JANUARY 2018

January was a pretty busy month for us.  Carter had a dentist appointment on the 2nd.  He is getting a cavity, but instead of filling it they just put some stuff on it to help it stop.  There is no point in trying to fill it if he is going to be losing it in the next year or two.

On the 6th, we were able to go watch Addy get baptized.  Kennedy played the piano for the baptism and Jay was asked to bear his testimony.  It was a fun afternoon and nice to let Daxton see what will be coming up for him in a couple years.

We had decided that since the flu season was so bad this year that we weren't going to be taking Talen out, so up until the 8th, the only place he had gone since coming home from Primary's in November was to Cathy's house.  But, since I had cancelled and rescheduled three times already, I figured I better get Talen into the dentist for a cleaning.  I just love our dentist.  He is so understand and kind.  They let us wait in the car until they were ready for him so that he didn't have to be around the other people in the waiting area.  Talen did fantastic getting his teeth cleaned.  He didn't even scream at Dr. Christensen this time.

On the 14th I got a new calling.  I was so sad to hear that we were being released from Young Womens, but was kinda hopeful to be called back in when the 2nd counselor called and asked me to come in to meet with him.  Well, I was wrong.  I was not called back into Young Womens.  They called me to be a Gospel Doctrine teacher.  Yes, I know, I didn't believe it either.  In fact, I had to ask him 4 times if he was serious before I believed him that this was really what they were calling me to.  Saying that I was shocked would be an understatement.  I never served a mission, I've never read the Old Testament!  These are adults for heavens sakes!  I get nervous just making a comment in class, let alone being the teacher!!  I have no idea what in the world they were thinking, but I was taught that you don't ever say no to a calling, so I guess I will give this a try.  Crossing my fingers that I can make it through just one lesson without crying, or having a wobbly voice, or even making any sense at all!!  What was the Lord thinking?!?!?

P.S. I was slightly reassured in my abilities when I decided to go re-read my patriarchial blessing.  Part of it reads, "You will be able to magnify each and every calling and have a desire to improve on your time and talents so you can use them in a better manner.  I bless you to enlighten your mind through study and research in books that are found in the church, that you will be able to garner a knowledge an understanding of the doctrines of the church in a way that would astound those who are around you."  I guess, maybe, if I work hard enough at it, I can astound more than just a 4 and 6 year old, hehehe!!

Daxton plays Jr. Jazz basketball

I cannot believe how much difference one year can make!  Daxton is so much better at basketball than he was last year.  He understands the game, he runs plays, and he even makes baskets.  I think this year he made at least 1 basket at every single game.  His team started out doing really good, they won every game.  But as the season wore on, the other teams got a little more cut throat.  Many didn't want to abide by the rules and we even had our coach and another parent get into it on more than one occasion.  I remember now why I don't like basketball.  Anyway, Daxton had a great year and made good friends!  He even convinced his teacher, Mrs. Brent, to come watch one of his games! Good Job Daxie-boy!!

L to R: Coach Marc Nehring, Andrew Nehring, Teegan ?, Matthew Black, ???, Cortez Woodard, & Dax

Literacy Night at Riverside

Daxton was so excited to take us to Literacy Night.  He has been talking about it for the last week or two.  So, when it was time to go, he was thrilled!!  Jay had gotten home late for work so he was going to skip it, but on the way to the school Dax said that he was sad that our whole family couldn't go because the book he wrote was about our whole family.  So, I immediately called Jay and told him to head down to the school.  I've never done a literacy night before so I wasn't sure what to expect. Their theme was Disney, so that's why Dax was in his Ironman costume.  They had classrooms set up where teachers were reading stories, rooms for activities, and photo ops in the gym.  We started out by going to his classroom where they gave us a paper with Disney jokes and Dax just loved telling us the punch lines!  Then we headed to the classroom where he got to read us his story.  He was tickled pink to read it to us.  I have to admit, we were a little shocked (and slightly horrified) that on the first page it talks about our favorite activities and he wrote "Our family likes to be on electronics".  AAhhh, we are bad parents!!  Have you ever seen that episode of "Everybody loves Raymond" where the little boy writes a story about the angry family?  Yep, I felt a little like the parents in that episode - I need parenting lessons!!  The rest of the book was great and Dax was a thrilled that we can to share literacy night with him.  I guess the thing I learned most from literacy night was - GET OFF THE ELECTRONICS!!!  Love our Daxie-boy!!

100th day of school

Daxton had his 100th day of school and they told the 1st graders that they could dress up like 100 year olds again if they wanted to.  Of course Daxton wanted to!  So we pulled out the gray hairspray and popped the lenses out of some old play glasses and voila . . . 100 year old Daxie!!  Isn't he the cutest old man ever?!?!?

 From Mrs. Brent - Today we had such a great day!! We did a little experiment in our classroom.  One group compared the length of 100 cubes versus 100 pennies. The other group compared the length of 100 cube versus 100 quarters. We made predictions and tested them out! We found that 100 pennies and 100 cubes were about the same length but 100 quarters were much longer than 100 cubes.

SUVA 14's Tournament #1

Origianally we had planned to have Jay take Kennedy down to her tournament since Cheyenne was here.  But, he didn't really want to go, so I asked Cheyenne if she wanted to leave Ian with Alex's parents and come with me.  She was more than happy too and we had a blast!!  The first match of the first game was a little rough, but they eeked out a win 25-21.  The second match the girls finally got all their nerves out and the won 25-16.  We won the first game!!  The second game was against a much better team (they didn't look it at first, but when they played KiKi's team, they really started to shine).  The first match was terrible because the girls keeping score just couldn't figure out how to keep anything straight.  Luckily we were keeping track so when we noticed that they had given two of our points to the other team, we (and multiple other parents, players, and spectators) also started keeping a really close eye on the score.  It was a long first match and so stressful because of the whole score keeping thing, but they won 25-15 (it was really 27-15, but whatever 😠!) The second match of the second game was also tense.  They were killing them at the beginning, but then the other team came back and even took the lead at the end.  But, Kennedy's team ended up winning 25-22.  Win #2!!  The third game started off terrible.  I don't know what happened, but we lost the first match 22-25.  The second match we finally got things back together and won 25-17.  Time for the third match.  It was close and we were behind most of the game, but we managed to take the win 15-12!  We won our tournament - took all 3 games!!  Yay!  I was so proud of Kennedy. She has improved so much!!  Her first and third game were fantastic.  She had some struggles with her serves in the second game, but her setting is getting so good.  They are running a 5-1 (which means only one setter on the court), so she is involved in almost every single play.  That says alot when they win all three!!  Love the great little volleyball player that Kennedy is turning in to!!  After the games were over, we hit up Zupa's for a very late lunch and headed back to St. George.  It was such a fun day and we all had a blast, but were all extremely exhausted!!  Yay KiKi!!!

SUVA 14's Team Picture

Back Row-Olivia Esparza, Kenzie Esplin, Kennedy  

Front Row- Coach Kami Wilkinson, Macie Hokanson, Lexi Harris, Hadley McElea, Aubrie Rammell, Cheyenne Mead, Halle Wilkinson

Cheyenne and Ian come to visit

I don't know why I can't ever remember to take pictures when Cheyenne and Ian come to visit!  But we sure love having our yearly visitors - and this year we even got them for 2 whole weeks!!  We really didn't do much but spend time visiting and letting the kids play.  Ian was such a sweetie with Talen and continually wanted to be near him.  They boys all had a blast and were super sad when it came time to take them to the airport.  We just need to convince them to move closer, so these departures aren't so stinking sad!