Bella's Birthday Bash!!!
We started the month off with a Birthday party for our newly turned 10 year old! She has the MOST friends out of all our children! She makes me laugh because she doesn't want to leave anyone out. Every party I let her invite about a dozen girls thinking some of them won't be able to come, and every time I am astounded by the amount of love shown for this girl! They ALL always come! (We don't do parties every year, so that's ok!) So, we had about a dozen screaming, crazy 10 year olds at our house for a late night! Bells wanted to hot tub with her friends, have a treat and then have a dance party! Done and done! I'm sure the neighbors were loving the chorus of squeals and screams soaring through the night air from our yard! ;)
Having all those cute, loud girls come in for treats - oh the decibels!
Then we took them down to the basement for an epic dance party! We turned on the disco ball, got out the karaoke and blasted the music! Good times!
Thomas' Basketball
I took my camera to a couple of Thomas' games this season. Since he has decided "Basketball is Life" we put him on two teams this season. He started a Fall league with Bantam - Josh and another dad coached and it was a learning experience all the way around! We had a great team, with good boys, and good coaches. We didn't win a bunch, but some! They grew and learned a ton! I loved seeing Josh out there with T. It makes me appreciate him even more! Thomas' best friend Tate was on both teams, and that made my heart so happy! These two are the best for each other! They have been friends for what seems like forever. I love seeing them grow up and bond more each year!
True to form, T spent a good chunk of each game mopping the floor! ;) He gives his all each game, comes home sweaty and happy. He loves every minute!
On the floor again - gotta get that loose ball!
This cute team. Tyler Hurst, Kade, Tyler Brown, Luke, Gatlin, Tate, Thomas and Max
Thomas city league team - also coached by my hero, Josh - was awesome! These boys did SO good! They played SO well together, and dominated every game!
Oh how I loved watching every game! I think basketball season is my favorite! I say that about each sport, I know! I love soccer for the sunshine (when it is sunny), and basketball for the quick tempo and scores, baseball - well that really bores me to tears and gives me ulcers when my kids pitch or catch, ;)
Jace's Blue and Gold Banquet
Cub Scouts had their Blue and Gold Banquet - Olympic theme! Each boy had to make an Olympic themed cake! Here's what my creative Jace came up with (with idea help from Pinterest). He executed it perfectly though!
BYU Basketball
We love BYU basketball! This particular game had $1 ice cream! Yum!
Here we are sitting around the TV one Saturday after chores, cheering BYU during a particularly close game! I love those memories!
Young Women New Beginnings
We had our annual New Beginnings for YW. What amazing leaders we have in YW! I love being able to serve with these great leaders and girls! It is such a busy calling, but oh so rewarding! I love seeing these new beehives come in to YW, find their place, grow their testimonies and become amazing young women! It makes my heart so happy! (and tired!) ;)
LIFE!
Homework at our house never ends! Neither do the projects! This is Josh helping Jace with his Pinewood Derby car design. Josh can be found in this spot or close to it most evenings in the week!
Sophie saw one of my YW with a particular hair do one Sunday, so we had to duplicate it! We call it "The Addie" :)
One of my YW - Hannah Holmes - came with a few of her Evolution choir members to bring me a singing Valentine. Make my day! I have sure loved having Hannah in our YW! She is one of my graduating seniors this year, and I will miss her terribly!
On Valentine's Day, Josh and I were invited to a couple of our good friends' sealing in the temple! We were able to be with them in the Provo City Center temple where they were sealed! Yay!!!
Cute Jensen family!!! Those 2 older girls are my YW - love those girlies!
Just a couple of instagram posts from Thomas' class. I love seeing him at work!
Soph at school in the prize line!
Bella and Sophie Basketball!
I coached the girls' team this year! I love coaching the 3rd/4th grade girls! It's one of my favorite things! I had a great team, and I love those girls! Soph and Bells were SO awesome this season! I seriously teared up a few times when they would pass to each other to help each other score, or would set up a screen for each other. So cute! They will be quite the force in HS if they will keep it up!
FUN
Games at Pop's and Grammie's for Sunday dinner.
Danielle comes down Tuesdays and Thursdays to go to Zumba at my Stake Center. We both look like this - I'm usually holding Bentley, she's got Izzy and we're a circus!
My lovely Wednesday temple trips. I love the quiet peace I find there each time!
Erika - my Laurel advisor, and I went to support a couple of our YW for their drill showcase. I brought Soph and Bells, and they found a bunch of other friends to hang out with. So fun!
Young Women's Retreat
We had our annual YW Retreat at Erika's house. We played games, ate so much junk, and bonded. We had a couple of devotionals and our main theme was the Book of Mormon.
The girls made up skits from Book of Mormon stories - it was SO funny! They are so creative and cute!
Our "craft" was a Book of Mormon kit - we put tabs on scriptures that can "help us when..." We added quotes from the apostles about those topics to it too. It was a good activity!
Kaley Basketball!
Kaley played basketball this season as well! She did great - she was the young end of her team this year now that she is in 7th grade. She still cracks us up with her giggles and smiles during the game!
Jace Basketball!
Jace played on a team with a bunch of neighborhood boys, and it was so good! Josh helped assistant coach this team. We were BUSY Jan/Feb!!!
Here's my cute team!!! Bella, Oaklee, Daelyn, Avorie, Madi, Soph, Heidi and Abbey.
This game. This was the last game of the boys' season. It was their tournament game - not that we were in it for a placement or anything, but they played their hearts out! The last 30 sec was what will forever be remembered. The other team was ahead by 1. They were passing it in after their basket. There was about 5 seconds left in the game. We were pressing defense pretty hard. They got it passed in, and we knocked it out. 3 seconds left. They passed it in one more time. It was tipped. Right to Thomas. Under HIS basket. He grabs it, shoots - off balance - and IT GOES IN!!!!! They won!!!! The video of this moment is priceless. I had been videoing off and on all game - T was on fire, and I wanted to catch a 3-pointer on camera, which I did. Then on a whim, Kaley said Mom you should just record the last 5 seconds - what if something great happens? So I did! And I caught it all!!! The best part of it, was Thomas' run down the court, away from his celebrating players, jumping in the air, air-body bumping Tate, and then me running to the floor to give him a hug. All on video. I'll admit, I was totally crying. Best game ever!
Smiles ALL around - we talked about that game all weekend! We left to go to Idaho for Brennen's homecoming talk, so T was able to show the whole family his game winning shot!
The weather was NOT phenomenal though - I could have done without the awful storm we drove through the whole way to Jerome! It was SO bad! Josh would turn on the brights, and we couldn't even see the road! The wind was blowing so bad that you couldn't see in front of us! We prayed that we would get there safely, and we did. It was wild!
