Valentine's Day

January and February are kind of quiet months around here.  Just trying to find a new normal after the busy holiday season and the cold weather doesn't help!!!

Back in January, Addie had been begging us to let her have a party with some friends.  Apparently, we "never" let her have them.  We looked at the calendar and saw that Valentine's Day was going to be on a Friday this year and thought it would be a good reason to have a party! Maybe give a few parents a little break or a chance to get out and it would squelch the incessant asking from Addie! 

We let her invite a few friends from school and a few friends from the neighborhood.  We also let Will invite a friend to come so he wouldn't be bothering the girls or so he wouldn't be bored.  We ordered pizza and had some fruit punch, strawberries and chips to go with it for dinner.  After they were all done eating, we brought out our awesome BINGO game.  Each time they got a bingo, they got to pick a couple treats from the treat jar for the movie afterward!  We just kept playing till someone got blackout.  

 

After BINGO, the girls headed down to the basement with their treats and some popcorn to watch The Princess Diaries and the boys stayed upstairs to watch a movie.   Sam just wanted to be in on the action and we found him in the middle of the girls and also with the boys just hanging out! He was not happy when he had to go to bed and miss out on the rest of the fun! 

 

By the end of the evening, Will and his friend, Collin, were wrestling with each other.  Will thought he was so funny taking his shirt off to wrestle.  If only he wasn't so skinny! We feed him, I promise!

Downstairs, the girls were all playing house in the tiny little play area under the stairs!!! 
 

It was a fun night!

A few other Valentine notables...

Addie had to make her Valentine Box into a Biography Book Report on Walt Disney.  We made it look like Mickey Mouse.  The legs, buttons, tail and feet/shoes were her idea and she even free-handed the feet herself!  It turned out pretty cute! 

 

 

Sam was loving the constant flow of candy and "choco" (chocolate)!  

Basketball

Will's first Jr. Jazz season has come to an end.  He really loved playing and it was so cute watching those kindergartners run around and try to learn the fundamentals of basketball! He had a good coach and we enjoyed participating. 

 

He especially loved playing against his buddy Collin!!! We signed up too late to get them on the same team.  Unfortunately, Collin didn't share the same enthusiasm for basketball as Will did! 

Even though the season is over, he still wears his Jr. Jazz jersey every day!!  He wears it to school, to play, pretty much all day.  He wears it so much that I forget it's not his clothes! Anytime he goes outside or down to the basement to shoot the ball on our little hoop, he has to be wearing his jersey.   Sometimes he even wears it to bed! He was #10 on his team but he would always want to wear his hand me down #19 jersey from a cousin.  I couldn't figure it out until one day, when he was talking about how #0 on his team wasn't very good, but #27 was really good.  We finally figured out that he thought that the higher the number on your jersey, the better player you were! He loves to go outside and shoot on the real hoop as much as he can.  If the weather is warm enough, he'll shoot out there for hours!

Basketball and anything Jazz has become his latest obsession.  He loves watching Jazz games and gets so excited anytime they are ahead of the other team! His favorite player is Gordon Hayward.  The other night, we were talking about middle names and I told him that his was Gordon and all of a sudden, he kind of lit up.  I thought maybe he had made the connection between that and Grandpa Gord (Clay's dad, who he is named after) but nope...he said, "like Gordon Hayward"! He's been lucky enough to go to some Jazz games and a couple player appearance things where he's gotten a few pictures with them!   

 

 

Sometimes even he can get frustrated with how terrible they are playing!!!

Basketball has really helped his math skills! If you put addition in terms of points scored, he can add 2 or 3 points to almost any number in his head!  But if you ask him the same addition number (i.e. 9+2), he doesn't know the answer- it has to be, "if you had 9 points and scored a 2 pointer" and then he can figure it right out! Here is Will showing off his math skills!

His basketball obsession is rubbing off on Sam too! Sam loves to go down and "shoot the ball" with him.  Here is a little video of him talking and shooting!

It is so fun to have him love one thing SO much.  Go Jazz!!!

2013 Update

As many of you have seen (if there is anyone still reading this), blogging has taken a back seat at our house!  We had a busy summer and getting on the computer when Sam is awake is impossible.  But, it is my goal for 2014 to stay caught up since this is pretty much the only place where I document things that happen with the kids.  The kids will have to look through the photos and on Facebook and Instagram for their "scrapbooks" and memories! Glad we at least have those! 

I can't move forward without sharing some of the highlights of 2013 in case I never get around to really documenting it.

January 2013
Sam started army crawling

Clay had a birthday

Will finished up his indoor soccer season and scored a goal!

Addie performed Silent Night A capella in her school talent show

February 2013
Pictures of the kids at Fotofly

 

 

Valentines Day fun

Individual nights out with the kids

March 2013
Sam is 9 months- likes to suck on his bebe's (lovies), got his first tooth

Weather started warming up

Addie & Clay took a trip to Seattle to visit cousins

Easter with three sick kids

Sam got a bad, bad, rash called erythema multiform minor (possibly an allergy to penicillin)

April 2013
Nice weather- spending more time outside!

Sam started pulling up on things!

Easter Sunday a few weeks late!

Time with cousins!

Addie started soccer

 

May 2013

Sam is 11 months- getting so big, so busy and so cute!!

Mother's Day

Addie performed in the Up With Kids production of A Brave Tale

Will finished his first year of preschool

Planted our garden!

June 2013
Addie finished soccer & had her last day of 1st grade

Summer officially begins

Cowabunga Bay

Father's Day

 

Sam turns ONE!

July 2013
Family in town/Fun with Cousins!

4th of July Swimming and Oakley Rodeo

Cowabunga Bay 

 

Butlerville Days- Addie rode on the float and Will rode with Grandpa!

August 2013
Lots of Cowabunga Bay

Our anniversary and my birthday

Addie started 2nd grade!

St. George with Cullimore extended family!

 

September 2013
Will started his last year of preschool and fall soccer!

Boys trip fishing and an overnighter at a cabin

Sam turns 15 months and got his first haircut! Looking like a big boy now!

Clay purchased a commercial grade donut dispenser to perfect his cake donuts! Yum!

Started finishing the basement- Framing is done!

 

October 2013

A new cousin, Stockton, joined the family!

 

More basement work

Sam decided to start walking on his own!

Disneyland and the beach with friends and Maga!  So fun. (this will obviously need it's own post!)

 

Will celebrated his 5th birthday at Disneyland!

 

Aunt Livi left on her mission to North Carolina!

 

Halloween

Basement is finished!!!!  Wahoo! (thanks to an awesome brother-in-law, Grayson!)

November 2013
Addie turned 8 yrs old! 

Grandpa was re-elected as Mayor of Cottonwood Heights

Thanksgiving and the Cottonwood Heights Beat the Mayor 5K.  Addie and Will both ran it!

 

 

  

Leg Lamp Lighting Party with homemade donuts (he made 200!) and hot chocolate!

Addie was baptized!!!

 

 

 

December 2013

Snow and sledding!

 

Lights at Temple Square

Will started Jr. Jazz basketball

School Programs & other Christmas Festivities

Christmas!!!

If you made it this far, 2013 has been an amazing year for us.  We feel extremely blessed and are so grateful for all that we have.  We are looking forward to a wonderful year to come in 2014!  Thank you for all your love and support as family and friends.   Please keep checking back if you are interested in what is going on in our lives! I'm hoping to keep it up to date from now on!