JANUARY 2020

January was a busy month.  It started with my parents visiting for a day or two on their way through for their annual trip to California with some friends.  Before school started back up I tried to be a good/fun mom and took the boys out to the movies as often as I could.

Jay and I had our 20th anniversary on the 7th, but weren't able to celebrate because that was also the day that Cheyenne, Ian, and Ivy arrived.  We are hoping to celebrate some time later this year (fingers crossed that it will actually happen).  They boys also started basketball with Jr. Jazz, so that means that all our Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next month or two will be spent watching basketball games.  We skipped out on the BMX Nationals on Vegas this year because we are still a little concerned with leaving Talen after his last little bout in the hospital.  But I guess that wasn't a bad thing because it gave us more time to spend with our visitors.  My parents also stayed for a couple days on their way home from California.  Both them and Cheyenne went home a week later on the 15th.  On the 17th, Carter came home with a letter for me from the school.  At first I was worried that maybe he was in trouble for something, but as soon as I opened the letter, I knew exactly what it was.  We have another smarty pants on our hands.  Apparently they have started testing for the gifted and talented program.  Carter scored high enough on the first part of the Cogat test that they want to continue testing him.  He got a 7 which is considered "above average" in the 77th-95th percentile among kids his age. Then a week or two later, he brought home his second set of results (DIBELS test).  I'm not entirely sure how to read the first page, but the literacy performance report shows exactly how smart he really is.  In phonics, the goal for reading letter sounds is 59 - he scored 93.  But the real shocker was his result for reading fluency.  The goal is 34 - scored 103!  I can't believe what smart kids I have!!  It will still be a little while before we know if they want him to be in the gifted and talented program or not, but either way, so proud of our smart boy!!

     
Kennedy and I joined a rec center co-ed volleyball team in November and our games just started.  So, every Wednesday night for the next month or two is spent playing volleyball with my favorite girl.  Kennedy's club volleyball team PVVC had their first tournament on the 24th and 25th.  Their first game was terrible, but they figured things out and came back to take Silver in the Gold bracket championship.  During the second set of the first game in the Gold Bracket, the full-time setter (Kali) fractured her ankle and Kennedy ended up becoming the new full-time setter.  I have never been more proud of her!  She had spent all weekend without a single practice of setting and when they really needed her, she stepped up.  They ended up winning the second set (the one that Kali got hurt in - they had lost the first set).  Then, with Kennedy leading the way, they won the third set and made it into the Championship game.  Sadly they lost, but it was super close.  I believe the score was something like 21-25 and 20-25.  Kennedy isn't thrilled that Kali is now out for the season and she has become the new full-time setter.  She does so good at it, but it is a stressful position and she has a hard time leaving it on the court afterwards.  She is such a perfectionist - I keep trying to remind her that this is supposed to be fun ;) 

The boys had their Literacy Night at Riverside Elementary on the 30th.  It was a quick night for us because we had a basketball game that we had to run off to, but they were both able to read me some stories that they had written in class.  We ended the month by skipping out on one of the boys races and taking Kennedy to a BYU Volleyball game.  We figured that since it was just a regular race and we were up north anyway, we may as well change our plans and go watch the game.  Kennedy was in heaven!  BYU was ranked #2 and they were playing the #3 ranked team.  It was a good match.  They took it to 4 sets, but BYU pulled out the win.  I think we have now solidified the fact that Kennedy wants to attend BYU when she graduates from high school.  This makes me so happy and so sad at the same time.  She is such a smart responsible girl and I know she will go so far in life - I just don't want it to be too far away from us ;)

I sure love all 4 of my kiddos!  Hoping the rest of the year goes as good - but maybe isn't quite as busy as this one was!!

Scripture Study

I guess it all really started just before the start of the new year.  Carl Shepherd had spoken in church and talked about how his family had read scriptures every day for 2 years straight.  Then when they had gone out of town, they had forgotten one night and broke their streak.  They started again and have now surpassed their 2 year mark and are still going.  The kids and I were super impressed and decided that we wanted to make a New Years resolution to read every day for this upcoming year.  So, one night after reading, the boys wanted to watch one of the church videos that went along with what we had just read.  This is a picture of them watching the video.  I love that the boys are picking up on some of the things that they are reading.  And I love that we have made it to the end of January without missing a day yet.  To be honest, I didn't think we would make it this long. But, super glad that we have made it this far and hopefully we can reach our goal . . . and maybe do more (like the Shepherds).

Carter with long hair

 Because Carter and I have the exact same color of hair, he likes to sit on my lap and lay my hair over his head to see what he would look like with long hair.  I have to admit, he is still a cutie, but much more handsome with short hair!!  Love this silly boy!!

Daxton's Genius Hour

Daxton had to do a presentation an anything that he wanted to learn more about.  He chose the brain.  He wrote the report at school and we (me and Grandma Cindy) helped him made a model of the brain out of play-doh at home.  He really wanted me to go watch and asked if Carter could watch too.  So I checked Carter out of class a little early so that we could go watch Dax give his presentation.  Dax did such a good job.  He told all about the brain and answered questions afterwards.  He let all of his classmate come up to look at his model of the brain.  So proud of my little smarty pants - doesn't surprise me at all that of anything he could chose to research, he chose the brain!  Great job Daxie!!

Carter's 100th day of school

I think this is one of my favorite traditions.  Every 100th day of school, the Kindergartners and 1st graders get to dress up like they are 100 years old.  I didn't plan very well this year, so Carter had to make do with what we had on hand.  Luckily, I had stocked up in years past, so I had the white hair spray.  I'm going to be super sad next year when I don't have any kids that participate in this anymore.  But what a cute little old man Carter is going to be in 94 years!!!

Cheyenne's visit

Cheyenne, Ian, and Ivy were able to make their annual trip out to see us.  Sadly, they were only able to stay 1 week this time because Ian is in preschool and he can't miss 2 full weeks.  So, we just savored every minute we could spend with them.  We stayed up too late every night, played games, had Sunday dinner at Cathy's, and had fun for 7 full days.  We didn't do anything particularly exciting, but as it was just nice to spend time visiting with Cheyenne and playing with her cute little kiddos.  We sure love our yearly visitors and are super sad when it's time for them to leave.  Hoping they will find a way to come again next year when Ian is in Kindergarten!