Spring break???

Our spring break started a bit early.  We took Bailey out of school on Friday for her last two classes and headed up north to SLC with our two girls.  Caleb and Easton stayed behind for Caleb's soccer game and fun with their grandparents.  Bailey's cheer team was competing in their nationals competition and we needed to get there early the night before for a team dinner.  We originally planned on watching all of Raglan's team perform on Saturday but learned Bailey wouldn't be competing until late in the afternoon and we thought it was best that she wasn't hanging out there ALL day.  It turns out we were super glad we didn't have her there any earlier than we did.  Her team didn't compete until 5:00pm and mad it to the match play round which meant they would go head to head with another team at 8:00pm.  Our nerves were all over the place and we couldn't eat or relax.  Once we knew her team was going to the match play round we knew they would take 1st or 2nd...We also knew that her team had blown the competition away in the first round and basically had 1st place wrapped up.  After the two teams had performed they waited to hear the results.  The judges took EXTREMELY long to decided (as they weren't scoring the 2nd round) and I watched as they argued back and forth.  Finally I saw some basically throw their hands in the air and then the announcer said they had a winner.  It wasn't Raglan. :( Raglan had dropped one stunt in the match play round where the other team didn't.  Now typically the dropped stunt wouldn't have mattered because Raglan scored MUCH higher than their opponents in the first round and a dropped stunt is only a point deduction.  I think they basically decided that since the other team didn't drop the stunt in the 2nd round (they did in the first) they were the winners.  It was frustrating and disheartening to try to cheer out little girl up but we had to accept the fact and be super happy that they took SECOND!

 Early Sunday morning we packed up our things and headed back to St. George.  We picked up the boys, repacked and turned right back around and headed up to Brianhead. The kids took the snowboarding school on Monday and rocked it!  Seriously, Mat and I were so impressed with how easily they picked up the sport.  We originally had plans to snow tube on Tuesday but they had so much fun snowboarding they wanted to try out the larger lifts instead.  We were able to stay in a condo for free which was great!  We had the Christensens and the Edwards with us and all of our kids had a blast hanging out, making bracelets, and shooting dart guns.

Our kids can't wait to go again and want to know when they can hang out with their new friends again as well.  They've already put snowboards on their Christmas lists for next year.  It was such a packed weekend but we had a blast.  We are so grateful our kids (and us) get to have such amazing experiences!

Oh that kid!

When we set out to have kids I figured we would have a litter full of freckly, short, hyperactive runts.  Well, we only got one really freckly kid.  I think with each freckle it must be an added bit of personality.  A kid who LOVES ALL animals!  So much that all he ever wants for Christmas, birthdays, any occasion is some sort of live creature.  A kid who hands-down can dirty a shirt like no other and wears through his clothes almost faster than I can shop online for them. :) Mat every now and then receives texts from friends wondering if he has any "Easton stories" for them.  We came home on Saturday to find that he had convinced his grandma that we cook eggs in the microwave to hard boil them.  Apparently he was rather convincing and since grandma I'm sure had never tried it on her own figured it must be okay.  Too bad they didn't have time to clean it up as I was the lucky winner of cleaning the microwave with the remnants of the exploded egg all over.  When the egg exploded it blew the door to the microwave open and tripped the breaker.  Still, Easton claims it would be fine to try it again that he really does do it all the time.  You can give this kid a roll of masking tape and he will have a fort, ball built, and probably have himself wrapped up in it in minutes. Easton has twitches.  We've mostly gotten rid of the snorting, and the squinting while sticking your tongue out, and are currently working on him to stop over biting his lower lip so the poor lip can heal.  Bailey and I were laughing at his stance the other day.  He stands with both feet pointed outward.  Seriously I LOVE him and all of his quirks.  The best was later that night when I looked down at my own stance and yep...he gets it from me!  He also gets the twitches, the easily frustrated personality, and so much more from ME!!! I love him.  Every bit of challenge that comes with him.  Every laugh he provides warms my heart.  We are so BLESSED to have him in our family!

Save as...

Peyton is our baby. We have been blessed with two BEAUTIFUL girls and two very HANDSOME boys.  Alas, we are done adding to our sweet little family.  Lately I catch myself saying Bailey when I really mean Peyton.  Was it really THAT long ago that Bailey was driving me crazy with dress-ups and leaving her dolls all around the house?  We finally got around to hanging our family photos that were taken last September and found some others of the kiddos before Peyton was born.  I can't believe how quickly they change from wee little things to big kids with a blink!  

 I am VERY grateful however, for digital photography.  While I can't freeze my kids and make them stay little, I can clog up our computer with thousands of photos constantly.  Peyton graciously accommodates my photo taking.  Oh how I wish I could keep them little a bit longer...

Valentine's Day

Just a quick post about the day of love.  Caleb of course had another awesome Valentine box he made for  his class party.  Bailey broke a bit of her dad's heart when he realized his was not the first (or the most exciting Valentine) Bailey received from a boy at cheer.  I hosted Easton's class party.  We played Minute to Win it and it was a hit.  Mat and I snuck off for a very early dinner before the hectic Monday evening hit us.  Overall a very short but sweet Valentine's Day.

One strong kid!

Easton has a bit of a different temperament than his older brother and sister. While he is awesome at team sports he struggles with listening to coaches and dealing with other players.  He asked if he could do gymnastics and we thought it was a great idea.  He has been taking gym since September and recently we added Caleb to Easton's class. We thought it's a great way for our boys to build upper body strength and flexibility.  Easton and Caleb have loved it.  We let Easton perform in the annual review (Caleb had only been going for a month) and we were happy to see how strong he was.  He was definitely one of the best in his group and looked like he really enjoyed it.  He brought home a silver medal and only needs to pass off one more thing before he qualifies for gold.  Love that kid!

I could happen to you.

 With thoughts from my last post in mind, here's another "it could so easily have been my kid" moment.  Last month when Southern Utah got their yearly "snow day" the day before the kids went back to school from Christmas break, a little boy in Easton's class was playing with a lighter and lit his flannel shirt on fire.  Although he "stopped, dropped, and rolled" the little boy had to be life flighted to SLC and suffered more than 25% of his body with third degree burns.  He used to live in our circle and just recently moved out of our area but still attended school with Easton.  Easton was very upset when he came home to tell me what had happened.  When I knew that we would be going to SLC for Bailey's cheer comp I messaged the little boy's mother and asked if Easton could visit.  She said of course and so Easton along with many notes and treats supplied by his class got to pay Jace a visit. 

 The following weekend the neighborhood had organized a race to earn money to help Jace's family with their medical expenses.  Of course we wanted to support.  Easton ran the mile in a whopping 6:30!  Caleb was feeling quite sick and had to stop a few times and finished with a 26 minute 5k time.  Bailey opted to walk/jog with her slower friends and came in somewhere around 27 minutes.  It was a gorgeous day!  the neighborhood donated over $15,000 to help Jace's family and even got a visit to the race by Jace himself.

I'm so very grateful for the health and strength of our little family.  

Bittersweet Weekend

 No one could imagine how excited we get to watch Bailey compete.  After her team got robbed at their Las Vegas competition last month we were ready for the team to take first!  It worked out that her SLC championship took place the same weekend as our nephew Gage's baptism.  We stayed at the same hotel as most of the team so we were able to send Bailey early to warm up with her teammate.  Mat and I took the boys over to the baptism and of course Gage was one of the last to have the ordinance done so we weren't able to stay for the confirmation.  We rushed over to the competition with about 10 minutes to spare before Bailey competed.  Well, our hopes fell when we arrived.  We had found out that one of the girls on Bailey's team had fallen and broken her arm in their warm ups and basically the team needed to pull it together and perform without her.  It was heartbreaking for us.  The girl was a flyer (same as Bailey) and we knew all too easily it could have been Bailey.  So with their teamate on a stretcher getting ready to head to have surgery and 3 pins put in her elbow Bailey's team took the mat.  They didn't look near like the team that competed in Las Vegas.  Clearly they were shook up.  They fumbled a bit and had a few minor deductions but I thought they actually might still pull off first place.  AND THEY DID!  After leaving the mat crying these girls deserved a win.  Their hearts were with their teammate and they still pulled it off.  Such an amazing team!

 We spent the rest of the day at Sandi's and Peyton got an overdose of dressing up with her girl cousins.  The girls were so flippin' cute playing together.  Topped off with a trip to Jump On It that night we had an awesome day!