Hyrum's 9th Birthday

After Justin's birthday in February, Hyrum begged me to make the same cake for his birthday, only he didn't want the cake, just the frosting. However, the rest of us really love the whole cake so he got both.

We overdosed on the ooey gooey goodness of the cake . . .

while Hyrum was completely content to lick his way to a frosting sugar high.

LeRoy was thrilled to FINALLY have a sport themed birthday for one of his kids. It only took 25 years but he now has his football and basketball loving boys.

Hyrum felt that being a whopping nine years old  meant he could light his own birthday candles. It took a little skilled suggestion from Justin but he got it done.

Daymia and Levi went straight to his list of favorites and gave him candy and money.

LeRoy and I gave him the much anticipated and hoped for Wolverine claws (which caused a bust of laughter when the two outside fingers collapsed down but the middle finger didn't) and a football that we all signed in metallic silver permanent marker.

Cousin Max was so thoughtful to consider Hyrum's love for building when he sent a set of wood pieces with instructions that he created all on his own. Hyrum was impressed and ready to build.

My favorite part of birthdays is seeing my kids celebrate together and love on one another.

State Cheer Competition

On February 25th Justin's cheer team went to District's and qualified to go to the State Cheer Competition in Boise.

They arrived in Boise on Friday, March 3rd, ready to win.

Their performances were the best they had done all season which paid off in 2nd place in Show, 3rd place in Pom and their combined grades added up for the win of the Academic Champions for 5A schools.

It was a great way for all of the seniors to end their high school cheer career.

Justin was proud of both the Academic Award and the 2nd Place Award because they both represented a huge part of the hard work he put into his senior year.

After the competition the rest of the team loaded up on the bus for the five hour ride home. Justin and I stayed in a hotel that night and took our time wandering home the next day. As we came to Twin Falls we spontaneously decided to stop at Shoshone Falls to see how it compared to the previous year. The abundance of snow that we had experienced during the previous winter filled the rivers and made for some beautiful, raging falls.

We decided not to fight the extremely long line of traffic to get down to the bottom of the canyon and close to the falls but instead we trespassed for an overlook shot. We found the falls to be impressive from any angle (in the canyon in 2016 or at the rim in 2017) and from what we were told by another family that made the very slow drive one mile down the canyon, it saved us nearly two hours.

Kailee Jo's 1st Birthday

This girl is wrapped up in all of our hearts!

She is determined and loving. We love her kisses and snuggles and adore her!

From Erika's post on Face Book:
Kailee Jo is a year old!! I made her a little piggy cake to celebrate and she loved it! She eats everything but chicken breast, loves her Daddy and her uncle Derek, STILL sleeps through the night, is always as happy as can be, and has so much energy! She lights up our world and we couldn't imagine life without her. I love her so much!

From Bret's Instagram account:
Outdoor fun this weekend with our little one year old.

The Lucky Month of March

Lucky to celebrate with vibrant green and the Littles that I love so much!

Lucky to have great friends to do a St. Patrick's Day scavenger hunt with.

Lucky to have such fun friends, a great officer, and the D.A.R.E. program at the Middle School.

Lucky to celebrate my Dad's 70th Birthday with him.

Lucky to have cousins visit and Bear World to provide snuggly twin cubs to hold.

Lucky to have adventurous traditions for a lifetime of childhood memories.

Lucky to stay in contact with Vivien and Gabor and to see her new baby niece.

Lucky to share our family home evening nights with Vivien.

Winting

Winting: the gray, muddy, bland, cold, yucky days that exist between winter and spring.

Each year we go to extreme lengths to survive Winting.

Like ordering pizza online and watching the status of our pizza through the ordering, prepping, baking, and delivering phases as if they were monumental accomplishments.

Like painting toenails and going barefoot to bring a little color to the murky, muddy, brown world that surrounds us.

Like talking about our garden hopes while we chop vegetables for our weekly belly-warming stew.

Like organizing, planning for, and ordering the seeds for our future garden which is, sadly, months away.


And just for kicks and giggles, we all went in for dental cleanings.

Which led us to the orthodontist to fit Hyrum for a retainer to fix his underbite and protect his teeth that were crashing together with every bite. He thought it was a bit fun being picked up by his ears and seeing the skeleton of his face.

Which then led us back to the dentist to have two of Hyrum's baby teeth pulled because they were long overdue and his permanent teeth were coming in through his gums. Those baby roots were not dissolving at all like they were supposed to (much like Levi's baby teeth) and when the dentist got them out we were shocked to see the length of the root was longer that the actual tooth. Unfortunately, this seems be the case for two other teeth but since they are not in as critical of a state as the first two we will wait until next Winting to have them pulled, if necessary.

Game Time!

Tonight's basketball game was preceded by senior recognition of all the ball players and cheerleaders who would be graduating. LeRoy and I were invited down on the floor with Justin as he received gifts from the coaches.

Max, Zane and Kara joined us for the game. It was a first for Max and Zane and wow, those kids were silly!

It fun to see these boy cousins making memories together.

LeRoy insisted the moms needed to be in the picture so Kara and I unwillingly obliged. Months later it's nice to see us in the photo since we so seldom have pictures together.


Speaking of games....

LeRoy played video games with Nathan and Hyrum!!!!
No, really!!
And he is smiling!!

It was a football game but still! He played a video game!! (Does the abundance of exclamation marks get the point across?) The boys have only seen him play with a video game controller maybe once so this moment in time was definitely picture worthy.

Justin's 18th Birthday

He promised he would always be my little boy.

Older, wiser, clever, more fun than ever. I'm so honored to be his Momma! He is kind, thoughtful, hard working, respectful, and such a wonderful young man.


His personality and smile are joyful and contagious.

As a little boy he would take a bite of food and then stick his bum up in the air and sit on his head to chew his food. As a big boy he does a handstand to blow out his birthday candles.

His favorite German Chocolate Cake just like every previous year.

As a little boy he would nap or sleep anywhere, not worried about comfort. As a big boy his gymnast body needs the right mattress to allow his muscles to heal and relax. For this birthday our big boy got a big boy mattress for full nighttime comfort as he moves on to become a university cheer team member.


The Sweetheart Dance at the school came shortly after his birthday.

Justin and Kayla enjoyed an evening of formal dress up and dancing.

Go Madison!

January through March was filled with Cheer. Madison Cheer team that is.

Justin and I (and occasionally Nathan and Hyrum who would play on the sidelines with Brock) traveled to Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Rexburg, Idaho Falls, and Idaho Falls for each of the cheer competitions.

Doing the same routine day after day might get old for the team members but every event left me amazed! These kids are talented and in particular, Justin is freaking awesome! Practice, determination and skill over the last 10 years has paid off! Pictures just do not capture enough!

He was doing flips about 5 years before he started actual gymnastics. His first flips were off the couch at 19 months old.

Cupids Classic is one of the biggest cheer events of the year and this year was exceptionally exciting for Justin, and for me watching. After all the teams had performed and while the scores were being calculated, there was a cheer off (similar to a dance off). Justin had the crowd on their feet cheering, yelling and congratulating him as he did three different running passes and a standing pass (video on my FB page and in family files). It wasn't surprising that he took a medal for that too even though it wasn't part of the actual cheer event.

Ever since Justin was a little boy we've had this odd mental connection. I remember when he was about 3 and it was just the two of us while the other kids were in school and I would think of something for lunch. Minutes later he would wander into the room and ask for the exact same thing. It has happened throughout his whole life, at time getting a bit weird for both of us.

Cheer competitions were no different (can you see him looking right at me as they set up for the routine?). He would be on the floor surrounded by teams and I would be in the crowd without him knowing where I was and undoubtedly we would have eye contact. It happened at nearly every football and basketball game. It happened at every cheer competition and it even happened at the state cheer competition in Boise where the building was packed with thousands of strangers.

At a basketball game we decided to leave early to beat the crowd and as we left the benches I realized that Justin thought we were staying for the whole game. He has his own car to drive home so it wasn't that he needed us to wait, it was just that I wanted to somehow tell him we were leaving so he wouldn't look for us. I turned around just as I left the upper level of the gym and there he was looking right at us and waved goodbye. HOW did he know? The game was still in full swing. He was still cheering. But, he looked up just as I looked his direction.

At the state competition his team had just finished performing and I was standing up to go greet them backstage. Without thinking about it I turn back to see which direction they were heading and there he was standing at the curtain right before disappearing into the crowd looking at me with a quick wave. HOW? How do we know when the other is about to leave the room or where to even look in such huge crowds? Though we wonder, we don't question it long. We like knowing that we can mentally find each other anywhere.

P.S. I still think of things to make for meals and he will come and request the same thing. Or, we will have a similar suggestion that we throw out at the same time. It's kind of fun when it happens.