February, Continued

I am noticing as I scroll through my pictures that a ton of what I have is video footage from all the kids/ sporting events. No wonder the storage on my phone is almost full. February was a ton of fun. 

This is a terrible picture, but I think Corban is grabbing someone's flag in his Core 5 game as a Charger. 

Boys in their matching Core 5 shirts doing the dishes. They're getting closer in height!

Lucy and Emmie at a really strange dodgeball activity for the young women in the stake. People were running around bases with strollers, with arms linked--it was a little out there. 

Valentine's gifts for the crew

Corban mid-sprint

Isaac's Valentine's gifts from Sydney

Gifts from Susan Leber. 

Cason's Core 5 team

Checking out the cool cars parked in front of Dominick's. We went there to celebrate Valentine's Day a few days late.

Beloved pickleball

Isaac discovered a love for chicken wings.

Cason's 10th birthday and a great book he got from Peanut

Off to Vegas I went with my girls. Lucy had a tournament there and we stayed at the Stratosphere.

Stratosphere!

Cason loves sleeping with dozens of stuffed animals. He is often buried in them.

After begging me and dreaming the dream for years, Brooklyn made the 12 U AZ Impact North Valley team. She has progressed so much as a player. We have very rarely done the Sunday games, and it has worked out, for the most part. 

Hiking with some wonderful ladies

 

Jan 31-Feb 8

 I think part of the reason I post here is to remember all the good and complex in our lives rather than just the drudgery (dishes, laundry, cleaning up after kids) or stress (wondering how my kids get 0's on assignments or get F's on tests). So here are some of our fun happenings. 

Corban created this hairstyle himself and wore a winter coat on a day that wasn't really cold. I'm not sure if I should let him do his hair his way or keep doing it cutely in the name of his teachers thinking he is cute.

Lucy's team won their final game decisively and she scored a goal, too. It was a great experience. They won every game except one by so many points and the one they lost was by one point. 

Sydney Olson told Isaac that if he asked her to MoPro, she wouldn't say no. Isaac was excited. So the girls and I made his poster and got the gifts for him to "propose." 

 

This is some family history. It's from my American literature class, telling stories about Grandpa Cottam, my mom's grandpa. 

Brooklyn rearranged her room and did a great job with it. 

The rest of the room with the designer

Lucy's soccer practices in the backyard are so cool. On this day, she was juggling the ball and then shooting on goal. 

We've had a lot of rainbows with all our rain and gloom lately. It has been beautiful. It was a full rainbow around Paloma when I dropped Corban off for practice last night. This was from a week ago. 

Cason catching a great touchdown pass

Sydney gave Isaac some cookies and a goldfish as a "yes" for MoPro. The fish (Stanley) was alive an hour ago when I rehomed him at Paloma Park. 

I ran my 6 miles last Saturday with Jenny the whole time and Kellie part of the time. It felt pretty comfortable.

Corban has started sleeping on top of his covers so he doesn't mess them up. That said, he does a great job making his bed:). He's the best of all my kids at getting his jobs done each day. 

This was my loose lesson plan for singing time on Sunday. I get to use it with the younger kids this week and do something else with senior. 

Doug and I have started planning our 20th anniversary trip! It will be so awesome! Thankful to be coming up on 20 years married to this incredible man. I was listening to the "Follow Him" podcast this morning as they talked about awakening from a deep sleep and being men, and I just felt so much appreciation for the great man Doug is. He was a super blessing for all my hard work on my mission. 

Doug bought me a paddle for my birthday but it didn't feel right, so I have been renting paddles to see which one I like the best. I lean toward ProKinnex but I am also really liking Gearbox. 

I ran a 6:48 mile on Tuesday and my hamstrings are still tight! I wanted to see how fast to set my treadmill for different paces.

I found out I have jury duty at the start of spring break. I requested to get it postponed, but we'll see.

When we play pickleball at the church, this is our worst nightmare--having the ball get lost someewhere below all the chairs. You can see that our barricade didn't work this time. 

We did book club at Jodi Howe's house last night and it was so good. Typical Jodi style, we got pictures, quotes, and handouts for everyone, plus a delicious food spread. 

All ready for Superbowl Sunday! I don't like focusing on football on the sabbath at all, but I do love having parties with friends and family. We are planning to make pigs in a blanket and sliders.

This is my view from my bedroom. I miss when my desk faced out the window, but I can still appreciate the light and enjoy the view if I get up. 


The other great news from these last few weeks is that Doug got a "true up" of 440,000 for his building for January! It was a big, pleasant surprise. We want to celebrate by getting a new hot tub. We also have Aaron Montez as our financial planner and we're hopefully resolving some of our solar panel woes by having our panels examined and hopefully getting reimbursed. I still want to pay off our house as fast as possible but I am trying to be open to putting our money in stocks so it can appreciate faster. 

Jan 25-30

 So many fun things are happening!

One of the parents at Corban's practice took this picture. These kids are all really young but they're trying to figure out the sport.

I invited a lot of people to go hiking with me on Friday and no one could so it was a beautiful solo hike at Deem Hills Park.

Friday night was super exciting because both boys had football games at the same time. I kept turning back and forth to watch them play as much as I could. This is Cason scoring the game-winning touchdown with seconds to go in the game. He did such a great job. 

 

He wore his old Cowboys uniform from last season and it is so hard to get off. Corban helped him but you can see him getting bright red as they worked to get it off. 

Here is my half marathon schedule with most of my runs checked off. Exciting to be in Week 4 and knocking out the workouts. 

Brooklyn had a play date with Parker and they were twins.

Doug went to Utah over the weekend so the siblings could spend time with Dwight. They had a really nice time. While there, he and Jeremy started ordering pajamas for me and Darcee.

Meanwhile, Darcee, Kellie, and I went out to eat and had so much fun at Goodwill discovering treasures. 

This was the gorgeous sunset last night as I walked Arrow. 

I slammed my knee so hard with my pickleball paddle this morning!

It looks so bad. Icing it now.


Other quick summaries: I don't think we will all go to Vegas in a few weeks for Lucy's tournament because the boys have their football tournament that weekend. Also, a girl named Sydney told Isaac she "wouldn't say no" if he asked her to Mormon Prom. So he needs to get his proposal together and ask her. So fun!