I think they played outside every day.  I remember loving the snow when I was a kid.  Now I am happy to stay in my warm house.  

Third Christmas

 This year, we had not one, not two, but three Christmases.  Third Christmas didn't happen until after the new year but that did not make it any less wonderful.  We still had all the gifts for Jodee and Santa had already left her stuff that she had not opened yet.  Jodee also had gifts for everyone that we waited to open.  Jan 2nd we got up and did third Christmas morning.  It was really fun to have Jodee still at our house.  She had to delay her return to Utah, but that meant we got to spend more time with her.  We were all happy about that.  

We had a personalized gift for Jodee that we were all very excited to give her.  I had put the gift in the tree so that it would be the last gift she opened.  The girls asked why we wanted her to open it last.  I told them it would make her cry happy tears.  And I was totally right.  

Jodee got all of us custom tumblers and we love them so much.  We have all been drinking so much water.  Estelle was super excited for her baptism book that Jodee made her.  Now all my girls have books to remember their baptisms.  They are so special and Estelle's turned out super cute.

The girls had lots of fun little homemade gifts for Jodee too.  We were so glad that we got to have a few more days with Jodee before she had to go home.  Third Christmas was awesome! 

Happy New Years

A Happy New Year it was!  Our New Year's Party got canceled.  That was a bummer, but Jodee finally got out of the hospital so that was a real gift and we got invited to the Clarks to celebrate the new year.  We were so glad that we were able to celebrate the new year with Jodee.  

We played games and ate lots of food.  We also celebrated Gunner's birthday while we were there.  I was a really fun night and 2021 will definitely be a year to remember.