March 3, 2024
We've had a few seasons in this single week. On Leap Day it was over 50 degrees and I got in the garden to loosen up the soil and put in some fertilizer to get that prepped for later. Addie spent time outside singing her heart out. She was just prancing around on the trampoline lost in her world. Greyson walked Dick and Kathy’s dog for 50 cents and he, Opi (the dog), and Kas were all very tired after their long walk to the lake. On Saturday a winter storm moved in with blasting winds and ice!
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| The Purple Dragons |
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| Coach and boy |
Hinckley asked for the diving brick from the lifeguard himself this week when we did our swim sessions. He loves to drop it in the deep and dive down and push up to the top. His swimming is looking pretty good. He has been asking me where the term "o.k." comes from and we watched a cool YouTube video that breaks down the history. It is really interesting! I love the stream of questions he continues to share and hope he'll keep his curiosity as long as possible. He's been a little interested in soccer this week and I've enjoyed kicking the ball around with him in the backyard and at the park.
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| Hinckley's Genetics report poster |
Adelaide has been powering through Harry Potter 5 and seems to enjoy it quite a bit. She saved up enough money to buy a Harry Potter poster and is very eager for that to come this week. She continues to enjoy gymnastics and choir and is constantly hoping to have a friend over each day.
Greyson exclaimed this week, "Did you know you can grow without limits?! I heard it on a commercial!" haha. We had a great final week of basketball with the Purple Dragons. The kids learned a lot this season and despite us getting destroyed most games they seemed to have fun. I got to volunteer at Greyson's STEM day for the kindergarten on Monday which involved manning the bowling station. That meant setting up and re-setting up plastic bowling pins for 2 hours straight as groups of 10 kindergarteners cycled through the stations while gleefully knocking down pins. It was a workout! And fun to see G in his element.
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| Farewell to Grandma and Grandad Missionaries |
On Saturday John and Naomi came down from their new apartment in SLC (they finished their 1 week at the MTC) to watch the kids while Kas and I went and did sealings at the Saratoga Springs temple. They moved the kneeling benches so she could sit across the alter which was good, given she is in her last 5-6 weeks. We went to Noodle and Company afterward. The snow and wind were intense!
February 26, 2024
This week started off with President’s day and I took the kids swimming. I approached it with a good attitude which made a big difference and was pretty fun. Greyson faced his fears (he describes as “my nightmare!”) and went under the big bucket for the first time with the support and encouragement of Hinckley. He and I also went down the dark slide together. Addie was excited about practicing handstands and other strokes. They are all so eager to have me watch them do things, it is really cute. I also got to go play soccer outside which was exhausting and so much fun.
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| Hinckley's new swim bag |
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| Greyson's spooky house |
Hinckley got a new swim bag after earning that from 2 months of swimming, and he was pretty excited about that. Once we discovered the diver's brick that the lifeguards have in their office and allowed him to use he has really loved going swimming. Addie got her new songs for choir this week and is very excited about singing "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka and some other songs. She was eager to share that she may get to do a cartwheel in her next choir concert. She loves gymnastics and was very excited to point out to me how sweaty she got this week.
Every day Greyson comes home from school and begins belting out the Scooby-Doo song and starts drawing. He just loves drawing “scary things” so much and is brimming with excitement to share with us. He worked on making another haunted house this week and allowed Addie and Hinckley to contribute gruesome pictures to the walls of the house. His morning and evening fits are a wonder to behold. I think I need to connect with him better. He always loves it when we have "wrestling" time together though he always protests my tickling him.
On Saturday Addie and Hinckley had their Bright Ideas workshop (STEM stuff at an elementary school on 1-2 Saturdays throughout the school year), so I took Greyson down to Provo. We hung out at the Bean Museum for a bit which was fun to do with just us, and then we went to a BYU community family show. It was bizarre because it was at the old Provo High which is now the Theater and Media Arts building. It was a collision of my worlds and so odd to be back in that building but with BYU stuff hanging on the walls. Greyson seemed to enjoy the show enough to sit through it which was great.
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| Bean museum play area with Greyson |
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| Making sugar cookies with Mom |
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| Visiting Grandma Dally in Provo |
Kassie got access to an online sugar cookie class for her birthday and on Saturday she made some amazing cookies. The kids were eager to help put on the frosting and eat of course. Kassie's parents arrived Saturday afternoon as they will be entering the MTC on Monday for their mission to church headquarters.
February 18, 2024
This week we celebrated Valentine's and Kassie's birthdays. On Monday we went to a dance at Hinckley's school and had a blast twisting and shouting to the music. It was really fun to see Addie and Greyson dance, and even Hinckley busted a few moves. The kids ate so much candy on Valentine's that they had no room for the tasty crepes we had for dinner.
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| Mom's 36th Birthday cheesecake |
For Kassie's birthday, we enjoyed some Thai food and Cheesecake in between porting children to and from activities. Addie had a choir concert on Saturday and sang some great tunes. It is fun to see how into it she gets, she can be very expressive. Her friend Brooke came to watch with her Dad so that was special for Addie.
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| Addie and Brooke at Addie's concert |
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| Boy cousins |
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| Addie ready to perform |
Greyson had a great basketball game and our team didn't get destroyed this week! The kids are starting to pick up on the fact that bounce passes are critical if they don't want to lose the ball every time to the tall kids. G had a few great shots and was very proud of himself. He is still obsessed with drawing Scooby-Doo and we had a family council today to discuss the use of computers for drawing.
February 11, 2024
We had a fun full week this week. On Tuesday, Greyson and I went up to the Jazz vs Oklahoma City Thunder game at the Delta Center in SLC. It was a great game and the Jazz came from behind to win! Greyson was into it and very attentive the whole time. He wouldn't let us leave till it was over. In his game Saturday he had three baskets and some rebounds and passes, so despite our team getting beaten pretty soundly he felt good about his game and had a lot of fun. He still likes basketball, but Scooby Doo has now taken the crown for his prime obsession. We are exploring putting a ration on his paper supply this week as he continues to draw for hours each day.
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| Jazz game |
Addie had fun with friends and continues to improve her math skills. She had a good parent/teacher conference this week and it was neat to see how far she has come. She loves her gymnastics and has begun to allow me to drop her off at the rec center (rather than come in with her to drop her off) because she "feels so grown up" doing it this way. She and Greyson will still take my hand sometimes when walking through crowded spaces, Hinckley too on rare occasions - all of which gives me a deep thrill and a pang of sadness all at once. We watched Harry Potter 3 on Saturday since she finished that a month or so ago and she was enthralled.
Hinckley and I went skiing at Brighton on Friday as the kids were out of school for a teacher prep day. We had some logistical adventures getting up to the resort as parking is a bit of a nightmare. We planned to use the bus system, but that wasn't going well as the buses were all full by the time they came by our stop. Fortunately, a couple from Montreal picked us up. They drove us most of the way up (to Solitude) and then we caught a bus from there. They asked us lots of questions about Utah and the church and it was great to have that conversation with Hinckley there as well. The snow was amazing and we had a great time.
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| 35 years old |
February 4, 2024Greyson has really taken to his Scooby-Doo costume which he treats as PJs. He almost always immediately changes into it after he gets home from school and begins his multi-hour drawing sessions. He is SLOWLY coming around to the idea that we don’t want him surfing the Internet forever trying to find pictures to draw. This week we got some more books on drawing and he found a Halloween Drawing Book he was excited about, “And then I won’t need the computer!”. He still throws fits about it most days though. The basketball season is going ok, we got slaughtered yesterday as the other team had a set of twins that looked like they were 10 years old. It was sort of agonizing to watch them shoot and rebound and then shoot again for about 50% of the game. Greyson made a basket though and was very happy about that. He is likely one of the youngest in the league.
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| Home Depot crafting Saturday morning |
While swimming this week Hinckley asked how he could stay underwater longer at the base of the pool without having his lungs full of oxygen (since you float up). We asked a lifeguard and got a rubber brick and boy that made his day. He was so excited about it! He organized another friend's "battle game" at our house this Saturday and had 5 boys from school come over. They walk around the park having cerebral battles with mythical characters and such. They then came inside when it started raining/snowing and watched YouTube videos about an animated character fighting math problems. I'm glad Hinckley has found a group of kids who are into this sort of stuff, he had a blast!
Addie is loving her gymnastics class and Harry Potter 4. She is making progress on her times tables and gaining confidence with her tutor and hopefully making progress there. She had a few fun playdates with her friend Brooke and continues to enjoy choir. We went to the annual Chinese New Year celebration at a local high school. Tons of students put on an amazing show and then have lots of activities you can do, all as a part of a fundraiser for a summer trip to Asia. Everyone had a great time.
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| Chinese new year - year of the Dragon |
This is really great! Such a good review of the month (likely using WW's?) and great photos too. What a wonderful job you are doing with your children, and enjoying and loving them at the same time. Looks like you are really relishing the moments of your journey with these children.
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