Creative Minds

Kade and Tenley have very different personalities. Right when Kade gets home from school, he likes to hurry and get his to-do list done (homework and piano practice) so that he can have electronic time. Tenley on the other hand, drags her feet to even start on her to-do list and doesn’t care if she has electronic time or not. I love that she doesn’t want to watch TV but I hate hassling her to do homework and play the piano. I do however appreciate her creative imagination and the fun she and Ryder can have together. 
Today she helped Ryder build a tunnel. They designed it on her notepad and than asked me to build it. They sat inside and made a list of the rest of the happenings for the evening. I find it funny that Tenley loves creating to-do lists but hates doing the things on them. Lol

My Roly-Poly

Luke is such a cute roly-poly! Unless he’s being carried, rolling is his form of transportation. He can roll all over a room! It’s so cute. He also loves to check himself out in the mirror. He always smiles when he sees himself! 

Hiking Metaphors

I have a hard time sitting still. I always have so much I want to accomplish in a day, or in my life, that it's hard to sit down when things can be done! I often don't let myself sit and rest until it is all done. But it will never be all done, so when will I take the time to rest?! I've been running out of steam and then I finally had an epiphany last week at young womens. We were talking about our theme for the year: "If ye love me, keep my commandments." (John 14:15) We learned how Moses climbed a mountain several times to get all the commandments from the Lord. It took a lot of hard work and effort for him to achieve this.
That got me thinking about hiking. Hiking is a great metaphor for life. There are peaks and valleys, high points and low points in life, but if I've learned anything it's that we won't reach the top of the mountain in this life because we'll never be perfect. This life is the journey to the top of the mountain. This life requires a lot of hard work, effort, discipline, and consistency in order to get close to the top of the mountain. As we work hard we will get better and we'll get higher up the mountain but we won't reach the top. Not yet. Only after a life of endurance and reliance on the Lord and use of the Atonement of Jesus Christ will we reach the top. And how amazing it will be.
We can and should  reach for our potential and work hard toward our goals still. Little by little we will make progress. But we should also slow down and enjoy the beauty around us. Stop for breaks as needed and help others on the way up. Don't go full speed trying to reach the top today. You won't get there. Take it slow, be steady and faithful, and make sure to have Christ with you every step of the way.

Lexi

My amazing and beautiful niece, Lexi, is a senior in High School and her classmates voted for her to be the President of Hope Squad, a group created to spread suicide awareness. This wasn’t a position she ran for, her classmates chose her because of her happy, loving, and kind personality. Sadly the group was created after several of her classmates committed suicide last year. They wanted a group that would spread hope, happiness, and friendship. 
Last week two Jazz players went to her school to recognize her and the Hope Squad for the good they are doing. I couldn’t be more impressed or proud of her. She is the best!

Productive Days

Other than being able to sleep in a little bit this morning it was a pretty busy day! Brad had a project at home and I had a project at the church and they both required a few trips to Home Depot. The first time we went, we took Keena with us as well and I felt like quite a spectacle! But it felt good to cross some things off my list that have been on there for a while.

We made time to take the kids out for dinner before we went to the church to finish up my projects. They played basketball while we were there and moved it!

The Pinewood Derby

Brad and Kade had a great day on the slopes today. It snowed a lot so they had a lot of fresh powder to ski through. It’s hard to hear about their fun ski trips sometimes. But someday I will join them! 

Kade and Ryder got to race their pinewood derby cars tonight! Ryder was so excited to race for his first (and maybe only) time! Neither of their cars won the races but they had fun and Kade’s car did win “Best of Show.” Way to go Brad! Haha. Luke had fun hanging out with the young women. He’s a ladies man already!

Basketball

Luke and Ryder had a screaming match with each other at lunch. Ryder would squeal and then Luke would try and mock him. Of course, when I started a video Luke stopped squealing back, but it was cute in the moment!

After school Kade had his first basketball game of the season. In the car Brad coached him on being aggressive-in the determined sense of the word. Kade really took it to heart and was the most aggressive we've ever seen him. He stole the ball, and had two rebounds! It was fun to see him play.

The Young Women

We had New Beginnings for mutual tonight and we had several girls get up and speak about how the standards of the church have blessed their lives. It was amazing. Those girls are incredible. They had me crying and I couldn't believe how much love I felt for each one of them. I truly love them like I love my own kids. It's a neat feeling. I'm so lucky to work with them.

The boys weighed in their pinewood derby cars tonight and can't wait to race them on Friday! Ryder is racing one of Brad's old ones. Kade's shark car, a.k.a The Meg, has been a looong labor of love from Brad. He hand chiseled it and used fiberglass for the fins. I'm so impressed. But I'm excited to have more time with my husband! Lol.

We've been getting so much snow lately! We love it!

Swim Meet, Good Talks

The kids' activities kept us busy tonight and Brad and I had to split up. He took Tenley to dance class with Luke and Ryder and I went to watch Kade in his swim meet. Kade did a great job tonight! He swam in two events; the 25m backstroke and the 25m freestyle. He won by several seconds in the freestyle race and he was pretty excited about it! It was a lot of fun to watch.

This morning a good friend of mine called to wish me a belated Happy Birthday. I forgot how good it felt to have a good heart to heart talk with a friend that you've been through a lot with. I'm so grateful for her!

My Birthday

The kids didn’t have school today and they slept in! That was a great birthday present for me. Tenley also made me a beautiful card with a little bit of help from her brothers. And Kade tried his hardest to make Ryder happy all day for me. They were all so thoughtful.

The kids had a party at the jump place for piano this morning which they loved. It was a snowy today so it was a great way to get the kids’ energy out. Brad brought home flowers and took us all out to dinner at MacKenzie River Pizza Co. It was a great day!

Hot Chocolate and Homemade Ice Cream

A storm came in this afternoon after church so Tenley and I convinced Brad to make us his delicious hot chocolate. It was so yummy! And he also made me homemade peppermint ice cream tonight for my birthday treat after dinner. We’ll be so busy tomorrow that we decided to have my birthday treat tonight. It was delicious!

The Symphony

This weekend has been turning into a fun birthday weekend for me. Brad took me to the Symphony tonight and it was beautiful! I love music! We actually have my kids’ piano teacher to thank for the tickets and they were great seats! There was a guest violinist and she was amazing. I saw one of my Laurels featured in the program as well. She’s amazing and just became concert master!

Brad took me out for ice cream afterward which is always a bonus. It was a great date!

Skiing

I wanted to go skiing as a family for my birthday, but since Brad works on my birthday we went today. It was cold, but the sun was out and it was a beautiful day. We all bundled up with three layers and we stayed plenty warm. Gathering all of our gear took a while and we got up to the hill later than we would have liked. We did the bunny hill for Tenley and Ryder first. I held Luke and we watched Brad try and teach Tenley and Ry at the same time. It didn't work out too well. And then for some reason the power to the whole hill went out! So we went inside and ate lunch. We had some friends get stuck on the lift for over 20 minutes before the power came back on. Pretty crazy!
When the power did come back, I took Tenley and Kade on an easy run. Kade has skiied the hill so many times so he was going to be our guide, but he got sick of waiting for Tenley. She really did a great job for her first time down a real run! But it was definitely slow going. After I got her down Kade wanted to take me on a harder run that he has finally mastered. I should have realized that he is a better skier than me already! We got to the top of the hill and I lost my breathe looking down. It was definitely the steepest hill I've ever skied down. I couldn't even see the bottom for a little bit and when another skier skied over the hill I couldn't see him for another ten seconds. It seemed to me like it went straight down! Kade was just laughing at me and kept telling me it was no big deal. I tried to keep up with him, but he definitely beat me down the hill. He's becoming a great skier! I'm proud of him and glad that I'll have another great guy to teach me some skiing skills when I'm able to go more often! When I got back to Ryder and Luke, Luke was fast asleep in his car seat (thank you, Brad!) and Ryder wanted to keep skiing! Even Tenley wanted to do some more runs. I'm so glad they are enjoying it.
We picked up Cafe Rio for dinner on the way home and snuggled and watched T.V. My body is tired! haha. I'm definitely getting older. But it was a wonderful day.