Basketball

Savannah tried out basketball this year for the first time.  She wasn't confident dribbling the ball, but she did pretty well on defense and scored a few buckets throughout the season.  Her team ended up at 2nd in the league, winning 7 of 9 league games.  They advanced to the championship game in the playoffs, winning the first 2 rounds.  The championship game was decided in overtime, with Savannah's team winning 20-16.  She got to be on a winning team this season! 

There was one game when everyone on her team had scored except Savannah.  They graciously designed play around her until she finally made a basket as well!  It was nice to have all of her team pulling for her and cheering her on.

Owen made the school frosh (freshman/sophomore) team this year.  His season started immediately after football ended (season overlap).  Owen's team only won 8 out of 22 games, so they struggled a bit.  Owen started the first 7 games at a forward position and then got injured.  He was out for a couple games and then had Christmas break to recover.  However, when he returned in January, he had lost his starting spot.  He maintained his positive attitude all season though and was a good asset to his team.  He got the coaches award at the end of the season for his good sportsmanship, positive attitude, and being coachable.  He didn't score many points (2-4 points a game), but he was more valuable at defense and rebounding.  His season high was 6 points in one game.  

February Fun

We didn't have a very exciting Valentine's Day - just some candy exchanged and ice cream sandwiches.  Savannah made some valentines for her school classmates.  

Alex and I went on a date night a few days later with friends.  After dinner, we played a game with our friends at the local Home Goods store.  Between the 4 couples, we drew names.  Each couple had to choose and buy something from the store, under $15, for the name we drew. Then we exchanged items, and we each had to prominently display the item in our home for one month.  It was pretty funny!  We got Alison and Morgan the dog picture that said, "I'm sorry for what I did."  We were given a painting of 3 chicks golfing. Kristi and Jason got a golden poodle that they named "Fifi".  I think it's now their good luck statue!  Donald and Julie weren't too disappointed with their new yard decoration. 

Savannah and I had a girls night while the boys went camping.  We also were able to give our friend Becca a birthday present (which we had been anxiously holding for a few months after finding it at Costco) - a big Lilo & Stitch Squishamallow. 

Jared did a prom-posal for his friend Grace.  He rigged up the back of our car, so that when she opened it, confetti popped out at her.  She responded with a cute Goldfish and Swedish Fish acceptance. They'll head to church prom the end of April.  

Surprise Party!

Right after the youth temple trip, I headed to LAX to catch a flight to Texas for my dad's 70th birthday party. Audrey picked me up from the airport and we headed over to my parents' house.  It was a surprise party for my dad, so they had arranged for him to be gone most of the afternoon.  My mom, Carrie, Audrey, Ashley, and Alison had nearly everything ready to go by the time I got there.  We were waiting there when my dad arrived.  He was really surprised to see us, since he had no idea about the party AND it wasn't the weekend of his birthday.  Other friends shortly arrived, and we had a nice dinner party.  Audrey put together a video highlighting my dad's life, along with messages from each of the grandkids at the end.  Here are the messages from my kids.  We had a fun time, and it was great to be together with all my siblings.

This link might work for the full video.

We had a superbowl party at Sam and Audrey's house on Sunday evening.  Somehow I only took a picture of the food and Mama Kelce's cookies that night.  Audrey put together a Taylor Swift game / questionnaire, which was fun to do while watching the game. 

I headed back home on Monday afternoon (arrived Saturday afternoon), so it was a short trip, but well worth it! 

Savannah's First Temple Trip

Savannah joined the young women's group in January, since she turned 11 last year.  She has been enjoying going to the weekly activities and the lessons at church.  We made homemade bread for the sacrament one week.  She is also old enough to do work at the temple.  We got to witness her first experience doing baptisms at a youth temple trip in February.  Owen is now old enough to perform the baptismal ordinance, so he got to baptize Savannah on behalf of ancestors.  There was a really special spirit there, and I know Savannah felt it as she participated.   

 

Band Concert

Weston had another concert the beginning of February.  They had made quite a bit of improvement since their first concert. Beginning band played 3 songs - Zombie Stomp, Magma, and Mechanical Monsters. We had some friends come cheer on and support Weston, so he had a little fan club there.  We love Weston's wave at the end.

Savannah's Birthday Party

 We had Savannah's ocean-themed birthday party the third Saturday in January.  It's not uncommon for us to have the December birthday parties in January, since we're always too busy during the holidays.  It was planned to be at our home, but we moved it to the church gym at the last minute due to rain.  It turned out to be a good move, since we had a lot more space for the party.  

We set up a craft area on the stage where the girls painted treasure chests.  They got some sparkly marble magnets in their treasure chests.  

We set up a table on one end of the gym for lunch and cake.  I made the cake, with some fun shell chocolates and sour strips to look like corral.  The inside of the cake was a couple layers of blue.  I made homemade rolls, with red food coloring, for crab rolls. I used blue food coloring in the frog-eyed salad.  We also had blue jello with gummy ocean candy and whipped cream. I attempted to cut a watermelon to look like a shark.   We also had goldfish and some veggies.  All the food was pretty yummy!  

We had plenty of space to do some games in the gym.  They played with balloons.  We did crab walk, which Savannah won.  We did hot potato with a squishy toy that looked a little like a puffer fish.  Another game was a dolphin relay race, hurdling over mini waves.  We did a "save the sea turtle" race, digging baby sea turtles out of the paper "dirt" and racing them to the water.  They had to dig out all the sea turtles until each wave was filled on a poster board.  We also played a candy game - the same one we did with family over Christmas.  We brought all the candy and put them in bags. It didn't work as well this time, since they didn't want to trade very much.  They all took home some candy.  (No money in this game.)  Our last activity was a Lego building challenge, where they had 10 minutes to build an ocean-themed Lego creation.  

It turned out to be a fun party!  Twelve of her friends were able to make it, and everyone seemed to have a good time. It was lots of work to get everything ready and clean up though.  

January Misc

Just some miscellaneous things to start the new year... 

Owen and I had about 5 days on our own before the rest of the family arrived home.  Owen had quite a bit of basketball and I worked 3 days, but we also had time to do a movie marathon of Hunger Games, go out to eat, and build one of my Lego sets.  

Alex and I continue to do our monthly temple visits. 

Kai is spoiled when it's cold outside - she comes inside and enjoys sleeping on her bed. 

Jared is known for doing stretches and planks and working out at random times.  Alex joined him in his stretching one evening.