Aiden's Basketball Season

Aiden played basketball in January and February.  He did pretty well this season.  He was aggressive and always tried his best.  Here's a few pictures from a few games.  Taking a shot...

Nice job, buddy...

And again...

Nothing but net...

Post shot victory dance...

Wait for it...

Backing it in...

Taking his sweet time, waiting for the perfect shot...

Trying for the quick lay up...

With Cohen before an early-morning game.  Those are their I-just-woke-up faces...

Cohen, Viv and Nana cheering Aiden on...

Taking another shot...

And doing another victory dance.  He does a lot of those...

Taking it down the court...

Sticking your tongue out helps, apparently...

Trying to take a shot in the middle of the pack...

Tebowing.  Actually, he was just knocked down and was being uber dramatic getting back up, but it looks like he's Tebowing...

Trying to get away from his defender...

Taking another shot...

And another...

Got it...

It was a fun season.  Our team didn't win very much, but they had a good time and improved their skills.  I was proud of how hard Aiden tried this year.  He played better than he ever has and was really into the game.  It was a fun season to watch.  --Lindsay

Vivvie Turns Four!!

My baby girl turned four-years-old last month!  Yep, that's right, FOUR-YEARS-OLD!!  She wanted to have all her friends over for a "Frozen" birthday party, so that's what we did.  We started our with some lunch.  The menu consisted of pizza, Olaf noses (Carrots), ice blocks (blue jello jigglers), snowballs (powdered doughnut holes), and Frozen punch (Blue Raspberry Kool-Aid or Blue Raspberry Crystal Light).  I decorated the island with some teal and white balloons and some fancy 3-D Snowflakes that I found the directions to on Pintrest.  Love that site...

After lunch, we played lots of games, like Pin the Nose on Olaf...

Snowman Slam...

Snowball Toss...

And Freeze Dance...

Then we took a break from games to sing "Happy Birthday" to the Birthday Girl, and then eat cake and ice cream...

Once everyone was sufficiently hopped up on sugar, Viv opened her presents...

She was so excited about everything!  It was cute to hear her laugh and squeal as she opened each one.

We had a few minutes left after we opened presents, so we played a couple rounds of Cold Snowball (Hot Potato, but with a "snowball" instead)...

It was a fun and pretty easy little birthday party!  Vivienne loved every second of it, and I think her friends did too.  Aiden and Cohen may or may not have enjoyed themselves, but as you can tell from their smiles in the pictures, I'm leaning toward the former.  Connor was too cool for such things, and went to hang out with friends halfway through the party...something about not being able to handle so many wild little girls.

I can't believe my baby girl is now four-years-old!  I feel like her life is flying by way too quickly for my liking.  In fact, all my kids' lives are flying by too quickly.  How did I end up with a 12-, 9-, 6-, and 4-year-old already?!?  I wish I could freeze them at these ages for awhile.  These ages are just perfect in my book.  Everyone is fairly self-sufficient--which makes my life easier--but we haven't hit the teenage years quite yet.  Connor is pushing mighty close though.  I just seriously can't believe that we are to this point already.  I guess I'll just have to soak in every second I can while they are at these "perfect ages" because as hard as I try, time just won't stand still.  --Lindsay

L-O-V-E

We had a fun Valentine's weekend.  It started on Friday, with fun parties at school.  I got to help with Cohen's class party, but I was so busy helping at the cookie decorating station, that I didn't get any pictures.  Just FYI, when you mix 25 Kindergarteners with cookies, frosting and sprinkles, you get one heck of a mess!

Connor's class party was the annual 6th Grade Dance.  All the 6th Graders do a unit on Social Dancing, and the Valentines Dance is the culmination of that unit.  They get to put all their new dancing skills they've learned to good use.  The parents are always invited, and it's pretty cute to watch.  Here's Connor dancing with a few girls.  Don't you love how a lot of the girls are taller than the the boys at this age?  Just give these boys a couple years, and they'll eventually catch up...

I even got to dance with Connor a couple times...

It was fun to be at the dance and to see how all the boys and girls interacted with each other.  There was a little flirting, a little ignoring, a little acting too cool, etc.  Ahhh, young love.  It brought back so many memories!

That night, Mike and I went on our Valentines date.  We had originally planned to go to a place up Big Cottonwood Canyon that we've been wanting to try, but Vivvie came down with an ear infection that week.  She was still running a little fever that night, and I felt better going somewhere close where we would have cell service.  So, we just went to Bona Vita instead.  It's an Italian restaurant just down the mountain from our house.  It's super yummy, and sounded really good, so that's where we ended up going.  It was delicious, as always...

The next day was Valentines Day.  Ashlee had planned a little Valentines party for the entire family, so we all went over to their house for lunch...

Then the kids decorated cupcakes...

And then we all (including adults) exchanged Valentines...

We had a contest for the funniest Valentines.  Kristin ended up winning for her "love coupon" Valentines.  It was a prize she had won during our rousing game of Bingo on Christmas Eve.  She just ripped the coupons out of the book and gave them to all of us as Valentines.  Mine was a coupon good for a Pajama Party (pajamas optional).  I told her I'm going to cash it in at some point and hold her to it...

It was a really fun Valentines weekend.  I'm pretty lucky to have FIVE Valentines (1 big, and 4 small) in my life.  Happy V Day, everyone!  --Lindsay

The Klondike Campout

Mike and Connor attended the Klondike Camp Out at the beginning of February with our neighborhood scout troop.  Although, with how mild this winter has been, it didn't look or feel much like a normal Klondike.  The boys had a great time.  Here are some of the boys and leaders at the opening ceremony...

They threw tomahawks...

Participated in the Klondike derby--that was lacking snow big time...

And did a little archery as well...

Our troop won "Best Overall Troop" for the second year in a row.  Great job, boys!  And, I'm glad the weather was a little more bearable this year too.  --Lindsay