The longest month ever is almost over and I'm not sad about it. A lot of great things to report... a lot of just normal day to day happenings as well. Life has been busy, that's for sure. I've spent a lot of time subbing in the classroom and working on my curriculum for our new business- Coastal Developmental Pediatrics! I've spent time de-cluttering and organizing various areas of my house and re-doing Dane and Anna's rooms. Blake and I cleaned out the garage to make a cool gym area for Dane and Evelyn and their friends. It's been a lot of work, but also really fun:).
Highlights this month have included a weekend away to Great Wolf Lodge with Grant and Brandon! Dane advancing to the JV team at Poway High and not only playing- but STARTING his first JV game- scoring a goal and playing his heart out! SO fun! An amazing day at SoFi Stadium to watch our friend- Eric Weddle play with the Rams in the finals. After two years of retirement, so so cool that they asked him to return as safety! SO fun to watch them win THREE games this month! The last final- we all watched in the Weddles home theatre and had the time of our life cheering on our friend! It's been amazing.
We've enjoyed watching Anna play basketball all month and Evelyn invite Eli to the Sadie Hawkins dance! LOVED having Cathy visit for a few days and celebrating Heather's birthday;) Since she is teaching this year, we rarely get a chance to hang out and I loved meeting for dinner in between soccer practices. Adam went off to BYU-I at the beginning of the month.... we are SO excited for him and love to hear updates as much as possible- apparently he's having the time of his life;)
Jen (Parker's mom) has captured some pretty great shots of Dane on the field.... this month we've spent at least two days a week on the sidelines cheering our awesome freshmen on! Grant is always there- and is Dane's biggest fan. Love how much he loves his big bro. And I officially LOVE high school sports! It's really been amazing to watch him! Aside from soccer, Dane has spent the majority of the month designing and putting together his new room! We all really like it and feel happy he has a cool space to hang with his buddies after school and on weekends. Dane is a super social kid who is always hanging out with someone somewhere. Rarely does he spend time alone. We are gearing up to celebrate his birthday in a few days- but loved having Aidan over on Saturday for some pre-celebrations like his favorite dinner of salmon and potatoes with crumbl cookies for dessert. Dane enjoyed being the freshmen representative for Rhett Jorgenson this month as he ran for ASB president!!! We brought over a bunch of rootbeer and vanilla ice cream with a sign that said- "we're rooting for you"! Rhett takes Dane to seminary and school every day. He adores Rhett and felt proud to help him campaign!
Anna has had a busy month! She joined a bunch of her 4th grade friends (and their moms) to play soccer at NCSP. She had so much fun that she decided to join a team and now she'll be playing every Monday night for the next two months. So proud of her and her desire to try new things. Of course, dance is still her favorite pastime and she loves to practice in my bedroom at night before bed. I adore watching her leap around the room and create all sorts of new dances. We cleaned out Anna's room and now it is close to immaculate. I'm so happy to report that she has kept it quite clean with all the clutter removed! She even has a little board that houses her lego creations that she can move in and out of her under bed storage area without leaving a mess but keeping the legos in-tact. She is a changed woman! Anna and Kate found a dead bird this month and spent many days trying to nurse it back to health. It was disturbing but there was no way I could get them to stop trying to "care" for the bird. They've spent many hours practicing basketball, zipping around on the zipline, staying up way too late watching movies and eating popcorn and thinking up new dances. They are quite the pair and the best of friends. Anna also enjoys her 4th grade girlfriends and jumps at any chance she gets to spend time with them- swimming, making s'mores, playing sports and thinking up dances. She is almost always in a happy mood and makes my life so happy with her fun attitude and kindness.
Evelyn has had a little break in academics as her Palomar junior college courses have not yet started. She has loved hiking with friends, roaming around town with friends, picking up Crumbl cookies with friends, visiting Six Flags and the Temple. She has been working a ton and is considering trying out for a play next month-- we'll see if she follows through! SO hoping she does. Love that Ev created a family text thread: Forced Family Fun... haha! We've been sending all sorts of funny memes and old photos and vidoes-- it's been an awesome way to have fun together. Ev is preparing for the Sadie Hawkins dance coming up next weekend! She's super excited. I've been enjoying Evelyn's extra free time because it allows us to go on walks together. I love that time to hear how she's doing and only occasionally slip in words of wisdom and advice- ha!
Grant has had an amazing month- back at the soccer fields, back at the skate park, playing games again! He's thrilled to have his life back and I'm so proud of him for working so hard keeping up with his school work when he missed due to physical therapy. He's such a responsible kid and though he utterly dislikes school, he tries his best to have a good attitude and work hard in every way. He lives for the special times- like his trip to Great Wolf Lodge with Brandon and our upcoming Disneyland day with Grandma and Stacy. Grant will always humor me when I try to teach him little life lessons in the car ride to soccer or school. He is so good to listen and try to apply whatever I've taught him to his life. I admire how he wants to be better and improve in areas that are a struggle for him. We laugh about how much "advice" I give him and how soon he'll be a teen and probably uninterested so I have to take advantage now!
So that about sums up our month. Lots of soccer, lots of basketball games, dances in the near future, new rooms, Rams games. It's been a wonderful, low key month and I'm pretty excited it's coming to a close because February makes me happy.
