Way Back in January

A few highlights from January that weren't in Hawaii :)

 

 Rec center swim day. Don't be fooled, it was like 37 degrees that day but with the sun out my kids didn't think they needed pants!

The kids had a whole week off after Christmas so we had to plan some outings (aka the pool above). We also hit Cabella's one morning and roamed around looking at the cool animals and fish. Perfect activity in the dead of winter (and it's free!)

Bentley got to bring home the new class pets—a pair of fire bellied toads. The class actually had a cute little toad, Katniss, earlier in the year and Bean brought her home the first weekend of January. She hardly moved a muscle and did not eat anything while she was with us. Oh I was so stressed out about her and what do you know, Sunday morning she was officially dead. It was the saddest! I felt horrible thinking we had done something or hurt her somehow but Miss Leiney assured me she was on the way out and had been like that for a few weeks before we even got her. Miss L is just the cutest teacher and felt so bad that Katniss had died at our house and was worried about my cute Bean feeling bad about it. It was a good lesson  for out little family (Beans and Cares shed a lot of tears) but Joseph reassured them that Katniss was so lucky to have died in our house where we had paid a lot of attention to her and she had just been held by B & C and Joseph right before she died. So sweet—but what a hard thing for a 4th grader! The whole class wrote the cutest notes to Katniss (telling her she was a best friend and they loved her so much...so so tender) for us to bury along with her tiny body. And by the end of the month the class had these new crazy toads who were jumpy and wild and ate like crazy (phew!)

 Hello orthodontia! Bentley got his expander to widen his upper palette. He'll have this for a few months and then once his top teeth have moved he'll have braces added to the top 4 teeth only to straighten them out. Overall only about a  9-12 month process but most likely he'll have braces again when he's a teenager and all his permanent teeth are in. Good times!

This picture makes me cold! But I have been trying my best to stay active during the winter and get my heart pumping in the beautiful wintery world. This is up at the Herriman reservoir which is just about 2 miles from my house but straight uphill. I like to trudge up (maybe I run sometimes but it's brief) and then run around the lake a few times and then run the nice downhill route home.

Another Jr. Jazz season and this was the best one of all! It took a few games for Bentley to build up the courage to take some shots so Joseph promised he'd do a push-up for every shot Bean took during a game. None of the trying paid off until his last game when he scored 11 points!! I think he could hardly believe it but we were so proud of him and it totally boosted his confidence in b-ball. He's such a fast little dude with crazy endurance and a very good defender that he's great out on the court regardless. I'm hoping he'll be eager to play again next year.