Anna has probably had the most eventful month to report on. BEST weekend hands down was her night out for the daddy/daughter dance with Blake. We shopped for a dress, we shopped for gloves, for a mask and for shoes. It was Mardi Gras theme and boy did she ever look cute. Kate and Rob met Blake and Anna at Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner and then off to the dance they went where I heard reports from numerous friends that Anna danced the night away without a break! Anna is still loving dance. On Tuesdays she enjoys having her friends Audrey and Maddy over after school and then they all drive to dance together. Often I'll find hilarious snap chat photos from the three of them on my phone. They have so much fun together and they are the most excited for their jazz dance routine to "nicest kids in town" from Hairspray. Anna LOVED attending goat yoga this month with her Girl Scout troop! She loved the entire process of Biztown-- the interviews at school and then the field trip downtown. Anna wanted to be a doctor but instead was given the position of receptionist at the doctor's office . She took it very well and had the best day ever. Anna always has the best day ever. She was sick over the weekend and it's been hard to see her low energy and low affect! I'm used to her being the sunshine in this family. Anna has made bracelets for every one of her friends- from her bracelet making kit. Kate helps her and they are like a professional team together! Anna attends math group twice a week after school with Ms. Anna- her girl scout leader. Last week Ms. Anna took them all to get frozen yogurt for doing well on the test! They are so lucky to have Ms. Anna and each other to do math homework with together! Anna continues to love being on safety patrol on Thursday mornings. She takes this duty very seriously and is never late. She is the cutest safety patrol girl on earth in my opinion. Anna made me laugh when she "researched" how to take care of your nails to help them grow and then of course all the things we'd need to buy off Amazon in order to ensure her nails would be properly cared for. Anna is VERY INTO HER NAILS. Anna is so kind to all of us- her family and to her friends. She watches Kate's basketball games- even if she sneaks off to hang out with Maddy once she's there! ha! She helps Dane cook and is his little assistant. She fixes Blake's hair and gives him massages. The other night the kids all had their friends over to watch a movie and Grant's friends all left their popcorn bowls and soda cans on the coffee table. Before Anna went to bed she cleaned the entire room and said " after all you did to let us have friends over, this is the least I could do!" One of my favorite parts of the day is reading with Anna before bed. This past week we've been reading "Sweet Valley Twins" a book series that has been re-made but that I used to read as a teen. Love this little girl.
Grant has also had a lot going on this month. Grant is a pretty special kid. Small children love Grant . He likes to babysit and on Sundays we take our neighbor's 2 year old home from church with us and he plays and plays with her! He swings her on Anna's swing, and runs around out back with her . She adores him. Grant started a soccer business this month and so far has two clients- Louis and Winston. They come to get a private session with him on Monday evenings and they love it so much. He is a great coach. Grant is a supportive brother at Dane's games. Often he and his friends come to watch and he makes it fun every time. He helps with the snack bar too. Grant is supportive of his friends-- this month he gathered all the guys to go watch the girls in Beauty and the Beast and he brought each of the four girls flowers. They loved that. Grant attended his first stake dance this month with Carson. For the first dance, he panicked looking around for someone to ask that might be about his age... when out of nowhere, his closest girl-friend from school tapped on his shoulder from behind and asked him to dance and he was so happy about that. He is just ALL IN to be about 16 instead of 13.... ha! He is ready for love, ready for highschool, ready to drive, the whole 9 yards. Loved the swing dance activity our stake put on last month- Grant had a blast! He danced with everyone. Anna had to come along because I was working and even she danced with a friend from primary! It was very cute. Last weekend Dane had plans, Anna had plans with Blake and so I asked Grant if we could have a little date night. We had SO much fun eating pizza and then going to the movies. Really fun date night. Not fair that he's about to be a stinky teenager with problems and moods. Dang it. I wish I could freeze time. Grant enjoyed Seaworld with Carson and lots of fun birthday parties with his 7th grade group. They are tight knit and it's so fun to see how close this group of gals and guys are. They have a lot of fun together. Grant has been SUPER into surfing lately and has begged to go every weekend when possible this month! Anna comes along for company and it's actually been quite fun to go to the beach more often than we normally do. The other day I wore a lounge set that was a burnt orange color out to target with Grant. Brand-new, I had my qualms because I don't really wear lounge sets. Grant pulled me aside at the end of the outing and asked if he could tell me something not meaning to be rude but just wanting to be honest. I said sure. He told me my outfit was a little weird and that it looked like a grandma outfit. It was so funny. Oh well! Can't win em all!
outfit grant did not like
little Sophie in the swing
first church dance
Dane has had a harder month than normal-- he's busy. He has hard classes and lots and lots of soccer. He is struggling with some challenging things mentally right now and yet wants so badly to feel better. I'm not going to lie, it's been hard for all three of us (Dane, Blake and I). Life does not always flow in the way we want and it was never meant to be without struggle. He knows and I know that he will make it through but no one likes all the work and trial and heartache that happens as we trudge along. Proud of Dane for advancing to the Priest Quorum this month and blessing the sacrament for the first time. Dane is taking his driver's test on February 10th and is completely prepared-- a wonderful driver. He works hard every day to exercise and shoot, gosh, I don't know how many goals a night out back. He's got that all figured out but it's a nightly ritual. He cares a lot about his clothing and his hair. He has many friends who all adore him. He wants NOTHING to do with a birthday celebration of any sort involving all the friends however. If you think this is bothering his mom ...... you think right! I WISH I could throw a party! Little does he know that a few of his buddies will surprise him next week on his actual birthday in seminary with donuts and balloons and party hats and horns. All their idea-- they drive him to seminary every day and didn't want him to get away with not having any kind of celebration. Dane held back on hanging with his friends this month- mostly, but he DID go to a fun birthday party for his buddy Ella- a murder mystery and they all had a wonderful time. He has spent a lot of his free time creating new recipes and cooking, making playlists and sharing them with me. He and I have very similar music tastes and that's one area we really connect on. Dane has to miss a ton of school for his soccer games- which is hard and his grades will reflect that at various times throughout the week. It was NERVE racking when he had a D in English for a week or maybe a week and a half. But then he was able to raise it to an A- and I felt so happy! I'm sure I bother Dane to no end with my "checking in" on him... but that's my job! Had so much fun with a few of Dane's friends who started a car detailing business and came to wash my car last weekend! They did an incredible job- seriously! Dane looks forward to maybe workin at chick fil a once he's 16. We'll see:) Two more weeks of high school soccer!
Last but not least... Ev is back up at BYU. She is loving her new classes- she takes vocal performance and of course is blowing everyone away with her skills. She is also taking voice lessons for free up at BYU with a grad student and she has a recital in April that I might just have to fly up for! Ev is searching for a job... hopefully that happens soon as she is quite a high maintenance girl and needs more cash for make up and clothes. Ev is taking Biology and Philosophy and she loves her philosophy class though initially she was bugged by the whole idea of philosophy.... haha! She is taking Religion and Study skills and going to the gym every day. She's also working with someone to help her iron out her relationship with food. She is meeting with a nutritionist and this makes me so relieved and happy. I've always wanted her to do this, but she has finally decided for herself that she would like to live differently and be able to be more flexible and open when it comes to this part of her life. Eli is still the love of her life for the time being. They don't live in the same state, but he has visited her. Not a huge fan of this situation but she's 18 so....
I love her and I love all that she is working on in her life.
As for me, I've been working a lot. Trying to write a curriculum that I'm not sure I'll ever actually get done because I always seem to have other things to do and work on but it fills all of my spare moments. I've been trying to help Dane and Evelyn with various worries that they are dealing with currently, and I spend a lot of time researching and taking on their worries! I walk every day and that is a very happy part of my life which brings me a great deal of joy. I look at memes and send them to Jamie. I watch 2-4 soccer games per week in the FREEZING weather; a lot of times Grant is with me and I love watching games with Grant. He is Dane's biggest fan and he is so fun to sit with as he explains every strategy and player move. Blake and I together watching games is not as fun because both of us are way too tense about Dane's every move... something we are working on. I had a wonderful time at the soccer fundraiser- Casino night last weekend. Though I sincerely dreaded going out just because I'd almost always prefer to be cozy in bed after 8pm on a Saturday night with my family then out and about listening to loud music and making small talk-- it ended up being an awesome way to connect and bond with all the families and coaches, plus I actually really learned how to gamble. It was such a long event that I had no choice but to figure it out and join in! It was fake money anyhow- all for raffle tickets.... but seriously really fun and I'm glad I pushed myself to attend. I've been eating healthy, trying to eat healthy... all except this past weekend when I had everyone over for dinner and my neighbor, Nikki, who is an incredible cook made the most delicious sheet cake for dessert which I had to eat. Then she also was in charge of all the desserts for the primary meeting that evening and since I had already blown my diet with the sheet cake anyhow, I went ahead and sampled all of the delicacies she had on display. Thinking I'd start anew the next day, Grant invited friends over- one of which was her son and she sent over a plate of the most delicious sugar cookies on earth which I couldn't pass up! In conclusion...it was a bad weekend for healthy eating and I blame it all on Nikki. But other than that, I'm trying to make good health decisions and so are the boys! We're working together on this and it's been great.
my morning walk
Nikki's desserts
My friend Sameen posted this. So funny! We love Nutella
I started this post with an expression of gratitude and I'll end on one. Last weekend -we had a few families over for dinner and one of the children - 11 year old Mason- hurt himself badly on our trampoline. He jumped off a few big stackable boxes onto the trampoline and landed in a very twisted way and ended up breaking his leg- but it was quite the break-- his bone below his knee protruded out of his body and it was just a lot of blood and a lot of pain and very very scary. The ambulance took him for an emergency surgery at Radys and though it was a horrible day and we all felt very shaken, thankfully the surgery was successful and Mason will be ok! But as this happened I felt so grateful that Blake and Mason's Dad could give him a blessing while we waited for the ambulance and very grateful that it was not a spinal injury. Needless to say... we may be taking out our trampoline. It's so old anyhow and Blake has wanted to for a while. That might've been the push we needed to get it done. So much to be thankful for. Grateful for the ups and downs of life. It's hard to see the kids deal with challenges but it's also wonderful to see them move forward and overcome hard things. I'm not sure I have the best personality to be a mom because I take on a lot of the emotions my kids experience... but I guess I'm all they got and it'll have to do! And plus I do love this gig and all of them very very much.
