Kayda's mini choir concert

Kayda signed up for a rotating schedule this year.  They have two choices for 6th grade, a full year of band or a different class each quarter.  So second quarter Kayda got choir.  She loves choir.  She was able to do a solo for a song called "Irish Dance" and she did a duet with her friend Miracle for "Can't help falling in love".  She was feeling really nervous about her solos but she did great.  One of the other parents told her she should stick with choir.  She's considering doing full year choir next year.  There were some motions she was supposed to do and she hated it, she said she felt silly, like they were too old for it. 

Unfortunately, since it was during the school day, I wasn't able to be there, but Daddy and Grandma H were able to be there.

Dillon's 11th birthday!

Dillon is officially 11 years old!  This kid is growing so fast and into an incredible young man!  He is about as laid back as could be.  He thinks of everyone as a friend, is inclusive and patient, he dedicates himself to making himself better in school and in sports.  He likes to do activities but is also a homebody; he isn't interested in being away from home for too much of the day.  He enjoys playing soccer, basketball, flag football and swimming.  He had a interest in baseball for a little while but prefers the other sports.   

We celebrated a little early with Grandma and Papa G.  He got the "Dungeons and Dragons" starter kit... unfortunately I'm still trying to figure out how it works so he hasn't gotten to try it yet.  He's pretty excited about it, Kayda is currently going to the club at her school so she can learn it and be our "dungeon master".

We went to dinner with Grandma and Papa H.  He even wanted to be sung too!  

  We got home with very little time left for being home but we still did birthday cake! 

A couple winter break memories

We had a pretty laid back winter break.  Christmas was so close to the beginning of it that we ended up with a lot more downtime AFTER Christmas that we weren't used to.  Once Grandma and Papa G left we still had another weekend before school started again.  

Saturday Dillon was invited to be part of Zack's (a friend from soccer a couple years ago)  Christmas "experience gift" going to the go carts.  Carson was able to go also so it was a fun day for the boys.  Since I wasn't there, and Daddy was driving too, we don't have any pictures of the actual driving.  They came home and Carson said "Our family should all go do go carts.  Mommy can take pictures!"  Apparently I don't get to drive one!

Saturday night the power went out due to a big windstorm that came through the area.  The kids were all spending the night at Grandma and Papa H's house while Mommy and Daddy had a date night.  We got up there to get them right away in the morning since their power was out too and I thought they may be a little harder to entertain than normal.  When we came home we snuggled up around the fire and played card games.  When it started getting dark we pulled out the oil lamps and some little backpacking lanterns Auntie Kina gave them for Christmas.  We set the kids up to spend the night down by the fire.  It didn't end up being necessary since the power came back on about midnight.  School ended up being delayed two hours which was a great way to ease back into school.  I'm glad it didn't end up being cancelled and to be made up later in the year!

Grandma and Papa G visit!

Grandma and Papa G came to stay with us on the 28th and left the 2nd.  The kids were bursting with excitement!  We thoroughly enjoyed their visit.  We spent a lot of time playing Diablo with Papa and they snuggled with Grandma (mostly Carson).  We played board games, chatted and watched movies.  It was a very mellow, enjoyable few days.  

Grandma and Papa brought a new game for us to try "telestrations".  Apparently they played it at a ward Family home evening and thought it was great.  So we got to try it.  We LOVED it.  The kids wanted to play again and again and again.  There were several times Dillon got laughing so hard he literally couldn't sit still!     Someone was usually sitting aside to help Carson if he needed help spelling a word or didn't know what something was.  He mostly played on his own though.

Grandma snuggles include the ipad.  (Carson was irritated that I was taking their picture)

Tuesday we decided to head up to the snow.  The place where we had sledded before was completely bare!  We actually thought we weren't going to find any to play in at all!  After driving quite a ways further up the road we finally found a little side road, covered in compact snow to play on.  It ended up being great for sledding because it was smooth and slick and actually flattened out way down around the corner!  While we were up there we took a couple pictures of the kiddos.  

Grandma and Papa left this morning.  The kids were really bummed out.  Kayda had to go spend a few minutes alone to settle down.  They absolutely loved the time and look forward to when we see them again. 

Merry Christmas!

This year winter break didn't start until the 22nd, which really made everything feel weird.  We spent up to Christmas feeling like it wasn't Christmas!  As usual we had Christmas Eve dinner with Grandma and Papa H and Daddy's brothers' families.  The kids love going up there to see their cousins.  We made sugar cookies and gingerbread houses and of course exchanged gifts. 

Erector sets with Auntie Kina!  (Kayda was already done).  Our kids are huge Lego fans, she decided to mix it up and give them these sets . They thoroughly enjoyed the nuts and bolts!

Sugar cookies!

New jammies and slippers on Christmas Eve.

First Christmas after painting and replacing the floors!  It looks so pretty!

Santa brought the kiddos an Xbox one.  It was set up in the family room.  They walked up, saw the controllers and seemed confused for a minute.  Then Kayda announced it and dragged the boys upstairs to look.  They came back kind of confused until they thought to look in the family room.  They were super excited.

 We tried our hand at making gingerbread houses from scratch with a kit from Aunt Kirsten and family.  I definitely have room to grow!

I'm not generally one to announce gifts, or put a lot of pictures up with gifts but want to extend a thank you to everyone.  We had a fantastic Christmas!

Kayda's Volleyball Season

For the third year in a row I got to be Kayda's volleyball coach.  She LOVES this game.  We had four girls together for all three years, one of the others was on our team two years ago.  Kayda is the best on the team, followed closely by Kennedi who has been with her all three years.  Unfortunately, the way the games were working out she didn't get to do much overhand serving.  Though it is something she was developing; during practices she was making overhand serves from the back line... she was just a lot more consistent underhand and that's what we needed.

In practices we worked on setting up plays and hitting.  There were only a few girls that could handle it though so we didn't get to use it in the game much.  Kayda still managed to get a couple hits in on her last game; she was SO excited!  She has absolutely beautiful sets and even got complimented by one of the refs for them.  He made a point to tell me after the game that "You've got a setter on your hands."  Apparently his daughter sets for her high school team and he was very impressed with Kayda.  We had another frustrating season due to the rules and the other coaches' inability to follow them.  My girls knew what they were, never had to be reminded by the ref and did their best to make legal plays.  So when they're playing and losing, not because of any fault on their part, but because the other team is doing all kinds of things they shouldn't (and the ref isn't calling it) the kids ended up really discouraged.  Kayda did a great job helping them focus back in and always made positive comments.  She spent a lot of time in our "huddle" giving little motivational speeches, she was actually pretty good at it!   At this rate she won't need me to say anything during her games next year. 

Valerie, Arelly, Kennedi, Kayda, Elizabether, Ariana, Peyton.  (Kennedi, Ari and Peyton have been with us all three years).

We ended the season with 5 losses and 3 wins.  One of the games the ref had ended the game, said we won and then restarted the game because she hadn't made us win by two... the girls were confused and we ended up losing.  They were pretty good about it though.  We ended the season with a sleep over, it was only possible because we had seven girls instead of ten.  They stayed up late watching movies and had a fantastic time.  Kayda actually got a little teary when the last girl went home.  She had a wonderful time this season and wasn't ready for it to end.  

Kayda's Twelfth birthday!

I can't believe this girl is twelve. She is growing like a weed.  I keep having to buy her new pants because she'll wake up one morning and her pants will barely reach her ankles.  Fortunately she's not growing around so I don't have to buy her new shirts as often!  She has taken more and more to making teasing jokes, tries really hard to be a good big sister (Carson doesn't make it easy for her), loves volleyball and swimming, likes to draw and do crafts and is OBSESSED with reading.  She is crazy smart and ends up reading and doing puzzles at school because she gets through her work so quickly.  Her favorite genre is fantasy.  I don't know how many people have had to say this to their child but when she was arguing about doing something the other day I had to say "Do I have to take your book away?"  It's a great problem to have.  Her best friends are Adrienne and Miracle but she's got other people she considers close.  She loves middle school and having different teachers and classes.  She is very rarely nervous about anything, the only two times I've even heard about it were right before she ran for ASB president (she didn't get it) and yesterday, when she said she was embarrassed to wear the Christmas sweater she chose.  Other than that she just doesn't seem to care what other people think.  I tease her about her hair (she brushes it and it fluffs up like a big poof ball) she just laughs and says she loves her hair and doesn't care if it's frizzy.  

Anyway, we had dinner with Grandma and Papa H and then went home to blow out candles and open presents.  We have pretty relaxed birthdays for the kids, fortunately they don't seem to mind not having parties.  We're definitely looking forward to seeing what her next year will bring!